If your Instagram is full of helpful content but not bringing in patients, this episode might completely shift how you think about marketing.

In today’s conversation, I sit down with Instagram strategist Molly Cahill to unpack what is actually working right now to attract patients—without chasing trends or burning out on content creation. We dive into the foundational strategies that consistently bring in bookings week after week, especially for acupuncturists and healthcare practitioners who don’t want to feel “salesy” online.

Molly shares how to simplify your content, connect more deeply with your ideal patient, and use Instagram in a way that feels aligned with your work.

In this Episode:

• Why most acupuncture content doesn’t convert—and what to do instead
• Simple, repeatable content formats that save time and work better
• How “invisible engagement” leads to real bookings (even without likes or comments)

Find It Quickly

02:46 – Meet Molly

04:59 – What Still Works on Instagram

07:40 – Why Education Posts Fail

10:42 – Reels Formula and B Roll

15:07 – Invisible Engagement Explained

16:03 – Authority Hooks That Convert

19:47 – Proof and Implementation Wins

21:15 – Getting Patients on Camera

25:15 – Easy B-Roll Alternatives

25:51 – Model Calls and Pro Photos

26:44 – DIY B-Roll Planning

27:29 – Ask the Right Patients

29:28 – Retention Over Acquisition

31:03 – Train the Algorithm

33:37 – Reposts and Email Scripts

34:56 – Fill Gaps With Availability

37:21 – Direct Offers Work Fast

40:27 – Status Bubble Hack

43:58 – Anchor Back to Your Why

Mentioned in this episode:

Holistic Marketing Simplified Podcast: mollycahill.com/podcast

Holistic Marketing Hub: $200 off with discount code “AMS”: tck0d5a3nkz.krtra.com/t/SJo0V7c9yBoQ

Instagram: instagram.com/mollyacahill

Website: mollycahill.com

🎙️ Listen to Episode #125: Why Your Acupuncture Instagram Isn’t Converting More Patients (And What Actually Works) with Molly Cahill

💚 This episode is sponsored by Faire Wholesale.

Increase your average per patient income with beautiful retail products that are aligned with your values and your business—without the upfront risk. Faire makes it easy to get started with over 100,000 independent brands and low or no order minimums. 

Even better? You get free returns for 60 days on the first order you place with any brand, so you can feel confident trying out new products online. Try new items in your clinic, and if something doesn’t sell, just send it back for a refund. 

Plus, you can filter by your values—like AAPI-owned, Black-owned, organic, handmade, or not sold on Amazon. 

Increase your income with curated retail offerings today. Click here to learn more about Faire. Use my code AMS10 to save an extra 10% on your first order if you order more than $400.

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 💖 Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.

Transcript:

Michelle: Hi there. Please join me in welcoming back Molly Cahill, an Instagram strategist who works specifically with brick and mortar healthcare practitioners, in particular acupuncturists and chiropractors. And today we’re talking about what is working right now on Instagram to bring in patients, not the flashy, trendy stuff, but the foundational pieces that bring in patients week after week.

Today we cover. Why most acupuncture content doesn’t convert, and how to shift your messaging so it speaks directly to your ideal patient. Simple, repeatable, real formats that make content creation faster and more effective. How to create invisible engagement that leads to booked appointments even if people are not leaving likes or comments.

Easy ways to collect B-roll in your clinic without it feeling awkward or disruptive, and the behind the scenes strategies that help turn Instagram into a consistent patient source. So if you want your Instagram to just feel simpler and do more for your practice, then I think this episode will give you some really clear direction.

All right, let’s dive in.

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grassic, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community. Take marketing action with confidence, and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives.

So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Fair Wholesale. Increase your average per patient income with beautiful retail products that are aligned with your values and your business without the upfront risk. Fair makes it easy to get started with over a hundred thousand independent brands and low or no order minimums.

Even better. You get. Free returns for 60 days on the first order you place with any brand so you can feel confident trying out new products online. Try new items in your clinic and if something doesn’t sell, just send it back for a refund. Plus you can filter brands by your values like minority owned, organic, handmade, or not sold on Amazon.

Increase your income with curated retail offerings today. I’ll put the link in the show notes so you can learn more about Fair and you can use my code AMS 10 to save an extra 10% if your first order happens to be over $400. And I do get this question a lot, so I’ll answer it for you right now. You do not have to spend $400, most people spend under a hundred dollars on their first order, so that code is just there just in case.

And I’ll put everything in the show notes for you. All right. Let’s get into this interview with Molly. Molly has been on the show multiple times. She is an Instagram expert, but why don’t you introduce yourself and then we can get rolling.

Molly: Yeah. So, um, for those of you who haven’t heard an episode with Michelle yet, um, I need to have you back on my show too.

I. I’ve run an Instagram management agency for brick and mortar health practitioners, mainly chiropractors and acupuncturists for about the last seven years. And right now, you know what I’m putting on a call. I’m putting this out in the universe. We haven’t had an agency. Client for an acupuncture agency client in a while.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Because you’re pretty limited, right? You can only manage like 35 accounts at a time.

Molly: Yeah. But I did, um, I hired, I hired a new girl yesterday.

Michelle: Ooh.

Molly: Oh my gosh. She’s the dream. She’s a dreamies fit and I’m so excited. She’s a doula and she. Wants to like cut back on the number of births she takes, but she’s super intuitive and good at marketing and she’s taken anyway, so I’m so pumped about that.

But, so I will have some availability. So like I really wanna run some acupuncture accounts again. Um, but anyway, I, uh, we take all of that knowledge and distill it down. I also have a membership called Holistic Marketing Hub. Where I can teach you the practitioner to do it yourself or, uh, office manager, front desk, whatever.

One of your listeners or, uh, Christie Deco thinks her name. She’s in the, or my, my group coaching right now, which has been fun. Nice. ’cause her, yeah, I have like a sprint version. My next cohort is going to go live in June. Um, and her like front desk office manager is the one going through it on her behalf, so it doesn’t have to love that.

Michelle: I think that’s so smart,

Molly: especially with the acupuncturist. I find you are in your zone of genius with patient care and that’s okay.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Molly: You don’t have to make a square peg fit around hole. I think it’s, I think it’s prudent to at least learn the basics just so that you do know, you know, some basic things, but I think it’s honestly or also perfectly okay to.

Give it to somebody else.

Michelle: Yeah. Yep. I, um, before we got on, we were talking about, you know, like, what’s new on Instagram? And I was being a grumpy old man and complaining about how Instagram’s always changing and

Molly: I know

Michelle: I wish it would stop. ’cause I’m like, I just wanna look at my analytics. Why do they keep moving things?

I just wanna know where to find these things. However, you had a really good point that there are so many things. That are basic, that are not changing, that we can do behind the scenes, kind of like, it doesn’t have to be new and flashy to be effective.

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Because I mean, like the whole point of Instagram is we wanna get patients from that platform, right?

For our efforts. So I would love to talk about what are, what are those like behind the scenes, not flashy things that we can do that actually bring in patients.

Molly: There’s so many things and. Because my background is in journalism and stuff, I, I laugh at like, I’m like, none of this is new. Okay. Like, none of this has been, um, like B-roll video.

People like to say, be, be real. I’m like, no, it’s B-roll. And that’s not an Instagram term. Like that is a journalism term. Dating back as long as whenever there was video. So if you’re ever watching. Um, a TV show. Let’s say, like, I watch a lot of HGTV. Mm-hmm. And like, they’re working on this house, right. And they show a couple clips of like a train going by in the town, or like a butterfly in a bush.

Like that’s B-roll. You’re watching the local news and they’re like, there was a shark attack on the beach and it’s, I I used to live in Pensacola. It actually happened. The reporter is, you know, holding the microphone, talking to the camera. That’s like the a like the main clip. The, A film, the

Michelle: talking head,

Molly: yes.

Then. The what happens? The camera starts to pan the beach. You still hear the reporter in the background, but you don’t see her anymore. That’s B-roll. It was not invented by influencers, believe it or not. Um, same thing. You know, you hear a lot about hooks, like, oh, you’re hook, your hook, your hook. Um, that’s just a newspaper headline.

I mean, you, when newspapers were on a, a stand and they were folded in half, the headline was what was quote above the fold. So even now on your website, on mobile, whatever, if someone opens something, you want the key thing to be quote above the fold, which means now in phone terms, like not to scroll to see the main thing you want people to see.

So yeah, so I’d say all that to say like a lot of this stuff is, is not, um, it’s like tried and true marketing basics. And I think this isn’t even what you and I said we were gonna talk about, but I have to talk about it. Let’s go there

Michelle: anyway,

Molly: because I see this a lot with acupuncturists. You love what you do so much, and it’s such a beautiful modality that so much of the content is just educating on the modality.

And I’m not saying you can’t have none of that. Do you see, do you feel that too? Like you see just a lot of like here’s, you know, acupuncture knowledge for you basically. Yes. Okay, let’s say I am like that’s what I’ve seen, but you probably see a lot more than I do, so I wanna make sure that that’s like an accurate picture of what is being posted.

But typically that’s, that’s just like not the most, if you’re going to think to the most bare bones basic marketing thing, if you’ve learned nothing from Michelle or from me, it’s like just meeting people where you are. That is what. Um, there was a stat that 90% of active Instagram users are what they dub silent lurker.

So like they never interact with anything. And so the way you take that silent lurker and convert them to a booked appointment on your schedule is not by educating them about the beauty of, you know, acupuncture. It. It’s by meeting them where they are. Oh, do you suffer from four more migraine days per week?

You know what I mean? Yeah. And if you tried multiple medications for your migraines with no, and you’re, you’re scared to book that Disney vacation ’cause you’re worried you’re just gonna be sidelined with migraines the whole time. Like it, it has to be that specific, that’s what actually gets somebody to take action and.

What we’re seeing even more, which makes my job as an agency owner so much harder is we can’t even do like five, you know, five ways acupuncture helps migraines. Like even that hasn’t been converting. It’s more of like, you know, like I said, those very spec specific, like painting a picture examples of like.

What’s keeping someone up at night? They’re not just thinking like, oh, I need to get rid of my migraine. It’s like they wanna get rid of their migraine because like I said, they’re trying to book a vacation and they’re worried if they book it, they might get sidelined because of blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean?

Yes. That’s that. That’s the secret. That’s literally, we could just end the episode right there.

Michelle: Mic drop.

Molly: So, yeah, and, and you do a great messaging exercise, I think, of mining that data. And I know I teach something similar as well.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I am actually in your holistic marketing hub because I stopped teaching Instagram marketing.

Ooh. God, a couple years ago, I can’t really remember, but I, you know, I just wanted someone to tell me what to do.

Molly: Yes.

Michelle: So sometimes that’s like what you have the bandwidth and the time for. Right. And I, I love your approach is basically what you’re describing is like really dialing into your ideal patient and.

Their experience and what they want their end goal to be like. And also kind of talking about their life. So some of, well, I’ll say that I create all of my reels in the format that you recommend not only by being in your class, but also by stalking the people who I think are. Your agency members so that I can see how your team is actually.

Oh,

Molly: cool. Yeah.

Michelle: I love it. Like using the prompts. ’cause it’s all the same stuff that you’re teaching us Yeah. And that you’re using for your agency.

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Um, but like you said, instead of saying like five ways to improve your sleep, saying things like. POV, it’s 3:00 AM and you are Googling natural remedies for hot flashes, and you find my account or, and you find this natural remedy.

And then the next line is like, check out the caption, or visit us in sun in Seneca Falls. And then they can read the caption. So we’re, I’m doing all of my reels in that structure and I just think it’s, it’s so much more effective, especially because if a new person lands on my account. It is immediately apparent from glancing at the text on the reels who we help in what we do.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Right. We’re talking about menopause, we’re talking about period regulation. We’re talking about digestion and pain and wrinkles over and over and over. Yeah. Every week. Right. But with like a slightly different angle and a slightly different story for each one. And I mean the B roll in the background for mine is just me taking videos of my associates treating patients.

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Michelle: And we just have the associates, or sorry, we have the patients like sign a little waiver that says you can use my video for advertising purposes. But it’s gotten so easy since. Just follow the format, right? Like, oh, here’s a six second reel. I have this little formula for a headline. I’m gonna pop it into chat GPT, and be like, can you give me a clever variation?

Can you give me 10? Yeah. Because you know that seven of those are gonna be weird. Yeah. And then I pick one. Oh yeah. Right. And then I just put the text on and then I explain more in the caption. But I, yeah, I just can’t like emphasize enough how. How well that is working and it’s about the message and knowing your target market.

Yes,

Molly: it is. And that really solves the problem of, I don’t know what to post about.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. ‘

Molly: cause you have endless varieties of, um, let me, it’s, it’s a strange phenomenon how it works. If your post is broad, like five ways, acupuncture helps menopause, and then you go on to educate on five different things, like hot flashes, maybe libido, energy, weight gain, whatever.

Not saying that won’t perform well. Well, there’s a, there’s a world in you which you could make that be more compelling. But what we’ve found is when we single out one like micro piece of content on one specific symptom. Say, I never had hot flashes, but I just have the other problems. I can still, I’m still more likely to book that appointment than if you just did generic education, which is wild to me that it works that way.

Mm-hmm. But it’s like, you know, if you wanna talk about acid reflux specifically, like someone who has constipation is still gonna be more likely to book than if you just talk about how acupuncture helps digestion.

Michelle: Mm. Gotcha.

Molly: It’s funny how it, like people, they just love, they’re like to feel like in a sea of sameness and all these people talking about optimizing your health.

Oh, Michelle gets me. Mm-hmm. Like.

Michelle: Yeah, and

Molly: help.

Michelle: I’ve been, uh, creating reels about constipation recently, which is like the least sexy topic of all time, especially for Instagram. But, but the, I know, ’cause I, I mean, I feel like most acupuncturists that I’ve spoken with and asked this random question, say yes to this.

But if you have a lot of female patients, I would say. 60% of them come in for something totally different, but also mention that they’re struggling with constipation.

Molly: Yes.

Michelle: Right. And constipation is something that acupuncture helps with so much.

Molly: Mm-hmm.

Michelle: But we don’t talk about it because it’s unsexy. But you know, the people who are on Instagram who are watching your reels are struggling with this and it’s uncomfortable, et cetera.

And those reels, they don’t get a ton of engagement. But I know what you always say about the lurkers. I’m like, I know my constipation. People are out there and know you’re watching.

Molly: Yes. I mean that, especially speaking to you, like you said about acupuncture. I mean like a lot of fertility stuff, right?

Like. You don’t have the luxury of being like, comment the word pregnant on my post and get, you know what I mean? Like that it’s especially feel

Michelle: icky, right?

Molly: Yes. So people are watching like whether or not you’re getting that crazy and, uh, I call this invisible engagement. Like I said, if you Google it, it’s just a molly term, but it, um, when someone’s like, say you do a carousel, if someone takes the time to slide through your carousel and never like, like it a comment, whatever, the algorithm still knows and it’s still.

Someone’s engaging with your content, even though unfortunately you’ll never get that dopamine hit of seeing that somebody did that proof. I know, I know. It’s hard. But then you also get, um, like you just talked about the like six second B roll reels or whatever, like if someone rees it or if they hold their finger on it to watch, like that’s all, even if they don’t like it, comment, save, share, whatever.

It still works. Just before we move on from the messaging topic too, I wanted, and this is, I, I feel like hard for my acupuncturist friends because so many of you’re just like the most. The opposite of me centric, right? You just wanna help, you just wanna, um, not make it about you. But, and this is also the complete opposite of all the classical like marketing training I’ve had, but what we are seeing working is the word I and my, um, in our hooks.

So, um, you know what I would stop to read right now because like I said, I’m having this like. You know, shoulder pain issue or like I’ve, you know, maybe I have trouble falling asleep. If your post Michelle was like, if I was your friend and acupuncturist, here’s how I’d help you get better sleep tonight.

Mm-hmm. Or something like, here’s how I’d help you fall asleep. Even better sleep. Tonight’s probably too broad. It would have to be something like, here’s how I’d help you fall asleep faster.

Michelle: Yeah.

Molly: And I am like, oh, I wanna know what my friend Michelle would say.

Michelle: What was she telling? Yeah. It’s like insider knowledge.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, it, it, it’s giving the, like, I’m lucky enough to have Michelle as my friend at coffee, and she’s, I’m like, you know what I mean? Like, it feels very like, oh, personal versus like three tips for better sleep. Like that’s just like, I’m gonna scroll past that.

Michelle: Right?

Molly: AI could have told me that, but Michelle told me this is what she would tell me to do.

Michelle: I noticed that some of the other reels that we do that seem to work well are when we say things like, um. I forget how you phrase them, but like, here’s what’s working for plantar fasciitis in our clinic. But that’s not, that’s not the right hook.

Molly: I, I know what

Michelle: you’re saying, but the idea is sort of like, we have this experience and we are helping people and here’s what we are doing for this specific symptom, or our patients are experiencing relief for neck pain with acupuncture, but.

I never would have thought to be so straightforward with that statement. Like, we help people with digestion because it’s scary to say that, right? For people they’re, they’re like, it feels very bold. It’s,

Molly: yeah.

Michelle: But I think it’s, it’s effective because that’s, I mean, people wanna hear the confidence behind that and the experience, like you’re already helping people with constipation.

Molly: Yeah. And it gives that social proof of like, oh, she’s just not some like random person on the internet who thinks they know, like, you know,

Michelle: ah, yes.

Molly: Your

Michelle: influencers teaching about health and wellness.

Molly: Yes. It shows your authority, right? Like it shows. Um, and if you’re brave enough to do face to camera, that’s my favorite way to start a video is.

So I told my patient like, like that’s my favorite way to start a video and like to meet to people that, that sounds like so. What you just came in the middle of a conversation, but if you start your video with, hi, my name’s Dr. Michelle Grassic. I just thought I would come on here and tell you about this case I just had with this patient.

Like I’ve already you, I love giving,

Michelle: by the way.

Molly: Yeah, I love you. And I’ll watch because it’s you, but like if I don’t know you, like I ain’t watching. So if, if you feel like you’re coming in on the middle of a conversation, I’m like, oh my God, I’m getting this like backdoor access. You’re like, so I told my patient, of course, I think the fact that she has been so thirsty lately and can’t seem to drink enough water, it’s probably that she needs some more electrolytes and blah, blah, blah.

And like then you’re like, wait, what did I miss? Something? Like, you almost feel like you’re, you know what I, but it makes people wanna watch and. You’ve got that like little subconscious signal, like I told my patient like, oh, she’s actively doing this on a daily basis. Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Yes. Very authority building.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Before we move on from the messaging I have, I wanted to share data. I am, well, I guess everyone listening to this already knows I’m marketing and spreadsheet obsessed. I’m like a data obsessed person. So since I started using your methods, which would’ve been last year and like the fall, I started taking screenshots.

I have a screenshot here from. Basically the month of October, September 28th to the October 27th of last year, and it shows you a comparison to the month before. So it says profile activity 219 versus the month of September. It’s up 93.8%. Yes. Profile visits 206. And it’s up, it’s 90 something percent.

There’s like some little graphic on top of my screenshot. I don’t know what I was doing, but I think it’s like a 93% maybe, or a 92. Okay. It’s, it’s a significant improvement, right? Yay. Yes. So I think it’s hard for a lot of people when they hear like, here’s, here’s what to do, or here’s like an angle to take, but knowing how to put it into practice, that’s really what you’re, you’re, um.

A holistic marketing hub is teaching you to do not just like change your messaging, but like, here’s how to do it. Here’s a zillion examples. Here’s how to apply it to your people. Here’s how to take B-roll. Here’s how to edit video. Right? It’s everything.

Molly: Literally the pre-work in the hub is,

Michelle: yep.

Molly: Schedule a photographer or a model day.

Actually, this is your show and I’m like flipping it around, but this is wait. But I, this is a question I get all the time, like, I just can’t get patients to be on video. Will you talk about how you do that? ’cause I know people always ask.

Michelle: Yeah. You know what? Sometimes we have trouble, so, um, and sometimes it’s totally fine.

So, so the method that I like to use, and because I’m the one who’s shooting the B roll and I am looking for patience for my associates, melody and Laura, right? Like, I, they need new patients. I’m all about that. So I wanna feature them. In these reels, like they need to be the ones treating patients. I’m gonna show their faces.

So I’ll pop into the office to take video, but first we’ll have the receptionist call a couple of their patients on the schedule and we vet them first. You know, I’ll ask Melody like, Hey, I see you’ve got these three patients in the afternoon. Do you think any of them would be comfortable with me popping in?

And she knows them, right? So sometimes she’ll be like, mm, you know, so-and-so’s. Um, pretty private person. I don’t think so. This person is really enthusiastic. Uh, I think it would be fine. So then we’ll have the receptionist call them in advance and explain like, Hey, the practice owner is working on social media marketing and wanted to know if she could come take some video clips of your treatment.

We don’t have to include your face. And we do have paperwork that you can sign, like a release. Are you comfortable with that? And I would say it’s like 60% of people say Yes, that’s fine. I don’t mind. And then 40%. I mean, I’m kind of making that number up. I’m guessing, but that’s a lot. Right? And they say like, oh no, I’d rather not.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: So we position it like when the receptionist calls, she’s got like a little spiel that she gives them where she really emphasizes like, this is so optional.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Like you do not have to say yes to this if you say no, like nothing happens. Like it’s totally fine. You get to take your nap during your treatment.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: And. The thing I don’t like to do is to wait and just show up with my camera and be like, hi, my name is Michelle. We’ve never met before. I was wondering, do you mind if I record your treatment? So I don’t do that to them. That’s why we have the receptionist call in advance. Um, I love that. If you don’t have a receptionist, obviously, and you have some patients who you think would be game, you could like maybe shoot them a text or give them a call the day before or an email and then.

We had a couple weeks ago where I struck out three times. It was just three patients that we figured would say yes, and they all had really good reasons. Like, I don’t even know one person said because of his job, he didn’t want like his tattoos to be recognized. We were like, we don’t need to know more information.

Like they answer

Molly: like, whatever. It’s

Michelle: um. So I was like, okay, well you know what? My parents are gonna be in tomorrow and there’s one patient who gets cosmetic who’s given me permission to shoot video anytime. Right? So I always have them in my back pocket where I’m like, Hey, I didn’t get any B roll from anyone else this week.

Do you mind if I pop in? And it’s not even weekly, right? Like you can, God, you can get like a month of B roll in 20 minutes.

Molly: Oh, I filmed for one hour for my local chiropractor client. It’s a husband and wife. She sees babies and. Pregnant women, he sees more athletes. I filmed for one hour in July of 2024, and I’m still using the video.

Yeah.

Michelle: Yep.

Molly: Um, and just to say like, even I’ve had, um, my acupuncturist, speaking of constipation, she did Moip, but is it, it’s not a y it’s a mo. It’s a, a right. Moa. Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Yep.

Molly: Okay. Yeah. She did that and she just filmed my stomach. So like my face isn’t even in it.

Michelle: Yep. Yeah, and even, even if patients say they’re comfortable with their face being in it, I usually try to take the clip so that they’re not, but yeah, and I mean, I struck out recently with patients like kindly saying no, but usually people say yes.

They’re like, yeah, whatever.

Molly: Yeah, and if you don’t have the B roll doesn’t have to be with the practitioner in it either. Like, like I said, my acupuncturist is solo, and so she’ll just take. Literally, she puts all the needles in. She gets out her phone, she takes like, I’m not getting a six second video, and then she walks out the door and I don’t even know she’s doing it half the time.

And I’m not even saying that she doesn’t, she knows. I don’t care if that’s right. I’m not saying she’s filming without permission, you know what I mean? But like, like maybe you’re just getting someone’s feet like Yeah, nobody knows nobody. Nobody knows that’s your feet, you know, or your hands or whatever.

Or if you’re face down and you’re doing cupping or something, that tends to be a little bit easier lift. And then haven’t you done like the model call before?

Michelle: Uh oh.

Molly: Like free treatments when you’ve had a photographer and,

Michelle: yeah. What did I do? Oh, what I did was I put on Instagram that I was looking for someone else to film the B roll.

Because at the time I wanted to be in those videos.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Um, so I had a lot of people who responded and said, smart, I would love to do that. I’ll show up at your office, shoot video for an hour, and then you gimme a free treatment. But I think doing a model call is also good. Like,

Molly: yeah.

Michelle: Because then you get people who are super enthusiastic.

They’re basically volunteering.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. So I always recommend if you can have a professional photographer come in, at least every, I would say once every two years, there’s plenty. Um, I don’t, I think that’s, like I said, as long as you’re, you know, like haven’t changed, I don’t know, changed something drastic.

And then you can film, you can bash a ton of B-roll on that day too.

Michelle: Yeah. Oh, that’s a

Molly: great idea. Um, and then you don’t have, like, you know, a hot stone massage stock photo on your website.

Michelle: Yes. Yeah. Uh, it’s, it’s so challenging. I think people f. They think that their phone is not good enough.

Molly: Oh, it is?

Michelle: Yeah.

Right. And, and I always feel like as long as your lighting is good or you increase the brightness on some of the images, they’re probably good enough to go on your website and much better than the the hot stone. Yeah, I’ve seen that.

Molly: Me too alive. Someone like frolicking through a field, um, just doesn’t

Michelle: build trust.

Molly: Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to sidebar that, but just, just in, even in my group coaching program, that was the question I got. They’re like, oh, we’re having a hard time actually getting people in the videos. And I was like, it just takes a little bit of intentionality because yes, if you could even just set it, set time on a Monday.

Okay. Every Monday I look at the schedule and I say, oh, Michelle’s coming in. I know Michelle doesn’t mind, so let me like flag myself. Maybe I set a timer on my phone, maybe I whatever. Um, or, Hey, you know what? I know that I haven’t posted any pregnant. Content in a long time, and I wanna get a belly who’s on my schedule this week that’s pregnant.

Like I said, just a little bit of intentionality goes a long way.

Michelle: Yes. Yeah. I mean that’s really our approach for sure is people are more likely to say yes when we ask the right people. Right?

Molly: I mean, I’ve showed up to my chiropractor before. I love them dearly, and I was in a hurry. I had wet hair. I literally got outta the shower.

No makeup, wet hair and went and they’re like, Hey, do you care if we film today? I was like, no.

I’m like, you can get me face down, but that’s it. Or my feet. But like, and that’s me and like I don’t care at all. So like you said, there’s a little bit of a heads up. Goes a long way.

Michelle: Yeah. Taking a quick break to remind you of our sponsor. Fair Wholesale. If you’ve been thinking about adding retail to your clinic fair, makes it easy to get started without the upfront risk.

You can shop over a hundred thousand independent brands with low or no minimums, and you’ll get free returns for 60 days on your first order with any brand. This means you can try products in your clinic, and if they don’t sell, you can send them back for a refund. You can also filter by your values like organic, handmade, or not sold on Amazon.

The link is in the show notes to learn more about fair and use code a MS 10 to save an extra 10% if your first order happens to be over $400. Alright, let’s get back into this episode with Molly. So what are, what are some sneaky backdoor strategies that we can do?

Molly: Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. I’m totally pivoting.

I mean, not really pivoting ’cause it’s the same topic, but I’ll kind of give you some, like to wrap this up, like some rapid fire things that I have been doing. Lately, or that we’ve been doing for clients lately that have really been working to increase the whole point of this, which is like numbers on your schedule, right?

And a lot of the messaging stuff we talked about, people think, oh, this is just for new, like what I’m marketing is just about new, new patients, but. Patient retention, getting people back on your schedule. Maybe you added a new service. Like I said, I’m, I know I mentioned cupping, like maybe you added that and nobody knew.

You added like it can be a great, or you just started selling supplements and you did, you weren’t selling them before or. You started doing herbal consultations again and or like maybe you’ve always done ’em, but nobody really ever knew you did ’em.

Michelle: Yeah.

Molly: Um, that’s happened with me several times. I’m like, like, I didn’t even know you offered this.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Molly: So your Instagram doesn’t have to be focused on the new people. It can so much be about, um, like I have a student in the hub right now. We were just, she was, um, came off mute on the. Monthly coaching call and she was like, my strategy has just been loving up and doubling down on my current people.

And that is gonna be so much more of like a bang for your buck too. Like that is, you’re gonna see traction with that so much more quickly. And I get it, if you’re brand new in practice and you don’t have, you know, have this to pull from, great. Like there’s strategies for that too, but just for the people who are more established in practice.

We talked about that intentionality, right? So it’s like intentionally asking your patients when they’re in, Hey, would you mind interacting with some of our content on Instagram? Because following alone doesn’t do anything anymore. I could go follow your clinic today and literally never see a post from you ever again.

Michelle: Wild.

Molly: I know, I know, I know. Because the algorithm is interest based. So, and I’d been let we for years, but I, I, I don’t remember when they made the like. Official switched where it was like, oh, you followed somebody, you saw their content. Like that was cool. What a novel concept. But, um, it is interest based.

So if someone’s searching, you know, fertility, trying to conceive after 40 whatever, like, and they’re in Seneca Falls like that, that is the content. You want your content to answer that specific problem. Right? So. Going back to how this affects like your current patients. So if you can get your current patients interacting with your content, like I said, not just following, just simply an ask.

It’s just like you would ask for a Google Review, right? Hey, would you mind? Would you mind commenting on some of our stuff or would you mind reposting some of our stuff? Whatever. It would really help us reach more women in the community who are dealing with stuff like you. People are like, oh, happy to help.

Always.

Michelle: They usually are.

Molly: Yeah. Um. But when you can make that like, uh, quite literally, it’s manual, right? So it’s like, it’s not sexy, it doesn’t scale. I’m not gonna sit here and be like, here’s my, you know, set it and forget it. But, but relationship building like that builds dividends because not only are now your current people more likely to see your content, which means they’re probably gonna increase their frequency of visits, then they’re gonna be more likely to refer their friends and.

You also might be getting them to increase their, like I don’t, do you call it patient value in acupuncture?

Michelle: Yeah. Basically like their per visit value.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. Increasing that. And bonus, when the algorithm sees, oh, you know, women over 35 and Seneca Falls tend to engage with this account a lot, then they’re gonna show your account to more people like that.

Almost like a lookalike. You know what I mean? So it’s

Michelle: almost like you’re training the algorithm using your current patients and their engagement and teaching it. Now go find more people like this. Yes.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Gotcha. But then they But they do have to engage.

Molly: Yes. Yes.

Michelle: Have to give those signals, I can

Molly: tell you.

Michelle: So how do you, do you send them an email or you asking them in person? Or both?

Molly: Yeah, both. So I love the in person, like just when they’re checking out or booking their next appointment. Hey, while you’re here, would you mind. Um, like I said, that repost button, the one that looks like a recycling icon under your post, that’s huge.

It’s literally one tap and when they tap that, it will then show. So like, you know, if you are my acupuncturist, I came in and I tapped the repost button. Literally, it’s one tap. Then it has the potential for your content to be shown to all of my followers.

Michelle: I love the repost button.

Molly: Yeah. So it’s, it’s such a simple, fast.

They don’t have to write a review. They don’t have to, you know, it was so, so quick. So I like to get intentional about asking that. Be like, okay, I wanna make a goal of asking two people a day to, to, to push the repost button, or to comment or whatever. Pick, pick whatever. Like you can make it whatever metric you want.

And then you asked about email. I’ve been loving, there’s two, I have these email scripts and you can grab ’em. Just if you go to molly cahill.com/email and Michelle can link it for you. Mm-hmm. Um, Cahill is C-A-H-I-L-L. I have two email scripts. One is like a following us email script where you send your current patient database and you’re like, are you following us?

It’s the best place to learn about X, Y, Z. That’s one script. But my favorite script recently has been. Availability this week.

Michelle: Love it.

Molly: Literally, you can just like send it on a Sunday or a Monday morning or whatever. That’s like, here’s some holes in my schedule. Like, because a lot of people are really sheepish sheep, I can’t say that word.

Michelle: Sheepish. Sheepish, sheepish

Molly: to call. For last minute availability. ’cause they think, oh, I bet she doesn’t have anything. Or like, oh, I bet you know,

Michelle: you

Molly: know,

Michelle: I have been thinking of doing this, so I am so glad that you brought it up because I always post on Facebook and Instagram, the clinician’s availability in the upcoming week.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: But I never actually send an email and I’m like, why don’t? Why don’t I do that? ’cause the email is full of people who are already our patients

Molly: and then

Michelle: you don’t, it’s much easier to get a follow up on the schedule than a brand new person.

Molly: Right. You write it once, it’s in your email system, and then all you do is go change out the time.

Like you could do it one of two ways, right? You could do it where you don’t have any times. So my hair salon does this because they have nails and massage and facials and hair. Like they can’t possibly list out. There’s like 30 people that work there.

Michelle: Gotcha. Yeah.

Molly: So they just say we have. Available reservations this week for hair, nails, and massage.

And then they have an online scheduler. But if you’re, if you’re more specific, you could be like, like Melody has an appointment at one o’clock on Wednesday. Like, you’d be shocked.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Molly: How fast they feel like you probably won’t have gaps in your schedule.

Michelle: Same. Yes.

Molly: Yeah, try it. And then since you’re good at tracking your data

Michelle: Yes.

I will report back.

Molly: Yeah. We had a client we just sent it for last Sunday, and she texted on Monday and said that she got, it was what? I just posted it today. What did she, I saw that, yeah. Yeah. She said she got three new, um, or three existing patients, you know, like back on the schedule. And they booked out multiple appointments.

Yeah. One email.

Michelle: I think especially for evening availability.

Molly: Oh.

Michelle: Like people love that. ’cause it doesn’t happen that often. Right. So yeah, I definitely have to get on that more often.

Molly: Yeah. You could say like, we had an inflation or rare opening or whatever. I think that’s just like a lesson that I know and I would teach all of you, but you know how sometimes you’re like a cob, like a not cobbler’s child, but you need to be your own, like you’re like, this is the advice I’d give my patients, but I don’t take it myself.

Michelle: Yes.

Molly: I had something similar happen to me just two weeks ago. We had a long time agency client let us know that April was gonna be her last month because um, a girl in her office is taking over her Instagram and she’s phenomenal. Like she’s gonna do a great job. Um, so it was like no hard feelings or anything, so I was like, Molly, just put it in your, I have one of those broadcast channels on Instagram.

Michelle: Yeah.

Molly: And so I was like, Molly just put it in there. And I was like, oh, I don’t wanna sell in there, you know? And I was like, Molly. So I put in the broadcast channel ’cause there’s like 500 people in there. I was like, we have a rare opening for our Instagram management agency for a may start, like, DM me if you’re interested.

And I’m not kidding, not even an hour later. A previous client who had my cell phone, ’cause she was a previous client, texted me and was like, is that spot still available? And she started May 1st.

Michelle: That is awesome.

Molly: So like there’s a five hour lape from the client letting me know that April was her last month to us feeling the spot.

Michelle: Amazing. Just by

Molly: being direct.

Michelle: Yeah. Right. It’s sometimes I find that it just is saying the thing. Is the easiest way to go about it. Right? Instead of being like, I don’t wanna feel salesy. How can I word this and be like, Nope, let

Molly: me go educate ’em a little bit more. And then maybe they’ll book like

Michelle: there’s a six o’clock appointment and it’s so rare I grab it before it’s gone

Molly: and then it will be gone and it is.

So yeah, that’s been, um, and then also, like you said, you said you posted on Facebook, but posting on your stories a lot too. Like, again, maybe that’s the Monday morning. Routine is on Monday morning I post a story and I send out an email with our availability. And once that also kind of trains. Patience to get in the habit of checking.

Michelle: Yeah. I was gonna say, you know, I’ve, I’ve had a lot of other marketing people tell me that sharing open availability on social media doesn’t work. They’re like, oh, I don’t do that. You’re wasting your time. I’m like, well, I think, oh, that’s, I think whoever, like wherever you learned that, maybe they just didn’t do it long enough.

Molly: Yeah.

Michelle: Because like you literally, if you are training your followers to say like, oh, well it’s Sunday night and there’s. Their Sun falls, acupuncture, and they’ve got a story up. I bet. I know what it is. Like, do they have openings?

Molly: Precisely.

Michelle: Yeah, but it takes time. It does work.

Molly: I’m like, I have proof. You mean I can give Whoever says that, I’m like, I got screenshots for days.

I did. I will be like, like honest about it. In terms of, I don’t find that that last minute availability thing typically works for new patients as well. It’s, it tends to work better for existing.

Michelle: Yeah. And sometimes what we’ll see, ’cause we’re a pretty small clinic, so sometimes we’ll see that it doesn’t get new patients on for the, the following week, but they get on for like the week after.

Molly: Oh yeah. Great.

Michelle: Right? So it’s like they pull it up and they’re like, oh, okay, well I’m still at work at 3:00 PM on a Thursday, but I’m interested and I see she has an evening opening in a week or two. Right. So it’s still doing its job. Maybe it’s not as like fast as we hope, but I mean, sometimes it is.

Molly: Yeah.

The only other thing too is this was one of my students who, like I said, on the monthly coaching call, I kinda had everybody unmute and say like, here’s what’s working. And she said she’d been using, uh, the status bubble a lot on Instagram. So, you know, the little, it reminds me of MySpace. Um, and she’s been using that for her availability.

Obviously you, you have very, very, very, very limited characters. So

Michelle: tiny.

Molly: Yeah. So she’ll just be like. You know, 1:00 PM Tuesday opening or something like that, and she said it’s consistently been filling for her.

Michelle: I love that. Ooh, I’ll have to try that too.

Molly: I know. I was like, oh, Abby, thank you for sharing that, because

Michelle: Yes.

Yeah.

Molly: Sometimes the obvious things right in front of you. And I’m like, oh, I didn’t even, I’m like, did I teach you that? She’s like, yeah, you did. I was like, did I? Because God was smart of me. I’m just kidding.

Michelle: Well, I mean, it’s so good to hear that. ’cause even I’m like. What am I supposed to do in this bubble?

’cause the prompt for the bubble is often like, what music are you listening to today? Yeah. And I’m like, nobody cares. I don’t care. Or like hot

Molly: take,

Michelle: like hot takes.

Molly: How am I gonna put a hot take in my status bubble?

Michelle: That’s like with my 14 characters.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so like I said, those are just some things I’m saying that are working.

So easily you can grab, like I said, grab my email script if you’re kind of having a hard time conceptualizing this. But I promise you, you’re probably overthinking it.

Michelle: Yeah.

Molly: And then what I will say is I’ve noticed my hair salon has started doing this and she’s, she’s been sending it every Sunday, and next time I see her, I’m gonna suggest that she start changing up the subject line because I’m wondering if it starts to get stale.

Michelle: Okay.

Molly: But I don’t know.

Michelle: It’s a great question because you’ve trained people to know what the subject line is to look for on a Sunday,

Molly: go back and forth. It’s like, okay, if I know I don’t wanna get on the schedule next week. I can just delete it, but if I think it might be something else, I might open it. I don’t know.

I don’t know. I’m still on the fence on that one.

Michelle: Yeah, I mean that’s the, that’s the beauty of digital marketing is just constant iteration, I think.

Molly: Yeah. And then, yeah, too, just going back to kind of tie a bow on this whole, like doubling down on your current people, what is the stat? It’s like seven times cheaper to to market or retain a current person than acquire a new, so we had a.

We posted a very specific reel for a client. Um, two weeks ago. The mom was a patient, but the, her baby hadn’t been seen for months and the reel, she dmd our client. It was like, oh my gosh, this was perfect timing. I’ve, I’m, I got back on the schedule today.

Michelle: Um,

Molly: because it was like this baby was waking up eight times a night.

Here’s how we’re helping everyone get more rest. And so, like I said, the mom was a current patient and she was, she saw the reel and she was like, oh, I haven’t. You know, you know, sometimes too you have tools that you know about, but like just now, and I was like, oh God, I hate sitting at my desk. And you were like, what about a standing desk?

And I’m like, looking at my standing desk. You know, sometimes you just need to be like slapped in the face with the obvious things.

Michelle: I certainly do. Yeah.

Molly: Right. And that, so that’s kind of what that reel did for that mom. Like not the mom was a current patient. The baby had been seen by her before, but it had been months and all it took was that one reel for her to be like, oh.

And she got back on the schedule, like literally within hours of it being posted.

Michelle: Hmm. Awesome.

Molly: Yeah. So it doesn’t have to be all that, that complicated.

Michelle: Yeah. Any, any last tips for us you’ve given us so much good to think about

Molly: already? Yeah, I think my last, all, my always tip is, is returning to your why. Um, I apologize if you’ve heard me talk about this before, but I just wanna remind you that you’re doing this for a reason.

You’re doing this because there’s someone in your community who. It feels like they have probably exhausted all of their options and are not getting answers. And you could very well be the answer for them and, but they just don’t know you exist. So when you anchor yourself to that, it’s so much easier.

The energy feels different ’cause you’re just like, otherwise you’re just rolling your eyes like, well here I’m gonna go create this thing that’s gonna get seven likes and one is for my aunt and one’s for my mom and one, you know, like,

Michelle: yeah, no, I. I love that perspective a lot, and I always try to encourage my marketing students to think of something really similar.

And even as, like for myself, sometimes I’m like, gosh, I’m tired of seeing my own face for, for all of the, the marketing things that I do for all of my programs and classes in my clinic. And that reminder really does help because I’m like, like, yes, it’s my face a lot, but underneath that it’s about the people and what I am.

Making the effort to reach them to share. So then I’m like, oh yeah, I guess I can handle editing my own voice one more time.

Molly: Exactly. I’m like, listen, if I

Michelle: can, this is worth it.

Molly: Yeah. If I can help get more, I mean, that’s my why, right? Like, if I can help people like you get more people under care, then I feel like I’ve done my job.

And I, and I do forget it very often. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I’m immune to this stuff. Um,

Michelle: yeah.

Molly: But when I can anchor back to that, it’s usually like, okay.

Michelle: Yeah. Not so bad.

Molly: Yeah. So thank you for having me.

Michelle: Yeah. Thank you so much for being here and sharing. I always appreciate it.

Molly: Your people are so lovely.

Have I told you this?

Michelle: Yeah.

Molly: Like anyone who’s come, they’re from me.

Michelle: I’m like know out there.

Molly: Wow. Just the loveliest humans I’ve ever like. Anyway, I’m so glad that we connected.

Michelle: Me too. I’m gonna ask you, even though I think I’ve asked you three or four times already in previous episodes, it’s okay. What is your definition of success in case it has changed?

Molly: Okay. I was just listening to this podcast, which I don’t even remember the name and probably wouldn’t recommend ’cause I’m not gonna lie, I was like pretty boring, but it took away this one tidbit. I took away one tidbit that really stuck with me, so maybe it was good, and it was talking about instead of setting goals, setting intentions, which I feel like is right up the alley of an acupuncturist audience

Michelle: feels good already

Molly: because goal setting is never felt congruent to me because I could say.

Oh, I wanna, you know, pay myself this much a month in my business. Like that’s typically how I don’t do revenue goals as much as I do. Like, this is what I want in my bank account goals, but I’m not willing to meet that certain number at a cost of, so, so to me, success is like. Finding that sweet spot of where the intentionality like almost meets the goal of like, oh yes, I’m reaching this revenue goal or this income goal.

But I am also not having like chronic GI and shoulder pain because Yes. Or missing out on time with my family or working nights or, you know, and some people like to work nights, some people like to, so as was saying, that’s why it’s not about the goal, it’s about like, kind of like the intentionality.

That’s my definition of, of success.

Michelle: Hmm. I love that. Very nice. Well, where, where can everyone find you

Molly: if they

Michelle: wanna work with you?

Molly: Yeah, come, come dm e your people usually do, which I love. So come dm, don’t be shy. Um, at Molly a Cahill, which is C-A-H-I-L-L, um, on Instagram, my website’s molly cahill.com. I have my own podcast called Holistic Marketing Simplified, and um, any of those are great and I’d love to, Michelle has a coupon code for the Hub, gets you three Oh

Michelle: yes.

$300 off

Molly: I think. Yeah.

Michelle: I think it might be, is it 200 or 300?

Molly: I don’t remember.

Michelle: I’ll definitely pop it in the show notes.

Molly: Yes. Yeah. But it’s a super affordable membership anyway. Um, I have it as a membership because of what Michelle said. It changes all the dang time. So I have to constantly be updating.

Curriculum is always being updated. Always. Yes.

Michelle: And she, if you DM Molly on Instagram, she really will message you back like a real life person. She’ll message you back. A real,

Molly: not in my ai, but.

Michelle: All right, before we go today, one more thank you to today’s sponsor Fair Wholesale. If you’d like to explore adding retail to your clinic, you can browse over a hundred thousand independent brands with low order minimums and low risk.

Click the link in the show notes and use my code a MS 10 and save 10% if your first order happens to be over $400. And as I mentioned earlier, your first order does not have to be $400. Most people’s. First orders are under 100, so that code is just there for you if you happen to meet that minimum. All right.

I cannot wait to chat with you next week.