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Welcome back!

We’re deep in COVID-19 quarantine and today we’re talking about a topic on everybody’s mind:

How can you market your new acupuncture telehealth practice?

Most of us have closed our clinics due to COVID-19, and acupuncturists around the world are pivoting and offering online appointments to our patients via telemedicine.

But how do you get patients on your schedule?

How do you let people know that you can help them, without acupuncture needles, over the internet?

These are great questions, and very common.

Telemedicine is a new concept for most patients, even for biomedicine.

People are just not that familiar with it. They don’t know what it will look like, whether their insurance will cover it, or how “just talking” to their healthcare provider can make them feel better.

Here’s the thing:

The most important concept to keep in mind when marketing your telehealth practice is to eliminate the doubts that people may have about it.

I recommend writing out a list of FAQs about telemedicine and acupuncture, and using the answers as a launch pad for your marketing.

Because in ANY kind of marketing, one of the goals is always to remove whatever stands between your potential client and a purchase.

• What are they worried about?
• What’s holding them back?
• What do they need explained (sometimes in detail) so that they’re willing to take the “risk” of making an appointment?

For some people, it may feel like a financial risk (“will it be worth my money?”) and for others, it’s the risk of the unknown (“I don’t understand what this will be like or what to expect”) that makes them not want to purchase.

Okay. With this overarching concept in mind, let’s dive in.

My Top 3 Tips for Marketing an Acupuncture Telemedicine Practice:

1. Make it clear how you can help people over the internet without acupuncture.

Start by writing out a list of common questions, fears and doubts that people may have about telemedicine from their acupuncturist.

I always recommend focusing on a few conditions that you love to treat. The more specific you are with your marketing, the more effective it is.

There’s a common adage in marketing: “If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re not speaking to anyone.”

This means that a bland, vague marketing message doesn’t get the attention of anyone. People aren’t sure if it applies to THEM and their SPECIFIC pain point, so they ignore it.

Getting specific with your marketing allows you to speak directly to the type of patients you want to serve. When they hear a marketing message that applies to them, they perk up and think to themselves, “That’s exactly the issue I’m dealing with. That sounds like what I need.”

So how do you do this?

I recommend picking three conditions that you want to help people with online. For most of us, these are our specialties. For example, my specialties are pain management, cosmetic acupuncture and digestion. I always want more of these kinds of patients! They’re my favorite to treat, and I feel most confident in my ability to help them.

So outline your top three conditions and for each one, brainstorm FAQs that people may have about the condition and acupuncture telemedicine.

Let’s take pain management, for example. First, brainstorm questions that patients will have about how you can them online with their pain.

So instead of just answering the vague, broad question, “How I can help you through telemedicine,” you want to answer the question, “How I can help with your BACK PAIN through telemedicine.” And answer this question for each of your specialties.

Remember, the broad question doesn’t get the attention of anyone. But getting specific and adding in “back pain,” “acne,” “ulcerative colitis,” “fertility,” etc., makes people sit up and say, “That’s me! That’s what I’m struggling with and that’s what I need.”

Then use all of these FAQs to create blog posts, email newsletters, and social media posts that focus on relieving people’s doubts and concerns.

2. Make it as clear as possible what the online session will be like.

This is, again, about removing doubts.

For example, not everyone has used video chat before. Hard to believe, right? But it’s true. They may be nervous about it and it may prevent them from signing up for a session.

So the best thing you can do is describe exactly what they can expect from a telemedicine appointment with you.

If you can SHOW them, even better. For example, you might take a picture or video of yourself at your computer with your headphones on, waving hello or talking to your screen.

Cheesy, yes, but it puts an INSTANT IMAGE of what to expect into their brain, which usually starts calming doubts immediately. People like to know what to expect. It gives them confidence and relaxes their fears/concerns.

In your marketing, I recommend walking people through the whole process of a session, step-by-step. Explain how it works and what will happen.

Start by telling them how they can make an appointment. Never assume that people know the best way to contact you or set up an appointment. It’s important to share (and repeat) even this basic information.

Then explain what happens after they make an appointment. Will they have to re-sign a consent form in order to work with you? If yes, tell them in your marketing that this is part of the process.

Explain how they’ll actually connect to speak with you. Will you email them a Zoom link (or other video chat link) that they need to click in order to join you on the call? Will you call their cell phone? What do they click and where do they find it? Let them know how they access the session.

Then describe what you’ll talk about in the session. What is the flow of conversation like? If you’re going to ask them similar intake questions that you always ask in person to start out a treatment, then let them know that. Give them an idea of the workflow of an online session. Tell them in advance if they need to bring anything to the appointment. Describe what you might be teaching them or talking with them about – herbs, acupressure, stretching, etc.

All of this explanation would make a great blog post, email newsletter, or social media post.

And don’t just share it once! Share this important, doubt-busting information over and over. Not everyone will have read it the first time, which leads me to tip number three…

3. Repetition is necessary and normal in marketing.

I tell this to my Acupuncture Marketing School students CONSTANTLY. It’s one of the basic rules of marketing.

There’s a concept in marketing called “touch points.” A touch point is simply any reminder about you, your business, or your brand.

On average, five to seven touch points are needed before a person decides to buy something. This is standard across marketing in all industries.

So that means you need to remind someone about acupuncture and your business roughly five to seven times before they’re ready to buy.

That’s a lot of reminders!

This means that repetition of your marketing message is NECESSARY in order for it to work!

So don’t shy away from telling people (what feels like) the same thing over and over again.

It’s tempting to take all of the marketing ideas we’ve been talking about (answering FAQs to eliminate doubts, and explaining what a telemedicine session looks like) only once.

A lot of people do this. They publish a social media post about something and then think they’ll be annoying people if they share the same information again later on. Not true!

Keep in mind that A) some people may not have seen your post/blog/email the first time, and B) even if they did see it once, it’s important for them to get the reminder again.

The big message here is that it is normal and necessary to share your marketing about telemedicine over and over again on social media and via email.

For example, don’t be afraid to send an email every Monday morning reminding people that you offer telemedicine and sharing updates about your clinic.

I hope this advice helps you bring in more telemedicine acupuncture patients ASAP!

As always, feel free to email me with questions. I’m here for you: michelle@michellegrasek.com

Until next week!

xo,

Michelle