Do You Have A Marketing System for Your Podiatry Clinic?

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 to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing with me as usual, and he's here every single week with a big smile on his face. You can't hear his smile, but I reckon you probably can hear his smile. It is big Jim McDannald. How are doing today, Jim?

I'm doing fantastic, Tyson. I'm counting down the days till we meet in Chicago, but no. No. Things are good here in Montreal.

Three Weeks away. It's only three weeks away before we we meet in the flesh.

Yeah. No. I think people, if they haven't already, they should go to podiatry. Marketing and buy a ticket, right, because this is only gonna happen once this year, and this will be the first time that you and I meet in the flesh. So it's gonna be a a great workshop to to learn, but also, you know, share some of best practice with your colleagues and hang out with us.

What I'm looking forward to with this I know there's a fair few people booked in already, but this is something that we plan to do annually if this first one goes well, which I I assume it's going to. And each year, the content will change. This is gonna be the same thing we're be talking about every year. So if you miss this year, it doesn't mean, oh, you're just gonna repeat it next year. No.

It'll be slightly different, and you'll be a year behind everybody else who turns up. But what I think is interesting, I've always loved being one of the people that go to an event the first time because even, like, ten years down the track, you might miss two or three of them, but then you might be at the fifth one, and then you might be at the tenth one. And people will say, oh, who remembers the first one when we only had x amount of people there? You see people put their hands up, and you always go, yeah. It's cool to be it's cool to be in that crowd.

So I think if you wanna be part part of that crowd that comes to the first one, go to podiatry.marketing, look for the link for podiatry live, and come along to So, Jim, what are we talking about today?

Today, we're gonna talk about what is your marketing system. And I think, you know, hopefully, people will take you up on that offer though because I think, you know, bragging rights is super important, and being at the first Podiatry Marketing Live is huge. But as we jump in today, we're gonna really talk about, you know, what is the what is a marketing system and kinda what are some ways to execute that system. Because I think as we've seen in the past, you know, when people are trying to kinda piece together, you know, some marketing activities, but not really have clear objectives or goals with it

Yeah.

A lot of time that's gonna fail. So I think it's important that people step back and understand, you know, what they're currently doing and and maybe try to implement more of a, you know, a systematic approach to what they're doing as opposed to just kind of shooting from the hip?

Well, I think that it's it's so important. I think any marketing that you're doing, there's gotta be a plan in place. There's gotta be a to plan what is it you're trying to achieve, what plan are you putting in place to actually get there, and then ways of tracking and making sure that you're on track with the plan. You're not partway through it, and then you get, yeah, shiny bright lights, and next thing you go from a different direction, and you and you let something well, you stop doing something that was actually working, but you weren't you didn't have a system in place to make sure that it was sort of everything well, everything and everyone followed through to the end.

No. Exactly. Like, if you're just kinda, like, just kinda piecing it together and shooting from the hip, you're you're not really sure what's working and what's not working. So, you know, there's some different ways to kind of approach it. And I think these kind of systematic ways to kind of approach it will help people kind of in different levels of practice.

Right? Maybe you're just starting out, maybe you've practicing for a long time, but people make a significant investment in their marketing. And in in order to do so, you really need to know what, you know, like, what you're getting yourself into and how you're approaching this problem or this opportunity, I would say.

Yeah. I think what's interesting is sometimes you can be in business for a long period of time, and you get you get set in your ways and your business is going on fine. You sort of get to that point where you think, oh, I'm untouchable. So things that you used to do or systems you used to have in place, you sort of forget about them, and then you're and then they wonder why the new guy comes into town and starts kicking their butt. So it it's important to me, like you're saying, they had the systems in place, but just keep them going.

And even if you take your foot off the pedal pedal a little bit, you've got somebody else in your team that keep keeps a foot on the accelerator and just keeps it going. But they need to know what it is they're supposed to be doing and what they're supposed to be looking for.

No. Exactly. I think we touched base on it a little bit in the past, but it all kind of starts with, you what do you want more of in your practice? What do want less of in your practice? That's kind of where that all begins is understanding that.

And then if you're willing to take action on those things, like, word-of-mouth is gonna be helpful, but there's other ways to really facilitate visibility for your practice. And how you do that is that, like I said, what are those goals and objectives you have related to getting more of that care you wanna provide or less of specific type of care? So what are your objectives? And then what are you willing to invest in it? And then who's actually gonna be doing the work?

Because is it it can be you, it can be somebody else, it can be a mixture of the two, but it's until you kind of have those ducks in a row, you're gonna find kind of a kind of a a cycle of dissatisfaction or feeling like things aren't working because one of those pieces of the system is kind of out of line. And I think it's really important to kind of, like I said, get those ducks in a row so you can really try to, you know, market at a highly effective level as opposed to just kind of piecemealing it together.

Yep. If somebody doesn't like marketing though, they go, I just don't like marketing. It does nothing for me. I don't enjoy. I wanna be busy.

I wanna have a good business, but I have no interest in in actually the marketing side. I don't like it. Then they are better to find somebody else to do that for them.

Yeah. For sure. There's kinda like three main kind of ways that people can go about, you know, the execution part. I think before you execute though, you just need to understand, like I said, what what do you want more of, what you want less of? Know, what are those concrete goals?

Is it a hundred surgery, a hundred bunionectomies that year? Is it a hundred pairs of orthotics per month? You know, what are some more concrete goals or ideas you have? And then, like I said, what are you willing to invest to get there? What is the return on, you know, a hundred new pairs of orthotics a month or doing more of a specific type of care?

So having a general budget that you need to invest, and then like you said, then it comes down to execution. And the real three types of execution we talked about is that either you DIY it yourself, it's a kind of a hybrid approach where you do some of yourself, and then you also bring somebody on, you know, an expert to outsource it to, like an agency or kind of a consultant. But, yeah, different people are gonna be at different levels as far as from a budgetary standpoint, a com like a comfortable or knowledge standpoint, what's gonna work best for them. We'll we'll get into each of these systems to talk a little bit more.

Just dive straight in and start explaining them.

Yeah. So the first obviously is the kinda do it yourself marketing. Right? So this is probably best for someone that's, you know, just getting out of residency, needs to kinda understand the lay of the land what's all out there. You know, there's different ways to kinda learn about this.

You know, you can look look at, you know Tyson's, you know, basically published some great videos and has a lot of blog posts about marketing. I've written some as well. If people are listening to this podcast and want more specific, you know, relatable topics or or other blogs and video series, we're happy to share those. But there's a lot of stuff that that can be helpful. I'd also say there's a lot of information that can also kind of kind of drown in the fire hose of information too, and some of it may not necessarily be totally some of the online marketing things you find either on YouTube or on through Google, you know, it may not relate to a medical practice or to podiatry practice.

So Yeah.

You have to be kind of discerning. So but like I said, if you're just starting a practice, your clinic's not super busy, you're trying to be as cost effective as possible, and you kinda want full control, that's some of the pros of the DIY marketing. The cons of DIY marketing is that it can be really time consuming. Right? Like if you're you know, while it can be helpful to maybe go introduce yourself to some local practices and other folks, That's time out of your clinic.

So if you're starting to ramp up, maybe it's something that can be a little tough to maintain if you're only the only person doing this. Also, requires marketing knowledge. And I said, like, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. Meaning that, like, you know, yes, there's all this stuff out there about marketing, but what's actually the cost effective, you know, things that are actually gonna drive results for practice? So I think it can be helpful to educate yourself and know about it.

But sometimes, like I said, sometimes you don't know it's working, and it can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars yourself to kind of going through failed experiments before you get to that. And sometimes you may not learn, you know, enough to actually be successful and you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, you know, that's one of the cons of the UI marketing. But like I said, there's the ideal scenario for implementing this DIY marketing, like said, is probably someone just getting started. There's definitely ways that you can bootstrap some of these things.

I definitely am a fan of, like I said, meeting other clinical providers. There's all kinds of examples we've talked on in some other podcasts in the past, but the DIY is is kind of that first step.

Yeah. Well, what's interesting though, when I said earlier on, yeah, if you don't like marketing, go, I just have no interest in it. I still think it's something that you need to understand. You still need to get in the game and understand it. It might be, like, you don't like taxes either, but you still have to do them.

And it wouldn't matter if you said the government, I'm sorry, but I just don't like tax. I don't like how it all works. I'm not participating. Then they will take your house. They'll take your family off.

They'll you're gonna lose everything. So you you have you must learn or have some understanding of tax and taxation to be in business. So I think marketing, you may not wanna do it, but I think it's really important you understand the concept of what it is that you're trying to achieve from it so that when you're working, whether you're down the track, if you if you're not doing it yourself, at least you know what it is that you're trying to achieve. You're not just nope. Some people just put, like, a blindfold on them.

They just hope for the best.

Yeah. It's surprising. Right? Like, it it it can be one of those things where, you know, it can be overwhelming to be a practice owner. Right?

Whether it be, you know, being managing your staff or keeping up to date on the latest ways to treat specific conditions. But this whole marketing and and basically promoting your practice aspect of things can't be slept on it's something that is vital to the health of your podiatry business, right? It's not just a practice running. You have to make sure it's a viable business. So getting good resources to understand what your options are.

And like I said, you don't have to, you know, do all the things, you know, from from the jump, but, you know, kind of executing on some things that are gonna work. And as we get into this more, you know, like, the second step is kind of, you know, maybe it's more of a hybrid approach. Right? So maybe you wanna have someone to kinda help you learn what those things are, but then you wanna either DIY some of it or outsource a portion of your marketing. So this the pros of this hybrid system, like I said, is this kind of a balance of control where maybe you're you're bringing someone on to help you a little bit so you can learn things.

You know, you're still maybe not crazy busy in practice, you can kind of, you know, spend some time on the marketing side. But you're also kind of gaining some knowledge so you don't feel like kinda like anybody can kinda pull the wool over your eyes. Mhmm. Because I said like That's you know, it doesn't have to be like either you do all of the marketing or you do none of the marketing. It could be it's probably best, you know, to kinda transition through this kind of into this hybrid system so you can feel like you know what's out there and you're potentially, you know, being a little bit more cost effective than just fully outsourcing from the jump if you can't afford it in your practice.

Yeah. And I think that's the important part too, going back to even having some understanding of it. If you're gonna then start working with somebody else, you need to understand it so you know they're not gonna pull the wool over your eyes. So they're not telling you yeah, lying to you about certain things. And and this may surprise people, but there are some salespeople out there who are not honest.

I know. That comes as a surprise. People say, no.

Shocker.

Shocker.

But I think it like you said, it's got to be it's one of those things where there are some cons of the hybrid system though. Right? There it still does require some time in the practice and and some some effort there on the marketing side for the practice owner or at least someone else inside the practice. And it can be a little bit more expensive than DIY. But, you know, it's kind of one of those things where you get what you pay for.

So hopefully, you're someone that, you know, is helping you not only learn, but also kinda giving you the most cost effective ways of marketing practice.

Okay. So they can either do it themselves. So 100% do it themselves, which I think is a good thing, like you said at start, to start out with. Sometimes it's a cost effective way of doing it. If your budget if you don't really have much of a budget, then you're saying hybrid is next.

So the next part then is what? Just outsourcing the whole thing and just getting somebody to do everything for you?

Yeah. So once you're, you know, super busy in clinic, you don't really have the time to put into the marketing side anymore. You wanna focus on treating your ideal patients, being the OR, whatever whatever floats your boat in practice, and you kinda build up a knowledge that where you understand kind of what some options are, you have a general knowledge of marketing, then it's probably a good time to consider bringing an expert or a consultant to work with you to save you more time so you can kind of, you know, bring additional revenue into the practice with your skill set and let this person use their skill set to, you know, create visibility for practice and especially the care you want to provide. You know, you know, definitely getting, you know, understanding what your ideal results are and trying to achieve them. Along with the pros though, they, you know, there can be some cons.

Like I said, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive. If you have a high a full time marketing person, you know, hopefully, they'll be they'll be a a source of that additional revenue. So it'll come out of that additional revenue they're helping you create. And then you have a little bit less control. It's something where you definitely wanna set up time to touch base with with your marketer, the person providing your marketing services, whether that's on a monthly or quarterly, you know, call.

Reporting, it can be helpful as well to making sure that what they're they're doing and the the the budget they're spending for you is kind of resulting in the type of care you wanna provide. So that's kind of, you know, going from, you know, DIY ing it yourself, the kind of hybrid approach, and then kind of graduating to outsourcing your marketing and working hand in hand with a consultant or a marketing expert.

Yeah. And I think one thing, if you're gonna do it, if you're gonna outsource the whole thing, it's so important for them to understand what it is you do. And and you can ask them that question. I'm a podiatrist. Tell me what I do.

And because if they are miles off, if they if what they tell you is so far from what it is that you want more of, then you need to educate them. Otherwise, they're they're gonna push the marketing down a completely different path to what you're after. And you could end up getting a clinic full of patients you don't want.

Yeah. I think it's super important to have that open line of communication. And even when you're, you know, you're kinda onboarding with someone or you're having initial conversations with it, you know, understanding that they know what podiatry is and understand what the kinda marketing objectives are. You know, marketing a you know, podiatry clinic's a lot different than trying to sell a product online or, you know, the e commerce marketing. You know, you really want someone who's focused on providing, you know, kinda lead generation is kind of the way that they'll kind of term it sometimes.

You know, kind of helping you generate demand for patients in your practice, not only just any patient, but the right patients to come to your practice. So you wanna make sure that someone has the knowledge and experience to help you achieve those goals through those kind of strategies and tactics.

Yeah. Have you ever had a I've had podiatrists say to me, oh, no. Did. Marketing doesn't work. Yeah.

No. Marketing marketing doesn't work. Yeah. Marketing doesn't work in podiatry. And you're like, well, just in general, like, marketing doesn't work or just doesn't work for podi no.

It doesn't work for podiatry. Yeah. Oh, okay. I beg to differ, but and and like you said, there could be marketing. It could be the wrong message at the wrong time to the wrong people.

Yeah. It can be that. It could be the wrong channel. It can be the the wrong budget spend. You know, it could be the, like, the wrong time.

There's a lot of factors that can kinda lead into both success and failure in marketing. And it's a it's a kind of a willingness to kind of experiment. And like you talked about in the past, double down on things that we think are are gonna work are are working. Right? So but like I said, there's there's no really one size fits all here.

Like, even though I'm a person who provides, you know, kind of this consultant or this kind of done for you, you know, outsourcing marketing services for people. I know it's not for everybody. So, you know, if you're just beginning and practice, you know, there there might be a website provider that can help you do your website. There might be, you know, little people that can help you along the way. But there's definitely this kind of spectrum of of different type of marketing services you can help grow your practice with.

And definitely, like like I said, you know, finding the right one for you is is can really benefit not only your your practice, but your patients.

Mhmm. And like I was saying before, bit yeah. Wrong place, wrong time, yeah, wrong message and all that. And some people think this is purely just an online problem. And you'll probably find it's no different when when we've done marketing talks.

And I've, yeah, I've asked a group who I don't do you know what bowls is? Bowls? It's a sport. Okay. No.

Yeah. I think it's a commonwealth sport, and it's like a black ball that's weighted on one side. So it's sort of like half probably a third of the size of a bowling ball fits in your palm of your hand. And there's a white ball called a jack. Looks like a like a pool ball, the white ball.

And they throw that on this on this green. They throw it down the field about 40 meters away, and it rolls down and stops. And then you get the black ball, and you bowl it down, and the ball curves, and it's whoever can get closest to the white thing. And you have, I think, four balls each. Three or four balls each.

So it's called lawn bowls. Anyway, lawn bowls predominantly is like a sport that was always played by older people. A lot of drinking took place takes place as well. A lot of a lot more younger people got into it. But I would say to people but so at these lawn bowls clubs, for example, you'd be approached by companies who would say, hey, do you wanna advertise on the drink coasters that are at the bar?

Or do you wanna advertise on the scorecards that are at yeah, that the the players use to keep track? So I'd say to people, if you're looking for more runners, you're not gonna do your marketing at the local lawn bowls club because people in The UK and Australia know what I'm talking about. Okay. You you wanna you wanna do marketing where there's going to be runners and think this is what happens with people online too is they will whether it's a Google ad, Facebook ad, or they're doing something else online, they're just they're putting it in the wrong place or they're putting it at the wrong time or they're talking to the wrong audience, and then they get the shit and they go, oh, it doesn't work. I'm gonna stop.

They get, no. Just timing and placement is wrong.

No. Exactly. You have to kinda go where like, you know, it's kind of the old adage, you know, where's you know, what's the best where do all the robbers go? Or, what are, you know, what are what's bank robbers? You know, they go where the money's at.

Yeah.

That's what you

have do. That's why they rob banks.

Podiatrists. Yeah. So you gotta go where the money's at. Right? So if you're, you know, a running podiatrist, go where the runners are.

If you like to do, you know, orthotics or you like to take care of diabetic feet, go where those things are. Right? So it's a matter of just, you know, like I said, not everyone's gonna have kind of that one size fits all marketing thing, but, you know, understanding kind of what your needs are as a clinic with the stage you're at and just kind of finding the right system for you and your practice is achievable. And like I said, you know, definitely, if anyone who's listening to the show is kind of unsure of what they think, you know, each of these stages could benefit their practice or they have questions about, you know, what does it mean to outsource your marketing? Tyson and are definitely here to to answer those questions.

So feel free to check out our website. There's a kind of a comment form, and we'd be happy to answer any and all questions that come in. So

No. I think it's good. And beyond what we're enjoying when we're doing these podcasts is the amount of education you're getting about the Commonwealth and other areas.

Well, I live in the Commonwealth now. Right? So

Oh, you do? Yeah. You're in Canada. So I'm sure they play lawn bowls in Canada.

Mostly curl curl curl curling inside in the wintertime. That that's the that's the Canadian version of long ball long

You probably don't have much lawn during the wintertime. But but you've learned about Ned Kelly. And

I have.

And the so anything else you wanna add before before we wrap up, Jim?

No. No. You're no. It was a good chat, and looking forward to the next one, Tyson.

Yes. Okay. I'll talk to you again next week. Talk to you

next week.

Okay. See you.

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