Free Website Downloads

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. With me always is Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how are things going there in Australia?

It is fantastic. Jim, good to be here again for another week. And just to point out to people too that even us experts on our microphones sometimes make mistakes. And we're having a bit of a laugh at the beginning of this because my microphone wasn't set up properly. And then I also forgot to press record, which take two.

We're doing fantastic now.

Well, I think that's the joys of having a partner in crime or a a teammate to work with you on these things. Right? Like, I I heard things, you didn't hear things, but we were able to clear things up and jump into, you know, productive day of podiatry marketing talk. So all all all is all is well that ends well. Right?

So

Yeah. Know. So today, I wanna talk about free website downloads. And I I think it's a fantastic opportunity when you've done certain marketing, you and people have come to your website. They for some reason, they've chosen your website over others.

They've clicked on there, and then while they're on there, they may not be ready to make a decision right now. They just they're they're waiting for more information. And I think while they're on your website, it's a perfect opportunity to say, well, while you're thinking about it, let me offer you something for free that you can download and can give you more information in the area that you may have been searching for.

Yeah. That's definitely a pretty powerful technique and then definitely something I've incorporated in my into my own podiatry marketing and podiatry growth website. These these kind of concept of a lead magnet kind of providing some kind of either valuable resource or a tool that people will willingly, you know, give over their email address for or share some contact information. I think that's that's a great idea. What kind of types of information or how how would you get started with something like that, Tyson?

Well, the easiest thing is I know, like, I used to have a a free book offer on my website, and I'd seen the idea from somebody else, and they showed me how it all worked, and it was fantastic. And it was a 26 page book that we actually got printed as hard copies, and we also had a PDF version. So if somebody come on our website, and it would say they might have come to a land on a page about heel pain, And the book title was, do you have heel pain? So they're going, yes, I do. So then they would click and they say, I want a copy of that book because they're not ready to make an appointment.

If they're in our geographical area, we would physically post that book to them. If they were outside of that area, we would just send them a PDF version and and just and they were fine with that. And then we had a bit of a sequence in place that we'd follow them up afterwards. There's, like, a a six or seven step sequence afterwards. We worked out twenty five percent of the patients that we sent books to came back in and had fur yeah.

Had initial consultation with us and eventually had some form of treatment, whether it's orthotic shockwave. It was just a great way of giving them information, and then at the same time, in in return for giving them the information, they give us their email address, which would then go into our newsletter. And we were surprised how few people unsubscribed or didn't want anything to do with us afterwards. So like I said, we worked at we had about a 25% rate of return on the books we gave out. I think we worked out we gave out something like 500 books in the first six months or so when we first started doing this, and the initial feedback from that was worth about $90,000 in revenue.

That's very solid. That's a that's a definitely a great result. I I wanna back up just one quick thing that you mentioned. Think that's a really important concept that maybe, you know, I know about it because I'm in marketing. You know about it because you're in marketing.

But let's say somebody's just starting in practice or, you know, hasn't built out kind of an in-depth kind of an email system yet. What do you mean by a sequence, and what goes into a sequence?

Okay. So perfect example would be so you're you're very tech savvy, so I know how to set up a a an email sequence using a CRM program, a customer relationship management program, or a patient program. But back in the day when we first did this with the free book, we we just did everything on a simple spreadsheet. We had all the pay yeah. When the people actually asked for the free book, we got an email, we sent it straight out to them, and we just transferred that name onto a spreadsheet, and we did it manually.

We just went to each week, just looked at the next step, and then post yeah. Emailed the next thing to them, and then emailed the next one. We just had these six steps we went through. Now I know you can set that all up that you can do it automatically, which is how I would do it now. But if you don't have that process in place and you're sure how to set up an automatic sequence, then just do it manually.

And it doesn't even have to be a free book. It could be a PDF document. Yeah. There's a couple of pages that just explains, this is more about fungal toenails or this is more about heel pain or this is why your Achilles hurts. To me, it's the idea when somebody downloads something, they're saying that I want more information on this.

Not ready to make a decision, but I want more information. And once they once you've got that, then it's up to you to stay in touch with them.

No. I think that's a really great point. That's what I wanted to bring up is it's it's just kind of like continuing to deliver value even after you deliver that one book or that that PDF. It's just in a way to kinda gradually build some trust over time because the sequence isn't gonna go out like you know, you're not gonna slam them seven days in a row and seven different emails. Right?

This is something that can be spaced out in a way where you're continuing with providing a little bit of value, and it's not like you know, it's it's just a way of building that trust over a long period of time. Not a long period of time, but, like, enough consistency where they remember who you are. There's name recognition. They can see that you're the expert. There's all kinds of little things you can build in this email sequence to really, like, you know, show that person all the great care and different procedures you provide in your clinic.

Yeah. And I think it's really important. Like you said, it's I think we've all been attacked by people when we've opted in for something. Hey. You get this free download.

You go, great. So you ask for it. So on my website right now, there's, a free download, 12 secrets to get more people through the front door. When you if you download that, and I've had, you know, couple hundred people have, that'll go on automatically because it's a setup. It automatically goes into my database, and that will automatically get my newsletter when it comes out monthly, weekly, whenever I decide to do it.

I don't harass them after that. I don't I've I've opted into things where I sign up, and I tell you, four emails in the first day, 25 emails that first week, they pretty much just to the point where I'm just going, I'm feeling ill now when I open up my computer. Do you know I do not recommend doing that to people. That actually is annoying.

No. That's a great point. That's what I wanted to bring up is there's there's different ways to approach it. And when you have kind of a something that's value valuable kind of over a longer period of time, that's how you build the trust and provide value. So, yeah, that that's that's really helpful.

Thanks for that.

Well, the good part, if somebody downloaded a a PDF document and it was about why do I get shin splints when I'm running? That might have been what they were searching for. They found your website. You had a good article there on shin splints, and you said, here's a PDF download, top 10 things you could do at home. So they they download that.

You might be thinking, well, what do I send them next? Well, what what could that person need next? It could be here are five exercises that are great for, yeah, shin splints. So then you send that to them, and it could be a week later. You go, oh, by the way, I hope you've read I hope you found that information handy.

Here's something else you might find useful. And just find five or six things that you can hand out to them, whether it's a week, whether it's a month later, just to stay in touch. The reason for doing it is if you've stayed in touch with them without being annoying and trying to ram things down their throat that they don't need, when they're ready to when they're sort of going, you know what? I really need to do something about this now, you'll be the person that's top of mind, and they'll see you before going to a competitor.

No. That that that awareness and kind of name recognition is huge. I think it's sometimes hard to to measure. You know, like, obviously, with this this system, you can kinda see who subscribed to your email newsletter or who's opted in where you have some of their contact information. But Yeah.

You know, getting that general awareness, you know, whether it's on paid channels, even through things like Google search optimization, those things are can be very, very hard to do. So another kind of tool in your tool belt to kinda get that name recognition and that local awareness is huge.

Yeah. And and if they do download the information and then they opt out straight away, they, yeah, they unsubscribe from the newsletter the first time they get it, don't worry about it. Because you're not worried about the person that unsubscribes. All you wanna care care about and focus on is the person who appreciated the information, and you'll sometimes find that in between the information you send out to them, you will get an email back from them saying, thank you for that information. That was really useful.

And what's even better is when someone sends you an email and I followed your 10 tips. I don't have shin splints anymore. I don't have the shin pain when I'm running, or my Achilles' problems really improved. And you might think, oh, well, did I just lose a patient? What you've got, you've gained a raving fan who will then tell their friends, you should go to this website.

There's some really good information on there. And that's why think you shouldn't have just, you know, one or two. It should be multiple places with different information that's always gonna be really useful and educational for the patient.

I think you're exactly right. If you lose one patient, then they end up referring you 10 people. Right? Like, was it really a loss of a patient? No.

Being seen as that being seen as that local expert is is huge hugely impactful.

And even, yeah, going back to the the free the free book offer was I think by the time we got the book printed and then posted it to the patient, it may have cost us like 4 or $5 to actually do it. But people will spend thousands of dollars on printed ads and Google ads and and in so in so many different areas. And sometimes they they know it works. Sometimes they're not sure whether it works. But giving something to someone for free, I tell you, it works.

And we've done it with the free book offer with other downloads off our website, and and I still do it today on my website now. There's areas in there where you can download things. And sometimes, even on my current website now, I put something on there. I can't remember exactly what it was, But it was, here, download this. I didn't even wanna opt in.

I just wanted them to download it because I knew if they download it, it's gonna be useful for podiatrists in their business. But I already worked out For sure. If they've already got that pharma website and they've got to this particular part, I probably already have their email address. So I thought, I don't need it a second time. And if I don't have your email address, you know what?

It was right near the section where it says subscribe to my newsletter. So if they enjoyed that, they're probably gonna want more information later anyway.

Now, that totally makes sense. So so you talked a little bit about kind of these these guides. Right? You know, certain diagnoses and maybe some ideas about how to treat kind of some over the counter or at home remedies.

Yeah.

Also, you talked about these kind of physical books. Are there other topics? You know, I've I've heard some people talk about, you know, running shoe guides or are there other types of topics you think would be beneficial for podiatry clinics to look into?

Oh, that's great. Yeah. Running shoe guides are perfect. Because if you're into sports, I think it's one of those things where you're probably keeping up to date with what footwear is coming through. Tell your patients what you think are your top five for this particular sport or what you think is the the best running shoe if you're into cross country.

You're a cross country runner, weren't You're

a country runner. The grass in the mud every once in a while.

Yeah. It's anytime I running on the road, I used to find actually boring. Running through the bush and having to jump over logs and straight, I've actually found that fun. But it's give tell people what you think. So like the the running shoe guide, but you may even put together a sequence of videos that yeah.

Here are our stretches. Instead of just writing it down and showing them a diagram, is you do videos and and have that on your website and constantly keep adding videos to your website that may be covering a particular area. Because the thing is you want patients to come to your website and and you want them to use it as a resource. And you want them to tell their friends, this is the website you should go to because, hey, I know in June every year, they put out a a shoe guide for the first six months of the year. They do another one in December.

So if they know you're you're the place to go to, that's gonna give them honest independent advice too on the footwear. You're not a a shoe store that maybe getting slipped a little bit of money by Nike to say Nike shoes are better or, yeah, Adidas or something like that. This is purely your professional opinion. And if the people take that advice and and like it, then you can even do I had a a guy that was doing coaching with, and he was into running, and he was also going to, like, the athlete's foot and doing things in their store. I said, well, why are there?

Why don't you just when the shoe reps come through, talk about the shoes. I said, then grab the shoe rep or grab yourself. Grab that shoe and shoot a video while you're in the store talking about that shoe. What it is that you like about that? I said, can go on your website as information.

You could then put it onto your YouTube channel. You can put it into your social media. I said, there's so many other areas that you can actually use that video. But that also relates to the free book. If you have offers on your website that you know people will like, then also mention it in your social media that this free information is there to download.

And they could come through your social media to your website and then download it from there.

No. That makes total sense. I think you open up my ideas to the ideas, you know, like, whether it's a shoe store or maybe you're partnering with a physio clinic of some sort. Like you said, creating these valuable resources is what it's really about. So, you know, maybe you make that shoe list, and then you worked with that shoe store, and then they have that that maybe physically printed out in their store as well.

Right? You know? Yeah. Doctor Tyson Franklin says that the Nike Zoom Ultra, whatever, is, like, the best shoe. Or for, you know, for an overpronator, I should be looking at these five or 10 models.

So you don't necessarily have to say this one shoe is the best. You can have a nice list of different options depending on what, you know, the per the patient's foot type is, what kind of support they need, what kind of activity they're doing. But it can be not only this digital thing they download or you send to them, but it can be, you know, in those offices or in those places of business with some potential, like, partners or, you know, collaborators on these efforts.

Yeah. And what's important too is when you're writing this information, whether it's you're putting in a shoe store, it's on your website, something people can download, is write it in plain English so that the average person can understand whatever it is you've written. Do not care. Don't write there thinking, oh, if another podiatrist read this, they might get, well, disagree with my five shoe recommendations. Stuff them.

It's not they're not the people you're trying to connect with and educate. It's it's the people in your area that may become your patients, or it's your existing patients who come into your website to give you information. So just you write what you wanna write for your patients, and if and even if you're contacted by another podiatrist, they go, oh, those two of those shoes that you recommended, they're no good for this, really, this, you know, the the heel height and the and just go, you know what? Don't worry about it. Everything you do, it should be what is the best thing for my patient based on the experience you have and your own knowledge, and and be willing to just put it out there and and give them the information.

And if somebody does if you've got a friend who's a podiatrist says, oh, that day, you probably change it a little bit, then change it. But you know what you're doing. Just put it out there.

Yeah. I think getting started is some of the toughest, you know, getting over that initial inertia of putting getting things out there, whether it be a newsletter or a physical book or something. You know, once you do it and you have this kind of like it's something you can always iterate on or improve. Yeah. But it's getting it out there that first time that's kind of like feels uncomfortable or you're not sure what to do.

So I think, like you said, you gotta just kinda take the leap. And then if it's not perfect, that's okay. Like, I think sometimes in medicine or even in podiatry, we just we feel like we have to be so precise. And in a lot of ways, do, whether it's doing surgery and stuff like that. But when it comes to your marketing, there's definitely you know, like you said, if you pick the wrong shoe model, it's not the end of the world.

Right? Like, these are things that you can work on. The shoe models are always changing, or, you know, the piece of marketing or the book you make can always be improved upon. So don't be too hard on yourself. It's better to have it 80% or 85% of the way there and ship it, as opposed to have it be 99% of the way there and sitting on your shelf.

Yeah. So so that 80% out the door is better than a % in your drawer. So

it's I like that.

I like that. And even with even the heel pain book, when I first was shown how this worked in in the process of staying in contact with people, When I looked at how they were doing and I read an example of their book, what I ended up writing in mine was so different. There was a lot of stuff that was similar, but I put my own twist on it so that it was it was me. It was written by me. It was my book.

And then when I looked at the seats that they had, it was great. And and then I adapted to suit myself, my market, my my patients, and that's what I reckon people should do. If you've seen what other people are doing and I've I had a a couple of clients where, yeah, I did one say on heel pain, but they wanted to do one on bunion surgery. So I helped them do the process of writing the thing to getting the sequence all set up, and I'm gangbusters for them. So it's just it's getting the knowledge out of your head, putting it into something that's a simple format.

And the the ideal thing of a, say, a free book over a PDF, a one sheet or two sheet PDF, that you might download it and they may never read it. Or they might print it out and they'll follow it up and it's gone. But when a book's 26 pages, it's a little bit harder and it's it's a hard copy and you post it to them. It's that sort of thing you get and go, oh, yeah, and throw it in the bin. You go, oh, I'll put that on the coffee table.

So you know that more and more it hangs around a long time. It'll get put in a drawer and make it pulled out again two years time, but it is gonna hang around for a lot longer. That's the that's the bonus of doing a hard copy book over a PDF. And I'll ask you the question, Jim. Have you ever, you know, often asked for something, got a a 50 page booklet or something PDF.

How many times have you sat there and read it from start to finish?

I mean, I just had a like a momentary panic as far as like the size of my downloads folder. I don't know. I'm sure everyone on this listen to this podcast right now has it like a spick and span desktop. There's nothing in their downloads folder. They just have a very clean, awesome digital life.

Obviously, I work in front of the computer quite a bit, and honestly, my downloads folder is basically an archive. Yeah. So if it wasn't for the search function with within my Mac, like and if it doesn't have the name of what it is in the the file name, like, if I download it and it's like, you know, zero one two three seven document dot doc or something, like, I will probably never see that document ever again. So I would say that if you do do PDFs, make sure you name it something very relevant. Yes.

So when they go if they do go to search for it, well, it's not gonna be a sticky or stick on a shelf like the book, make sure that that file is named something like heel pain guide or something very easy to search for.

Yeah. It is. I I reckon they should call it the downloads folder lost and found. Because I tell you, I've lost a lot more in there than I've ever found because you just you constantly oh, yeah. That looks good.

That's interesting. I'll get that. Because it's so easy to download them, you've got so much that you never have time to go through it, and that is the advantage of using hard copy, like a hard copy 26 page book in your local area. And like I said, if it cost you $5, get it printed and posted out to people. It's best $5 you'll you'll ever spend.

And right now, as soon as a person gets it, they're not gonna throw that out. So they got something tangible and they'll end up reading

it. Well, think, you know, what every time I go to the mailbox and get something that's an actual piece of mail and not a bill or, you know, some request for a donation. You know, like, there's there's very little in the mail these days that's actually something you're super amped about. So, like, getting a a book or a a thicker little package in the mail can definitely brighten somebody's day, especially if they're suffering from heel pain or something that you can take care of.

Yeah. And I used to find that with there was a store here called Barbecues Galore. Used to send me a a newsletter in the mail. It was like four page, you know, big big thing followed a couple of times. And I'd say and I'd read it from start to finish with without a doubt because I would just be sitting on land just reading through all the barbecue, new sauces, tongs.

Then all of a sudden, they went to electronic, and I cannot remember the last time I actually read it from start to finish. Probably haven't been in the store for three years because there's another barbecue store which is better. So that's where I go. And what they send me their their news. They're still electronic, but it's it's a little bit more concise.

So it's easy to get through. There you go. Anyway, that's what all I wanted to talk about today was basically using your website. It is a mark your website is a marketing tool, but use it take it that one step further and offer free downloads in different areas, whether it's a free book, PDF, shoe guide, just something that you can give people more information. And they can download stuff while you're sleeping at night, and they can they can read about it.

No. That makes total sense. You know, providing some value, building trust over a long period of time is is great for your practice. So so thanks for sharing all those those nuggets today, Tyson. We greatly appreciate it.

That's good. Look forward to talking to you next week, Jim.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. 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.