Free Marketing Ideas That Take No Additional Time

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 with my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how are you doing today?

I am fantastic today, big Jim. How are you doing?

I'm doing well. Doing well. Things are good here in Eugene, Oregon. It's it's American football season, so the the town is going nuts for the Oregon Ducks. But, yeah, things are good.

So is the Oregon Ducks part of the NFL?

Yeah. So it's a university or a college team. So the Oh, okay. That's, like, the big thing. I mean, definitely, the NFL is huge over here, but, you know, all these different little small college towns throughout The US either have a university.

You know, that's that's what they're you know, people are wearing in the streets. That's what they're talking about going to on a Friday or a Saturday. So it's it's a big social thing here in in Eugene.

Yeah. It's funny. The I went to my first NFL game last year, the Chicago Bears. That was so much fun, but somebody had told me previously that college football in America is bigger than the NFL because just what you said, every town has a college or has a university that somebody either went to, and they follow that team, whereas not every town or every state actually has an NFL team.

Yeah. Exactly. And there's a lot of, like, you know, tailgating, you know, hours before government starts or having hot dogs and beers and all kinds of relevary going on at the in the parking lots of these these stadiums.

Well, yeah, that was probably the highlight of the NFL game was the three hour tailgating beforehand. And everyone is everyone is half cut. There's just thousands of cut people walking in the stadium. And it's really funny. We've all got our Starbucks cups with us, and or somebody provided Starbucks cups, and they filled them up full of booze.

And they said, oh, you're just walking with this. You can't take in any other bottles because they check it, but they won't check your coffee cup. And I was it's so obvious. You got thousands of people walking in the stadium with all these, like, Starbucks coffee cups, and they're all drunk. What do you think is in the coffee cup?

But go on through. So, yeah, I thought it was fun. Anyway, so if anyone listening has never done tailgating before, if you get the chance, you you have to do it. It is fantastic.

Definitely.

Okay. So should we talk about marketing today?

Yes. Not a tailgating podcast. So let's let's jump into today's topic.

Today's topic is, drum roll, free marketing ideas that take no additional time.

Sounds interesting.

It does, doesn't it? And everyone's got, all marketing takes time. Well, it does. It does take time. However, the overarching idea behind this episode is to create marketing opportunities while you're in the process of going about your day.

So if the opportunity is there, then you should basically take it. So a lot of times, we're already doing something, and all it takes is just a little bit of extra tweaking, and you can turn it into a marketing opportunity. And you're not actually having to put too much effort into it. That's the thought behind this.

No. I think you're you're right about kind of creating some different processes. You know, I think we've talked about it in the past. You know, before and after photos is one example of this, but I'm sure we're gonna get to a bunch of different examples. But if you put it as a part of your kind of normal workup or your staff is doing something already, you can kind of, you know, reap reap the rewards of that time and effort that was spent doing it, and then, you know, getting more visibility for practice is kind of a win win.

Yeah. Well, it's like post and engage on social media. I always find it funny when when people will say to me, oh, I haven't got time to post anything for my clinic on Facebook. And, like, every time I'm on Facebook, you're on Facebook. You're always on there.

You're posting photos of your coffee and you and the kids at the beach or you walking the dog. I think so you're you are on that platform. You're you're already there. So if you're already there, then use that platform. Have some things prepared, some photos around the clinic or something that when you're on there for relaxation or to catch up with family or friends, is think about it'll take you very little time to just then post something about your clinic.

It's all you've gotta do. And you can do it exactly the same thing on Instagram. I've seen people who say, I don't have any time, but I see them on Instagram all the time. Commenting on other people's posts and thinking, so you are there. You're just lazy.

Yeah. It's that kind of consumer versus producer mentality. I think a lot of people just like to consume and consume and consume this kind of content, but they don't realize that they spent, you know, a tenth of the time, maybe a fifth of the time, you know, producing instead of consuming and get a lot of good information and a lot of a lot more visibility for you and your for your practice out there.

Yeah. And and even LinkedIn, like, that is a completely different beast. It's a different thing to, I think, your typical social platforms like your Facebook and and Instagram. But I've seen the same thing where there's a lot of people that that have the opportunity to post on LinkedIn, but I see them like you said, I see them consuming a lot and I see them commenting a lot, or they may even post the occasional thing on LinkedIn that is it's sort of business related, but they don't promote the clinic or the specialty. It's something that they're interested in.

They don't promote that when they actually have the chance to do it.

Yeah. It's a lost opportunity there. Like you said, the kind of consumer versus producer side of things. And if you're already on the platform, why not spend a little extra time producing instead of just scrolling and liking and, you know, saying good job on LinkedIn.

Good. Well, congratulations is always a good one. But it only takes a few minutes each day to post something about your business or to try and promote it on one of these social media platforms. But all it really does is take a little bit of planning. Look at your month ahead.

What are we doing? What have we got coming up? What have we previously done? And then thinking what you're gonna post me. Because sometimes, like, I'll go to my phone and I will there's certain things that I know that I've done over the last couple of weeks.

And sometimes I'll go through the photos and go, you know, I'm not gonna post them now, but I might post this in a couple of weeks time, and then I'll just say, hey, this is something we did a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't necessarily have to happen today to make it relevant. It can happen a couple of weeks ago.

I think that's a good point. You can kind of, you know, kind of collate or kind of collect some things that maybe have a similar topic or a similar theme. And, you know, you have some content there for a couple of weeks or for a month of something that is a similar way of getting visibility. And like like we've talked about in the past, you know, just because you post about something, like, every day or every couple of days, the majority of your followers are probably not gonna see it, whether it be on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. So you might feel self conscious about posting something similar, you know, five days in a row.

But to be honest, you know, unless you have, you know, some super fans like we do for this podcast, They're they're they're not gonna they're not gonna see it, and they're definitely not gonna judge you for it. So don't be shy about kind of, you know, sticking with a specific message or a certain topic multiple times or for multiple posts.

And I think the other thing you should do while you're on social media is tagging people, tagging businesses, or places that you like, and even introduce both of them into whether it's your personal pages. So I I think when it when it's got to do with your business, you should be posting something about your podiatry business in your personal pages. If you go, oh, I don't wanna annoy my friends. If you annoy if you're annoying them, they're not your friends. And and I've seen people where I've said this to them, they go, oh, no.

I'd hate to annoy my friends. But then you go and look through their posts, and they've posted something about the friend's bakery, a butcher shop, yeah, the person that they know there, the coffee shop that they go to and go, okay. So you'll you'll annoy your friends with your cup of freaking coffee that you have every second day, but you won't annoy them with something that could actually be beneficial for them or somebody that they actually know. And I know that okay. If all your friends bump into you somewhere and if somebody said, hey, Jim, what do you do?

Your friend will say, oh, Jim's a podiatrist. But I'm sure your friends don't wake up every day going, I wonder what Jim the podiatrist is doing today. But if they saw a post every now and then just coming through about your business, that will remind them, oh, that's right. I have a friend, Jim, who is a podiatrist. So when they're at work and somebody is limping, they go, oh, maybe you should see my friend Jim, the podiatrist.

Yeah. Like, staying top of mind is really, really important, not only with you know, not only do you wanna let strangers or people you've not met before in your local area, you know, know that you exist and that you provide great foot and ankle care. But it's not it's not a bad thing to remind, you know, friends and family and associates that you're around. We talked about in the past since, you know, kind of in newsletters and other stuff, and it can be on social media is that, you know, people maybe know that you do an ingrown toenail, or maybe they know you do bunion surgery. But they know that you do heel pain or shock wave or wart treatment.

So there's a lot of different ways to educate, you know, and and helpful ways to to those friends and colleagues and family members to make sure that you are top of mind, that one of them or someone in their network has a problem. It's easy for them to think, oh, yeah. That's what Tyson does. So you should go see Tyson.

Yeah. Well, I was talking to a podiatrist the other day, and they said, I do no marketing. And I went, seriously? I said, do no marketing. I went, you got a website?

They went, well, yeah. I said, okay. You do do some marketing? And I said, are you on social media at all? And they went, oh, yeah.

And I said, so you do do marketing? They go, no. But I only use the social pages for my friends and and family that I don't don't post anything about work in there. They said, I rely on word-of-mouth. I said, well, if you only rely on word-of-mouth, and especially with your friends, I said, you don't control the narrative.

They do. So if they've took their grandmother in to see you once and they clipped their toenails, they're now running around and telling everybody on Facebook and everyone they bump into, hey, you should go and see this person. They cut toenails. You might be going, I did it once. I've done it once in my life.

Doesn't matter. If that's all they've ever seen, then that's all they're ever gonna know. So you may have friends out there who know that you do that. Yeah. You might do it a lot.

But they also need to know you have a shockwave machine, that you make orthotics, you treat sporting problems, you do nail surgery, you got all these other skills. And I think podiatrists are gonna learn to brag about what how how they need to brag about the skills that we have, how good we are at doing them, and and not be shy about it. Physios have no problems at all talking about how good they are. So I think podiatrists need to do the same.

No. I think it's it's it's a perfect example. You have to educate your patients about all the different care you provide, whether it's surgery, nonsurgical options, sports medicine, diabetic foot care, you know, pediatrics, whatever is that, you know, kinda subspecialty within podiatry you wanna be known for. It has to be front and center, and it has to be put out there in front of, you know, the local community, but also those that you know. Because like you said, if you did somebody's, you know, grandma a favor and clip their toenails and now that's what you're known for.

You know, if you wanna go in a different direction in your practice, you're gonna have to actively, like you said, control that narrative and kinda get out in front of it and make, you know, specific actions to be seen as that kind of ideal practitioner for whatever subspecialty or podiatry you're in.

I remember being in the dressing room at the end of a rugby union game one day, and we've got mud and blood all over us. It was a it was a really rough, violent game, And I'm feeling extremely manly. You know, I've just come off. I've just spent eighty minutes out in the field. Actually, I backed up, played two games.

And I'm sitting there in the dressing room, and I'm feeling like a beast. And then the trainer comes in. He said, oh, Tyson, I just wanted to tell you something. This and the whole team's there. He said, my my mom just wanna let me know let you know that she said that you're the best toenail cutter she's ever gone to.

My whole manhood just disappeared in a puff like that. And I swear, yeah. Thanks, Steve. That was that was fantastic. And he didn't mean anything bad by it.

Right.

Because his mom actually said, I was the best toenail cuddler she'd ever been to. But that was such a small part of what I did. Now, fortunately, there are a lot of people in the team that I had treated and done other things with. But right at that time, I'm thinking, wow. If nobody else in the team knew what I did, and that was the narrative that they created, I'm now the toughest toenail cutter in cans.

Mud, blood, and toenails.

Some good marketing slogan there.

But the other part of social media too, I think it's also in your business pages is don't be afraid to let patience into your world a little bit. If you've done something like I okay. I'll just show you this photo. The people watching the video will end up seeing this. Okay.

Porn, porn. No. Just joking. So so this picture here, can see.

Food porn. You mean food porn?

Food porn. Yeah. And that was a smoked silicide smoked corned beef that I did, and it end up turning out it's like the idea is to make it turn into pastrami.

Mhmm.

It was beautiful. It was really nice. Now I did that on the weekend. I posted on my personal page. A few people went, that looks absolutely fantastic.

But why not post that on my podiatry page as well? It would let my patients know, hey. This is what I cooked over the weekend. What did you cook? And I'll guarantee if patients see that come through, they're gonna comment.

One, they'll always say, well, that look really good, or they're gonna post something. And to me, that's how you engage with the patients. Now, have I given them my address with this photo? No. Have I

You didn't invite them over to partake in that succulent?

Didn't invite them over. I didn't have a a photo of anything that what I've done is let them know a little bit about me. And you can do this over a number of years that all of a sudden, they start they feel like they really know you well, but they only know what you've actually shared with them. And I think that is an opportunity where podiatrists can really just connect with their patients.

Absolutely. On a human level, right, it's not just necessarily doctor patient relationship, but they can see you as a as a neighbor, as a part of the community, and when they kind of put that connection together, it really builds another type of bond with them in a way that yeah. When you're sharing a little bit about yourself with them.

Yeah. Because I know some people go, I like to keep my personal life and my business life separate. And we've said it hundreds of times on this podcast. And I think sharing that picture of a smoked silver side of corned beef is nothing I should be ashamed of or I should try to keep secret. And I'll guarantee there is a percentage of my pay yeah.

If I had podiatry clinic still, if patients saw that, there'd be a percentage of them who love smoking meat. Are you a meat smoker, Jim?

Well, I've been bouncing around between The US and Canada right now, so I'm more of a grill guy. But maybe some down sometime down the line, I'll I'll get into the smoking the smoking game there.

Yeah. You gotta you gotta live out in the everyone all the videos I oversee in America, you gotta have, a southern accent. They all love they all love putting a smoker on and getting out there and hunting, and they bring back the kill and they smoke it. So, anyway, the next thing I wanted to touch on that doesn't take any extra time when you're already there is using hashtags. If you're already posting something, then use hashtags that one, there's certain ones that are gonna be trending.

You can use location ones, and you could create your own hashtags. Because the best part about it, if you create your own hashtags, it helps you find posts that you're gonna search for later on.

No. Definitely. I mean, you know, kind of highlighting, you know, the specialty or maybe it's like your location, like you talked about, It's just gonna make you more visible and increase your chance of being seen.

Yeah. It'd be no different than if you had posted a few photos of, say, a couple of videos on nail surgery or maybe some videos on stretching. And you might go hashtag Tyson's best stretchers. And then you're talking to a patient, they go, oh, have you got any exercise? Just go, hey.

Just go into a Facebook page. Yeah. Go into Facebook, put the hashtag Tyson's best stretches. It'll pop up on there, and then bang. There'll be so you create your own hashtag that you can give to patients to help them find things.

Yeah. For sure.

And that's why I used to look at, you know, like hashtag podiatry legends or podiatry legends podcast. It was the same thing that I could just put in that hashtag and straight away, I could see some of the posts that I've done previously. But then I found other people were using the same hashtags. Where if they were reposting something or if they're making a comment about the podcast, they would go podiatrylegiouspodcast. No idea for this one, podiatrymarketing.

Exactly.

Everyone should go and look up the hashtag podiatry marketing and see what you can find. Here's another idea. This is something I used to do all the time. Used have a lot of fun doing it, is putting your website on all the computers at any tech store that you're in. So if I went over to what's a company?

Best Buys. Is that a electronic store in America?

Yeah. Best Buy, you can go to, like, the Apple Store.

Yeah. Say the Apple Store, for example. Everyone knows the Apple Store. I would walk into, like, an equivalent of the Apple Store, and I'd go into every computer, and I would leave ProArchPodiatry.com. I'd leave my home page on all the computers.

And somebody said to me, was, why do you do that? And I go, well, people are coming in to look at those computers. And there used to be a computer store directly across the road from my podiatry clinic. And I remember getting a phone call once, and the receptionist laughed, hung up. I said, what's so funny?

She went, I just had a phone call from oh, someone just made an appointment. I said, hey. How'd they find out about you? Oh, they're just over at a at a computer shop at the shopping center, and they saw a homepage there, and they and it was on heel pain. That's exactly what they had.

So they thought they might as well phone up and make an appointment straight away. So I was already there. What was well, the thing is I always used to go in there just to look at the new computers.

Sure.

So I'm thinking, well, while I'm there, I might as well just and so I'd put it on the computers, I'd put on the iPhones, the iPads, and sometimes some of the staff members in the shop got to know me, and they come out and go, do want us to do a couple for you? I go, yeah. Not a problem. So they get in there and they'd put in proarch.com.au. They do exactly the same thing.

Just got the balls to do it.

Yeah. Absolutely.

That's that's probably the biggest thing. A lot of these ideas, it's really, are you prepared to just spend that little bit of extra time to do it.

That's all it takes sometimes.

And the last thing I want to share is just cross promote in newsletters. So if you're doing a newsletter well, actually, if you don't have a newsletter, shame on you. You should have an electronic newsletter. I guess one of those we've spoken about it on this podcast numerous times. It's cheap.

It's easy to do. It doesn't offend anybody. Okay. And they're fun they're fun to put together, and it's something that you can get your team involved in as well. But if you do a newsletter, and I've got a lot of my coaching clients doing this, highlight another business in your area.

Go and see them. Say, hey, I am the podiatry clinic down here. I've been coming to your shop for ages. This is my favorite bakery, favorite coffee shop, favorite butcher shop. Would would it be okay if I took a photo of you just in front of your produce here, and I wanna use my next newsletter just to let patients know this is my favorite butcher shop.

Would you have a problem with that? No business is gonna get or no. So how much is going to 5,000 people? Oh, no. We don't want 5,000 people to know about our store.

That's just ridiculous. And then you can say, oh, can I just give a bit of history? How long has your shopping going for? Yeah. When did you sit up?

Where are you from this area? Have a couple of video questions. Write up a bit of a a thing. Sam, can I email this to you for your read through to get your approval? And I'll be putting that next month's newsletter.

If you're already shopping there, if you're already buying a coffee, you're buying baked goods, find out who the owner is, and these are just really easy things. You're already there. You're already doing it. But in the other part, when you create this relationship with them, if their butcher is ever asked by going, oh, if you set up that relationship with them because butchers are very social and they talk to the same regular customers all the time, And they go, hey, Jim. How's your day going?

And Jim, oh, yeah. Great. My foot's killing me. I know a podiatrist. Yeah.

I know a guy. Sounds like a mafia. I know a guy.

I know a guy knows a guy.

Yeah. And find out, like, there's a business that you're dealing with, do they have a newsletter? And if they do, you might ask, hey, can I provide an article for your newsletter? So it might not be a butcher shop, it could be another allied health professional or another business that the shoe shop that you highlight them, and then they highlight you and their their newsletter. But it all comes down to first you reaching out to them, especially if you're already in those areas.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

So we could probably go on with more ideas, but that were the that were the main ones that just came top of mind when I thought about this idea of just free marketing ideas that you that really don't take any more time because you're already in the thick of doing what you're doing. These are the first ones that popped in mind. So I'd love to know if anyone has any other ideas that could email them to us.

Yeah. Definitely go to podiatry.marketing, our website. We've got a a form there where you can fill them out, and you can you can give us some other ideas, maybe some things we didn't talk about today. But I definitely like the idea of, like you said, you're already on these platforms anyways, primarily probably as a consumer of that content. Spend 20% of your time creating on there instead of consuming it all, and you'd be surprised at some of the the benefits you can reap from from doing so.

Yeah. And if you do send us a suggestion or an idea, we will give you a shout out on the podcast.

Absolutely.

Unless you wanna kept wanna kept a secret, then we'll just take the idea and we'll use it as our own.

Exactly.

And we'll say, look how smart we are. We got four more ideas. We wait. If you give it to us, we will share it and say that it's you. So that's it for me this week, Jim.

Alright, Tyson. Sounds good. We'll talk next week.

Okay. See you later. Bye.

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