Your website can do more than just look pretty—it can bring patients directly into your acupuncture clinic. In my latest episode, I spoke with website designer and SEO expert Samantha Mabe of Lemon and the Sea about the real deal behind getting your website found and booked.

What you’ll learn:

  • How to use local SEO to appear in searches like “acupuncture near me” without keyword stuffing.
  • Why writing blog posts is still the most powerful way to show up online and what to write about.
  • Website design tweaks that instantly improve user experience and search visibility (including the one mistake Google hates).

What you’ll learn:

  • How to use local SEO to appear in searches like “acupuncture near me” without keyword stuffing.
  • Why writing blog posts is still the most powerful way to show up online and what to write about.
  • Website design tweaks that instantly improve user experience and search visibility (including the one mistake Google hates).

Find it quickly:

  • 00:34 – Meet Samantha Mabe
  • 01:02 – SEO Strategies for Holistic Health Websites
  • 02:59 – Website Design Tips
  • 04:31 – SEO Tips for Local Visibility
  • 07:00 – Importance of Blogging for SEO
  • 13:39 – Mobile Optimization and User Experience
  • 18:21 – Practical SEO Tips and Image Optimization
  • 21:00 – Understanding Screen Readers and Alt Tags
  • 22:18 – Designing Websites for Safety and Comfort
  • 23:35 – Answering Common Questions on Your Website
  • 26:20 – Optimizing for AI and SEO
  • 28:27 – Specializing Your Practice for Better Marketing
  • 35:49 – Marketing Strategies for Group Practices
  • 38:21 – Defining Success

Mentioned in this episode:

Connect with Samantha:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #110: Local SEO for Acupuncturists: Get Found Online & Book More Patients with Samantha Mabe

💙 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

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

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 excited to have Samantha Mabe from Lemon and the Sea, a website designer who specializes in helping holistic health professionals boost their online visibility and convert more website visitors into patients. Samantha is an expert at helping practitioners like acupuncturists, naturopaths, et cetera.

Create websites that not only look great, but actually show up in search results and get more people to click the book now button, which is what it’s all about. In today’s episode, we’re diving into search engine optimization with some practical tips that you can implement without a lot of technology.

So we’ll cover simple SEO strategies that you can put into practice right away, how to use keywords that actually help your ideal patients find you. Design tips that make your website both user friendly and search engine friendly, and some of the latest trends in how people are searching for healthcare services online and what we can do to optimize our websites based on those important trends.

So whether you’re a solo practitioner or running a group practice, Samantha’s going to share some actionable insights that can help you stand out in the crowded digital marketplace. This episode is brought to you by Jane, a clinic management software designed to help you provide great care to your patients.

Balancing detailed notes with great patient care can leave you feeling pulled in two directions. Jane’s AI Scribe can help mitigate this challenge with features that keep you present with your patients while documenting all the information you. Here’s how AI scribe supports your documentation. It can turn conversations into structured notes with unlimited AI powered smart templates and prompts.

It is HIPAA and PDA compliant and built securely in-house by Jane because your patient’s privacy is their top priority. And you can sync AI scribe with your existing workflows by recording audio directly in Jane, or uploading a recording. Ready to feel more connected to your patients during their appointments.

Visit meet.jane.app/documentation to book a demo with their team and see Jane’s documentation features in action. And don’t forget to use my Code Accu School, one Mo for a one month Grace period on your new account, and I’ll put both the link and the code in the show notes to make it easy for you. All right, let’s get into this episode with Samantha.

Hi Samantha. How are you?

Samantha: I’m good. Thanks for having me, Michelle.

Michelle: Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here. Um, before we get started, will you introduce yourself for the audience?

Samantha: Sure. So I’m Samantha. I am a website designer at Lemon In the Sea, and I help Holistic Health Pros to show up in front of the right people and then convert them into clients and patients.

Michelle: Hmm. I love that because it’s so concise with the two most important things, right? First, you must show up. You must be visible, and then actually be able to convert them into real life patients bodies in clinic. So one of the reasons I was so happy to. Stock you on Instagram. Basically, I find so many great business owners on Instagram, was that you talk about how you are specifically working with, uh, health and wellness professionals, including acupuncturists.

And, um, I submitted my website for your free review. Which I just thought was so fun and you, um, my gosh, it was like a knowledge bomb. I loved every second of your review and it was so helpful and organized, um, with tons of great tips. So we have so much we could talk about today. I guess we could start maybe with some basic questions that I have for you.

So do you have recommendations for. Search engine optimization tips that are kind of overlooked but are pretty easy for people to implement. Stand out.

Samantha: Yeah. I think the first thing it’s really important for people to remember when you are working in a physical location and you’re bringing people into that location is you don’t need to show up.

Nationwide or worldwide, you really want to hone in on your location. And so the best way to do that when you’re thinking about SEO search engine optimization is what keywords are going to represent, kind of what you do, who you work with, and then where you’re located in the words people are actually searching for.

And there are tools, um, that I use to help figure that out. Uber suggest is my favorite one, so good, but I tell people like I work with clients. Mainly in the US but they’re across the US and so they’ll tell me, you know, I’m in Richmond, Virginia, which is where I am, and I’m like, okay, that’s great, but what would somebody actually type in?

My county is Chesterfield, but some people call it Midlothian. Some people call it Richmond. Some people call it this and that. And so think about how far people come to drive into your clinic. Think about what they actually call your location, um, and what they actually call your service as well. I think that is helpful.

Um, with acupuncture, most people are gonna know that term, but sometimes if we’re doing something that’s more specialized or working with a specialized group of people, we have to know what they are saying and not what our industry terms and jargon are.

Michelle: Gotcha. Yeah, and I always. Ask people to think about, like, does their target audience know that acupuncture is the solution that they need?

Like some people are very familiar with the idea that acupuncture is great for fertility, but other people might not search acupuncture for fertility. Mm-hmm. They might search something like natural fertility diet or something like that, and then hopefully in the course of that exploration. They’ll realize or they’ll learn from the internet.

Oh wow, acupuncture could really help with this. So yeah, I think knowing your target audience is so helpful. So do you find that that is something that they wanna be thinking about? Like where is their ideal patient in their sort of educational journey about. Whatever the service is. Acupuncture, naturopathy, physical therapy.

Samantha: Yeah, that’s really good advice and I think that’s where people are not gonna like this advice, but that’s where writing blog posts really comes in handy because you can, when you just are writing your website copy, it’s really hard to write, you know? Natural fertility solutions. It gets really generic if you’re trying to like hit where people are in their journey.

Whereas a blog post where you could write about fertility diets and how acupuncture relates to those, you can get a lot deeper into a blog posts. That’s what Google and search engines like to see anyway, and that’s still really the best way to show up in front of people.

Michelle: I’m so happy to hear you say that because I still talk about blogging with my marketing clients.

Um, one thing I will say that I’ve noticed is that it really seems to depend on where people are located, on how well versed their patients are in, in acupuncture or like. Knowing that an acupuncture specialty exists, and I was just talking to someone about this recently that, so I specialize in cosmetic acupuncture and I’m in a rural area.

I have to do a ton of mm-hmm. Patient education. I just, people I bump into on the street. They know I have an acupuncture practice. They know I’ve been here six years. They have no idea that I do cosmetic acupuncture, even though it’s, it’s what we focus on and they have no idea what the heck that is. But I know that people who live in larger cities, their potential patients are already aware of cosmetic, and they might also call it, as you were saying, facial rejuvenation, acupuncture.

So it really helps to know like, where is your person in this journey? Yeah, it

Samantha: does. I was helping a fertility acupuncturist in San Diego, and so we looked and we saw, okay, there are actually other places that do this. What keywords are they using? Mm-hmm. And so we knew like there are terms, people are familiar with that because she’s in a bigger city.

But it is, it’s knowing your location, it’s knowing who you’re talking to. I think the other thing is knowing where they are spending time. Online we’ve seen like a rise, or at least I have a rise on like TikTok and Instagram of people finding out about these things and learning how they can help. And so if your audience is spending time there, they may come across it there and you can kind of pay attention to, okay, well what terms are they using on social media?

And how can I reflect that on my website and in my keywords that I’m choosing?

Michelle: Yeah, it’s so interesting to me that Instagram has sort of become a search engine, like a, a little bit, not like the traditional search engines and not the way people that use YouTube, but people are learning so much just from Instagram.

And so I really think, you know, you. Potential patients are on there. Mm-hmm. If people can tolerate social media and they’re willing to be consistent with it, I do think it’s a great way to find people to teach them. And there are ways that you can use keywords on Instagram as well. So like, knowing all of those things is, is so important.

Um, is there any, any other basics that you would recommend that people think about?

Samantha: I think we just need to remember. That search engines are smart. We can’t trick them. Um, and people are smart too. And so while it’s tempting, I know a lot of people like to use AI to help with writing stuff. We still want it to sound like a person.

We still wanna like actually connect. Um. And we want to remember as well that search engines are thinking about people’s user experience. And so when you are designing your website, the design and what it looks like actually also impacts how you show up in front of people and how your website ranks.

Michelle: So what design tips would you recommend that we use or maybe avoid?

I

Samantha: think the biggest ones that are pretty easy for people to implement is to make sure your website loads as quickly as possible. Um, the biggest thing you can do for that is make sure your images are optimized. So do not upload like your stock images at 5,000 pixels wide. Shrink them down, run them through a tool that will optimize them.

I really like tiny P and g for that. It’s, you can get a free version that’s gonna make your website load a lot faster. And then other thing to think about is the contrast between the colors on your website. So making sure that your font and your background color have enough contrast. There are lots of accessibility guidelines and there are tools that can help you check.

Um, but if there isn’t enough contrast, you will kind of get docked in your search engine ranking.

Michelle: Oh, interesting. I guess I didn’t know that Google was looking at that when it is crawling, like your keywords and all of the different parts of your pages.

Samantha: Yeah, they’ve. I added a couple, like some factors as far as usability and accessibility as well as SEO in the past few years because the experience on a website is just as important as like getting people there for the right words.

And so it, it all really goes hand in hand as far as we want a website that looks nice and that works and that has the right content. Gotcha.

Michelle: Yeah. I mean, it makes, it’s, it’s many layered, right? It makes our jobs a little bit harder as small business owners who are kind of like, a lot of people are DIYing their websites.

Mm-hmm. I know for my website that I try to remember to check in on it on desktop and mobile every. Uh, I, I definitely check on desktop a lot. Mm-hmm. But mobile I don’t think about, and sometimes I’ll go to check and it’ll take like two or three seconds to load, which does not sound like very much Right.

But when you are sitting there waiting for something to load, I’m like, oh, this is bad. This is, this is gonna make people bounce. Right. Yeah. There’s other websites they could look at that are gonna load instantly and they are just, they’re just gonna totally forget about mine. Yeah. So yeah, always, always thinking about how I can optimize for that.

And you said the website was, was it tiny, PNG? Mm-hmm. Okay. Tiny png.com. Very nice.

Samantha: Yeah. And I think you mentioned like mobile is also very important to. Depending on what you’re doing, but generally, if you’re a local business, probably 40 to 50% of your traffic is visiting on a phone. It can be higher if you’re doing a lot of social media marketing.

And the statistics tell us that if somebody’s searching for like a local business, they’re more likely to reach out within a week or two. And so we really wanna make sure that it loads quickly and that you’re showing up in front of people for the right location.

Michelle: Gotcha. Yeah. So what do you recommend in terms of SEO for coming up when people are typing like.

Acupuncture near me, or acupuncture, Rochester, New York. Like should we be using those keywords somewhere on our website?

Samantha: You never need to use near me. Google knows where the person’s location is. So you would just use acupuncture, uh, Rochester, New York if that’s where you’re located. If you can get more specific about like cosmetic acupuncture.

Rochester, New York. That is even better. You, there are less people searching for it, but. They’re more likely to then click and book because it’s closer to what they’re actually looking for. So those are gonna be the keywords, like on your main pages of your website, and then your blog is where you can kind of get into the related questions that people might have about acupuncture or specifically what you’re doing, or related things like diet or, you know, lifestyle changes, low tox, whatever it is that they kind of.

Also ask you about or they also might be interested in, that’s where you can write a blog post with like one specific topic keyword.

Michelle: Gotcha. And I’m curious, at the bottom of blog posts, I was always taught to add, uh, it’s not really a. A bio, but more like, I think of it as a signature, I guess it’s an old school way of thinking about it, but it just says, you know, ready to make an appointment.

It has a book now button, and then below it, it says something to the effect of proudly providing X, Y, Z acupuncture in. And then I list like six neighborhoods near where I am in addition to my own. But then that. Blurb is copied and pasted, and it’s identical at the bottom of every blog post. So every once in a while someone will disagree and they’ll be like, Hmm, I don’t think you should copy and paste.

I’m like, but I want those keywords in there. So I, and I leave them ’cause I’m like, uh, it seems okay. But I’m always curious if you think that is helpful. Is it detrimental?

Samantha: I don’t think it’s detrimental. It’s always good to have that call to action part, to like say, book now, give people a next step for people who don’t wanna put it like at the end of every blog post, or maybe they forget to do it, which is what I do.

Yeah. You can also list those kind of locations in your footer. So you would just say like, serving patients in. These three, four cities and it still counts for every page on your website. It will still pull those up.

Michelle: Ah, gotcha. Ooh, that’s sneaky. I like that. That means I’m being pretty redundant then. It’s in every blog post and it is, uh, it is something similar in the footer, so now it’s in both places.

Samantha: I think it’s less of a problem when it’s on the page because there’s lots of other content. What I see is more of a problem is when you’re going into the backend of your website and you’re typing in like your site title and your site description, that’s where if you have the location. Every single time it’s like, okay, Google’s probably like, I already know this.

I already know where you’re located. You’re telling me in a million places. Let’s, let’s use some words that are a little bit more relevant that tell people what this page is about, or try some different variations so that you’re showing up for more things. If you’ve got your location on your footer, on your contact page, it shows up in like every other.

Few descriptions when you’ve got your services, you don’t need it to show up every single time, just like you don’t need your practice name to show up every single time. Google’s already kind of figured that out. They wanna know, what are you talking about, more than like, what is the name of your business.

Michelle: Gotcha. So thinking too about the user experience and how. Like if you are a new person to this website, it’s probably gonna feel redundant as a human to see like Seneca Falls Acupuncture located in Seneca Falls, New York on every, on the top of every single page. Okay, so that makes sense. Any other like Easy DIY.

Tips that people can do because I think people imagine search engine optimization is gonna be very technical and scary and involve going into the code of their website. But I think there’s lots of things that they can do that don’t involve touching code. They don’t have to like be an expert on the backend of their website.

Samantha: Yeah, I would say. Pretty much every website platform, you shouldn’t have to touch the code to make sure that you’ve got that site title and description. Mm-hmm. Make sure it’s unique on every page of your site. And then the other trick that I learned, and it does take a little time if you have a website with lots of content, uh, but just do it moving forward, when you go ahead and optimize your images for size, just rename that file name with some keywords.

So instead of like. Just a generic like number for the image or you know, whatever stock platform you pulled it from, give it a name instead. So like instead of stocks society 1, 2, 3, mine will be like website design for acupuncture as the image name. Uh, because Google is also reading what those are.

Michelle: Gotcha. So it’s reading the name of the image, what it’s named before it’s even loaded onto mm-hmm. The website. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. And then it’s also reading the alt tag, and that’s separate, correct? Yes. Okay.

Samantha: So for most platforms you would have like the image file name, so that’s like what you would. Type in to find it on your computer and then you would add alt text that describes the image.

And this one can be, I feel like a lot of people use this to keywords, stuff like they just like to add a lot of keywords. Yeah. What you really wanna do is you wanna describe the image but also use keywords. So, um. I did a lot of this for a chiropractor, and so it would be like chiropractor in New Jersey working with pediatric patient or speech therapist, working with patient, doing specific things.

So it’s describing what’s in the image, but it’s also using like. What their industry is or what their practice name is, or what their location is. Combining both of those things because alt text is really there. Um, it’s an accessibility thing for people who can’t see the images or if your image doesn’t load because you have slow internet, which sometimes I have.

Um, same, but we can use keywords in there as well.

Michelle: Gotcha. Okay. Right, so it’s for people with a screen reader. Yeah. And so it’s literally gonna read the all tag to them to describe what the image is. Mm-hmm. I think I may be guilty of a little bit of the keyword stuffing and probably should clean some of them up because as a person who, like if you can’t see and you’re just letting the screen reader.

Read this website to you, and then you’re coming across all these images where it’s sort of like nonsense, right? It’s not actually describing the image. I’m sure that’s super frustrating. Um. So I like your suggestion of kind of being savvy. Yeah. How can we describe this image, but also add a couple extra phrases about like location and specialty?

Yeah. Okay. Taking a quick break to remind you of our sponsor, Jane, an all-in-one clinic management software with Jane’s AI scribe. You can stay present with your patients while your notes are taken care of. AI scribe turns conversations into structured patient notes. It’s fully HIPAA compliant and it fits right into your existing workflow.

Visit Meet Jane app slash documentation to book a demo and don’t forget to use my Code Accu School one MO for a one month Grace period on your new account. And of course those links are in the show notes for you. Alright, let’s get back into this episode with Samantha. You sometimes talk about using design to.

Convey, uh, almost like a sense of safety so that people feel safe or like mentally ready to make an appointment. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Samantha: Sure. So I think we need to have our website designs. Really reflect our practice, kind of the personality of our practice. That’s, it feels easier, I think, for most people, if you’re the only person, because then it’s your personality.

But even if it’s a group practice, it’s like what does it feel like when you walk in here? If you work with kids, it should feel fun and bright and happy, and. No, my 6-year-old is not going to a website to look this up, but I should be able to recognize, oh, they work with kids. They understand kids. They understand kids who are neurodivergent.

They’re not gonna freak out if like my kid pitches a fit in the middle of the lobby. And you can communicate that with the colors that you choose and your images and the copy that you share and you, you’re really just trying to make it. Reflect what it feels like to work with you. Like when somebody walks into your office, it should feel consistent with what they saw on your website.

And I think the other key there is. Answering as many questions as possible on your website, um, so that people feel really confident when they walk in. I have anxiety and so I will look up like every single thing. I remember the first time I got a massage, I was like desperately Googling, like, what am I supposed to wear?

Do I take all my clothes off during a massage?

Michelle: And I couldn’t find, that has to be the number one question. Like it, but I couldn’t find, do I take my underwear off?

Samantha: What do I do? Like, there wasn’t a good answer. And ITT at the time, like TikTok was not a thing. ’cause I’m sure I could find the answer on there now.

Michelle: Um, I bet.

Samantha: But thinking about those questions that are like, these are the things people are afraid to ask, but they really want to know.

Michelle: Ah, yeah.

Samantha: And put those on your website too, so that it’s like they can have. Every question possible. If they don’t need that answer, they’re not gonna, you know, nobody’s gonna be offended.

You answered too many questions, but it can really make it feel safe. If you can answer and anticipate those types of things and really explain like, this is how it’s gonna work, and this is what you should wear, and this is what you should expect afterwards.

Michelle: I love the idea of thinking about what are the questions that people really want the answers to, but are afraid to ask.

Yeah. Like they’re secretly Googling and, and really thinking about who’s your ideal patient and what might those questions be for them? And then add them to, gosh, yeah, add them to the F aq. Do you recommend putting that FAQ. On the homepage, or it should have its own page in the menu, like where should it live so that people can find it.

Samantha: Okay. So my answer to this has changed recently with some research that I did. Okay. I recommend having it in a few places, so okay. You will have an FAQ section on your service page or services page. Those questions should be relevant to that specific service. So like what’s involved in this? Who do you work with for this specific thing?

Those types of questions. Gotcha. I like to add a section to your contact page that answers kind of general questions. Where are you located? What are your hours? Do you take insurance? What’s the cost? Those types of things.

Michelle: Gotcha.

Samantha: And then what I have added is you should have a separate FAQ page. You can literally take all the questions you’ve put elsewhere, put them onto your FAQ page, maybe in sections, like break them down.

On that page because usually I like to use accordion. So they open and close when you click the button. Um, for people who don’t know the term, yeah, on your FAQ page, they should not open and close because AI is now a really big search engine for people. They’re asking chat GBT before they ask Google and AI has a little bit harder of a time reading things if they have to open and close.

Michelle: Mm, I remember that was part of the review you did for my website. Yeah, because my, all of my FAQs are in those little accordion boxes, so it’s like, person can see the question, but they have to click this little plus sign for the answer to like pop open in the page. And I, I was just like, oh. Dang it. Like now I have to go back and it’s, it should be easy enough, right?

Like just copy and paste all of those things, not inside the accordions. I mean, it’s fascinating to me how much and how quickly AI is changing search engine optimization and the way that people are searching. Do you think that eventually. And I have no idea how you could know this or extrapolate this, but if you could predict a future, do you think AI will eventually be able to read those types of things that like right now it’s having a hard time with, but in the future it will just read it all?

Samantha: I think it will get better at that type of thing. And that’s why I say like on your services page, on your contact page where there’s lots of other content, use the accordion blocks. People don’t need to see. Like that’s a lot of scrolling.

Michelle: Yeah. But

Samantha: if you have a specific FAQ page, that’s where you can kind of let it be a little bit longer because people know what they’re getting there.

And I think AI is getting smarter just like everything else is getting smarter. And I will say like it sounds scary that, oh, now I have to optimize not just for search engines, but I have to optimize for ai. Good. Like. Good. SEO is good SEO, no matter who is searching for it. Okay, good design is good design no matter who’s looking at it.

And so if we can just get those like basic foundational things, you are ahead of pretty much everybody else.

Michelle: Yeah, I this, I’m not sure what made me think of this all of a sudden, but I, it sounds like from our earlier discussion about knowing your target market that you would advocate for being more specific on your website towards like your specialty or the kind of patients that you want.

So I’ll say that one thing I have a hard time sometimes convincing my marketing students to do is to. Pick like one to three conditions or, or groups of people or symptoms that they really wanna focus on on their website. ’cause most acupuncturists in school are trained as like general practitioners.

And when you first graduate. It’s terrifying. The idea of turning anybody away, like, oh, this person is coming in for stroke recovery. Great, I’ll take them. This person’s coming from DI for digestion. I’ll take them. You literally can’t afford to send them away, so they’re really afraid to get specific. But then what happens is the website is so generic, it’s like acupuncture four.

Everything, or they don’t really even talk about specific symptoms except in like a giant list. Mm-hmm. Of like the World Health Organization recommends these 32 things for acupuncture. And so what happens is that really like. Builds a connection with nobody in particular, right? Because it’s very broad.

So what, what kind of, um, arguments would you make in favor of even a little bit of specificity if people can’t say they specialize in some countries, like they don’t have to use that word, but

Samantha: Yeah, I always make sure you’re following whatever guidelines you have to follow and disclaimers. Um, but. It is much easier to write your copy and to market if you have niched down and you specialize in a specific type of client or specific symptoms or something like that.

I think people are afraid, and I was afraid for a long time to do the same thing my. It was really generic. I was like, I’ll do a website for anybody. Sure. Yeah. But once you find the people you like to work with and the people you can help, you’re gonna get them better results because you’re going to work with those types of people over and over again.

You’re gonna understand what they need and then you’re gonna be able to talk about it a lot more clearly. Generally, I would say people are, they may start. Like with the SEO, with search engine optimization, they may start with Ty typing in acupuncture in Richmond, Virginia, but when they actually go to those websites, they’re gonna say, okay, this one’s for everybody.

This one’s for this type of person. That’s not relevant to me. Like they’re gonna connect more with the person who’s like, oh, that is specifically addressing my concerns, or. W what I am experiencing right now or my stage of life. And what I think it’s important to remember, and I’ve talked to many of my clients about this, is even if you specialize, when you talk about it in your marketing on your website, that doesn’t mean you have to turn away additional people, right?

Yeah. So I had a naturopath and she was like, okay, I work specifically with women in perimenopause, but. Most of those women then ask me, oh, can you help my kids? Can you help my husband? Mm-hmm. Like, so once you’ve kind of built a relationship with those first people, they’re gonna refer other people to you and it will continue to grow, even if they’re not the target audience that you’re marketing to.

Michelle: Yes, I would absolutely agree with that. And I always think of it as. You know, it helps so much with your marketing to get specific so that you can have a specific message. It appeals to your people, but at the same time, it’s almost like this, um, this fear of scaring people away. It’s like a theoretical fear where it makes sense that when we niche down, like, oh, I’m gonna have to turn people away, or it’s gonna scare people away, when in reality I feel like.

That doesn’t actually happen, right? If someone has a referral from someone they trust, they, like my website talks a ton about cosmetic acupuncture. We get all sorts of people who have no interest in cosmetic acupuncture because they came from X, Y, Z referral. Or like this business around town was like, oh yeah, there’s an acupuncturist down the street, right?

So they’ve already got some trust built up and they. They don’t want to just Google a total stranger and say like, oh, okay, well the person I was referred to looks like they do only headaches or perimenopause, but I have a digestive concern. So they don’t wanna Google and look for a total stranger who specializes in digestion.

They just want you. So at the end of the day, I think, I mean, I hope it’s encouraging for people to hear that, that, you know. When those people come to you, you can keep them and they are going to come.

Samantha: Yeah, and I think it’s important when you are doing things that address people’s health, they really want to be, to work with somebody that they trust.

And so referrals have a huge impact on that. And even seeing that you specialize in something if you, even if you can’t call it, that shows them they know what they’re doing. Like they. They really dig into this. They’re not just trying to address every single issue. And so I think it does help build trust as well.

Um, and I, I think. And I’ve done this for a couple of clients, if you are afraid to niche down because you are like, I don’t want to have like nothing on my website, you can always add like an extra page that’s like additional services that just lists out the other types of people that you work with. It doesn’t all have to be about that, but it also doesn’t mean that.

That page can’t exist on your website. That just gives people a place to go, okay, yes, actually they may specialize in this, this specific thing, but they do also work with other types of clients.

Michelle: I love that idea. ’cause then those other, those words are keywords on their website now as well. So along those lines, would you recommend, like if someone were to say maybe on their homepage they’re focusing on like three things, like on uh, my website, it’s cosmetic acupuncture, women’s health and pain management.

But then maybe people could write blog posts for other symptoms or conditions that they also love to treat. And so those. Keywords are kind of coexisting and, and drawing those people towards them.

Samantha: Yeah, you could definitely do it in blog posts and you can have a, like a lot of people will have a dropdown in their menu for services.

So you would have one for like cosmetic acupuncture, one for pain management, one for women’s health, and then you might have one that just says other services where you outline some of that. There you will.

Michelle: Gotcha. So lots of ways to go about it to make people feel more comfortable if, if they genuinely do wanna be a general mm-hmm.

Practitioner, because I have certainly had people tell me the same thing where they’re like, I actually love treating everyone and I hate the idea of saying I only do this specific thing. Gotcha.

Samantha: Yeah, and I think if you are go, if you really just wanna be a general practitioner and there are people out there that do, especially if you’re in a group practice where like you might have different people that specialize in different areas, there are ways to do that where.

You’re kind of showcasing like these are the different things that we can focus on without just saying we acupuncture for everybody. Like there, it takes a little bit more work to figure out what that exact message is and what those keywords are, but you can do it so that it’s clear that, you know, we work with these different types of patients.

Michelle: Gotcha. Yeah, I would say. It’s, I think it’s intimidating for most people in a group practice to think about like their target market and their ideal patient. ’cause it’s different for each provider. And then how can they massage it sort of into one person or like a small number of ideal patients. Do you, do you have any advice for that?

Because I think it like having a unifying theory for group practice of even like. Two to four people I I know is something my marketing clients struggle with.

Samantha: I think sometimes. It can be helpful to think of those less as like what is the exact thing that we treat or the exact people that we work with, and more of like, what is the outcome that all of these people want?

Do they want to just be able to enjoy time with their kids? More, do they want to be able to, uh, sleep better? Like they’re, there’s still probably a unifying thing underlying everybody. And then what I like to do for group practices is give every person on there some space where they. Talk about like you give their bio, you give their credentials.

You might also list out like they specialize in these specific areas so that when somebody comes to the to your website, they can see, okay, I am struggling with anxiety. I might get assigned to this, this, or this. Person. Um, and that also builds trust because then when I’m on the phone or I get a sign, they’re like, okay, this is the person you’re having an appointment with.

I can go and look them up and I can find out some more information instead of just like, this is a face that I’ve never seen and I have to show up and meet with them.

Michelle: Yeah. Uh, well, I love the idea of thinking about what is the outcome that they all share in common. Super helpful. Well, I have one more question for you and I ask everyone this question, and it is, what is your definition of success?

I

Samantha: think my definition of success is feeling fulfilled in my work and feeling fulfilled in my personal life. Um, you know, work life balance is not really a thing that we can accomplish, but that’s kind of what I am trying to do. I’ve got a 6-year-old and a husband and I wanna spend time with them, but I also love my business and my clients.

Michelle: Hmm.

Samantha: Very nice.

Michelle: Yeah. I feel like many acupuncturists can relate. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really super appreciate it. Where can people find you online? How can they connect with you and if they want a free website review, how would they sign up for that?

Samantha: Yeah, so. I am Lemon and the C pretty much on every social media platform.

I do most of my kind of connecting on Instagram. My website is Lemon and the c.com and then the review is Lemon and the c.com/review. You just answer a couple questions and I send a video with some suggestions for you.

Michelle: Awesome. And it’s Lemon and the CSEA, correct? Yes. Perfect. Okay, cool. So I’ll, I’ll also put all of that in the show notes, uh, to make it easy for everyone.

Thank you again. Thank you so much. If you’re ready to simplify your marketing and get actionable tips every week, check out the snack size Marketing club. It is a membership where you’ll get a quick five minute marketing tip every Monday plus a live q and a session each month to answer all of your marketing questions.

This is perfect for acupuncturists and other wellness professionals who want to make marketing easy and get it off their plate without feeling overwhelmed. Head to the link in the show notes to join and get started for just $9 a month. I’d love to see you inside. As always, thanks for being here. I can’t wait to talk to you next time.