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Welcome back, acupuncture friends! Today I have a very practical, straightforward article for you:

37 Authentic Marketing Ideas for Acupuncturists 🙌✨

Plus, I’ve got an awesome free download to accompany this post. All 37 marketing ideas in a convenient, succinct checklist so you can get movin’ and shakin’ with your marketing goals for the month.

Download it free right here:

This website is jam-packed with creative marketing ideas but I realize that you’re busy and your time is precious. That’s why I created this comprehensive list for you, containing the majority of my favorite marketing ideas all in one place.

By the way, what do I mean by “authentic” marketing ideas? That means nothing pushy, sleazy, or salesy. You know me: I firmly believe that marketing doesn’t have to be any of those things.

And a quick side note – I’m giving away acupuncture marketing books, “Acupuncture World Domination” t-shirts AND a scholarship to my online marketing course on Instagram in the next three weeks. So be sure to follow me on Instagram (@michellegrasek) for your chance to win!

Enjoy, my friends! Let’s go ➡

37 Authentic Marketing Ideas for Acupuncturists:

1. Visit 3 business nearby and introduce yourself. Leave your cards and take some of theirs to display in your office.
2. Write a blog post about your specialty for your website. Remember that every time you write a blog post, it counts as a new page on your website for Google to search/index, which improves your SEO. Read more about how incredibly powerful blogging is for your SEO right here.
3. Promote your blog post on all your social media channels.
4. Start the practice of sending letters to the primary care physicians of all of your new patients. Include the HIPAA release in your new patient paperwork, plus tell the patient at their first visit that you’ll be sending their physician a brief but standard letter letting their physician know the patient is under your care.
5. Give a free educational talk at a library, fitness center or spa about acupuncture and how it can help a specific condition (back pain, wrinkles, athletic performance, etc.)
6. Use a social media scheduling app like Hootsuite or Later to schedule your social media posts in advance. This helps keep your social media posts regular which builds trust in you and is best for increasing engagement and new followers.
7. Reach out to other local business owners whose services are complementary to yours and ask if how you can work together. Offer to buy them a coffee and emphasize what’s in it for them – why should they care to work with you?
8. Write a monthly newsletter to your email subscribers – minimally. Trust, me monthly is NOT too often! If you’ve been procrastinating this one, I encourage you to do it! The reason people signed up for your email list in the first place is that they want to hear from you. If you don’t already have an email provider, I like ConvertKit.
9. Sign up for the annual local small business fair through the Chamber of Commerce. If your community or Chamber doesn’t host one, approach them and ask to help set one up in the summer, perhaps in conjunction with the farmer’s market or an already established festival.
10. Submit a press release.
11. Pick three very enthusiastic patients and ask them to refer their friends and family to you. Click here for an easy guide on how to ask for referrals. Fill their pockets with business cards before they leave.
12. Identify local influencers on Instagram or through another social media platform and reach out. Introduce yourself via direct message and ask the if they’d like to experience acupuncture, like this orthopedic acupuncturist.
13. Create a “lead magnet” or freebie (a PDF download) that would interest your target audience, such as, “10 Natural Ways to Manage Back Pain,” or “10 Tips to Thrive During Pregnancy.” Set up your website so visitors can download the freebie in exchange for giving you their email. (The free checklist in this article is a great example of what I mean!) I use Leadpages but there are many similar, easy-to-use applications.
14. Run a Facebook or Instagram ad promoting your freebie (above) to get more email subscribers on your list.
15. Start using video on Facebook. Research shows that the Facebook algorithm favors video over posts with a static image by %. So whether you make a short, 2-3 minute video with Facebook live, or pre-record a video and post it, Facebook gets excited and shows it to a much higher percentage of your followers!
16. Collect patient testimonials as soon as they come out of the treatment room, while they’re in that fuzzy, feel-good happy state. Then be sure to regularly update your website and social media with new testimonials. You can use this testimonial form (it will download instantly when you click the link) or create your own. Capitalize on your testimonials and set up a page on the main menu of your website labeled, “Testimonials,” “Praise,” or “People We’ve Helped” and make it one of the first things people notice when they land on your website. Research shows social proof is significant in people’s decision to spend money, and testimonials are powerful social proof.
17. Send an email to your current patients asking them for Google or Facebook reviews. Include links and easy step-by-step instructions in the email so people are more likely to do it.
18. Set up a sandwich board sign outside your office on the sidewalk when you’re open. You can put informative info on it, a funny health-related quote, whatever you like. Just grab people’s attention as they walk by so they look up and acknowledge that they are walking past your business.
19. If you know any teachers, ask if you can be a part of their employee wellness day. Many schools host an employee wellness day annually in spring/summer and are happy to bring in new wellness providers.
20. Look for small local health fairs that don’t cost a lot to sign up for. Sign up for my Free Resource Library to download a worksheet with my best advice on actually getting patients from health fairs. I don’t recommend the really huge expos that cost $500 to sign up; I think it’s easy for your table to get lost among all the other vendors, and it’s hard to get a good ROI on such an expensive event. But smaller local health fairs that cost $50-75 to sign up for, and only have 20 or fewer vendors, are the ones where you can really be noticed and make an impact. Plus you’ll have more time to connect with people who visit your table instead of being swamped by people who are only looking for free pens (which has been my experience at the larger health expos).
21. Print inexpensive stickers that say, “I had acupuncture today!” with a little heart emoji and your business name. Give them to all patients who get a treatment and ask them to wear them (like the “I gave blood today” stickers). These are great conversations starters and then patients are walking advertisements for your clinic.
22. Host a giveaway at your clinic (perhaps a book or package of wellness goodies related to your specialty) and use it as a reason to shout-out on social media as often as possible. Remind people to stop in your office to register for the giveaway, announcing the winner, post a photo of the winner picking up the prize in your office, etc.
23. Host a Wellness Night in your office. Have brief presentations on wellness topics related to your specialty, snacks, perhaps with a demonstration or discounted mini-treatments. Invite other local wellness providers to present or offer mini-treatments as well, such as a massage therapist doing chair massage or an esthetician providing 10-minute mini facials or skin consults. Get creative depending on your specialty. Submit a press release to local papers about the event.
24. Announce “Patient Appreciation Week” in your office. Use it as a reason to shout out on social media. Consider offering prizes, hosting a Wellness Night, etc. Again, anything to create excitement and “buzz” about your business that you can talk about on social media and in your email newsletters. You could also “feature” patients who have had great experiences in your office, similar to a testimonial. Throughout the week you could also have snacks or light healthy refreshments, balloons or extra decorations in your office – anything to love up on your patients and help them know you appreciate them. Be sure to capitalize on the opportunity to post more than usual on your social media and keep that “buzz” going. You can also submit a press release for your events for the week.
25. Hang fliers around town with your information on them with pull-tabs of your website/phone number. These are especially good at coffee shops or places where people sit down for a while and have time to look around/read things.
26. Volunteer in your community. Or really do anything to participate in your community regularly and “be seen.” This was something I struggled with, moving to a new area and opening my clinic. No one knew me and no one knew my clinic existed until I started becoming part of the community, participating in activities and being “seen” around town. Over time conversations about what you do for a living will naturally come about and awareness of you and your clinic with grow.
27. Host an Open House or fundraiser and invite the mayor or other important local figure. An acupuncturist friend of mine did this once (having met the mayor briefly only once before) and her Open House/Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was a smash success! If you’re already established, host a “Grand Re-Opening” to celebrate a certain number of years in business. You could also repaint/refresh your clinic space and host a re-opening to share your fresh new space with the community. I’m sure a lot has changed in your space and in the way you do business since you initially opened!
28. Write wellness articles for the local paper. See if you can get them to give you a regular wellness column so you have the opportunity to showcase your expertise on a regular basis.
29. Ask a local business owner friend if you can be featured in their monthly email newsletter. Do a trade and feature them that month as well. Pick someone not competing with you for patients – perhaps someone complementary in wellness. This gives you exposure to a whole new set of potential patients for free. Plus it implies the endorsement of the other person, and their email subscribers already trust them. This is huge social proof. There must be at least one business owner you feel close enough to to ask this of! Go do it!
30. Create your own Meetup group for wellness enthusiasts and meet monthly in your office. Host guest speakers or teachers to demonstrate. This could be anything from yoga, nutrition (healthy smoothie making is a fun one that seems to grab people’s attention), meditation, etc.
31. Host a “Yogapuncture” session (or series of sessions) in conjunction with a local yoga teacher. There are many variations on how I’ve been different acupuncturists offer this (including in this interview with Dee Talley), but a great start is a 45-minute yoga class with an extended, 20-30 minute savasana pose with simple acupuncture at the end of the class. This is a great collaboration that increases your exposure to a new audience, and a great new reason to put up flyers, shout out on social media, and send a few emails to your subscribers!
32. Attend a local networking meeting; bring a friend if this feels scary. Check out this comprehensive checklist of all the networking ideas for acupuncturists that I could possibly think of.
33. If you do cosmetic acupuncture, create a binder of before and after photos and educational info and bring it to local bridal shops. Ask if you can leave the binder (or even just some brochures) in their lounge or waiting area. Brides and mothers of the brides are a great audience for cosmetic acupuncture!
34. Reactivate old patients. You know, the ones who enjoyed treatment and were progressing but suddenly had to cancel and never rescheduled. Contact them via whichever method they usually reached out to you – phone, email or text. Just get in touch to ask how they’re doing and if they’d like to continue their treatment.
35. Send birthday postcards to patients with a special offer (free liniment or cupping massage?) or discount if you’re comfortable with that.
36. Sponsor the local little league or other sports team.
37. Teach qi gong or tai chi class (free or low-cost, up to you) at the local library or fitness center. Teaching any kind of class (nutrition, at-home tuina, acupressure, etc.) is a great advertisement for your business because it lets people see that you’re an expert. Plus it offers them the chance to get to know you, which always helps patients decide to make an appointment. Remember, patients like to buy things from people they know, like, and trust. Teaching a class is a great way to cultivate that know-like-trust factor.

Don’t forget to download your free comprehensive checklist >>

If you need more marketing ideas and inspiration, check out some of my favorite acupuncture-specific marketing books:

1. The Oak Point Method: The A.R.T. of Treating Pain and Creating a Successful Practice, by Dimitri Boules, L.Ac., – Download a free chapter!
2. Making Acupuncture Pay: Real-World Advice for a Successful Private Practice, by Matthew Bauer, L.Ac.
3. Unstoppable: Strategies to Launch and Grow Your Holistic Practice, by Michelle McGlade, L.Ac.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram (@michellegrasek) for your chance to win acupuncture marketing books, “Acupuncture World Domination” t-shirts and more!

And as always, please feel free to shoot me an email if you have questions! I love brainstorming and chatting with acupuncturists around the world. My email is michelle@michellegrasek.com

See you next week with another handy marketing article!

xo,

Michelle