If you’ve ever felt like you’re shouting into a void on Instagram (posting, hoping for engagement, and seeing nothing in return), this episode is for you.

I’m joined by Instagram marketing expert Molly Cahill. Molly works with acupuncturists and chiropractors, helping local, brick‑and‑mortar practices use Instagram authentically and strategically to bring patients through the door.

We dig into why marketing for a local service business is actually easier in many ways than marketing an online business. We also unpack what’s actually going on with Instagram engagement in 2025, and what you should be doing instead of just chasing likes.

What you’ll learn:

  • You don’t need thousands of followers to make Instagram work.
  • True engagement is less about likes and more about reach + relational action.
  • Real collaborations with local businesses, patient ambassadors, and micro‑influencers create visibility and trust in your immediate community.

Find it quickly:

  • 00:34 – Instagram Marketing with Molly Cahill
  • 01:05 – Understanding Instagram Engagement
  • 04:07 – Engagement Strategies for Local Businesses
  • 08:27 – Outbound Engagement Techniques
  • 12:32 – Collaborating with Local Businesses
  • 18:36 – Real-Life Success Stories
  • 21:49 – Digital Marketing Insights
  • 23:16 – Building Community Connections
  • 25:08 – Leveraging Micro-Influencers
  • 26:30 – Engaging with Local Influencers
  • 28:41 – Patient Ambassadors and Facebook Groups

Mentioned in this episode:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #116: Simple Instagram Wins for Brick‑and‑Mortar Acupuncture Practices with Molly Cahill

đź’™ This episode is sponsored by Jane, a clinic management software that’s here to make practice life a little easier.

Ready to get started? Use the code ACUSCHOOL1MO for 1 free month at jane.app.

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

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Transcript:

Michelle: 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.

Welcome back today. I’m joined once again by Instagram marketing expert Molly Cahill. Molly specializes in helping acupuncturists and chiropractors use Instagram in a way that feels authentic, strategically, and really brings patients through the door. So if you’ve been feeling like your Instagram engagement is down across the board.

You are not alone. Both Molly and I are hearing this a lot from our marketing clients. And if you’re wondering whether Instagram is even worth your time anymore, you are absolutely in the right place. So Molly shares realistic, actionable tips to help you grow your local audience and improve your engagement without burnout.

And in today’s episode, we talk about. Why marketing a local brick and mortar business is easier in many ways than other kinds of businesses. For example, trying to market an online business, why Instagram is still working for you, even if your engagement appears low. And what is actually happening with engagement on Instagram in 2025, and how can we respond to these changes and how really, how do we show up as community members on this social media platform?

What is outbound engagement and how does it boost visibility? Some ideas for community centered posts and reels that spark real conversation and practical ways to collaborate with local micro influencers to grow your audience. So if you’ve been second guessing your Instagram strategy, again, you are not alone, but I think Molly’s episode will really help you simplify, refocus, and start seeing results again.

Alright, let’s get into this episode with Molly. Today’s episode is brought to you by Jane, a clinic management software designed to help you provide great care to your patients. Choosing an EMR or switching EMRs is a big decision and one of the most important questions I asked myself was, is this software right for me, my unique patients, and my.

Community, the practice that I wanted to build. So Jane understands the importance of this question and wants to help you feel confident in your decision to switch. They’ve put together a whole range of resources to help guide you, including weekly everything you need to know about switching to Jane Webinars, step-by-step online guides, and both live and recorded demonstrations.

It is all there to help you figure out if Jane is the right match before you make the move. And I personally think the best option is to get on a free demonstration Zoom session with a Jane team member so that you can explain exactly what you need. How you want your schedule to look and how you want it to function, and just ask them straight up, can Jane make this happen?

So these are not sales calls. There’s no sales pitch. At the end of these free demos, the Jane team member is literally just there to answer your questions and share their screen and walk you through, here’s how Jane works, and figure out with you is this a good fit for your needs. So to learn more about Jane Head to Jane app where you can book a demo or sign up if you’re ready to get started.

And don’t forget to use my Code Accu School, one Mo for a one month Grace period applied to your new account. And of course, I’ll put the link and the code and the show notes to make it easy for you. All right, let’s get into this episode with Molly. Hi, Molly. Welcome back.

Molly: Hi. Happy to be back.

Michelle: So good to have you, as always.

Very excited to pick your brain about Instagram questions. But before we dive in, would you mind introducing yourself for the audience?

Molly: Yeah, absolutely. So for those of you who have not, uh, maybe this is your first time tuning into an episode I’ve done with Michelle. My name is Molly Cahill and I’ve been helping holistic health professionals for about the last six years or so with, um, Instagram marketing, email marketing, really honing in their messaging.

And this came from my love of all things holistic health. And me deciding that I was too squeamish to go back to school to do any of it myself and my, my degree, my background, everything is in marketing and that’s what I’m good at. And so, uh, yeah, that’s, that’s how I’m here. I do, uh, I did recently niche down even more and decided that I don’t love teaching online business.

I love teaching local brick and mortar. Like you were drawing a local audience and. I just love it so much and it’s so much easier. So if you’re thinking it’s harder, it’s actually easier. Oh, I, we could start with that. I’m so curious why it’s easier

Michelle: and that’s great news.

Molly: Well, okay. It’s easier A, because your measuring stick is much smaller, so you know when you’re like, oh, I can reach anybody in an English speaking country where, you know, or whatever.

I’m like, whoa. Like that’s hard. A and then b. For acupuncturists who like, you know, you are cosmetic, right? So you like, you’re kind of niche or like, there’s just certain people who are like F born, you know, like more like, um, uh, fertility, like that’s more niche. But, uh, I would say may correct me if I’m wrong, majority of acupuncturists are more, I don’t wanna say general, but like you kind of see a little bit of everything and it’s, yeah, guess what?

Your city and your state, your location becomes your niche, like part of your niche. So it’s just a lot easier to. Like I said, you just don’t need the sheer amount of views and comments and all of that, that somebody who is trying to reach people virtually from anywhere needs. Um, and yeah, like you might not get crazy engagement, but you’ve still got people watching you who are gonna book to become a patient.

Michelle: And I tend to think that smaller social media accounts are more engaged once you get to have a giant social media account. The percentage of engaged users. Uh, at least historically tends to go down. So it’s not a problem if you only have 200 Instagram followers because they’re probably real life local people who are interested in you as a real life person, a real life business owner.

And so they’re gonna be much more engaged with you, which means making an appointment, right? Like the, your conversion rate from lurker, from follower to actual patient, I think is higher.

Molly: Absolutely. A hundred percent and then you get to do all kinds of fun local community type posts and that really is gonna increase your engagement as well.

Michelle: I love that. Yeah. You just walked me right into my first question. Yay. Which is about engagement, because I think most people saw their engagement really dip in the. I don’t know, maybe two years. I don’t know if that sounds accurate. You know, instead of getting 40 or 50 likes on a post now they’ll get like 11.

And so people’s feedback. For me as a marketing teacher has been that that is super frustrating to feel like they are spending time and energy creating content that either no one sees or no one is interacting with. And you know, I don’t really teach a ton of Instagram stuff anymore, but I always just remind them like, there’s people watching in a good way.

Right? They’re out there lurking even if they’re not engaging, but, but it’s still. Is aggravating. And so people’s number one question is, why am I not getting the engagement that I used to? And what am I supposed to be doing to make people like participate with me? ’cause it’s supposed to be social, right?

And instead it just feels like you’re shouting into a void.

Molly: Yes. So first of all, I would say stop looking at your likes and go to your insights and look at how many people. Actually saw the post, so that’s, um, reflected in your reach or your views, and it’s gonna be a much higher number. And think about you as a user.

How many times have you been scrolling? Yeah. And you see a piece of content, it lands with you and then you just keep scrolling. You don’t take the time to like or comment. So that’s why I like to look like, to look at that reach number, um, versus, you know, who actually took the time to take an action.

Gotcha. But then also I, one of the best ways to almost immediately increase your. Okay. Engagement is twofold, and it’s to go, like I said, treat your Instagram account like a community networking event. Hmm. Um, so I’m gonna, I can dive into a bunch of different ideas for that if you Sure, yeah. Whatever, whatever you

Michelle: wanna share.

Molly: Yeah. Okay. So the first is for clients. On our highest tier package, we do what’s called outbound engagement Monday through Friday. For this, just from a practical standpoint. I would recommend if you’re gonna do this, that you set a timer, because if you don’t, you’re just gonna get, if you’re like me, you’re gonna get down rabbit holes and lose track of time.

So we set a timer for like 10 to 15 minutes and you know you’re in Seneca Falls. We’ll look up Seneca Falls as a keyword or as a hashtag. And for those of you who did not listen to the episode, the last episode I did with Michelle, we talked way more about keywords and hashtags. Look up other local businesses in your area and just start commenting on their stuff.

It’s not that hard if you can’t find them on Instagram or you can’t find, like, maybe you look up Seneca Falls hashtag or just the, the keyword and you’re not really seeing a lot of businesses that make, you’re like, I mean, what am I gonna say to this person? Think. Who commonly refers you business in your area and find them on Instagram.

Think about, um, local coffee shops or realtors that you use or your own hair person or photographer or, um, doesn’t necessarily have to be a, a colleague, right? Like. You know, maybe you have a fertility clinic who refers you like, yes, that’s great, but it doesn’t have to be that, like, it could be literally like a boutique or a a, anything, any, even like the local Chamber of Commerce or the city’s Instagram account, whatever, and just start leaving comments.

And you might do this for a little while and be like, this is not doing anything. But I promise you over time it really does make a difference because they’re gonna be like, I’m seeing this account everywhere.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah,

Molly: so that’s one.

Michelle: Okay. I was gonna ask if there is anything in particular that we’re commenting or we’re just leaving a genuine comment regarding the topic of the real.

Or, or the post. I would say,

Molly: yeah, just leave a genuine comment like you would, and don’t think about it too hard. If you don’t have anything that you feel you’re just like, okay, just move on. Because I get that engagement all the time. That’s like kind of fake. Like I’ll have people ask a question like, oh well what is blah, blah, blah, and I’m like, it’s literally says it right there in the caption.

Like I can tell they’re just like mass. Commenting or I’ll get the, like, how long have you been in business? You know? And I’m like, no. Okay.

Michelle: So try to act as a community member. Don’t act, just be a normal person. Do you know, it’s so funny, I think that we often forget that social media is meant to be social in a yes.

In like a genuine way, but it’s, we talked about this in your previous episode where it’s sort of become so separated from reality where everything looks curated and polished and our. Getting away from that and going back to just being real again, thank goodness. But it’s easy to forget, like, oh, social media is supposed to represent.

A local community in some aspects.

Molly: A hundred percent. Yeah. But when everything

Michelle: looks fake, then you’re like, how do I, you’re like a robot. Like how do I participate? Like, no, just be yourself. Be a normal

Molly: person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like I said, that’s, that’s one thing you can do. And then, like I said, you can always reverse engineer.

Like one tip I give people is, so again, let’s say like you’re big in fertility, acupuncture, you can, or I’ll use cosmetic. ’cause it’s, that’s an easy one too. You could literally just Google like. Aestheticians in your town and like if that’s someone you feel like you collaborate with a lot or could potentially be like a great referral source and just look up their websites and find their Instagram on that way, like via their website and just start commenting.

It’s, it’s not, like I said, it’s not really all that deep. Like I said, if you are, like I said, the fertility, I’m like, maybe you look up, um. Doulas in your town, or midwives in your town. Mm-hmm. Smack. And you just start comment supporting them that way. Also, you can share, uh, if you take it a step further, in addition to just commenting on their posts and supporting them, you can share their posts to your stories.

So say a local, say your fertility, acupuncturist, and a midwife is having a. A breastfeeding class or like A-I-B-C-L-C is having a, a ib. Did I say that right? IBLC, you know what I’m talking about? The boy lactation consultant, maybe they’re having like a breastfeeding workshop. Like share that to your stories and tag them and support them, and usually they’ll share it back and you’ll get.

You know, people coming to your profile that way. And then the other thing you can do is create a collaboration post. So we do this with all of our clients every month on their monthly like information form that they fill out. We either ask them for like, you know, what’d you say colleague? Like a referral, like a, you know, who are your favorite?

Prenatal massage therapist or whatever, uh, who are your favorite pelvic floor therapists? Who are your favorite midwives, whatever. And they’ll give us a list. And then we just create, uh, a carousel post on Instagram. And we add each of those people as a collaborator, and that’s not hard to do. At the end, you’ll hit add tag and you put ADD as collaborator, and then if they accept that collaboration request, it then lives on their feed as well.

So it’s like doubling your audience. Now, feedback I’ve gotten on this, Michelle, is, well, I added them as a collaborator and they didn’t accept it. Listen, most people are not Instagram savvy. They don’t know what that means. They don’t know that, that you added them. Yes. You get like one tiny notification that someone’s added you and then it’s gone.

So we DM the people and we’re like, Hey, we added you as a collaborator on this post. No pressure to accept it, you know? But we would love to, you know. However you wanna word it, like, support each other, blah, blah, blah. So don’t be like, nobody accepted my request. Like they don’t know it’s there,

Michelle: so I’m never doing it again.

And it didn’t work. Yeah. And they also, they hate me.

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. I’m like, no, but they don’t even know it’s there. Okay. Like, yeah, it’s, they’ve missed it. They don’t know that you. Did that. Right? So send them a message. And then it doesn’t have to be, like I said, it, if you’re like, it doesn’t have to be a like colleague referral.

It could even be like Michelle’s favorite coffee shop.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Molly: And it’s a photo or video, like a five to seven second video of you at the coffee shop. And you, uh, and it’d be like, tag your favorite coffee shop below, or what’s your, put your coffee order in the comments, whatever. Mm-hmm. That’s cute. I like that.

Yeah, it doesn’t have to be all that crazy or deep. We’ve done two little things like now this doesn’t get you as much exposure, because a lot of times these, they may or not, may not have Instagram accounts, but we’ve done like favorite hiking spots around Seneca Falls or like favorite, you know, um, and it just makes you this local.

Resource and part of the community. Mm. Um, we have a amusement park in my town, like a very big, like, it’s, it’s huge. Like it’s people drive from all over to go to it. And so for my local chiropractor clinic, and this would work for acupuncturists too, we’ve done, like one of the roller coasters is called The Beast, and it’s like notoriously rough, like I won’t ride it.

My daughter came off of it in tears. We were like, never again. Yes. And she’s not scared of anything, but she just like won’t ride. You know, it was just so rough. It was like, if you’ve been on the beast this summer, you need to get on our schedule, you know? And it’s like, oh, you need adjustment, you need a, yeah.

Like only the local people get it, right. They’re like, ah, yeah. Like the beast. That thing sucks. Yeah. Um, that’s lovely. I like that. Yeah. One of our local clients just went insanely viral over, um, a splash pad that our city just. Because it’s a chiropractic clinic that sees a lot of kids and pregnant moms.

So obviously a splash pad is, you know, enticing to their patient database because not database patient base, because they have a lot of moms with kids who are looking for ways to cool off in the summer. And it’s like, have you seen this new splash pad in Westchester? Now what’s funny is a lot of the comments were really mean.

I’m like, what? Isn’t that always

Michelle: the way with a viral post? Like half of them are supportive and half of them are negative, but they all improve the virality. Like it doesn’t matter.

Molly: It was like, oh, it’s already crowded enough. Now you’re sharing about it. It’s like, oh my gosh, my word. Like, sorry, your life sucks so much that this is what you have to take on.

You know? Um, people are silly. That’s a lot of the ways you can embrace this local, you know, collaboration. We’ve also had, um, I just thought of one more thing. We’ve also had people do giveaways Okay. With local businesses. So don’t give away an Amazon gift card. You know, like giveaway a coffee, a local coffee shop gift card, or a boutique, like a, something from a local boutique.

Ooh, I love that. And then that becomes like, hey, follow, um. Like say you gave away like a massage, you know, you could be like, you have to follow X, Y, z massage and follow Michelle and then like comment on this thing and then like you’re entered for this giveaway. I love

Michelle: that. You know, what I have had really good luck with is the collaboration post that you were talking about, and one of the reasons that I like to do Accu Yoga classes locally is because.

There’s so much advertising that’s done back and forth between my clinic and this yoga studio. Like any, any yoga studio, I try to do them with different ones in different towns, but some of the studios are so good with Instagram and so, you know, if, if I create a post, add them as a collaborator saying like, join us for ICU yoga in three weeks, blah, blah, blah, and they accept it, you know, it really increases the engagement and I will get.

Some of their followers will start following me because they did not know I existed before. And now they’re like, what is this unique class? I’ve never heard of this me. And even better if you can get them to tag a friend that they want to go to ACU yoga with. Like, who would you like to take a nap with, right?

Yes. Bring a friend who needs a nap on Sunday and needs some acupuncture. Um, but making those sorts of posts and. Adding the studio as collaborator has been super helpful for expanding our. Our local reach. Right, like hyper-local, like these are people who should be our patients.

Molly: Yes. I love that. And I also just wanna point out, like going back to the like measuring stick that you’re using of like, oh, this didn’t, this post didn’t perform well.

Yeah, I, again, we have, I’m, I love that I have a local client. It’s only one, but it’s just great, right? Because I, I, I get to like go there in person and I get to reap a lot of the benefits, but yeah. One of the local businesses that she put on her form was a natural nail salon. Cool. And so now I’ve been going there to get, I don’t, I don’t get my nails done often, but when I do, that’s where I go.

And I didn’t know they existed

Michelle: me either.

Molly: And the post did not quote, perform well. It didn’t get a lot of likes, didn’t get hardly any comments. And when I went to that nail salon for the first time, I told her, I was like, Hey, I heard about you because our client is performance health and you know, they listed you like we, she goes, oh my gosh, you’re the fourth person who has been in in the last two weeks from that post super.

And I’m like, that post got like eight likes. You know what I mean? But still people are seeing it. So

Michelle: very cool. Taking a quick break to remind you of today’s sponsor, Jane, a clinic management software built to help you provide great care. Choosing an EMR is a big decision, and Jane makes the switch easier with weekly switching to Jane.

Webinars step-by-step guides and live or recorded behind the scenes demonstrations. Hop on a free Zoom demo of Jane with a real human and ask. All your questions so you can see exactly what it looks like behind the scenes and make sure it provides what you need. Visit Jane app slash demo to book a free demonstration and use the Code Accu School one mo for a one month Grace period on your new account.

And of course, the link and the code are in the show notes for you. All right, let’s get back to Molly’s episode. Something to think about is also like think about the way that you use. Digital anything, right? So I, I think about this to myself. So I’m on Instagram and I see something interesting, like, let’s use that example like, Ooh, natural Nail Salon.

I would love that. I hate the toxic nail polish even for a little bit. I’m like, uh, I don’t wanna participate. But if I saw that on Instagram, the way that my brain would process it. B to next step, go right to Google and look it up. Right? So I’m either gonna go to their profile on Instagram and then try to go to their website or I’m just gonna bypass all of that and say, I’m super interested.

I’m going direct to Google. Where is this place? So I think that really emphasizes, it’s not that people, like, I wouldn’t take time to give it a like or comment. I would be like, enthusiasm. So high. Must research.

Molly: Yeah. Booking my appointment. And then, and then here’s a step further. If, let’s say you have an intake form, not that a nail salon has an in, but say, say they had a, how did you hear about us?

I’m gonna say performance health. I won’t say Instagram. Mm-hmm. So you’re like, it’s not

Michelle: working, but it’s, yeah. And now that Nail salon knows about performance health guarantee, they Googled them and was like, who is this wonderful person sending me all these referrals? Yes, yes. And it becomes a conversation.

It could become a much bigger. Collaboration or relationship. Sometimes I love thinking about marketing as like building a web in your community and like each touch point with all these different business owners who have their own referral networks. Like it’s a little thread in the web and like, yes, the more dense you can make that web with people who’ve heard about your business, the more referrals you’re gonna get in like a very real life way.

Molly: And I actually thought of one more. Like if, if you’re having a hard time thinking of like businesses, another thing you can do is even if you’re in a small town, so what’s like your next biggest is Seneca Falls pretty small or is it,

Michelle: yeah, and there’s six, 7,000 people here. So next door is Auburn. Uh, it’s maybe 20 minutes away, but it’s, it’s much bigger.

Molly: So you there are in almost every bigger city, not even big city, just like big, there are quote influencers who post about just things to do in your city.

Michelle: Oh yeah. I have seen those, those accounts. Yes.

Molly: So for example, I’m in Cincinnati, which is a big city, but I’m like in, but anyway, there’s like a account called Cincy Scoop, and they just post about things to do around Cincinnati fun.

So you can go and be commenting on Cincy scoop’s stuff. And it’s like, I. Oh, like, it makes people come back to that like, oh, who is this chiropractor? Who’s this acupuncturist? Who is this? Um, but that’s another cool thing is to share, you know, you, let’s say you draw like this wellness community, right? Like there are a lot of, um, wellness based.

Quote influencers as well. Mm-hmm. Who will share a lot of events. So sharing that stuff to your stories and tagging them is, again, it’s just like, oh, I wanna follow Michelle’s account because she’s always given me the scoop on what’s going around going on around town.

Michelle: I have a new question for you about leveraging.

I guess they would be called micro influencers.

Molly: Yeah,

Michelle: locally. So something that used to work for my clinic, Instagram, would be to reach out to these micro influencers. So they’re usually like, hmm, a thousand to 10,000. Followers tops, but like very, um, they, they still seem like real people, right? They have a lot of trust built around them, but they also have a lot of followers and engagement and asking them if they wanted to come and get a treatment as a trade in exchange for really.

Any kind of exposure on their account. Yeah, so I left it very fluid and up to them and what they were comfortable with. If they wanted to create a reel, like do a recording of their treatment and create a reel, that’s great. If they just wanna take pictures of the office and put it in their story and say that they were there, that was also okay with me and.

Did this with a lot of success, maybe like three years ago where we had six or seven influencers come in. They all created their own unique content. They tagged us and we got more followers. We got business. So now when I have tried to do something similar, maybe like the end of last year, I found that fewer influencers were actually would like follow through and actually come and do the thing and.

Instead, I’d noticed some of those local influencer accounts like, um, FLX Local, which is like Finger Lakes. Community kind of thing, where it’s the same sort of account where they are visiting. Like the pumpkin patch or, yes, yes, yes. Going to this restaurant or a festival. So instead, I’ve had them reach out to me and ask like, do I wanna pay a nominal fee?

And then they’ll come create a post about my practice. So I don’t mind paying like 150 bucks for someone who’s got like. 20,000 followers, Uhhuh. But it used to be that they would just come and do a trade, or like smaller accounts would be low key. So now I kind of feel like I don’t know how to engage with those tiny influencers anymore, or if it’s not working and I don’t usually recommend that people pay for that kind of thing.

Like I might do it ’cause I like to experiment with my marketing, but I want them to seek out the enthusiastic people who do a trade. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. What are your thoughts on all this?

Molly: Gosh, it’s so funny because you know, we all have our to-do lists of like, this has been somewhere, something on my to-do list is to kind of like almost research this more because I can see multiple sides of it.

It’s like on one side I don’t want to just like pay somebody to come get a treatment for me and then, you know, if I was in your shoes. That wouldn’t feel

Michelle: it’s backwards. Right? Like I’m paying them. Yeah. I’m like I to get the treatment, but really what I’m paying them for is the media exposure. Yeah. Not the treatment.

Molly: So, and I don’t know enough either about different states or if you’re Canadian listeners, like the provinces, like how they regulate that. It is not my area of expertise and so I’m not gonna try to pretend it is. What I will say is, uh, we had a client, uh, who had a very large influencer. Who’s a home birth, like home birth homestead account who just so happened to be her patient.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Molly: And she asked her, Hey, can we add you like as collaborator? You know, like I said, so maybe think about people who are already your patients. And another thing I. Suggest is, um, I call them patient ambassadors and I, I hate Facebook. I only get on it. I wish there was an option. You know how they have just messenger.

I wish there was an app just for groups because I do get a lot of value. Out of my local Facebook group. That’s where I like ask for recommendations all the time. So one exercise, and I’m glad you brought this up, what I’ve, uh, had some of my clients do, and I just think this is, I don’t think enough people take me up on this.

And so DM me and I’ll send you a script, but. I had, I posted in my local, like Westchester Moms Facebook group. I did it around small business Saturday, just ’cause it made the most sense. But you could do this anytime. You don’t need a reason to do this. I was like, Hey, I recently saw a statistic about Amazon and Target and Walmart and how.

You know, their profits have all, you know, whatever doubled, who, who knows? While small businesses are hurting. So drop all of your favorite small businesses below. I’ll go first and I put like my chiropractor, my cleaning lady, my hair person, um, the nail place. Um, it, they’re not always gonna be in the group, right?

So you can’t always like tag them. But what I did then in the comments was link their Instagrams in the comment part. Oh, okay. So I think it’s so smart to maybe say like, let me find three to five patient ambassadors who would be willing to go post that in a local Facebook group for me. Ah,

Michelle: and include you.

Oh, so smart. ’cause

Molly: I’ve, I had someone say, well, my groups don’t allow promotion. I’m like, that’s not promotion. You’re not. That’s not, to me, you’re bypassing all of those group rules that way because you’re not like, Hey, I sell Cincy. Like come buy my things. Like you are saying, let me support our local community.

Here’s my five to 10 favorite. I did like my favorite restaurant. Um. You know, so I have this as a script. If anybody wants to DM me, I’m just at Molly a Kinghill, C-A-H-I-L-L on Instagram, and I’ll send you like the script for it that I use.

Michelle: Awesome. Yeah. So you’re saying that we could do it ourselves as a business owner and tag other businesses, or we could have patient ambassadors, so super enthusiastic patients, the ones who would pretty much do anything for you, right?

You could ask them and give them the script and say like. Uh, ’cause I think when we tell people, you know, I’m trying to build this business really important to me to help more people, and here’s how you can help me with that. Like, once they realize that they’re helping, they’re like on board, they’re like, yeah, they could totally do that.

A

Molly: hundred percent. Yeah. I would do that in a heartbeat for anybody who asked me. I mean mm-hmm. It’s just like asking for a Google Review, you know what I mean? Yeah. It’s not that big of an ask, especially when you give them a script, and a lot of these people are plugged into a lot of these local Facebook groups, and both times I’ve done it twice in my local Facebook group, both times it has gotten tons of comments of people being like, oh, I love that.

Here’s my favorite coffee. You know, like people are adding their own favorite local businesses. Yeah. And so you’re not. Like, doesn’t that feel so good? Like you’re now supporting all of these, like your post created this ripple effect and you’re supporting all kinds of people in your community.

Michelle: I love that.

Yeah. Well, so many new ideas for things to try

Molly: to just one at a time. People don’t get overwhelmed. Yes. Right. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true.

Michelle: I hope everyone was taking notes and then put one thing each month on your calendar and take a stab at it.

Molly: Yep. And I teach all of this inside holistic marketing hub too.

It’s like all step by step, you know what I mean? Like, but everybody’s just got a free master class, so. Yes.

Michelle: Um, well, thank you so much for being here. Again, I intended for this to be like a, or maybe we can start this next time. Almost like a, an Instagram series, like a q and A series. Yeah. Something that we do often, because I think that the way social media evolves, there’s never going to be an end to the questions about what is working and how can I do this better and, and make, you know.

Do less effort, but get better results. So I think that would be really fun.

Molly: Yeah, I agree. Let’s do it. Yeah.

Michelle: So where can everyone find you and do you wanna talk a little bit about the holistic marketing hub as well?

Molly: Yeah, yeah. So like I said, everything I, that’s just one piece of my. Uh, do I use the word strategy?

I feel like pe, I feel like marketers use the word strategy sometimes just to make other people feel dumb. I swear I’ve seen it. They’re like, what you’re missing is a strategy. I’m like, oh, come on, please. Um. B, because we have an agency of 30 clients like you that we are running, we get real time feedback, right?

Mm-hmm. So I’m not some influencer who like went viral one time and is now teaching you my secret formula, right? Like, that’s not, you know what I mean? Like, I, I like this is, um, our clients are not going viral all the time. They have, um, our clients do not have. Bajillions of followers, some do. Um, but they are getting new patients from Instagram.

Yeah. And that’s all I care about. Yeah. So, yeah, so like I said, I try to give like a very realistic, like it might not be as sexy and you’re not gonna see crazy click bait headlines for me, but I’m just like, if you’re in for the no frills, like real person marketing, you can come to me. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, so Holistic Marketing Hub is kind of my hybrid all in one program where. Not only is there this huge database of copy and paste, social media, captions, a lot of acupuncture, um, but even, even like the chiropractic captions, you could go grab it and just tweak it to make it fit for you or like.

If you’re somebody who does a lot of nutrition in your practice, like there’s a lot of general health stuff, like you could just go grab that and plug it in for your, you know what I mean? You can, it doesn’t have to be exactly word for word. There’s a huge copy paste caption database. There’s, um, a lot of support from me.

I don’t know at the time this airs, we might be fully migrated. Uh, we’re migrating over to circle, um, because it’s just a much more all-in-one user-friendly place. So every weekend I post. I call it your next four posts, and I give you specific examples. I’m like,

Michelle: amazing.

Molly: This reel’s doing really well.

Here’s how you can tailor it to your niche. Like I, I basically just like find stuff that’s doing well. Sometimes I find stuff on Pinterest too, um, and I’m like, here’s ideas to tailor it to you. Um, and I give like four very specific post ideas. Follow it if you want, if you don’t. You know, whatever. Once a month we do coaching with me, the three, you can ask your question or you can ask your questions, you know, anytime in the community as well.

And then, um, on top of that is my step by step, I hate to say curriculum, strategy, whatever, that makes it sound like more crazy than it is. But it’s just like, okay, start here. Here’s how you set up your profile properly. You know? Now next we’re gonna learn about messaging, and then next we’re gonna learn about, uh, reels and then carousels, and then stories and building engagement like we just talked about.

Run it. Here’s how you run a promotion on Instagram. Hmm. All of that is covered. Uh, Michelle has a coupon code a MS that’ll save you $200 on either the pay in full or the payment plan. It’s a very affordable program. You can find it in the show notes or you can just go to Molly Cahill, C-A-H-I-L l.com and it’s linked at the top.

But also I’m very chatty in my dm, so if you wanna just come chat with me, say like, maybe this is right for me, maybe it’s not. Um. I will give you an honest answer. I have turned people away before who not turned them away. That’s not the right word, but I’ve been like, uh, like, I don’t think this is the right program for you yet.

Like, I’ve had people who like just start, you know, I’m like, okay, maybe get your packages open, like your website and all that kind of first, and then you can come.

Michelle: Gotcha.

Molly: Yeah. I, I will be honest with you, is what I’m trying to say.

Michelle: And your, I can’t remember if you said your Instagram handle, Molly a Cahill.

Molly: Yes, correct. Mm-hmm.

Michelle: Okay.

Molly: Yep. Gotcha. Molly, M-O-L-L-Y-A-C-A-H-I-L-L. Molly Cahill was taken. She’s apparently like a very, uh. Well renowned water polo player.

Michelle: Okay. Who knew

Molly: that is not me. Oh, that’s not you. I would drown. Luckily, I do not have that level of endurance.

Michelle: Luckily, Grassic is a really uncommon last name.

As far as I know. There are no other Michelle Grassic, I wanna say in the United States, but then I’ll jinx it and then someone will surface. Well, might

Molly: be you might be, you might be like an astronomer or something. Who knows? I’m a water polo player, so yes.

Michelle: Awesome. Okay, well, we’ll put all the, we’ll put the links in the show notes and I mean, one thing that I love about the Holistic Marketing Hub is that it is very step-by-step instructions because sometimes people are like, I can’t effectively do Instagram marketing for my clinic because I don’t understand that.

Technology piece of it. Mm-hmm. Like, I don’t know how to use the app. And the app is always changing, but you are doing screen shares, you’re doing step by step. And I know that you also update it if there’s a big change and you feel like, okay, this, this needs to be updated. Yes. So people can see where are the buttons now.

Molly: So I, well, okay. Yes and no. I do, I update it frequently, but it doesn’t matter. Everyone’s interface looks a little different, which is very annoying. True. Yes. Yeah. So I do, but for the most

Michelle: part it’s, it’s still very step. It’s not outta date by step, not.

Molly: I, I’d give the disclaimer, if your screen looks slightly different than mine, it’s okay.

Yeah. Well, just yesterday I was making a reel and my font I always use was not there. Mm. I’m like, okay. And then I log in today and it was there. I’m like, whatever. Like

Michelle: just sometimes the digital world is frustrating, like trying to log on today to the podcast studio for 20 minutes with support. They’re like, we don’t know why you can’t get in.

And they’re like, maybe just try to clear your cache. And that was it. I’m like, oh my goodness.

Molly: Unplug it and plug it back

Michelle: in. Yep. Should not be this hard.

Molly: Thank you, Michelle. Thank you so

Michelle: much for being here.