It’s not too late to launch a summer marketing campaign!
I know everyone’s busy this time of year, so I recommend picking one or two of these ideas and running with them.
Some of these ideas are quick and very simple, others are more involved, so take what works for you, what inspires you, and what you have time for.
And a quick note before we get started:
The Acupuncture Social Media Templates are on sale this week for $30 off!
Tired of scouring the internet looking for acupuncture images, or spending time creating graphics (over and over, every week) for your social media marketing?
Let me save you A TON of time with 45+ gorgeous templates created just for acupuncturists, plus quick Canva design & branding tutorials!
Take a look at the templates here. (Discount code already applied on the checkout page.)
Let’s dive in!
🎙️ Episode #43: 13 Summer Marketing Ideas for Your Acupuncture Practice
Show Notes:
– Acupuncture Social Media Templates – Save $30 this week only
–Â Free Ubersuggest SEO Tool from Neil Patel
– Holidays and Observances in July
– Canva
Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify
đź’– Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.
Transcript:
Hi there, welcome back. Today, I’m excited to share with you 13 summer marketing ideas for your acupuncture practice. It’s not too late to launch a summer marketing campaign. I know everyone’s busy this time of year, so I recommend picking one or two of these ideas and running with them. Summer marketing is generally meant to be light and refreshing and fun. Themes that you might want to lean into for summer are, of course, things like staying cool, soaking up the sun and the good weather, diving into savings (corny but effective), and the idea that people are finally treating themselves to some time off to rest and rejuvenate.
Some of these ideas are super quick and very simple, others are more involved, so take what works for you, what inspires you, and what you have time for.
And before we dive into these ideas, I want to share with you really quickly that my Acupuncture Social Media Templates are on sale this week for $30 off. If you’re not familiar with these, I created a group of 45 templates that are specifically sized for Canva, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. They use beautiful acupuncture, cupping, moxa, and essential oil photos from the Acupuncture Photography Project. The goal is to make it extremely easy and efficient for you to create professional-looking graphics for your social media. I’ve done all the design work for you. All you have to do is change the colors, font, and message to match your brand. So if finding acupuncture images or creating graphics from scratch is holding you back from posting on your social media regularly, these will help you a ton.
And they are very easy to edit to match your own branding in Canva, which is a free graphic design website. So you can easily edit these photos using the free version of Canva, there’s no need to upgrade to the paid version. And if you’re not familiar with Canva, I’ve included a video along with the templates where I share my screen and show you how to use it, how to change the colors and fonts, the text, etc. to match your own branding. I also include a bonus video about branding for marketing, a mini tutorial that is really helpful if you don’t have a brand or feel uncertain how to translate your branding from one platform to another, for example, your website to your social media. So again, these social media templates are on sale for $67 this week, which is $30 off. The sale ends at midnight, Wednesday, the 13th, and the price goes back up to $97. The discount code is already applied on the checkout page, take a look here. Â
Okay, let’s talk about these summer marketing ideas for your acupuncture practice.
The first idea is to research what local events are happening in your area and join them or create your own events. I recommend looking up the local farmer’s markets to see if joining them a few times this summer might be a good fit.
You could also check for summertime events like festivals and sidewalk sales. And ask local Chambers of Commerce or search on their online calendars to see what kind of events are coming up.
You can ask to join these events, set up a table, for example, or teach a class. Or could you sponsor the event and get your name out as an advertisement. Event sponsors are usually printed on flyers and brochures advertising the events.
Even if you’re not a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, you may still be able to join them if they are having events. Usually, Chambers members can participate for a reduced rate, but for the most part Chambers of Commerce really want people to participate. So don’t hesitate to ask if you can join them. It never hurts to ask.
As an alternative, you could host your own events. I love the idea of hosting a summer block party and this idea comes from acupuncturist Molly, who is hosting her own block party with other local businesses in the building where her practice is located.
They have lots of fun activities, including a yoga class, a sound bath, educational activities teaching kids acupressure, a food truck, games and prizes, and lots more.
It creates a fantastic sense of community, especially if it’s something you host on an annual basis that the community looks forward to. And honestly, block parties are wonderful because you’re not hosting it alone; you’re recruiting other nearby small business owners, who do their own promotion for the event, which gets your practice in front of their audience. And of course, it’s a win for them, because they get to be visible in front of your audience as well. So it’s a win-win.
Recommendation number two is to sponsor a late summer sports team or league. And I know that it may be a little late on this one, especially if you’re listening to this later in the summer. This one may require some advance notice. So you could also look towards Autumn and confirm your sponsorship of a team at that time instead.
Number three is to temporarily change your social media images to fresh, fun, summery images. So this would include changing up the images you publish with your Facebook posts, maybe changing your Facebook header image, etc.
If you write blog posts, of course, shift those images to have a summer feel as well. This is a small, easy thing but it’s actually very eye-catching for people who are following your brand.
Number four is one that I think we all mean to do, but it often gets swept under the rug. So I just want to gently remind you to write an email newsletter to your audience with a summer theme. At any change of seasons, there’s just so much that we can teach our email subscribers about East Asian medicine and how it can help them transition from one season to the next.
So in your email newsletters this summer, you can focus on summer seasonal symptoms or conditions that we can help with. Things like allergies, helping people stay hydrated with recipes, teaching them about East Asian nutrition, how much acupuncture can help with aches and pains that people may develop from being much more active than usual, etc. For example, have you ever kayaked for 3 hours after not having kayaked for a whole year? Yep, me too. Your arms hurt! That person needs acupuncture to help them recover quickly, so they can get back out there and kayak comfortably next weekend. But there are so many topics we can cover in our email newsletters that relate to summer and the benefits of East Asian medicine.
And, of course, anytime you write content, I encourage you to repurpose it. If you write an email newsletter, also publish it as a blog post, and break it down into smaller chunks that you publish as a flurry of informative social media posts. Repurposing content is incredibly effective and efficient.
Tip number five is to host a Summer Sale on services, products or supplements at your office – whatever feels comfortable to you and feels relevant for summer.
I know not everyone is able to discount their services or wants to, which is of course totally fine. You probably have products in your office that you find yourself recommending more in summer, or that you can put a summer theme on, and you can put those on sale instead.
In my office, we have a collagen powder that we recommend to all of our cosmetic patients, and there’s a strawberry lemonade flavor that is really fun for summer. We’ll be sharing a few mocktail recipes and promoting that collagen powder later this summer, which is really popular.
Number six is to simply reach out to other local businesses and ask how you can work together. Think of the block party we talked about earlier. You might be surprised that when you start brainstorming with other small business owners, lots of really fun creative ideas come up.
For example, you could co-host a summer cooking class with a local nutritionist, restaurant, or chef, incorporate East Asian recipes for summer, and teach about dietary therapy.
You could work together with your favorite coffee shop or cafe to provide healthy snacks with an East Asian spin.
Once you start brainstorming with other small business owners I think you’ll find that there’s no shortage of really interesting ideas. And again, the beauty of this is, that not only are you teaching people about acupuncture, but you’re also getting in front of the audience of the other small business. It’s great exposure and it’s very trust-building with your audience; the fact that these small businesses are willing to work with you is a sign of endorsement to their followers.
Idea number seven is to write in a few keyword-specific blog posts. Search for keywords that are relevant to your specialty and summertime – the intersection of those two. For me, for example, because I love cosmetic acupuncture, that would be something like natural sunscreen and skincare recommendations for the summer months. I try to share non toxic skin care products and finding a great sunscreen is something that people are googling a lot at this time. So that would be a great blog post that is an intersection of my specialty and something that is seasonally relevant that people are looking for.
So when I say search for relevant keywords, what do I mean by that? Ask yourself, what questions are my potential patients putting into Google that I can answer that is related to summertime and East Asian medicine? And then write a blog post specifically incorporating that keyword. Google definitely prioritizes seasonal or we’ll just call them timely blog posts, to help boost your ranking in a search. Blog posts that are about “trending” topics.
And then of course, if you write a blog post, make sure you repurpose content like we just talked about. Share that blog post as an email newsletter, break it down into bite-sized pieces, and share it on social media.
Basically, if you spend time writing any amount of substantial content, like a blog post or an email newsletter, you want to make sure you’re getting as much mileage out of it as possible by repurposing and sharing it. Repurposing content will make your marketing life significantly easier.
Which leads me to idea number eight, which is to repurpose summer-themed content from last year.
If you sent a summer email newsletter last year, then just make a couple of tweaks to it and send it again. Your audience is really unlikely to recognize that it is almost the exact same email that you sent 12 months ago and I can attest to this. I resend emails to my list all the time.
Number nine is for those of you who do cosmetic acupuncture. Host a discount on a package of cosmetic acupuncture sessions for late summer brides and mothers-of-the-brides.
Think about how you can capitalize on the summer wedding season. If you don’t want to offer a discount on the package of the treatment itself, think about a bonus that you could add on for anyone who signs up for a full package before their wedding.
The next idea, number 10, is to focus on celebrating little known holidays on social media. This is super if you’re looking for something cute and easy to post. If you ever feel like you’re out of ideas for Instagram. For example, you can always fall back on, what fun or wacky thing is being celebrated today?
I’ll share some of these with you to get you started.
– July 10th is National Kitten Day
– July 13 is National French Fry Day
– July 19 is National Ice Cream Day
– August 4 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
By the way, you’ll notice a lot of these are food and pet related, which Instagram just loves.
– August 8 is National CBD Day, this might be a great week to have a sale if you sell CBD products.
– August 9 is National Book Lover’s Day
– August 10 is National Lazy Day, encourage people to take a break, come get acupuncture and take a nap!
– August 15 is National Relaxation Day, see above.
– August 18th is National Bad Poetry Day
Write some corny poetry about something that you really love and share it with your audience because if they also really love that thing, they’ll probably get a kick out of it. And remember, part of social media marketing is allowing people to get to know you and your personality, even a little bit because that builds trust and makes them more likely to come to see you for treatment.
These ideas are just a nice way to connect with people without having to share a ton of personal information.
When you’re sharing about yourself on social media, it should always be to your comfort level. No need to feel like you’re oversharing in order to connect with people.
If you are sharing something for National Ice Cream Day or Book Lover’s Day, you don’t have to share anything terribly personal, but your audience is going to feel like they know you better because they realize that you appreciate some of the same things that they do.
– And August 26th is National Dog Day, which is obviously going to be huge on Instagram.
If you have a dog, share them. Especially if you have a dog who is in your clinic, do share.
And those are just a few ideas for you. I’ll include a link to a list of these small holidays in the shownotes so that you can scroll through it. There are many many others for July and August.Â
And then recommendation number 11. If summer is a little slow at your office, take that time to do a marketing audit.
Go through to your website, see if anything needs to be refreshed, replace old photos of your office, update your professional headshot, change out any stock photos, and update the copy on your website. In terms of copy on your website, which is to say, your marketing message, try to take an objective perspective on it and ask yourself if it’s still speaking to the target audience you’re trying to reach. Over time, I think it’s natural for our patient focus to shift as we grow as practitioners.
If you haven’t updated your website in a few years, walk through each page and read everything. Evaluate if your website is reaching out to the people with the symptoms and conditions you want to treat.
I also recommend updating your bio. I know lots of us publish our websites when we open a practice, right after graduation, and our bio is focused on the experience we had at the time. But if you’ve been in practice a few years, you’ve likely gained new experience, taken new classes, and worked in various settings or patient populations. Update your bio as needed to reflect who you are now as a practitioner.
And you can also do an SEO audit of your website. My favorite way to do an SEO audit is to run my website through a free tool called Ubersuggest by Neil Patel, a huge SEO expert. I will put the link in the show notes for the Ubersuggest SEO tool on his website. And that tool will give you lots of suggestions for improving your website’s SEO – what keywords your website is ranking for, where does your website traffic come from, and how can you improve all of it? It’s extremely helpful with lots of information.
The next suggestion, number twelve, is to host a summer-themed giveaway or competition on social media. A lot of businesses will host a summer photo contest on Instagram for example. You could give away a gift certificate, a treatment, or a product. Something oriented around summer, if you can. Or you could team up with another local business or several and put together a prize basket with gifts from each business. Then all of you promote the sale on Instagram for a week. Like we talked about earlier, collaborating with other businesses gives you the opportunity to get visible in front of their audiences so those people can decide to follow your account.
Your competition can be a very simple photo contest – share your favorite place to do yoga outdoors in the summer, tag each business that’s participating in your post, and include this hashtag that you make up so the photos are easily searchable.
This kind of contest is also a great reason to get out in front of your own audience as much as possible because if the contest lasts a week, for example, you now have a reason to post 3 or 4 times that week to remind people about the competition.
And then the last suggestion I have for you today, number 13, is to think about your marketing for September and start putting that plan together now. So if you’re listening to this in late summer and feel like you missed the chance to capitalize on some of these ideas that take more advance planning, no problem. You have Autumn coming up soon and lots of these ideas can be repurposed with a fall theme. For instance, you could begin thinking now about a “Back to School” special, event, or class to host at your office.
I hope these ideas are really helpful and that at least one inspires you to take action and get visible in front of your community while capitalizing on the bright, sunny energy of summertime.
Don’t forget, the link to take a look at the Social Media Templates, and the discount code for $30 off is already applied on the checkout page. The purpose of these templates is to make your social media marketing streamlined and easy, so that you never have to get hung up on creating graphics again.
The discount code expires at midnight on Wednesday, July 13. If you have questions, you’re always welcome to email me at Michelle@michellegrasek.com. And if you put any of these really fun, refreshing summer marketing ideas into practice, please tag me on social media or shoot me an email to tell me about it – I absolutely love to hear the inspiring things you’re doing.
Have a great week, and I’ll talk to you next time.