This July, I launched a marketing campaign for eight days that ended up increasing my monthly patient numbers by one forth and increased my revenue by a third.

I don’t know about you, but August is usually the slowest month at my clinic. Patients are taking time to be with their families before school starts again, and appointments are not at the top of their priority list.

So this year, I wanted to do something to boost August patient numbers, and this sales campaign was a smash success.

The beauty of this marketing campaign, aside from the results?

It only cost $50 and I focused on repurposing content a TON. This means I wrote the marketing copy one time, and used that to create emails and social media posts. This is a super efficient method for marketing that I explain in the episode, and I think you’re going to love it.

Join me for this detailed episode as I walk you through the exact process I used to make August my highest revenue month of 2021!

I hope this nitty-gritty explanation of my process helps you to recreate this marketing campaign, or at least the parts that work for you, in your own practice.

Let’s get it going!

🎙️ Episode #19: The Easy Marketing Campaign That Made August My Highest Revenue Month in 2021

Show Notes:

Transcript:

Hi there, welcome. Today I’m sharing the details of a marketing campaign that I rolled out in July that made August my highest revenue month of 2021.  

I know for a lot of acupuncturists, myself included, August is a slower month, if not the slowest month of the year. At least here in the US, in the Northern hemisphere, it’s late summer and people are trying to soak up the last of their summer vacation before school starts again. People are occupied with last-minute summer activities and they’re not always thinking about their appointments, so business tends to be slower.  

So I was thrilled that this marketing campaign worked so well and filled up my slow August schedule, and I’m excited to share it with you so that you can replicate it in your office or take parts of it and put it to use in ways that work for you and your clinic.  

This is a longer episode, so I’ll hope you’ll stick with me through the whole thing. I share the nitty gritty details of this marketing campaign and try to give as much guidance as possible on how to set this up yourself. And at the end I also talk about what I could have done better, what I dropped the ball on, so that if you’re going to do something similar, you don’t make the same mistakes that I did, and hopefully you’ll get even better results. So stick with me to the end, I think it’ll be worth it.  

Let’s outline the marketing campaign first. I offered $20 off a specialized cosmetic acupuncture service that I offer that I named the Acupuncture Glow Facial. The sale went for 8 days, and anyone who reserved their appointment on my patient calendar in that time, for anytime in July or August, got $20 off the treatment. And the campaign itself is of course all about getting that special offer out in front of my current patients and potential new patients. The marketing that I did across various digital platforms. 

Now, I understand that not everybody is interested in offering a discount and I have so much respect for that perspective. We’re going to dive into that a little bit later, and I’ll offer some alternatives if you can’t offer a discount, or if you just don’t want to.  

The outcome of this marketing campaign that I did in July was that 11 patients signed up for the Acupuncture Glow Facial, most of them came in August, and then two of the patients who signed up for that service liked it so much that they decided to upgrade to the to a full series of cosmetic acupuncture treatments. This is ideal. This is what I want to happen when someone tries the Acupuncture Glow Facial. 

In case you’re not familiar with cosmetic acupuncture, generally the recommendation is two treatments a week for five weeks or six weeks. That’s a lot of treatments, right? A lot of new appointments filling up the schedule.

 So ultimately, the big bump in income in August and even early September was from those two people who signed up for the cosmetic acupuncture series.  

And I want to emphasize that this was not a huge marketing campaign, but it got several dozen patient appointments on my calendar. It wasn’t a ton of work on my part because it involved repurposing content for different platforms. Repurposing content makes your life easy. It simply means taking something that you’ve written for one platform, like Instagram, for example, and then tweaking it slightly so that it works for a different digital platform, like an email newsletter or Facebook. If you want to dig deep, definitely listen to episode 12, all about repurposing content to make your marketing easier. 

And maybe the best part was that the cost for this marketing was $50. We will talk about that a little later on, what that $50 was spent on, but if you think about it, the outcome of this effort was huge for only $50. So I hope that is one more reason that you feel encouraged to give this a try. 

Before we dive into how I did that, let’s talk really briefly about the services I offer, because it matters to how I structured my marketing.  

The first option is a general acupuncture treatment which is one hour. And when I’m marketing that service I usually emphasize that it’s acupuncture for pain management, anxiety, and digestion, etc.  

The second option is a free cosmetic acupuncture consult. This is a 30-minute discussion with patients who are interested in doing the full series of 10 or 12 cosmetic acupuncture treatments. I explain the process for cosmetic acupuncture, what to expect, I take a look at their skin, answer their questions, etc. I think most people who do cosmetic acupuncture offer a free consult because it’s quite a time and financial commitment, and so it’s important to lay it all out for people so they know exactly what they’re signing up for. Of course I also show them before and after photos from previous patients, which gets them really excited about it as well. 

The third option, if a patient has already had their free cosmetic consult, is a one-hour cosmetic acupuncture treatment. So this would be what they’re signing up for, two times a week for five weeks, if they sign up for the full series. I practice Mei Zen style, by the way, actually I think it’s called My Zen now. I don’t think I mentioned that yet. This one-hour treatment includes body acupuncture, facial acupuncture, then I clean the face with a toner, apply serum, and do a short gua sha facial massage. All in an hour.   

The fourth option is the Acupuncture Glow Facial. It’s an upgraded 90-minute cosmetic acupuncture treatment. It includes an extended gua sha massage, so I add extra time on to the massage, that tends to be people’s favorite part. Then I apply a hydrojelly mask that the patient rests with for 10 to 15 minutes. This service is $115. And keep in mind, I’m offering $20 off.  

Now, I know this is low, so don’t panic. Let’s take a little tangent. I’m NOT ever going to ask you to drop your price to an amount that you’re not comfortable with. I live in a low cost of living area. It’s a small town, about 9,000 people, and to give you some perspective, and perhaps compare it to where you live, the average home value here is about $130,000 right now. And that’s gone up recently because of the housing market boom. I know we have listeners from all around the world, so in a lot of places in the United States, and maybe other countries as well, you’ll have to let me know, house values have gone up significantly in the past year. It’s definitely a seller’s market. Before this housing boom, the average home value in this area was about $110,000.

For example, I know a 90-minute, extended cosmetic acupuncture treatment in Seattle can go up to $225. I’ve seen that before on people’s websites. And I also know that a fixer upper in Seattle can be in the range of $600-700,000. So just a comparison. 

I’m sharing this because we’re going to talk about sales, how much of a discount to offer, etc., but I always want you to base it on the area where you live and what feels right for you, the person doing the work, and for the community you live in. 

So $115 is for a 90-minute treatment may sound low for where you’re located, for your cost of living, etc., but it’s sort of a sweet spot for where I’m located.  

And this might blow your mind but I’m definitely one of the higher priced acupuncturists in my immediate area.  

I also want to take this opportunity to say, and this is important, that I do not take insurance. So I have the freedom to offer discounts. If you take insurance, as far as I know, you can’t offer discounts to your insurance-paying patients. I’m pretty certain about that. You guys can always message me if this is wrong.  

I think if you offer insurance, but you have some patients who pay out of pocket, you might be able to offer discounts to those cash-paying patients, but not your insurance-paying patients. And honestly that gets kind of tricky to advertise. It’s a conflicting message to your audience, right? Hey, I’m offering this discount for a service, but only if you’re not an insurance patient. And obviously you can’t ever say to an insurance patient, this is on sale, we’ll waive copay or something like that. That’s a big no. So if you’re mostly an insurance practice, you’ll probably want to consider some of the other options that we’ll talk about for a marketing campaign that don’t involve a discount. And we’ll get to that shortly.  

Let’s use this opportunity to talk about offering discounts as healthcare practitioner. I mentioned earlier that I know this is very individual. There are a lot of acupuncturists who feel like we shouldn’t offer discounts because acupuncture is medicine and you wouldn’t expect a discount from your doctor. 

We’ve worked really hard to be accepted as medicine, and they’re just not comfortable offering a discount. So, as I said, I totally respect that opinion. Because I don’t take insurance and because I love marketing, and I consider all of my marketing to be a grand experiment, I just cannot not offer discounts. And discounts are such a phenomenally effective basis for a marketing campaign. I don’t offer discounts often, maybe once a year. But it’s something I’m very comfortable with, as long as the discount amount doesn’t feel too low to me.  

And I’ll add really quickly that I never offer a discount on my general acupuncture services. Only on my cosmetic services, occasionally. Because I do feel like general acupuncture treatments are essential medicine, and cosmetic is not essential. It’s more optional, it’s a treat, it’s not the same level of health necessity as general acupuncture services. So for me, that’s an important distinction.

Now, if you are able to offer a discount, and you are comfortable with it, you’re interested in doing it, there are some considerations for deciding what percentage discount to offer. Ultimately you want to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of offering a really steep discount and then feeling bitter or drained because now you’re doing a ton of work for less income and it stops feeling worth the work.  

Sometimes people will slash their price, for example, in half, because they want to create this irresistible offer and get more people to sign up. But after the first few patients they start to feel like they’re doing too much work and giving their services away, or it’s not really worth their time to be there.  

So let’s think about some of those parameters. When we’re talking about whether or not to offer a discount or how much, I ask people to start with, what discount amount feels like it would just be so low that you would start to feel aggravated or underserved by that amount. What’s an absolute no way, too low number. Obviously we’re going to stay well away from that, even if it’s tempting because you think it will bring the patients in. 

And what discount amount would make you feel like you’re offering something special to your patients, but you’re still being financially nourished or supported. What number would feel worth the work and the time. And then think about the area where you live, the clients you serve, and whether it feels aligned. 

A general rule of thumb is that 20% off is generally motivating for people in terms of a sale. However, if this feels like you’re giving too much away, feel into 15%. How does that feel. Or go with a dollar amount and forget about the percentage.  

You’ll notice that I only offered a $20 discount. So the price went from 115 to 95, and I know for me, that a 90 minutes service, despite the fact that it is a service I enjoy doing, because I love cosmetic acupuncture. It’s a lot of work, right, and so I know for me, I can’t go lower than $95 for 90 minutes of work. But $95 feels decent. Sometimes people tip me which is a whole other podcast episode. I know some people who absolutely would not go that low at all, and that’s okay. 

If you don’t want to discount your services, there are alternatives that you can use, around which you can structure a marketing campaign. Whatever you choose to promote, you really have this reason to get visible in your community in a big way for a limited period of time. Having an expiration on whatever you’re offering is really essential. That is what makes potential patients make a decision. The ones who are genuinely interested, but on the fence for whatever reason, that the expiration of your offer is what makes them decide, are they in or are they out?  

Alternatives to a discount for your service could be discounting a product. You could have a marketing campaign focused on discounted products that you sell at your office, like jade rollers for example. Or, you could offer a product as a bonus for signing up for a certain kind of treatment. An example might be, for anyone who signs up for this special cosmetic acupuncture treatment, each person gets a free mini Jade roller or a free gua sha tool.  

And it’s a limited tie offer. If you sign up and get on the schedule within these certain dates, then you’ll get a free gua sha tool when you come in for your service.  

Another good motivator is limiting space, or the number of new people that you’re accepting for a service within a certain timeframe. For example, in a couple of weeks, I will start a new campaign for cosmetic acupuncture where I explain to my audience, which is my email list, Instagram and Facebook followers, that I really only have space for two new cosmetic acupuncture patients who are ready to commit to the full series of 10 treatments, before the holidays.  

And the reason is that I can’t fit any more than that in my schedule before the holidays begin, and once Thanksgiving hits, it’s kind of hard to consistently get people to come in twice a week for cosmetic acupuncture. People’s schedules kind of blow up between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. And so early September is my chance to do a big push to sign up a few more new cosmetic patients and get them on the schedule.  

And of course you can tailor that to whatever works for you, and have whatever limitation makes sense at your office that will motivate people who are on the fence. To help them say wow, it looks like I really need to sign up for this now or I’m gonna have to wait until 2022.  

You could use that and structure your marketing campaign around that.  

Okay, finally. Let’s talk about the specific digital marketing that I did for this campaign. Remember that this only cost me $50. Again, I did a lot of repurposing content, which I highly recommend.  

The core of this marketing campaign is a series of three emails that I sent to my list within the eight days that the sale was running. My email list includes some of my patients as well as some potential patients, people who opted into my email list from my website. On my website, I have a leadmagnet optin, as well as a basic newsletter optin. If you want to learn more about leadmagnets, I recommend listening to episode #4. 

Now, don’t panic. I know that three emails in basically a week sounds like a lot. But in the digital marketing world, it really is not. It’s minimal. To be honest, five is usually the minimum standard number of emails to send for a digital marketing campaign, like if you have a sale or you’re hosting a launch.  

I mentioned that I made some mistakes in this marketing campaign, kind of dropped the ball in some areas, and this was one of the things I would definitely do differently in the future – do the five emails instead of three to my subscriber list.  

But I don’t want this to scare you away. Even at three emails, the campaign was still successful, which just goes to show that perfection is not necessary. Doing something is going to be better than nothing. Good enough is still going to work. We don’t need to do everything perfectly to get results. So please don’t let this idea of “waiting until your marketing is perfect or you know all the answers,” prevent you from launching a marketing campaign.  

It also helps to approach your marketing as an experiment. An opportunity to collect data and course correct, do better next time. But just get started. You’re probably going to get results without having to have every piece of the puzzle. So don’t let that hold you back. 

Let’s talk about the three emails that I sent to my list. We’ll start with an overview. 

The first email went out on a Monday and it introduced the sale, the service, and addressed a common doubt or barrier that patients often have before signing up for this service. It also had a strong call to action, repeated several times throughout the email. 

The second email went out Thursday of that week, and I consider this an educational email. I explained the hydrojelly masks that is used at the end of the treatment, shared photos, and explained why the patient is going to love it – what’s it do for their skin, why is it so wonderful, etc. And of course, I reminded them that the sale is ending next Monday, and included those same strong calls to action, for example, Click here to sign now. 

The third email went out the following Monday, which was the last day of the sale. This was a reminder email, saying this is your last chance to get on my schedule for this service and secure your discount. This was a shorter email, short and sweet, with very strong calls to action again. Like, last chance – click here to make an appointment before the discount disappears. 

So that’s the big picture. In the first email, I mentioned that I addressed a common doubt or question they have that they typically want answered before making an appointment. And that questions, how is this service, the Acupuncture Glow Facial, different from a series of cosmetic acupuncture treatments. “Why would I do this instead of the regular, one-hour cosmetic acupuncture treatment?”  

In marketing, a confused mind says, “no.” And I knew this is one of the number one questions I get about this service, so I wanted to take the time to explain that right in the beginning. And as you’ll see, I’ll keep explaining it over and over throughout the campaign.  

You’ll also notice that I introduced the service in that first email. With most of my marketing, I like to start from ground zero, assuming that people know nothing about the product or service. I explain it from the ground up, to reduce confusion.  

I also find that being up front about addressing people’s questions or doubts in the beginning makes for happier patients on the back end. The more clear I am in my marketing about what a treatment entails, who it’s for, what a person can expect, etc., then the more likely I am to have patients who are happy with the service at the end of the day, right? Because they knew exactly what they were signing up for. And this transparency in marketing results in more referrals and positive reviews at the end of the day.  

Let’s talk about calls to action in your emails, particularly on the last day. Especially when you have a marketing campaign like this with an expiration date, it’s so important to make sure you’re not skimping out on a strong call to action on the last day. Honestly, those last chance emails are usually what help people get off the fence, make a decision to opt in or out.  

This is really when most of the sales or the sign ups are going to come in, on that last day, and so a strong reminder email emphasizing the deadline is a big deal. It’s one of the most effective pieces of your marketing campaign, effective in terms of real results, of patients on your schedule. So don’t skimp out on this. In a bit we’re going to talk about things I did wrong and would do differently next time, and one of them is actually sending a second, super short reminder email later in the day on the last day of the campaign. So don’t freak out, it’s not too much, people aren’t going to hate you. We’ll talk more about it in a few minutes. But first, let’s talk about the next step I took to get the word out to new audiences for this sale. 

The next thing that I did was to get in touch with the two Chambers of Commerce that I’m a member of locally and ask them about sending an email to their lists of chamber members on my behalf. I wanted to get in front of their audiences.  

It turns out that both chambers offer, as a member benefit, the opportunity for members to send an email to the other members of the chamber. When you sign up as a new member, one of the chambers offers one free email blast to the other members. So I did that. I took the emails I had already written for my own list and stole copy from that to craft this email. So it wasn’t a lot more work to write this.  

This email briefly explained the sale, the service, what is cosmetic acupuncture in general, and emphasized the sale expiration date.  

And then the other chamber of commerce a series of four emails blasts to their list, for the cost of only $50. And really it’s more like a small advertising space at the top of their regular email newsletter, but it’s a the first thing people see when they open the email.  

So this is a killer deal, $50 for four opportunities to advertise to other chamber members. That’s amazing. I used two of the four emails to advertise this sale. The first one to announce the sale, and the second one to remind them on the day the sale was ending. Again, using the same copy that I had already written for my own email list, just tweaking it a little. 

And then I still have two more emails that I will be sending out for a different campaign later on.  

These chamber of commerce emails were wonderful for getting in front of new audiences who really were not very familiar with me and definitely brought in new patients from this campaign who are now set up to be long-term patients. So, if you’re a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, I absolutely recommend reaching out to them and asking whether they offer a free advertising  email that they send on your behalf to the other chamber members. Or, if it’s paid, how much does it cost. You might be surprised at how low it is.  

Okay, so now we’ve covered the email parts of the campaign – I sent three emails to my own subscriber list and had three more emails sent to the members of two local chamber of commerce. 

Let’s talk about social media. For marketing my clinic, I focus on Instagram and Facebook.  

To make this simple, I took the content from the emails that I had written for my list and I repurposed them into four Instagram posts. So I published posts on Instagram four times in 8 days that the sale was running. 

And again, by repurpose, I mean I copied and pasted the email content into Hootsuite, which is the social media scheduling platform that I use for social media, and I tweaked it and shortened it so it would make sense on Instagram. Instagram only gives you 2,200 characters per post and I wanted to make sure I had room for hashtags. And then I altered the calls to action slightly so that they made sense for Instagram – saying, “click the link in my bio to schedule now.” So very small tweaks. 

I also repurposed the email content, really condensed and it focused on the highlights, to create multiple Instagram stories using Canva.  

And lastly I took the content I’d already repurposed for Instagram, and also shared it on Facebook. I changed the calls to action again and I deleted the hashtags, but it was pretty much the same caption from Instagram.  

The point here is that for this entire campaign, I only had to write the core content one time for the emails that I sent to my subscriber list, and everything else came from there. Very efficient in terms of time and effort. 

Alright, and that is it. That’s what I did for my marketing for this sale.  

Now let’s talk about how I could have done this campaign better, what I left out that I probably shouldn’t have, etc.  

I mentioned earlier that I probably should have sent five emails to my subscriber list. So if you’re doing this campaign, I’d recommend that. Really, it is not too much. The first three emails would be informational, educational. And the last two are quick reminders. Remember that those last two emails are really the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. They’re the ones that make people take action and decide if they want to work with you. Those are the ones that tend to get the most appointments on the schedule.  

So the emails I sent were 1) Introducing the sale and the service on a Monday. 2) Explaining the hydrojelly mask and why it’s so wonderful on Thursday. And 3) Reminding people the sale is ending on the following Monday.  

But if you were going to do five emails, I’d recommend, 1) Introduce the sale on Monday. 2) Teach something related to the service on Wednesday, this is an informational, educational email. 3) Answer FAQs in an email on Friday. 4) Sale is ending tonight email on Monday morning. And 5) Last chance to sign up ends at midnight email at 2pm or 8pm. Okay, just to lay that out for you and make it clear. That’s what I’ll do next time I have a sale.  

I know you might feel freaked out by two things here. One, I’m asking you to send five emails in eight days. And then the second thing likely freaking you out is sending two emails in one day. 

I know it may feel like a lot. It is not too much. But in digital marketing that is on the low end for number of emails in a marketing campaign, and I have been doing this for a long time. It’s not too many. Your audience will not hate you. Remember you’re doing them a favor by offering a discount or a bonus on something they’re interested in to begin with. This email format will help make your campaign more effective. Really.  

In terms of social media there are also a few things I would do differently. On Instagram, I would for sure record more videos. Not just videos of the Acu Glow Facial itself, to give people a better idea of what it’s like, but also videos on myself popping on screen to answer FAQs, explain more things, show my enthusiasm, etc.  

If I’m feeling really energized, I would try to hop on Instagram live and answer people’s questions. And if not, then pre-recorded videos of me explaining things are also fine. And for my video topics, I would just keep repurposing that same content that started as emails.  

I’d do one video each for: Announcing the sale, explaining the service, explaining how this upgraded service is different from a one-hour cosmetic treatment, answering FAQs and then reminding people that the sale is ending. So that’s five short and sweet videos right there. For people to see me answering those questions and to feel my enthusiasm, would really have helped a lot.  

I did share some videos from other people on Instagram showing the hydro jelly mask and those got decent views and engagement. They certainly got more engagement and interest than my static posts. And we know that Instagram is really focusing more on video content and, of course, Reels. So in the future, that would be my focus for marketing this type of campaign on Instagram – set aside time to make videos and Reels.  

And then every video that I record for Instagram I would also re-release on Facebook as well.  

Okay! That is the entire campaign and the changes I would make if I did it again in the future. If you’re still here with me high five! I know this is the longest episode I’ve ever recorded. I hope you’ve found the details to be incredibly helpful if you decide to do something similar in your practice. 

A couple major takeaways from this episode. One, perfection in marketing is not attainable or necessary. We talked about how I launched a campaign that was basically just good enough. And it got great results, and gave me the busiest month of the year. Don’t let the perfectionism trap hold you back from publishing something online or launching a marketing initiative.  

Two, for a marketing campaign like this, it’s really important to have some kind of expiration date or limitation that forces people to take action to make a decision. So if you’re offering a discount or a bonus, the special offer has to have a clear end date with reminders for your audience.  

Three, if you’re a member of the local chamber of commerce, ask if they offer free or paid advertising emails to fellow members. Ask what other perks they might offer – they may be willing to share your IG or FB posts about your special offer with their group as well. This can be really reasonably priced. A lot of bang for your buck exposure to new people.  

Two reminders before I sign off, we are still accepting applications for the part time associate position in my office in Seneca Falls, New York. If you’re interested in relocating to the Finger Lakes region, you’re welcome to apply. I’d love to chat with you. I’ll put the link in my bio for the job description so you can take a look.  

And then the second reminder is that the scholarship competition is coming, yay! In early October for Acupuncture Marketing School. Typically we offer two scholarships, one to an acupuncturist, in one to an acupuncture student, but Unified Practice, the acupuncture EHR, is sponsoring a third scholarship see this October, so your chances to get free enrollment in Acupuncture Marketing School are better than ever. If you’re interested, definitely sign up for the scholarship waitlist – I’ll put the link in the show notes â€“ so you don’t miss any important information on the scholarship.

And I’ll put a link to Acupuncture Marketing School as well so you can see what you could win. Keep in mind that most of the topics we covered in the podcast, the marketing concepts and strategies, are exactly the kind of thing I teach inside Acupuncture Marketing School. So I hope you’ll take a look and consider applying for the scholarship!

All right, thank you so much for being here today, and hanging out with me until the end. High five, you’re amazing. I hope that you put some kind of marketing campaign into action. Be bold, use strong calls to action and an expiration date. If you do, I would love to hear how it goes for you shoot me a message on Instagram @MichelleGrasek. Talk to you next time.