Community Connections: Elevating Your Practice Through Local Engagement

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me, as usual, every week, my partner in crime, my friend, my can't think of another word, but it is big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. Hopefully, the tariffs that my my country or my former country I don't know how I wanna refrain to the refer to The US as right now, but hopefully, the price of your goods and things in the in Australia aren't hiking up too high these days.

Well, I'm I'm not gonna comment because I'm planning on going to The States twice this year. And and I don't wanna I don't wanna say anything that border security could hold against me when I wanna go back into yeah. When I wanna go into the country, all of a sudden, they're oh, hang on. We saw you did a podcast and had 50,000 people listen to you bag Trump. So

Alright. We'll we'll move away from that topic and maybe just take the podiatry marketing today.

Yeah. It might be easier. So what are we talking about today?

Yeah. So, you know, obviously, we kind of moved from winter into spring at at least in the the Northern Hemisphere. And I think it's a good time to kind of reconsider kind of community connections. You You know, it's it's warming up around here. People get outside and do things.

We've talked about it a bit in the past, but, you know, kind of having a strategy when it when it when it comes to how can you engage with your local community is really, really important. And, you know, since it's springtime here in the Northern Hemisphere, I think it's good just to go over some some basics again, but just, you know, what are some ways that you can mark your practice to your local community? You know, we've talked in the past about, you know, on your website having areas we serve pages and making sure that, you know, search is is working locally. But what are those things you can do, you know, physically, where your practices are located at to to kinda build your authority, to gain trust of people in your local area, and hopefully drive more patients to your practice.

Yeah. It's quite a new team because you're talking about the Northern Hemisphere moving from your winter in the spring. We're in the Southern Hemisphere, but where I am in Cairns, because it's quite hot, we're moving into autumn, which means things are cooling down. But a lot of different sports are kicking off now because that's Sure. When they actually peak.

So is it but the what you're about to talk about applies to us even though we're actually in reverse.

That's good. That's good. Trying to make it as relevant for all of our listeners as possible.

Yeah. Except The UK. It's just wet.

Just wet and cold there all year long.

I don't I don't know. But they they it always seems to be wet. Except when I was there. I had fantastic weather. Anyway There you so what okay.

What's the first point?

Yes. The first point is there's an opportunity to kind of to sponsor local events and local initiatives. I think, you know, whether it's community sports team, it's festivals, it's charity runs, There's always different community groups that could benefit from, you know, some sponsorship. And then, obviously, by kinda tying your clinic to that organization or to those events, you're gonna get some visibility. And I think, like we talked about in the past, if you have a specific niche, you know, maybe you wanna take take care of diabetics and diabetic wounds.

So maybe the American diabetes has some walks and stuff that, you know, might make sense for your practice or you wanna get into sports medicine. Maybe there's a local five k or a triathlon or a marathon where, you know, you can kinda get on the banner. Maybe it's kinda a combination with some volunteering as well. But I think there are a lot of opportunities to really kinda get out into the the public and kind of brand yourself kind of into the niche and and show that you are an important part of the community. Because, you know, as much as we just like to, you know, sit back and let the patients flow into our practice, people need to know we exist.

And they're probably gonna have a lot more goodwill for someone that's, you know, out there spending a bit of money, helping sponsor things that are helpful to kinda build the culture and community in in kind of in your local area there.

Yeah. I find it funny with some people when they say, oh, I wanna get more involved in sports podiatry. And when you talk to my colleagues, what events do you get involved with in your community? None. They sit on their fat bums and they do nothing, and then they wonder why they're not actually building up a reputation for that area.

So in my clinic, we sponsored the local netball. We sponsored the local basketball team. We were also the podiatrist for the national basketball team, but that came about because we were sponsoring the local clubs beforehand. We were sponsors for the local triathlon clubs. When there were fun runs on, we were involved in those things.

And long term, that was how we built a reputation. I think you need to be out there. And I remember having a conversation with Simon Bartold once, and he said he did so much volunteer work first almost a decade before he ever made any money from sports podiatry.

Absolutely. There's a huge opportunity. There's a huge need for that for our for our expertise. Just kinda being physically present and and kind of, you know, sponsoring some of these events. I think that's also important to know there can be carried over to the digital world as well.

You know, if you if you sponsor a team or an event, they're most likely gonna have a website. And maybe it's gonna be featured in a newspaper or it could be featured on that newspaper's website or multiple newspaper's website that, you know, your clinic, and then they might link back to your clinic in those different web pages. And that can be really, really important because one of the ways that your clinic is gonna be more visible is not necessarily just kind of shouting into the void, creating content. Yeah. There's certain things you can do on Google Business profile, and there's things you can do on your clinic website.

But one thing that Google really values and probably these upcoming AI LLMs like ChatGPT will value is that if people are linking to your website from reputable websites, it's a huge signal to Google that you are number one, you're local. Right? If you're Mhmm. Sponsoring local teams or local events, then they'll know that you're kind of in that area. So that's helpful.

But then the more good links you have coming into your website, the higher you're gonna rank for different types of search terms and for different local terms. So while it is about being out there, you know, maybe it's your brand that's physically out there or you're out there, you know, helping at these events, it can really kind of strengthen your online presence as well.

Yeah. And I think, like you said, you you will end up in the media when you attend enough of these events. But even when you go, is make sure you have another team member with you or someone that can be taking photos as you're doing stuff. And even if you're only using that on your own website and in your own social media pages, it still lets the community know, hey, look at us. We're we actually like being involved in the community.

And I'll guarantee every time you're involved, you will also not only you get patients from that event, but existing patients see you there, and and it shows that you actually yeah. You give a rat.

Yeah. You're just not sitting back in your offices, like I said, just kinda hanging out, just waiting for stuff to come in here actively, showing people that you care about what goes on in the community. Think that's a that's a huge thing.

Yeah. And it's even like the shirt I'm wearing at the moment, the push up challenge. That that's a a national thing in Australia about doing so many push ups in a certain period of time. And the amount of push ups you do, it's related to how many men have committed suicide. So it's a bit it's a mental health thing.

And but even just being involved in that, if you're involved in it and your podiatry clinic's involved in it and you've all got t shirts that say you're involved with the push up challenge, then that's also one of those things that just shows that, okay, that might be outside of your community, but I'll guarantee there's a lot of people in your community that are also involved in those type of charity events.

Absolutely. It's it's a huge win win. You know, you're helping them, but they're also you know, you're kinda being associated with with helping out the community.

Yeah. And I tell you, when you do two and a half thousand push ups in a very short period of time, you know you've done them. Absolutely. Okay. So what's next?

So next is kinda hosting educational workshops or health screenings at your practice. I think one of the people that I've seen do this with great success is Rob Cananello from New Jersey. You know, having people into your clinic for these free workshops or health screenings helps you kinda show off your expertise, you know, shows off the professionalism and kinda builds trust people in kind of a low, you know it's a it's a low risk for them to come in and, you know, I've seen him do it with different running groups, having the you know, having kind of a a injury clinic into his clinic, you know you know, into his practice so they can kinda see what it's like in his clinic, but he can also provide them value as far as helping kind of, you know, give them things to look for as far as training for marathons or the different runs. It it can be a really important thing, like I said, to kind of show that you're knowledgeable and show that you're willing to care and kinda bring people into the clinic. I think it really provides, you know, valuable information and potentially services.

You know, there's you know, if you're doing a workshop, you know, that's great just to kinda educate people. But, you know, maybe, you know, as far as if there's if there's need in your local area, doing some free foot screenings, you know, in your practice is something that you can consider. Or maybe if there's a community center or somewhere else in your town, it's a great way to kinda give back to your local community. And like I said, there's gonna be other health care providers as well. They'll probably have something similar, you know, especially in these free screenings and health care screenings and such.

But along with, you know, having community groups come into your clinic, you could also organize something where you're bringing other health care providers into your clinic, whether it be physios or physical therapists, other sports medicine doctors, other people you think would be helpful to have referrals, and having kind of a maybe an on-site workshop to let them know what you do. It could be something that could lead to additional referrals and kind of trust in your clinic and what you're doing there.

Yeah. Well, in our clinic, we used to beginning of each football season, we would write to all the coaches and managers of all the different clubs at all levels, all the grades, and we'd say, these two Saturday mornings, you can come in at any time you want during these times, and we will do free screenings on any particular concerns or injuries that you have. That always went really well, especially with junior football or soccer. And but I was in Christchurch many years ago. There was a podiatry clinic there, and they used to have set time.

It was, like, 03:30 to 05:30 on certain afternoons, and that was their free injury screening clinic. And anyone could just rock in with any problem, lower limb related, just turn up at the clinic and just to get an an idea, is this something they need to worry about? Can you show me how to strap this? And they did really, really well from it.

No. Absolutely. It's a huge opportunity. I think it kinda lowers that barrier. Right?

Some people, at least in The US and other places, are so concerned about the cost of health care. Mhmm. And just to get some advice, you know, is or just a a screening to kinda understand what's going on. And it doesn't have to be something that's longer, like, super involved, but it can kinda give some people some peace of mind and and build trust with you in your clinic. So there there definitely is some value there.

What I find really funny about the first point that you spoke about, and even just this one, I recall 20 ago, they organized a bit of a health talk at one of the primary schools. It was where my daughter was going to school. So I came along and spoke about, you know, level of limb problems. It was a a chiropractor that was there talking about chiropractic, and there was a physiotherapist talking about physiotherapy, dietitian as well. I look at all of us who were there twenty something years ago and where we all are now, and every single one of us that were there at the time when our clinics were nothing ended up having really probably the best clinics in each of those professions in town.

So I think there's a correlation between getting off your bum and actually putting in the hard yards, not expecting a return. But you know long term, there will be a return. If you keep giving, you you will get it get it back later on.

No. Absolutely. You know, being generous with your time and your expertise definitely can it comes back to you. It's kinda karma. Right?

Like, if if you don't expect a thing, but you just keep on giving, at some point in time, it's gonna turn in your favor, I think.

It's like this podcast. Jeez. Can't wipe a smile off your face, Jim. You're thinking, yeah. We're giving.

We're giving and we're giving.

Well and then we've we've gotten some clients from this and met some nice people along the way.

So We have, actually. We I've met a few over in The UK and a couple that sent you a message as well. And it must have been well, we've we've done this podcast. I've done, yeah, Podiatry Legends, and we've we've given so much of ourselves putting it together. But I will admit, we do get a lot back from it.

When anyone comes up and says, oh, I listened to this episode, and you and Jim laughed about that, it actually puts a really big smile on my face.

Yeah. It's a fun endeavor for sure.

Hopefully, I always look at this way. If you just help one person just do something that they didn't think they were capable of doing after some of these episodes, then I don't I don't think you put a price on that.

No. Couldn't agree more.

Okay. What's the next point?

The next is maybe a topic we've touched on a bit in the past, but it's collaborating with local businesses and organizations. You know, when you form partnerships with other local businesses or nonprofits, you know, maybe it's joint events or it's cross cross promotion, You can kinda really expand within the kind of the community itself, but also into the niche you want to. Like, this is the example of, you know, going out and giving your time at, you know, maybe a local running shoe store, you know, kinda spending time with some physios or some physical therapists to understand what they're doing and showing an interest in their practice and kinda building these kind of reciprocal relationships. You know, maybe it's a health club, you know, having a foot screening or doing something like that, but getting out into these local business and just providing value for these potential partnerships. You know, these collaborations can really introduce you to new audiences.

You know, if maybe you hadn't really considered, you know, giving giving talks at local running groups or triathlon groups, like you mentioned, Tyson. But you can get you in front of people that, you know, maybe didn't know you exist. And by by being visible to them now, you're become kind of an option for them when they're having kind of foot and ankle related issues. So, you know, creating these business you know, these relationships with other businesses, and other organizations, your local community can really pay off dividends.

Yeah. Well, we even did a talk with we would write to some of

the larger accounting firms. And because they had to spend a certain amount of money on work health work health and safety, that was just part of their budget for their business had to go into that I don't know it was a government regulation or not. And so we were going there once a year, and we would do, like, a forty five minute presentation just about foot foot related injuries in the workplace based on the footwear we knew that they would be wearing in an accounting firm, especially the females. And it was surprising, the positive feedback we got from that where some people just go, wow. I had no idea that this was related to my shoes.

And, yep, and we actually got a lot of patients. So plus, we got paid to do it. We well, I was gonna do it for free, and they paid us $250 to come and do this forty five minute talk. I wasn't gonna say no to that.

No. Absolutely. I think it's it's great that you got paid. It's also one of things they said, they they don't know you exist. They're not aware of the type of expertise or knowledge that you have.

You know, it it kinda not only will that kind of inform that specific person that was at that event. Right? But then they've got family. They've got potentially have kids. They have, you know, neighbors and friends that will are gonna have some kind of foot related issue.

I'm I'm still surprised every time, you know, I'm at a kid's one of my kid's soccer games or I'm out doing something and someone starts talking about their heel pain or the foot issue they've had. So and while I'm no longer a licensed clinical podiatrist to treat anybody, the amount of questions I get from friends and family members and people in my network is astounding. So when people know that you exist, you become an option for them. And and have them into your your practice, it it can really exponentially grow what you're trying to do there.

Yeah. And it was like I was saying before we did that health talk at the at the school, the physio, the dietitian, the chiropractor, after we did that, we we sort of knew each other, but we knew each other even better after that day because we actually listened to each other's talks, then we're talking afterwards. And and actually, the chiropractor that was there that day, I actually saw him today for treatment. There you go. So I've maintained that relationship twenty something years later.

That's cool.

What's next?

So next, I would say, is the topic you touched on real briefly, and it and it kind of blends into some of the ones we've talked about already tonight. But, you know, it's really about encouraging not just yourself to go and volunteer, but also your team your team and your clinic to kinda come out with you. I think there's

Oh, but will I get paid overtime?

I think I think there's benefits beyond for financial compensation. I think sometimes there can be a team building opportunity. If there's a lunch, you guys go out afterwards to kind of thank them for their volunteering. But when you motivate your staff to participate in these activities, they get to see, you know, the impact that you you can make and they can make beyond just the clinic itself. Right?

You're probably gonna see missus Jones who's running a five k or did a the diabetes walk that was in the practice. And now you gotta see them out in the real world and see how thankful they are. Sometimes the payment is the the smiles on the people's faces or the amount of, you know, getting them back to doing their activities and something that they didn't think they were gonna be able to do. You know, this not only could this kinda contribute positively to the community, you know, obviously, you know, if you're volunteering in a race walk or doing foot checks and making sure that, you know, people are okay. But it's also I think it can help boost boost team morale.

Right? Like like I said, you know, they get it out in the community. They can kinda see some of the positive effects that they're having an impact on along, you know, as as a member of your team. It can really showcase your practice's dedication to kind of be a part of that community and, you know, there's kinda strength in numbers. Right?

So if you have if just you and one other person from your team that are out there, it's gonna feel kinda rinky dinky. And, I mean, you're it's better to be there than not be there.

But Yeah.

You if you have your entire team out there, maybe it's once a year or twice a year. It doesn't have to be every month. Right? We're not expecting those folks to do those things. But like I said, you know, tying it into a team lunch afterwards, making it a kind of a fun day in more in more ways can be really helpful.

But I think it does. It's an opportunity for team building and to kinda boost those kinda connections between team members because maybe, you know, they see each other at work and they don't have many connections outside of work. It's another chance to kind of build those bonds to really help streamline and build trusting relationships within your own team.

Yeah. And I think it also comes back to when you're employing people, is you're looking for people when you're looking through their their past resume or places they've worked before, if you really want there to be some great community involvement, you wanna do things as a team, is make that part of the interview process. Just get them to tell you things what they've done in the past, where they've previously worked, and how they've been involved in the team or been involved in community events and volunteered at different things. Because if you get someone who's just a selfish bastard, and you and then you, yeah, you employ them because you're super desperate because you need a podiatrist or whoever in your your business, and then you want them to volunteer and go, oh, what am I getting paid extra for this? As soon as you get that comment, you know you don't have a team player.

So I think it's it's really important right from the beginning is to select that right person and and talk about this whole volunteering community service. Look for evidence that they've done it before, and then I think you'll get more more buy in. I think chiropractors do it better than anybody. You ever hey. You go to a chiropractor, and the receptionist is always like drinking the Kool Aid.

Oh, the doctor will be with you soon. They just they're they they are so invested in the chiropractor.

Yeah. For sure.

I think I might I went off track a little bit there. But, anyway, what's the next one?

Yeah. So we'll wrap up. You know, kinda like we talked about we've talked about it previously. You brought it up is that, you know, these different, you know, community activities, whether it be sponsoring a team or you're doing a volunteer event, you know, make sure you have someone taking photos and videos of that. Because, you know, showing that know, it's great that you're involved in the community, but you you wanna make sure that it's visible to others.

Right? So what you wanna do is, you know, get it in on your website, having good photos there. Maybe it's on your social media channels, something to put into your newsletter. You know, you really wanna create kinda dedicated content, whether it's a section on the website or just occasionally on social media, maybe it's blog posts. You know, you can kind of have recaps of those events.

You know, what are some upcoming things you're doing as well. There's a way to kinda build it in that type of content that shows this continuous kinda involvement in the community. And the more people that see or engage with the community, the more likely they are to be, you know, excited and and and come in and see you because they know that you're not just kinda like like I said, you're an active part of the community. You're kinda putting goodwill out there, and when you do that, it's gonna come back to you. So when you demonstrate this kind of commitment to the community and kinda show it, you know, on your different digital channels, it's gonna make patients wanna participate more and come and see you more because they know that you have the best interest of them and your local community in mind.

Yeah. This part of marketing that you're talking about here is really that long term marketing. And I know a lot of people I've seen I've seen on Facebook all the time. Was gonna shoot a video on this topic as well. But they'll post something into a Facebook group and go, I've just set up a new business.

It's been going now for twelve months. I was getting a lot of patients at the beginning, and now it's really slowed down. Has anyone got some marketing advice for me? And I'm like and I just and and the people give them tips, and a lot of the times, some of the tips they give them, there's nothing wrong with the advice that they give them. It's so superficial.

They say, I'll do this, and I go, okay. You'll get a couple of patients from that. I'll do this, or you'll get a couple of patients from that. But what we're talking about here is this is the long term good stuff that if you do this right and you put these strategies into place and you let the community know that you are part of the community, you're here to help, the community will look after you long term. No matter what's happening, forget about what platform is the most popular at the moment, the community don't care.

They will look after you if you put this work in.

No. Absolutely. I think it's about building that positive momentum, the positive kind of trust and reliability from from the community that really makes it's not a short term play. Right? It's it's like it's something that building relationships, you know, you have to be, you know, honest.

You have to kind of really you know, if you're you're trying to build a practice for the long term, these long term tactics or strategies or just kind of just being a good person can really go a long way. Just making sure you do things on a consistent basis for the for the best of your not only of your practice, but for the community itself.

Mhmm. Okay. Anything else you wanna say before we wrap up?

No. I think we're good there.

Okay, Big Jim. I will talk to you next week.

Sounds good.

Okay. See you.

Bye. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.