This episode is an invitation to embrace creativity in your marketing.

Why? I hope this perspective helps you:

• Enjoy your marketing more
• Feel like it’s an interesting and thoughtful process instead of required drudgery that you have to get over with

How do you put this into practice, the idea of injecting creativity and new ideas into your marketing?

I’ve got practical tips and ideas for you, as well as some homework this week!

Let’s dive in!

🎙️ Episode #44: Inject Creativity into Your Marketing

Show Notes:

• Qiological podcast (My interview comes out in the fall, stay tuned!)
• Have an inspiring acupuncturist or marketer you’d like me to interview on the podcast? Someone who’s brain you’ve always wanted to pick about how they do what they do? I’m making a list of potential people to interview! Send me their name >> michelle@michellegrasek.com

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify

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Transcript:

Hi there, welcome back! This episode is an invitation to embrace creativity in your marketing. Why? I hope this practice, this perspective, helps you enjoy your marketing more, and feel like it’s an interesting and thoughtful process instead of required drudgery that you have to get over with.

I recently sat down for an interview with Michael Max of the Qiological podcast. We talked about marketing from multiple different angles. It was a really fun conversation and our discussion was really wide-ranging and one thing we touched on several times, brought up by Michael, was the idea of marketing as a creative activity.

I don’t think many acupuncturists think of it this way. It’s actually one of the reasons I really love marketing – there’s no end to the different ways you can chose to get visible in your community. And you can get incredibly creative with your efforts, to try to reach people in the best, most effective ways possible.

You know I always encourage you to think of your marketing as an experiment, which means that you don’t take the outcome personally. Instead, use the data that the marketing provides, and course-correct until you feel that it’s working like a well-oiled machine. 

The beauty of this is that if you’re willing to be creative, you can keep trying things, and keep a positive mindset about it – keep iterating until it works. That positive mindset allows you to stay enthusiastic and motivated to keep tweaking.

So, what would this mean in a practical sense, leaning into creativity in your marketing? What would this process look like, or how do you get started? A few ideas for you.

Creativity doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re creating marketing that is bright, colorful, fun, etc. It certainly can. But it can also mean really going deep with your message and how you connect with your audience. Taking time to assess: how can you reach them where they’re at? I mean physically where they spend time, in person or on what social platform, but also emotionally, meeting them wherever they are in their wellness journey, and speaking to that experience and how you can help them right here, right now.

That can take some deep processing, some introspection, research, and often involves writing and rewriting your marketing message until you feel you’ve nailed it.

I recommend starting by simply word vomiting a first draft, without judging it. This could be a first draft for your website or a brochure, for example. And then give it time to marinate, and start refining it from there. But don’t be afraid to let your first draft feel clunky, awkward, terrible even. Start your own creative process wherever you’re at. 

I recommend, as much as you can, identify and release your negative thoughts about marketing. It’s hard to feel creatively inspired about anything that you’re convinced is going to make you feel gross, or that won’t work, etc.

Lean into your strengths with your marketing. What do you gravitate towards? Writing? Images? Are you better at meeting people in person? Focus on what you already feel confident in and what you gravitate naturally towards, and creativity will flow more easily.

Think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t be afraid to try things no one else is doing. Just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it won’t work.

Don’t take your marketing too seriously. One or two marketing flops doesn’t mean you can’t do this, or that you’ll never learn to do it well. Remember that there’s no single “right way.” There is no point at which you have “failed” and can’t start over.

Think about your audience. What resonates with them, what questions they do they need answered to make an appointment, what barriers or doubts do they need removed, what’s their sense of humor like, what are their values? And percolate on ways that you can connect with them based on what you already know.

Think about your own favorite brands, particularly those that you like to interact with. What are they like? What is it about them that you enjoy, that draws you to them? How can you recreate that feeling or experience for your own audience? 

Give yourself time to daydream and plan your marketing. I know this one sounds weird. It won’t surprise you that I find myself thinking about marketing all the time – because I love marketing, we’ve established that already. And I know that’s not true for most of us, and that’s all right. I want you just take your time.

A lot of us only engage in marketing abruptly, when patient numbers are low, and it tends to be a short-term thing to get numbers up again. We don’t put a ton of planning into it, we just put something together quickly, an email newsletter, a series of social media posts, a sale.

And as long as it works, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I invite you to think about your marketing more often. Let ideas marinate.

Here’s what I mean. If you have a marketing idea, write it down and then revisit it in a few days. Do another brain dump. Ask yourself how you can make this marketing approach more inventive, more fun for you or for your audience, or how you can reach them on a deeper level.

Here is the key:

You don’t have to have the answer right away.

Record as much as you have. Revisit is again in a week. Same thing. The goal here is to let it develop without urgency, so that new ideas can surface. I find that when we’re rushed, it’s pretty hard for new ideas to develop and for creativity to thrive.

All right, your homework for this week. Grab a piece of paper and a pen or start a note on your phone.

1. Think about where you can find your audience, physically – where in real life or in the digital world do they spend time? Once you know this, you can think about how to get in front of them in new ways.
2. Think about where your audience is emotionally, on that wellness journey, and about the outcome they want, so that you can speak to their current experience and explain how acupuncture can help them achieve that goal.

What creative new ways can you think of to get in front of your audience?

And what creative new methods can you think of to share your message with them?

Just start a document and put reminders on your clinic calendar to revisit the document once a week. Give it space to marinate. Your creativity will surface and things will start to flow and feel easier, more interesting, and exciting.

I hope allowing creativity in your marketing helps you enjoy it a whole lot more, and that it starts to feel actually interesting – an exciting project that you want to take on or look forward to thinking about, as opposed to drudgery. The part of running a business that you don’t like.  I hope that refreshed motivation is a byproduct of seeking creativity in your marketing.

That’s all I have for you today. As always, if you have thoughts or questions, you’re welcome to email me at michelle@michellegrasek.com.

And really quick before you go, I have a fun announcement. This podcast has always been solo episodes, as you know. In the fall I’m really excited to start interviewing other acupuncturists and marketing experts to share their insights and wisdom with you.

If you have people in mind whose brains you’ve always wanted to pick about practice building or marketing, feel free to email me with their names. I’m currently compiling a list of people to interview and I’d love to know who is out there inspiring you right now.

All right, bye for now. Have a great week.