Back to Basics: Mastering Your Podiatry Clinic's Marketing
💻 Podiatry clinic website & digital marketing services: https://podiatrygrowth.com/schedule-more-patients/
🤝 Podiatry business coaching: https://www.tysonfranklin.com/Coaching
In this episode of Podiatry Marketing, Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald, DPM, discuss the importance of mastering the fundamental aspects of podiatry marketing before diving into advanced techniques like AI and ChatGPT.
They emphasize the need for a great clinic website, optimizing for organic and paid search results, building a strong online reputation, educating and communicating with patients through newsletters, and raising awareness through targeted ads on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Tune in to learn how these foundational elements can help elevate your podiatry practice's marketing efforts.
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You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.
Tyson E. Franklin:Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of podiatry marketing, the world's greatest podiatry marketing podcast. And as usual, with me every week, except for one, is big Jim Mac. How are doing, Jim?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Tyson, I'm doing well. I'm excited to chat with you today about all these exciting podiatry marketing topics we're gonna jump into.
Tyson E. Franklin:And the per and people listening to you go, oh, what was the one that we missed? No. I wasn't there for it. You did a solo on one episode.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. Yeah. Did a solo that that one time when we just the the Internet gods were not on our side that week. So
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. What happened? We had technical difficulties, didn't we? We just I think had you moved or I'd change something, and our our Wi Fi from both ends were just dying.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. We were having some serious Internet issues, but we've all got it figured out now. I've got up another, I guess, three months here in Eugene before heading back to Canada, but, no, we got it all figured out for now at least.
Tyson E. Franklin:And there is an important point for everybody who's listening to this. Things don't always work out. No matter what you have planned, sometimes things just don't work out. And when they don't work out, you've gotta have a backup plan. And our backup plan was, hey.
Tyson E. Franklin:We can always just do what we were gonna talk as a solo episode. I was able to salvage mine. I just had to do a lot of editing of yeah. When the Wi Fi just woke up and goes makes those funny noises. I was able to salvage mine, but your one couldn't do it, so he had to a solo one.
Tyson E. Franklin:Remember what episode that was?
Jim McDannald, DPM:I don't. It was sometime around the first of the year, but, yeah, I don't remember exactly what episode.
Tyson E. Franklin:Okay. Let's get on today's topic.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Sure. So, you know, over the past, you know, couple weeks, we're kinda bringing up AI topics. And I think definitely there's some more focused AI related and chat GPT stuff we'll be talking about in upcoming weeks. But before we jump into that, since we're kind of, you know, getting into, you know, we've kind of finished up the first quarter of the year. I think it it's a good idea as we kinda kick off quarter two is to kinda come back to the basics.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Right? You know, we kind of sometimes the bright shiny objects in in podiatry marketing get us excited. You You know, there's definitely a lot of interesting opportunities that newer technologies and things like AI and stuff can bring to us. But before we get too excited, I think it's sometimes good to kind of get back to basics and understand about, you know, what are those kind of important aspects of digital marketing in your practice that you really should have nailed down before you, you know, jump too far down the AI or the next bright shiny object kind of rabbit hole. Think so that's what today's focus is is really kind of mastering the the basics of your podiatry clinics marketing so you can kind of really execute on maybe some of those other exciting newer things coming along down the pipe.
Tyson E. Franklin:I think it's a great idea doing this because I know it's so often well, it's like anything. If you wanna build a good business, you need to get the foundations right first. You're gonna build a house, you need the good foundations. And I think with marketing, you need to understand the basics and have good basics in place. So when all the new shiny things come out, they're actually gonna work better.
Jim McDannald, DPM:No. Absolutely. Like, if you don't have these kind of foundational elements to digital marketing plan kind of in place, then it really doesn't matter, you know, what you do with some of these newer things. Right? So, you know, the real focus today is to to kinda help you kinda solidify that foundation so you can, you know, know what's going on, but then also make some decisions about, you know, if you haven't done you know, we're talk about five main things, but, you know, maybe you've done one or two of them.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Maybe it's something for, you know, the next quarter you can kinda focus on to try to ramp up and improve what's going on there.
Tyson E. Franklin:Okay. So what's the first part? Let's just dive straight in.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yes. The first part is really solidifying a great clinic website. Know we've talked about in the past that you know your clinic website is sometimes that first place that potential patients will make. We'll see your clinic, we'll see you, we'll see your staff. Know it's it is that kind of you basically kind of extend yourself from that kind of digital world kind of into your real life clinic.
Jim McDannald, DPM:So it's super important that your clinic website, you know, shows the exact type of care you want to provide and has a very professional, you know, good looking image for your clinic. Because otherwise people are gonna click on it, they see a website that's either kind of sloppy or kind of old, and they're just gonna expect that from the rest of your clinic, and they're probably gonna go to try find another clinic that kind of reads kinda makes the standard or reaches the standard that they're looking for in a foot and ankle specialist.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. It's funny. The amount of podiatrists because I talked to a lot, and I will comment I I will go and have a look at their website. And the amount of podiatrists that will say the same thing to me, I should just I should write it down on paper, I know exactly what you're gonna say to me, and then hold it up. And I'll go, oh, I know my website, look, is old and out of date, and it needs a lot of work.
Tyson E. Franklin:But and I and this is what you you've got this as number one as one of the marketing basics is making sure your website, your digital home base is is working properly and looks good, and and they already know that it's no good. But then they wanna do but then they wanted to use all these, like, Google Ads to get people to the website so people can get there and go, oh my god. I'm going somewhere else. But thanks for the tip that I need a podiatrist.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. That's why it's number one exactly. Hit the nail on the head there. You just wanna make sure that, you know, this is the place you're gonna be send you know, you're gonna be linking from all your social accounts. You're gonna be linking from your paid ads, whether that be on Google or Facebook or other places.
Jim McDannald, DPM:And this is the kind of the property that you own that, you know, can really you know, it's gonna hopefully show up in organic search and people will, you know, click on and go through and land on these pages that builds trust in you and your staff and the clinic that and the great foot and ankle services you provide. So, you know, it's one of those things that's not necessarily like some people see a website or it's like kind of a you know, at least in the early days it was kinda seen as like an online business card. Right? As long as it's got the, you know, my name and my contact info, that's all I really care about. Right?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Like, you know, the other stuff is kind of fancy bells and whistles that I don't really need. But, you know, in today's kind of digital first age, you know, you know, people that have grown up, you know, with the Internet, you know, their entire lives, there's a certain kind of level of design and trust that you can build when you have a great looking website that you can't have if you're using one from twenty to twenty five years ago. It's not only for your your your your potential patients, but also if you're trying to hire an associate. Let's say you've you've you know, there's I don't wanna make make fun of too many of these older website providers, but there's like a website provider in The US called Office Site. And it just like, you look at it and it's like from 1995.
Jim McDannald, DPM:And yeah, like there is that it does have that kind of a business card aspect of your name, your phone number, and your location. But I'm I'm telling you that, you know, potential associates or people that, you know, maybe wanna buy your practice, they wanna see that you have a thriving website and something that they won't have to spend. Maybe they continue to work with the marketing provider that you're working with, but it's not something they're gonna totally have to overhaul necessarily in order to kinda keep that flow of patients going. It's a real sign that the clinic's been taken care of and not just like put on a shelf for twenty years. So obviously it is important to build trust with patients.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Like I said, you also wanna make sure that potential associates or someone to buy your practice sees that you have a modern patient friendly website.
Tyson E. Franklin:It's I'm just you probably see a heavy smile on my face while you're talking because I remember being on The UK Podiatry Facebook page, and somebody mentioned, oh, I'm thinking about getting a new website. My my current one's, oh, who should I talk to? So of course, everyone's given their suggestions. I remember one guy going, I've had my website for fifteen years, and it's awesome, and I don't know why you need to change it. Mine's been working perfectly for four, fifteen years.
Tyson E. Franklin:So I saw who it was. I went and looked at their website, and I was like, really? You really reckon this is working at the moment? I think you must live in a a little village that has no other podiatrist within a hundred kilometers because it was terrible. You went to it.
Tyson E. Franklin:You just went the the trust went out the window. As soon as you looked at it, you just went, this person's mentally handicapped. Just No. It's no good.
Jim McDannald, DPM:No. I mean, sometimes it's like, I think that lends to kind of the next point about websites is that, you know, whether you think your website's working great or not, it's it's always helpful to have someone kind of evaluate and give you some feedback. Right? At the very least, get an idea of you know, what are those opportunities you have to improve it. And and like you said, if you've had that same website for fifteen years, it looks fine to you.
Jim McDannald, DPM:But you know, ask that young, you know, medical assistant in your practice like, how do they think what do they think about your website and and let them be honest with you. You know?
Tyson E. Franklin:Or Yeah.
Jim McDannald, DPM:You know, or some that's, you know, asking someone that's another business owner that's not maybe even medicine. Take a look at my website and give me some feedback. Or, you maybe there's like me for example, I'm always happy to talk to podiatrists and give feedback about what I see on their websites, whether they decide to hire me or not. So are there authentic, some basic things that need to be on a website. Are they kind of you know are there authentic photos of you kind of treating your ideal patient?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Are the list of you know diagnosis and treatments you provide the things you actually want to do and that are will drive revenue into the clinic. Like we talked about previously sometimes people have top 59 doses, top 50 treatments on the website. They don't really care about those things but that's what the templated you know $400 a month you know marketing company they're using put on you know uses for a template. And then also you know just like what are those call to actions? How do people get in contact with you?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Do you have, you know, you know, buttons that will kind of or clickable phone numbers on your website so that you make it really easy for people to contact and make appointments in the clinic. You know, we've done some previous podcasts that will give you even more details about, you know, how to build, you know, a great website that builds trust. But that first point is you have to have that website kind of down pat so we can build out build out some of these other marketing aspects of your clinic marketing plan to really be most effective.
Tyson E. Franklin:Sonya, let's go to website right now. Go and have a look at it. Pause. Go and have a look at your website, really, and think about when was the last time you looked at your website or added any content to it. And, basically, just reach out to the person that created or reach out to you and at least have a chat.
Tyson E. Franklin:Start the conversation. Look at areas that maybe there could be a few spots that just need to be fixed up. It'll make it look better, or it might need a complete overhaul or new website. Absolutely.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Okay. What's next? So next is, you know, kind of improving the way that patients find you online. Right? So this is generally with either organic search or with paid search.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Right? So, you know, how you build up the that website is gonna affect, you know, how you rank on Google. The types of pages you build. Are you building kind of authoritative kind of the best pages about either diagnosis or diagnosis and treatments or maybe you're you're building great pages about the different local communities that surround you, what I call areas we serve pages. But, you know, how are you building up the website so you can rank well on Google?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Because that's super important to get that kind of free organic traffic. You know, people will type in podiatrist near me or, you know, podiatrist Sydney, and you wanna make sure you're ranking high. And the way you do that is by, you know, building up that website in a very purposeful fashion. That that takes time for that type of traffic to come along. You know, if you just buy a domain name and you just get started, it's gonna take a little while before you're seen because Google wants to make sure that you're providing a great user experience for those people that land on on your website.
Jim McDannald, DPM:They're finding what they want. They're spending time there. They're clicking buttons to make appointments. Google can tell that because of Google Analytics. So, you know, building out that website so you can maximize that free organic traffic is the kind of the first important aspect of how you can be found online.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. And there was some key point, I think, that you mentioned there too about how long people will stay on your website is and I've said that to a lot of people, when someone comes to a certain page, you wanna have you wanna have options where they click here, make an appointment, or here's here's some more information, read another article, but you wanna try and keep them on your website moving around in different sections and keep them interested and excited and keep and want them to come back knowing that this is the website I come to when I want information.
Jim McDannald, DPM:No. Absolutely. And that's that's kinda what the basis of what they call SEO or search engine optimization is is how do you build pages that are helpful to people, and you can do that by obviously great content kind of the podiatrist or the patient will see on the page. But there's steps kind of behind the screen where you're the kind of headlines you use, the types of headings, the type of code, the different types of kind of kind of behind the scenes back end stuff that has to be used in the right way to make sure that your page is ranking well. So organic search is super super important, but the thing that's gonna get the most initial traction for most new websites or improved websites is having good paid campaigns.
Jim McDannald, DPM:And when I talk about, you know, paid search, that's generally Google search ads at this time. So page page you know, patients are kind of in a buying decision or finding a a foot and ankle specialist. They're ready to make kind of a phone call. Maybe they have a child with an ingrown toenail or there's something kind of urgent. There's a certain number of people in your local community that are looking for your services right now, and paid search ads is kind of the best way to be seen for those different types of care locally.
Jim McDannald, DPM:And it's also one of the things where it doesn't take as much time as organic. Paid search is much more quick as far as getting leads or new potential patients in the door. So, you know, kinda balancing, you know, how much time and effort's going into your SEO practices with this kind of paid search on Google is super important and making sure you're kind of bidding on the right keywords to make sure that they're coming into your clinic ready to you know, they're they're they're clicking and they're ready to make an appointment.
Tyson E. Franklin:Question. Yep. Say you're doing paid ads with Google, directing people to your website on certain pages. Does Google, even when you stop paying them, do they give you, like, a preference because you've used them previously? Or once you stop paying, they're like, we don't care who you are.
Tyson E. Franklin:You're irrelevant to us. You're just a page now.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. There's some question whether there's kind of kind of an artificial lift or, you know, when you when you have when you're running paid campaigns that maybe organic campaigns are gonna do better. You know, Google is a of a black box, so they're never gonna give you a straight answer about these things. But, also, it's important to know that kind of once you start using Google Ads, they're they do incentivize people to kind of stay paying because there's something called a quality score. They wanna make sure that they're they're more likely to kind of put you at number one even in the paid section if you've kind of been doing it for a while because they don't wanna see people just like jumping in and jumping out.
Jim McDannald, DPM:The Google prefers to have kind of consistently paying customers of their ads platform. So there definitely is that definitely a lift when it comes to increasing your quality score by running ads for longer. Just because you pay more and ads doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna be number one. Like, so if you're bidding two or three times as much as, you know, maybe the the other competitors are in your local area, that does not mean that you'll rank number one because Google doesn't actually wanna incentivize these kinda more, you know, kind of I I don't know. Kind of people that are coming in trying to swipe those top spots by just paying a lot.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Because it could be, you know, they wanna kind of kind of reward those who've been on the platform longer. Because if you're on there longer and they're, you know, getting good feedback from your patients that have clicked on things, either be ads or organic through Google Analytics, then they know it's a good user experience. Someone's jumping in and out. There's some concerns about, you know, is is is it it's not necessarily scammy behavior, but it's a little bit more like they'd rather reward those people that have been better customers for the long term.
Tyson E. Franklin:It's probably it's no different to any business working with another individual. Like, I have coaching clients that I've had some that I've worked with for years, and then, yeah, we may have finished doing what we were gonna do. And they might send me a message out, like, oh, is there any chance you can call me this afternoon? I'll give them a call because we had a a relationship for a certain period of time. I'll have somebody else that may have used me for two months, and then a year goes, oh, can you call me?
Tyson E. Franklin:No. No. I'll send a text. What what about? I wanna know about this.
Tyson E. Franklin:I go, well, go look it up. I'm not going to go out of my way when somebody has not put the time and effort in with you. You haven't built that relationship, so I just feel that maybe Google does the same thing. That's why I was asking that when you've worked with them a long period of time, you spent money with them that they probably do look after you a little bit more.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. Absolutely. Especially on the paid side.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. Okay. What's next?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Next is kinda building your online reputation. You know, obviously, reviews are huge these days. It's gonna be a great way to gain visibility in search. Obviously, anytime you Google the name of a clinic or maybe it's podiatrist near me, you're gonna see the number of stars. You know, is it four stars, a five stars, a 4.8?
Jim McDannald, DPM:You know, the number of reviews obviously important. So how you can kinda build out your digital credibility is really really important these days. So having, you know, a Google Ads kind of ask some of your patients that have received great care and kinda having a system in place is super important super important. And also having your Google Business profiles for not only your clinic, but each of the providers in that clinic can be a great way to gain online online visibility. So if you haven't spent the time to build out, you know, your Google business profile or to, you know, really have a system to to ask for the you know, ask for these reviews in a very positive way in a way that, you know, obviously, there there's certain scripts you can use in order to really, you know, you know, if missus Smith had a fantastic experience, she's gonna wanna share that, you know, with her local community.
Jim McDannald, DPM:And if you ask her at the right time, you may get a, you know, two or three paragraph, you know, glowing right of about how ABC podiatry is the best thing since sliced bread. She'll maybe use some keywords in there. So if someone else looking for a similar type of treatment whether it be bunion surgery or heel pain treatment, you know, they're really gonna be, you know, drawn more into those types of things as opposed to, you know, I always say I'd rather have a four star with a paragraph or two paragraphs of like, honest written content about the experience as opposed to five stars with no written response whatsoever. So, you know, building your on run online reputation, obviously, Google is super important for these Google reviews, but, you know, maybe as AI and ChatGPT mature, you know, looking at some of these other ones like RateMDs or Vitals, these other non Google properties might be more important in the future, but having a system to get these reviews and kind of building out Google Business Profiles is is super important to any any clinic and definitely a basic step to get online visibility for you and the care you provide.
Tyson E. Franklin:I just love how ABC Podiatry got another mention.
Jim McDannald, DPM:I get I gotta get that domain or something and just reroute it to I know. Marketing or something.
Tyson E. Franklin:I know. It's such I thought about that today. I was thinking, ABC Podiatry, we should grab that. But it's no. It's true.
Tyson E. Franklin:You see, I was only talking to a coaching client today, and we were and I mentioned this at my marketing workshops, the same thing just about what's your process for getting Google reviews? And everybody in your business, all the podiatrists working there, never needs to be following the same process. At what point do you ask for the Google review? How are you gonna do it? And there's some there's some really clever ways that you can encourage patients to do it.
Tyson E. Franklin:I'm not gonna go into it now.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. Let's leave that for another show.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. Yeah. It's a little thing you put in brackets, the promise. I I said what's next?
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. So next is kind of communication education of your patient base. So, you know, obviously, you have your patients in the room for a period of time. You know, they're in your clinic and you can kind of they can get a general sense of who you are and what you do. But primarily those folks are gonna think that they you only kind of treat what they came in and saw you for.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Right? So they came in for an ingrown toenail. They may not know that you do orthotics or maybe they know that you do orthotics but they didn't know you do foot and ankle surgery. So what are you know there's some different ways you can really help communicate all the care you provide and also help educate patients about you know that they can come to you for these certain types of care and the way I like to do it most is either a monthly or quarterly newsletter. Why I think that's important is that obviously a newsletter you have maybe if you've asked for permission you have thousands of patient emails and it's a great way to stay top of mind with them.
Jim McDannald, DPM:You you know, like I said, if you, you know, you can write up, you know, a small paragraph on each email, maybe link back to your website about the treat plantar fasciitis or whatever the types of care you want to provide to help educate them so that they, you know, them, their parents, their kids, their their spouses, their neighbors will you know, if they run into any issues with that, they can kind of kind of be a source of referrals for you. But also in that newsletter, you can kinda show your personality. You can show you're not just that dull podiatrist that, you know, is trying to, like, say, make an appointment, make an appointment that, you know, you like burgers, you like grilling, you like doing other things, you like running marathons, you know you know, whatever you like to do, you can kinda show your personality there. But you can also like, you know, it's totally okay to show that you do have openings and that you are available maybe for same day care or maybe there's some aspects of things you want to promote related to kind of attracting more patients into your clinic to make an appointment.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Totally fine but I think if you educate and you communicate with folks consistently through these kind of email newsletters, whether it be on a monthly or quarterly basis, it can be a real boon to your practice.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. I think I think the education is it's a massive part of what we should be doing. And like you said, you can't assume that every patient just goes, I know everything that a podiatrist does. They know squat of what we actually do. And even it sounds bright, but even some podiatrists don't even know what other podiatrists are doing.
Tyson E. Franklin:That, oh, are we allowed to I've heard podiatrists say to another podiatrist, are we allowed to do that? Yeah. Duh. Yes. We can.
Tyson E. Franklin:So I think it's really important constantly be letting your patients know what you do. Let them know the diversity of what we do because it's all good for the profession. And even if you don't do a particular service or provide a certain service, but you got a friend in podiatry in your area who does, then you can cross promote each other on what some of your strengths are. But I think the newsletter is such a cheap marketing tool that is so effective.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. It's very inexpensive and it's like you own that list. Right? So Yeah.
Tyson E. Franklin:You like
Jim McDannald, DPM:you talked about with Google search ads, they can kind of it's a black box. You're not really sure what's happening. You know, maybe you're not ranking one and you can't figure out why and it could be a bit of a, you know, a test test and you know, trying to see if you can get to number one both either on the organic or paid side. But with that list, you own that list. So let's say you have a you you're not happy with an email provider or it's just not working for you, you wanna switch to another one.
Jim McDannald, DPM:You have those thousands of emails that you can take with you to the next provider. So you spent time and effort, maybe the podiatrist or the clinic owner before you and that practice had been collecting emails with the permission of the patients. So you own those those emails and you should really utilize them to their full capability. Because, you know, if you have 10,000 emails and only 1% of the people, you know, reach out to you, you know, that's probably a little a little high, but, you know, maybe it's half a percent. You know, that's 50 people that are, you know you know, reaching out to you about an appointment by sending one email.
Jim McDannald, DPM:So, you know, at the very least, you're getting top of mind. You're staying current with with your the patients you've treated, but, also, it could lead to, you kind of some immediate patients coming in the door.
Tyson E. Franklin:Well, most of the podiatrists that turn up at one of my workshops will say they heard about it two ways. The podcast with this one or podiatry legends, or they're on my email database. And they said, well, we saw that you you were promoting your workshop on your newsletter. So I'd say it's about fifty fifty, and that's just within the podiatry group. And I know when we had the podiatry clinic and we were sending out the emails, what I loved about it wasn't always that the people who contacted us and made an appointment I thought was great, but at least 50% of the people saw that they had opened your email.
Tyson E. Franklin:And only a small percentage unsubscribed, which means everybody else saw it, so every month, it just kept popping in their inbox. Every month, they're going, oh, ProAsh podiatrist or ABC podiatrist was there. So it's just it's just reminders. When they need you, bang. They they're going to do something.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Absolutely.
Tyson E. Franklin:We we move on from here.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. So the last point we'll we'll jump into for the day is, you know, kinda creating awareness. You know, once you have that that website kind of nailed down, you're working on getting that organic traffic, maybe some paid traffic, work on the online reputation, and now you're educating your patients about all the care you provide. Now is that chance to maybe create some awareness about some of the care that people don't know exists. Google search ads work great, for example, for people that they need a podiatrist now, they know they need a foot doctor, or they have an ingrown toenail, and they know that that service is available.
Jim McDannald, DPM:But maybe there's things like shockwave or different types of, you know, wart removal that could be beneficial to patients they just don't know about. So if you have some new modality or form of treatment or maybe you just want to target a very specific segment of your local population, maybe, you know, around the time of the Chicago Marathon, maybe in the two months before and the two months after, you only wanna kind of go after people that like the Chicago Marathon or like running clubs around Chicago. There's ways of kinda use it utilizing kind of targeted outreach to kind of let those patients know that you exist in a way by utilizing things like Instagram ads or Facebook ads or even TikTok ads these days. I've not run any TikTok ads, but it definitely can be a way to, you know, to kinda show what you provide to different people as opposed to just showing everything, you know, when it comes to, you know, whether it be your website or other types forms of marketing. Like I said, this is kinda more interruption levels of marketing and advertising.
Jim McDannald, DPM:It's not people don't you know, we talked about in the past, you don't scroll on Facebook or on Instagram looking to be, you know, looking for podiatrists. You know, maybe, you know, if you do have a social channel, maybe people search podiatrists to see if you're legitimate, but it it is an opportunity though to really showcase who you are, you know, through kind of authentic video of that, maybe the equipment of of you in your clinic, maybe a testimonial potentially if that's allowable in your locality. But it's something that could be helpful really to, like I said, give awareness to a type of treatment or diagnosis or target a very specific demographic group they think could benefit from the type of care you provide.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. And I think whatever you're doing on any of those platforms, and we've spoken over this many time, is just think about when you're on those platforms, why are you there? And when an ad when when does an ad cross your path that also makes you stop? So try and think of the same thing. Your patients are on that platform.
Tyson E. Franklin:What can you do to make them stop? Or otherwise, they're just gonna scroll past and be a waste of time. So if it just says, unless you're doing just an awareness campaign, if that's all you're doing is just awareness that you just wanted out there so people see it, then that's fine. But if you actually want them to take action, there's gotta be something that's gonna grab their attention.
Jim McDannald, DPM:No. Absolutely. I think it like, with all these kind of five areas we talked about, it's really you know, I I sometimes I see people like, oh, I just wanna kinda get my website up and that that's gonna be good enough for me. Or, you know, I think all of these kind of five different aspects of things, you know, really feed into each other and can kinda create kind of a, you know, a momentum with your marketing that, you know, maybe just you know, you don't have to necessarily do them all at the same time, but having kind of a a dedicated plan to increment incrementally kind of increase what you're doing or kind of, you know, building out a plan over the course of six months, a year, or two years that you wanna kinda get more of these different types of marketing into your practice can be super helpful because, you know, they can kind of feed off each other. Right?
Jim McDannald, DPM:So if you're running awareness ads, you're probably people will be more aware when they get your newsletter. They're just gonna be more placed to be seen because, you know, generally people it takes a while to build trust especially with health care professionals, but also just to be top of mind. I think sometimes when, you know, as clinic owners or podiatrists, you know, oh, we're just doing this one thing. It's and it's working well for us. But, you know, maybe that the type of demographic or the people you're looking for aren't necessarily on that channel.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Maybe, you know, you're looking to treat younger people right out of college or, you know, maybe they're more on, you know, things like Instagram or Snapchat learning about these different services, then they don't even, you know, respond to emails anymore. They're all about text messaging or, you they don't really go to websites. They just kinda look on Google and that's all they wanna do. So depending on your demographic, you really have to be aware that you know where are these people at that you can kind of draw from and you don't really know until you can kind of have these basics nailed down. So if you just, like I said, you're only using a website, maybe you're missing out.
Jim McDannald, DPM:If you're only doing paid ads, know, you're having a you know, you're kinda missing the boat of that, you know, five or 10,000 emails that you already have in your bank for an email newsletter. So these kind of five things work in concert together. So like I said, don't actually have to do them all at once but I definitely recommend that if there's you know maybe you're doing two right now in your clinic you know how well are you doing those two and then what does that third kind of leg of the table you can kind of maybe put out and maybe, you know, work on in 2025 to even take your clinic to the next level when it comes to getting that online visibility for the great foot and ankle care you provide.
Tyson E. Franklin:And if anyone needs help with this, they can just reach out to you.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Yeah. Feel free to, you know, read us reach us on the contact form there on the podiatry.marketing website, or they can email me Jim at podiatry growth. And I'm always happy to have, you know, a pressure free general conversation about marketing topics. And if I it's a good fit, then definitely happy to to work with folks, but also just happy to help educate, you know, fellow podiatrists about what are all these different options and, you know, give them a bit of a review as far as what they're doing right now and and some opportunities to improve their digital marketing to really see more of the patients they they wanna see.
Tyson E. Franklin:I think you're right, though. You're spot on with it's a multipronged approach. You can't you can't just rely on one thing, even if it's working fantastic, because it may be going fantastic, but if somebody else creates something that's more that's better, if that's the only source of referrals you're coming in I remember a podiatrist once, we saw in their clinic, and in their clinic, they actually said they've made a comment about 90% of our referrals come from the local GPs in the area. That's how good and strong our clinic is. And I'm like, oh, Jesus.
Tyson E. Franklin:That's bit of a worry. If they're all coming and you had a look in their their town, there was only, like, two medical centers. I'm thinking, so if somebody else came along and somehow tapped into them better than what they did and they lost those referrals and I think I told you a story, didn't I? Where I was getting all these referrals from the athlete's foot. Yep.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yeah. And then the podiatrist who was female podiatrist came along, and I lost all of them.
Jim McDannald, DPM:It happens. That's why it's important to have a, you know, a wider distribution of where your referral sources are coming from. Well, if you you know, like talked about, Google can decide to change their mind tomorrow. And if if if not, if 80% of your referrals are coming from Google and they change the game and maybe, you know, it'd be ads or the way they're handling SEO could change like that. You have to be prepared.
Tyson E. Franklin:Yep. Okay, Jim. Anything else you wanna say before we wrap up?
Jim McDannald, DPM:No. I think that's good for the day.
Tyson E. Franklin:Okay. I look forward to talking to you next week.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Sounds great, Tyson. Okay. See you. Bye now. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel.
Jim McDannald, DPM:Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.