Do You Need to Differentiate Your Podiatry Business?

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

Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald, joined as always by my trusty co host, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's it going?

I'm fantastic today. Big Jim, how are you doing?

Doing well. Doing well here in Eugene, Oregon. Just enjoying the springtime, the the rain, the flowers. It's very green here in Oregon this time of year. So

And if all goes to plan, this episode should be released Easter around the Easter weekend.

There we go.

Easter Monday or something like that. So if you don't celebrate Easter, then it's just a Monday. But for everybody else, though, it's probably Easter Monday. You're probably relaxed, and you've gone well, especially in do have a public holiday, don't you, for Easter Monday in The States?

No. Generally not, I don't think.

Oh, you don't? Oh, okay. Things I learned. You all in Australia, we have Good Friday off

Yep.

And then the Easter Monday off as well. So to everyone in Australia, happy Easter Monday. You'll be sitting around thinking, oh, what am gonna do today? I'm gonna catch up on my favorite podcast.

There we go.

Listening to this. Yep. So should we dive into today's topic?

Let's do it. What's what are we gonna talk about today?

Today, I've titled this, do you need to differentiate your podiatry business? And this came about I was listening to a a podcast, and they do a q and a Wednesday, the hundred dollar MBA podcast. And he does a q and a Wednesday, and somebody actually just asked him this question. And when I was listening to the episode, it was really quick. I sort of went, oh, that's a great topic for podiatrists because it is something that comes up a lot.

So the simple answer is no. You don't have to. But and that's a big but.

But Yeah.

It's always beneficial if you do. That's that's the simple answer. And it's sort of one of those things that if you're the only podiatrist in the town and you were booked out weeks ahead, maybe months ahead, and you've got a a waiting list as long as your arm, then, yeah, it's probably not overly important to to actually try and differentiate yourself. But I always say, don't rest on your laurels. Never think that you are invincible, and you can never be touched because everyone can be at one point.

Once you get complacent, that's when when the snake jumps up and and bites it usually. Right?

Oh, snake facts. Here we go. We go we've covered crocodiles and bears, and we're diving into snakes.

No. Just just the complacency. We're not gonna jump into how to avoid snakes. We don't want to have the lawyers come after us.

Yeah. Zigzag or run straight. But, anyway, so I'll give you a story. When I when I moved to Cairns, there was one podiatry clinic here. And in that podiatry clinic, there were four podiatrists, three that I knew.

And the actual three that worked in the podiatric clinic were all of my year at university. So I I knew them all pretty well. I'd gone through uni with them for three years or so. And so I I get to get to Cairns. That's the only podiatrist thing.

And there was one podiatrist there, this Canadian guy, who didn't particularly like me. And I'm lovable. Don't know why he didn't like me, but he just didn't like me. And for multiple reasons. They did no marketing.

They didn't have to because they were the only podiatry clinic in Cairns. They were booked out weeks ahead. And everybody most people I spoke to, they everyone knew who they were. Can they were Cannes Podiatry at the time. They were in the city, one of the most inconvenient places.

Were on the Second Or Third Floor of this building. Parking was awful, and they didn't give a rat because they were the only podiatry clinic in town, and if you wanted to see them, that's where you went. And then all of a sudden, I rock up out of the blue. And I keep keep saying to people, think of, like, Uber in the early days. In the early days, they were the only rideshare option other than taxis.

So everybody was very quick to to jump ship. As other competitors arrived, it forced them to differentiate. And, yeah, they so they had different sized cars. They had yeah. You can schedule it so it picks you up at a certain time in the morning.

So I always think, just like when I moved to Cairns, don't wait till all of a sudden the market that you're in gets crowded or more and more podiatrists turn up before you start thinking that maybe I should differentiate myself. When I got to Cairns, I looked at what they were doing. I looked at who they were catering for, and I straight away went, I'm going to be different. I'm going to do stuff that is gonna stand out from what they're doing. I'm gonna come up with a different name.

Of course, it was gonna be a different name. I couldn't go with Cans Podiatry. They were gonna get upset about that. Even though they did forget to register it one year, but that's another story. And I had some fun with that.

But it was one of those things I just looked at what they were doing. I've gone, okay. They're all they're in the city. I'm gonna move somewhere where I think is a more convenient place, where there's better parking. So straight up, I kept trying to think, what are, yeah, what are some of the things that I really want to do?

I really made an effort to be different to what they they were doing, and it seemed to work.

Yeah. Definitely seemed like like you mentioned them being on the Second And Third Floor. There was definitely some areas that, you know, if patients had a better option that they would be open to probably, you know, switching. You know, obviously, the what's ever most convenient for the patient is probably the the way they're gonna go. So, obviously, providing great care is is is important, but it's interesting that you kinda did a little bit of homework to try to figure out ways to to stand out from the competitor.

Yeah. And it's one of those things that so when should you differentiate? I've got a list of questions here or things that you should ask yourself. So if you set up in the town and there's already a number of existing podiatrists there, the last thing the town needs is another boring podiatrist. Another sign goes up and says, such and such ABC podiatry goes up, and and they go, wow.

Another podiatrist here. They go to your website. You look exactly the same as everybody else. So the community does not need just another podiatrist. I think they they're looking for something a little bit different.

And you need to give them a reason to choose you. So what is it that's gonna set you apart? What makes you what what makes you better? Why is working with you the better option? Can you do things better?

Can you do things faster? Do you have the latest technology? Are you reinvesting? Are you making money and you're not just spending it on a a flash card? You're putting money back in your business and and showing the community, hey.

I'm bringing in this new piece of equipment. This has never been here before. You should actually come and check this out, and that gets people talking. So always think if you introduce something that's never been seen before in the market, straight away, people are gonna know you're a little bit different.

Yeah. It it can be hard. Right? You know, like you said, just slapping on ABC podiatry now that we're gonna slam our our favorite new brand. But

Yeah.

You know, if you just if it if it looks similar and there's no differentiation, they're probably gonna go with the more established player. Right? Like, oh, how long have you been around for? So it just you know, if you're not any different and you don't take the time to identify those opportunities to different differentiate yourself, Yeah. It could be a harder slog.

So, you know, by kinda taking the time to to figure out, you know, you know, ways to look different, but also just to make things more convenient for your patient can really pay off.

Like, what you said there about you put a sign up ABC Podiatry, and you might even go and visit a a professional referrer. And you go and visit them, you go, hey. How are you doing? They are great. And they might even refer a patient to you and go, it's fantastic.

You know, I'm I'm on my way. But that professional referral very quickly go back to who they used to refer to unless you're doing something different. They might see that first one could be a sympathy referral. Oh, you're the new guy. We'll see how you go.

But if they don't get any feedback that you're doing something different to the person they've been using for the last five or ten years, fifteen years, that will just very quickly go back to what they were doing. So it's really important to think about how you can differentiate your podiatry practice from what everybody's doing. I've got a list of things here. First one, solve a specific pain point. Talk to your existing patients.

As patients are coming into your business, you might find a lot of them change to podiatrists, and we've all had that. I used to see this other podiatrist. Is use this information, do your homework, and because you'll find whatever they are experiencing, there's probably others that are experiencing the same problem. So if you can then use that in your marketing to differentiate yourself like, say, Cairns Podiatry, parking was terrible. It wasn't that parking was that awful.

Was in the middle of the city. Just you had to pay for parking. And it was it was busy time in the city. It was it was hard to get a park. It's one of those things that I knew parking was a problem.

So straight away, because it was a problem, I wanted to make sure that we had great parking because that was a pain point. And I use that in my marketing.

No. It makes sense. You you really wanna kinda by kinda having that additional amenity for your patients, you wanna make sure you highlight it. So, you know, if it if you do if you have that thing, you're not telling people about it, then it doesn't exist. Right?

So it makes sense that you put that in your marketing.

It's true. You don't tell people it doesn't exist. I like that. The next thing is you can also differentiate yourself is focus on different niche groups and fulfill their needs. You might talk to a specific group because nobody else is actually focusing on perfect example, and we did this in Cairns, were triathletes.

One, they're nuts. Think I try anyone that anyone any triathletes listen to me, you know you're crazy. Especially when they do the Ironman. Yeah. They just swam three and a half kilometers, 80 k bike ride.

Oh, I'm bored now. I'm just gonna go and run a marathon. Just lunatics. But they have all the short course ones, but I still think the swim, the bike ride, the run, a lot of places don't focus in on that particular group. So in Cairns, we did that.

We we got we sponsored different events, and then all of a sudden and we were speaking their language because we understood what they were they were going through. We started getting a lot more referrals, and that that set us apart from what everybody else is doing.

I was never sure how that you could spend, you know, time doing three different activities. I always struggled to find find time to run for forty five minutes to an hour a day, let alone finding time to swim, you know, finding time to bike, especially the distance you usually have to train on the bike. So Oh. Yeah. Hats off to them.

But I think it makes sense, like you said, when you can really speak their language and you're known within that kind of group and you build trust with that type of kinda niche patient, you know, they're you're gonna kind of even get more traction more quickly than you would if you're just, you know, trying to be everything to everyone where, you know, you're not differentiated, people don't know what what you're offering. By kind of picking out a group of patients you can really, really help, it's gonna help that kind of form momentum with your practice.

Yeah. And what we did the same thing with basketball is we wanted to tap into the basketball community. So we sponsored some local teams. But then we also played basketball. We put in our own team in a local basketball competition.

My wife was playing basketball, then we had we had a mixed team of basketball. Then we had a a national team in the competition, so we were always at all the games. So it was one of those things. We just got known as we were the podiatry clinic. If you're a basketball player, you came to our podiatry clinic.

So you can do this with just multiple different sports. It's just focusing on them and make sure you're you're creating content and value for those for those people as well. The next thing is to differentiate yourself from what most podiatrists are doing is the overall patient experience. When someone walks into your comes into your clinic, is your onboarding process really, really simple? This is just a nice flowing process.

And we've spoken about this on other episodes just about gathering information off of people, whether you're getting it online. Are you is there less waiting time? If somebody comes in, do they not have to wait very long? Because you have things set up that you run on time. Or if they have a question about somebody or they send you an email, do you get back to them really, really quick?

They're the sort of things that patients will talk to other people about. Oh, is that podiatrist today? They ran on time. I've sent them an email about this, I'll get somebody back straight away. It's not it's not rocket science.

Yeah. It's kinda creating that that wow experience for people. Right? Like, if it's just kind of a vanilla experience or a negative experience, you're gonna get those one star reviews. But if how can you go out of your way to really make people feel like that they're special?

You know, obviously, one way is to minimize the amount of time they have to actually sit in your waiting room or sit sit in a treatment room. You know, obviously, if you get you know, a lot of times, maybe it's getting better now, but like you talked about, you know, if you can if you can get peep people's kind of health information and stuff, you know, over an email before they walk into your clinic, they'll really appreciate that. You know, obviously, people are busy these days, so the more convenient you can make for them and the the the kind of the faster or the the the less waiting they have to do, the happier the type of patient you're gonna have in your practice. So super, super important. And if there's ways you can maximize and kind of make that an efficient patient visit for them, you know, especially these days when people expect things on demand, and, you that's a little unrealistic for all aspects of foot and ankle care.

But, you know, the the more you can kind of tailor your care to meet those expectations, the happier patients you're gonna have and the more they're gonna tell others about what the great experience they had in your clinic.

Yeah. And I I used to say to patients, have you tried our coffee? Our coffee is awesome. And they go, no. Never got a chance because you're running on time.

I go, well, next time, if you arrive early, you should ask for ask for coffee. The coffee is awesome. Yeah. Because I was trying to get here early. Have a coffee because the coffee was awesome.

And then I'm gonna be running on time anyway. So that that just added to the overall experience. Great coffee, ran on time, got out at the right time, therefore, they go and make their next appointment. And the amount of patients that would come in and just say to us that they would talk about this to other people. So it's it's definitely a game changer.

So the fourth thing is packaging and delivering opportunities. And I'm not gonna dig into this because if you wanna know more about that, go to episode one seventy two about your packaging is a massive marketing opportunity. So if you missed that episode, shame on you. Go back. Listen to that one, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely worth listening to the the Vino Mofo portion of that podcast. It's it's pretty exciting. So

Yes. I thought of another name for podiatry podiatry mofos. Imagine imagine I a podiatry business called podiatry mofos. And I reckon you would attract a certain clientele. Yeah.

Probably. I reckon there'd be a certain clientele that would just go, I'm not there. I'm gonna go see those podiatry mofos.

Probably turned into New York City. Probably a good place to start that.

I could just imagine a registration board just going, oh, you can't use the word mofos, which you probably shouldn't. So I'm not saying anyone should do that. But I think I actually if you're a younger podiatrist, you're a bit of I reckon you could get away with it. Anyway, number five, your brand personality can differentiate you from other people because people buy from people. And if you can incorporate your brand, like showcase your style, your story, who you are, what your values are, it's no different to my podiatry clinic.

We had a superhero theme through it, Where each room was a theme with a slightly different with a different superhero. We had different emblems on the doors. So Superman room, Spider Man room, Iron Man bathroom door. I had Thor I had Thor's hammer on there because he was the god of thunder, and which patients used to find hilarious. They used think that was really funny.

That's the sort of thing podiatry mofos would do. And but, anyway, I showed you this before, My Captain America thing.

Yeah. Absolutely.

My little fan, people can hear the sound effects. It's like a mosquito. But yeah. Like I said, I I like superheroes. That was part of who I am, part of my character, and we just thought, let's just bring this, have a little bit of fun.

So part of our whole branding was fun. The way the fun podiatrist can go to. Take your work really serious, but we like to have a good laugh. Patients always have a good time. They leave smiling, have a good coffee.

We run on time. Everybody's happy.

No. Absolutely. I think that's a a great point. You have to if you're just that bland every every every podiatry clinic in the world is just the same, you know, kind of mentality, it's it's it's much more boring. You have more fun at work.

Patients are gonna have more fun coming into your practice, and like you talked about, you're gonna be more memorable to them. It'll be more top of mind. So just a the positivity all around will kinda help, you know, distinguish you and grow your practice.

Yeah. And nobody wants boring. I'm sure most of the people I talk to who listen to this podcast on a regular basis, and I was talking to someone this morning, and the one thing that they all say to me is they enjoy the banter and fun that you and I actually have on the podcast. When they're listening to it, they just said, it's just, yes, we're talking about serious topics that are definitely going to help the business.

Right.

But they also like the little bit of humor that is thrown in there every now and then because it just it's just not dull. We could produce the same podcast, and we could just go, hi, Jim. You go, hi, Tyson. Well, today, we're gonna talk about marketing. Now there's a lot of podcasts in podiatry already that are like that.

This one, you wanna do it. So differentiation is not about doing more. It's about doing what matters better. I think that is the key. So many things in your business.

Just do what's really important. The things that really matter to your patients, just make sure you do them better.

I I like that way of looking at things. And, yeah, we definitely like to have some fun here because life's too short to to to be too serious all the time.

And our and our goal is you called me mofo couple of episodes back. That threw me. That really threw me. That took me by surprise.

Gotta keep on your toes.

Yeah. Definitely. So couple of things I just wanna finish on. Remember, keep things simple. Complexity fails.

Simplicity scales. So if you guys just got simple processes for doing things, simple things that differentiate you, then it's easy to get your whole team involved, and everybody everybody will just follow suit the way that you're doing things. And also, if things are too complicated, always say, a confused mind says no. Whatever you're doing, if it's confusing your patients, they're going to go somewhere else, the previous episode when we're talking about just your website and making sure it's really clear, concise instructions. You're easy to find.

They can find the information. If I've seen websites you go to them, and it's like a it's like a train wreck. It's just you get there and it's messy. And if some if a patient sees that and they get confused looking around, they're gonna leave. Not gonna not gonna actually do anything.

Absolutely. You have to keep it simple or they'll just walk away.

And the last thing I wanna say to finish up on is just keep staying ahead of the pack. So once you differentiate yourself, like I said earlier, don't rest on your laurels. Keep differentiating. Keep looking for ways that keep you relevant, keep you top of mind with your your patients. Like, I know when we were in cancer, were the first place to bring in a treadmill.

The other clinic in cancer didn't have one. Then they got a treadmill, dodgier version than what we had. Because we had a flash one. Then we got video camera set up so we could do video, yeah, video gate analysis. Eventually, they started doing it.

So it seemed to me everything we did, they were about two years behind us. And by the time they were saying, oh, we've got that too, it was too late. We we sort of owned that market. We brought in our own milling machine. When we heard about lasers for fungal nails, we brought that in.

So we were always just introducing stuff and trying to stay relevant and trying to always make the community aware that ProArch podiatry, or these days, it's now ABC podiatry, is is different to what everybody else is actually doing in the area. So that's all wanted to finish on.

No. That was great, Tyson. I I really love the topic of differentiation. I think it can be you know, obviously, you and I have differentiated, you know, when we started our different podiatry, you know, obviously, podiatry legends, podiatry marketing, podiatry growth

Yeah.

You know, ways to kinda help kind of you know, we we have experience doing this. So definitely, if anyone has any, you know, questions or, you know, once maybe kinda get some ideas about how they could differentiate. You know, Tyson's got a lot of, you know, great experience in this niche, but also, you know, he can help you along the way with any type of problems you need with coaching and such. So definitely reach out to him.

Yeah. And like I said, there there's big companies that you can go to for Google Ads or you go to gym. There there's big coaching companies out there that you can go and get business coaching done. I said, oh, you can work with me because I'm different.

Exactly. Yeah.

I don't and this big corporate thing on oh, this is a structure. It's cookie cutter thing that you've gotta go through. It's like, I know what podiatrists need. I know what they want in their businesses, then it's my goal, help them get there. Exactly the same as when you're dealing with someone doing Google Ads or doing the websites and looking at that aspect.

Absolutely. It's a big win for the little guys.

David versus Goliath.

Yes. Let's bring out my slingshot. Was the slingshot he

had? Yep.

With the one thing right in the eye? Exactly. Okay. Okay, Big Jim. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. See you later. Bye. Thanks

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