How to Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform for Your Podiatry Clinic

Jim McDannald, DPM:00:34

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

Tyson E. Franklin:00:43

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me as usual is my good friend, big Jim Mac. How are you doing today, Jim?

Jim McDannald, DPM:00:52

That was a very dramatic pause there, Tyson. No. It was. Things were good here in Montreal.

Tyson E. Franklin:00:56

I was leaving you there for for what do they call it? For effect.

Jim McDannald, DPM:01:02

Yeah. People are gonna think it's it's gonna be somebody else's name you're gonna drop instead of mine. So I don't know. We'll see.

Tyson E. Franklin:01:08

Imagine we have one day get in and go, yeah. And welcome to my cohost Gordon. I forget, who the hell is Gordon? Surprise guest. Maybe we should do that every now and then if one of us is away.

Tyson E. Franklin:01:20

I listen to this yep. I always talk about consistency, and there's this podcast I I listen to called the Believe You Me podcast. It's a UFC podcast. Okay. We'll see you next Monday.

Tyson E. Franklin:01:31

Next time they just don't turn up. And then all of sudden, not on for two weeks. You go, what the hell happened? And then, oh, sorry. We're away, but next week, that's it.

Tyson E. Franklin:01:38

We will be there every week. They turn up again. And very annoying. So people, take note of that. Be consistent.

Jim McDannald, DPM:01:47

Consistency is key for sure.

Tyson E. Franklin:01:49

That is it. What are we talking about today, big Jim?

Jim McDannald, DPM:01:51

Yeah. So today, we're gonna be jumping into a topic we've talked about in the past, we haven't gotten into too many details about it as far as how to how to choose and select it. So without further ado, we're gonna talk about how to choose the right email marketing platform for your podiatry clinic. There's some trade offs. There's some things to be aware of, and, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, it's a really important part of people's marketing overall marketing plan, but it's sometimes a misunderstood tool.

Jim McDannald, DPM:02:19

You know, it's one of these things where, you know, you gotta choose the right platform. There's a lot of questions, especially in North America and The US that, like, you know, what what has to be HIPAA compliant, what doesn't. You know, how can you avoid overspending on these tools maybe for some features that you don't knew don't need or won't use that often. So if people are planning to, you know, email their patient list, you know, are kind of unsure where to start, The the goal of this episode is to kind of dive into those details so people know their options and could kinda make the first step forward as far as making a good selection with the type of software platform they're using for their patient emails.

Tyson E. Franklin:02:54

Yeah. I'm a huge fan for email marketing. You know, monthly newsletters, weekly, yeah, email blast, whatever way you wanna do it. But a little bit because it becomes so much popular, there's a lot of platforms, a lot of choice, but a lot of the platforms too have just put their price. They've doubled, tripled their prices in like a twelve month period because they can.

Jim McDannald, DPM:03:16

Yeah. I think they realize how valuable they are. It's one of the few kind of platforms or when we talked about in the past. Like when you own your list, it's kind of your list and you can kind of shop around a bit. But yeah, they have I definitely have seen the same thing where, you know, it's sometimes two to three more times expensive, but also can be expensive.

Jim McDannald, DPM:03:34

The larger list you have, the more expensive they make the software for you.

Tyson E. Franklin:03:37

But in the big scheme of things, I've seen some platforms where it might be a 100 a month that you're paying, and some people go, oh, but I can get it for $19.95 somewhere else. But even if you look at a $100 a month, there's still $1,200 for the year. People will spend that on a weekend away and not give it a second thought. So try and keep things in perspective that it might be expensive, sort of, but you probably spend that sort of money anywhere else and not get the same return.

Jim McDannald, DPM:04:05

No. Absolutely. Like $1,200, at least in The US is maybe, you know, I guess gross gross revenue is somewhere around, you know, four to five really good patients maybe. So it is one of those things where once you get to that level, it it kinda pays for itself. But it it is definitely something when people see that $1,200 price tag or $2,000 price tag, it's kinda like kinda opens their eyes up a little bit.

Jim McDannald, DPM:04:26

It's like, that's kind of expensive for me to send out emails. So we'll we'll get into those details.

Tyson E. Franklin:04:29

Yeah. But just use the orthotic economy that I talked about in my book. Just whatever the price of something is, how many pairs of orthotics is that? Is it gonna be two pairs, three pairs depending on on what you charge? That is nothing.

Tyson E. Franklin:04:43

If you know by using email marketing, you could have $50,100 extra 150 pairs of orthotics if you use it the right

Jim McDannald, DPM:04:50

No. Absolutely. That's a great point. And that kinda leads into the first you know, we talked a little bit that we've gone over these email marketing tactics. We talked about email marketing in the past, but it's really important to maybe just touch base a little bit on the role of email marketing in podiatry practice.

Tyson E. Franklin:05:04

Okay.

Jim McDannald, DPM:05:04

And really the email remains one those kinda highest ROI marketing channels for for podiatry clinics because like I said, you own the list, you own that kinda direct relationship with your patients once they give you permission to email them. So it's one of these things where you can utilize it to reactivate patients, get them to know more about all the different types of care that you provide, and kinda build some long term trust. So, you know, we'll we'll we'll kind of cover the types of emails clinics generally send, know, whether it be seasonal tips or appointment availability or helping educate about, like I said, the different types of care you provide, but it's the differences between kind of general outreach and kind of clinical communication, you know, what we call retargeting or sometimes reactivation emails. And if you're not sending these kind of one on if you're not if you're not sending one on one messages about care plans and test results, you're more likely to it's more likely you're gonna be utilizing kind of more of a traditional marketing tool, which we'll get into.

Tyson E. Franklin:05:55

Okay. So what what are the ones that you wanna run through?

Jim McDannald, DPM:05:58

Yeah. So let's start off by saying that, like, one of the big confusion kinda becomes between emails that include personal health information, which would require HIPAA compliance or like a special type of email software, a more kind of healthcare related email

Tyson E. Franklin:06:13

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:06:14

Platform that has encryption and making sure that there's things like business associate degrees in the in The US and other things signed to make sure that you're not, you know, giving away patient information. But there's also kind of more general, you know, patient emails and kind of clinic updates. So the two differences there being that, you know, like you talked about, when you're utilizing protected health information, any type of correspondence, there has to be, you know, whether it's patient diagnosis, treatment, or kind of their past medical history. That stuff has to be under wraps. Not that's not something you can kinda use a general tool for.

Jim McDannald, DPM:06:47

And those things are gonna be the the ones that kind of air on being more expensive. Right? So when you're looking at tools, I originally recommend people start off by utilizing emails that kind of don't utilize kind of personal health information. So we're talking about, like, emails, talking about, okay, here's three trips for preventing heel pain in the wintertime. You know, talking about now that you're offering Saturday appointments, you have these urgent, you know, kinda letting the it's more of education for your entire patient base as opposed to something directed something directed at like one specific patient with very pertinent health information in the email.

Tyson E. Franklin:07:24

So you're saying look. Because they HIPAA compliant, I know that's a very North American thing. Is are you saying so if you sent an email to a one specific patient and you were mentioning their details in there, you've gotta be very compliant. What about if you had identified patients in the past that had a specific problem and you sent a group email to those people that would still come under that same HIPAA compliant?

Jim McDannald, DPM:07:49

Yeah. I was talking about that HIPAA compliant is if you're kinda starting to segment and target kinda retarget people based off of, like, unknown condition they have, that still kinda falls under the level of needing to kinda be HIPAA compliant. But if you're not including, you know, individualized medical content in your email campaigns, they don't fall under HIPAA regulations. So that kinda opens the door to more affordable tools. Like I said, the kind of the confusion sometimes lies in, you know, underestimating or overestimating kind of what's protected and sometimes leads clinics to overpay for or or, you know, email marketing software that cost, you know, instead of hundreds, it's thousands of dollars a year, which

Tyson E. Franklin:08:28

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:08:28

Might be a little bit overkill for most.

Tyson E. Franklin:08:30

So but I would say majority of people listening to this would be doing a generalized, say, monthly newsletter that's talking about things that are happening in the clinic, things that are happening in the community. It's not specifically targeted to any particular patient.

Jim McDannald, DPM:08:45

No. Absolutely. It is something we've talked about where it's more about how do you show patients kind of the different care you provide, you know, kind of developing your expertise and building trust by, you know, showing them that your local expert, that you're involved in the community. Obviously, you do have available appointments. Maybe there's some new services you're offering.

Jim McDannald, DPM:09:04

Wanna get out front and center so that they know that stuff of it is available, not only for them, but they can share that information with their friends, their neighbors, their family members. So you're kinda staying top of mind to those. For You example, I I brought on a clinic here recently that they have 5,000 emails that are good emails to send to, and they have permission. So, you know, you know, letting people know 5,000 people know potentially that you that you do ingrown toenails, that you do orthotics can be a huge boon for your practice because you don't need to necessarily have to have, you know, five or 10% people want to come in and see for you for those services. If there's half a percent or 1% of people that are ready for that type of service when they get that email, It can be a great way to not only plant the seed, but get people in the door.

Tyson E. Franklin:09:47

Yeah. Well, every coaching client I've had that uses email marketing and does at least just a monthly newsletter, they always say the same thing. Every time they put a particular condition or something new in their clinic in that newsletter, they get a spike straight away. They get every single time. And, yes, they get a peep a few people unsubscribe.

Tyson E. Franklin:10:10

Big deal. They're probably never coming back anyway, but they always get a positive result from from it. And once you start doing it and you see that positive result, it keeps you wanting to do more of them.

Jim McDannald, DPM:10:21

Absolutely. I think you bring up a good point there is that it is important to make that unsubscribe opportunity very very readily available and very easy to use. I see sometimes, you know, you get these long emails from people and they're kinda cut off, And you don't get to see where that unsubscribe button is. And I think if you don't if you don't make the unsubscribe button very easy for you, what's gonna happen is that they will send you to spam, and then it'll make your emails less deliverable because Google or the other email services will see that, you know, people are marking you as spam multiple times. So as much as it is great to get people that want to get those emails, but it's super important that if someone doesn't want to, you shouldn't, you know, have them locked into your list.

Jim McDannald, DPM:11:01

You need to make it easy for them to decide that now is not the time that they wanna receive emails for you. So that's a really important component of any type of email software that you use.

Tyson E. Franklin:11:10

Yeah. Plus, you mentioned it early on. A lot of the programs, and especially the one that I'm using now, the more people that are on your list, the more you pay for that program. So the more emails are going on a regular basis. So I sort of encourage people, like, even with my own newsletter, if you don't want it, just unsubscribe.

Jim McDannald, DPM:11:28

Just

Tyson E. Franklin:11:28

unsubscribe it. I don't really care because I put I will put things in there that I don't put anywhere else. And if I was running an event, I might put something in there way before I'm ever going to promote it anywhere else. So if you specifically want to go to something, you'll learn about it in the newsletter first. There's some other stuff I'll put in there first.

Tyson E. Franklin:11:45

But I think, hey, if you don't want it, go. It's No. That's a

Don Pelto, DPM:11:49

great point.

Tyson E. Franklin:11:50

It's better for me.

Jim McDannald, DPM:11:51

No. The more subscribers you have, the more you pay. So that that's that definitely a great, yeah, that's a great kind of caveat there. I'd also say that, like, you know, that kind of leads into the next point I wanted to make is that there is kind of a cost for this compliance. Right?

Jim McDannald, DPM:12:04

If you're if you're not doing targeted treatment specific emails or don't have, you know if if if you if you do want that, just know that, you know, there's gonna be services out there, like one that I came across is called POWbox. Another is called Luxi. There's a few of them that are that are are out there, but then it's one of those things where they have to be tied into your electronic medical record as well. Sometimes that's not always easy to to to do. So and it's gonna be much more expensive.

Jim McDannald, DPM:12:30

Now for example, like like I said, these HIPAA compliant solutions like POWBOX and some others, you know, they can be somewhere between 2 to $3,000 a year. And if you're just getting started, generally for most people, usually look something like what what used to be called ConvertKit. It's now called Kit or Mailchimp. These things are gonna cost probably more around a thousand dollars a year. It is a little bit more kind of based on the type of emails like we were just mentioning.

Jim McDannald, DPM:12:53

Right? They're more educational about, you know, the different types of care you provide, how you're involved in the community, you know, kinda getting yourself out there front and center about the type of care you provide and building trust with people. That's gonna be a like I said, the cost of compliance, whether you're gonna be able to use those features, but there's gonna be someone needs to kinda build in or tie in an API from your EMR. I'm also finding that a lot of these EMRs these days kind of have app stores in a way, and a lot of them have you know, for an extra 3 to $5,000 a year, they will have some types of email services, some that actually don't look as good or look as trustworthy as some of the kind of more general tools like Mhmm. Kit and Mailchimp.

Jim McDannald, DPM:13:32

So when people are looking at electronic medical records as well, get a general sense of is email built into it? Is that something you have to add on, you know, some supplemental software? Because it can make a big difference in the type of cost they're gonna pay. But also, you know, if it's whether what type of compliance you're looking to go with.

Tyson E. Franklin:13:52

But still, even $3,000 a year, it's not a huge amount of money in the big scheme of things.

Jim McDannald, DPM:13:59

No. In the big scheme

Tyson E. Franklin:14:00

of things.

Jim McDannald, DPM:14:01

Yeah. And just making sure that it can be tied into the EMR in a way that makes sense. Because I think it like, sometimes people jump into an EMR without knowing whether it can do it or not, and they have additional expenses and thought they were getting this all in one great EMR that's gonna do everything under the sun. So just be be aware that, you know, sometimes there's additional add ons that have to be, you know, put in place when you're buying these different types of software.

Tyson E. Franklin:14:23

Yeah. And that's with most software. Usually, when you're buying something that's a bit more expensive, it includes everything. Software that sometimes is really cheap. By the time you add everything in, it can end up being more expensive.

Tyson E. Franklin:14:35

So, yeah, do your do your homework.

Jim McDannald, DPM:14:37

And there's a lot of tools that, you know, claim to kinda do everything. Right? So these days, there's no shortage of ways that people can try to set up a website or their clinical kind of patient flow. You know, there's calls, there's texts, there's, you know, on on website messaging, there's online forms. It can be a you know, if it it can be kind of confusing about which of these different softwares are actually providing a really helpful service.

Jim McDannald, DPM:15:03

I recently had someone that onboarded onto a new EMR, and it came with this suite of, like, messaging tools and and other things, but it's like, well, if you're hoping to have in this, you know, instant messaging with a clinic, then some of us they're gonna have to be on the other side in the clinic helping that person, you know, make an appointment or be available to answer those text messages or or answer those, like, those, like, messages through the software that's now running on your website. So whatever tools you're looking to implement, you know, email is generally, like, one of these things where it's it's easy because you can you send it out to people, and if they if they're interested in it, you kinda give them some very specific ways to interact with you. But I'm seeing more and more, you know, people are trying to develop software that includes email, text messaging, on website messaging, phone call systems, and it gets a little bit convoluted. So like I said, when people are looking for software and why it's maybe the best first step is to start with marketing newsletters with something like Kit or Mailchimp is that it's pretty clear, it's very simple, you can build that list over time and you kinda know what the purpose of it is.

Jim McDannald, DPM:16:11

But sometimes, like I said, these all in one softwares, you kind of they have a lot of different kind of features, but none of them are fully baked or kind of to a level where it's simple to use, it's simple to build trust with these patients that you wanna come into your practice.

Tyson E. Franklin:16:24

So you have any other platforms that you recommend?

Jim McDannald, DPM:16:27

The two mostly that I use, like I said, is Mailchimp and Kit Yeah. Or ConvertKit, because they're just very simple to build out, simple templates, easy to develop newsletters, and easy to send out to a list. But it's it's important component. I would say that those are the kind of two that I usually recommend for most clinics getting started.

Tyson E. Franklin:16:45

Yeah. I was using I was using campaign monitor, and that was great. And then when it came to renewal, all of sudden, they more than tripled the price when when the renewal came. And it wasn't that it still wasn't worth it, but there wasn't even an email. So, hey.

Tyson E. Franklin:17:02

We're thinking of putting the price up. It's just this is what it's going to be if you want it. And I went, well, no. And I end up switching over to another one called MailerLite, which is what I'm using now, which gives me the same features I had with Campaign Monitor. I actually think it's a little bit nicer.

Tyson E. Franklin:17:20

And so, yeah, I think people should you look around at the different types of email marketing software and see not just budget wise, but how do they actually feel and what what do they like to use. You don't need to stick with one. Easy to switch to.

Jim McDannald, DPM:17:34

Yep. For sure. And I think when you're doing you know, when you're looking for a marketing platform or email marketing platform, you know, maybe you're unaware like, you know, what features to look for, and that's kind of the next point I wanted to bring up is that, you know, I'll kinda lay out a few features here to look for in your kind of marketing only email platform. And that's gonna be you wanna look for platforms like I talked about are that are affordable, that will kind of scale up with you the larger email list you can get. I don't think there's any kind of like all for ones these days.

Jim McDannald, DPM:18:01

Kinda back in the early days of email marketing, you might be able to get a tool this at the same price for a thousand subscribers as you would for 5,000, but that's not really something that's available anymore. You also wanna make sure that an email service provider is has good email deliverability. Like I talked about if, you know, if they don't if the email is not built in a way that makes it easy for people to unsubscribe, then they'll, you know, they'll it as spam. If you don't have most of the major providers like we talked about here on the podcast so far, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit, they'll kinda walk you through as far as, you know, how to do good email deliverability. Sometimes that's not, you know, if you have 3,000 subscribers and all of a sudden you switch to one of these services and you try to blast out three three thousand emails on one day, it sends up a bit of a red flag to people.

Jim McDannald, DPM:18:47

So there's there's ways that they'll kinda tell you about how to segment them or to kind of slowly kinda build out the number of emails you're sending to make sure that you're kinda staying compliant with deliverability rules. So those things are important. So you can tag things. Sometimes you can build, you know, a sequence or some automation, you know, are you able to kind of brand the template to make it easier to send consistent campaigns without having to do a lot of technical know how? So that that there's some kind of initial feature to consider.

Tyson E. Franklin:19:16

So with the when you're talking to about the the spam, were you were you sort of relating to if you were sending hundreds of emails to the one address or just sending hundreds of emails at one time?

Jim McDannald, DPM:19:28

If you send send like sending one email to 3,000 addresses, you know, like you can't it's not something you it's something you can build up to over time.

Tyson E. Franklin:19:37

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:19:37

But if you're just if you just switch, let's say, you had your staff export that those 3,000 emails and you put it into one of these tools. On day one when you're ready to go and you have your sending address and all these things, you just don't blast out the 3,000 emails. Say hey, we're here. Maybe it's you know, it's 02:50 to start off with and then maybe it's 400 emails the next day to 400 different subscribers. And kinda building up to that point where you know, over the course of a couple weeks, you kind of have sent everybody that email and it's kinda primed and ready to go.

Jim McDannald, DPM:20:08

And kind of people that didn't want anymore have unsubscribed. But it's one those things that takes time to kind of build trust with these different email services. Because if, like I said, if you send out 3,000 emails on day one, it's gonna get maybe flagged by as as spam. There's also different types of kind of authentication tools and authentication stuff that needs to be set up kind of in your domain name, whichever domain name you're using. Maybe it's you're sending it from you know doctor Tyson Franklin at you know franklinpodiatry.com.

Jim McDannald, DPM:20:39

Yeah. There's some things that you have to go into that whatever that .com you have is, you have to go into what's called the DNS settings and set up things like SPF and DKIM and DMARC to avoid being seen as a spammer. So there's some different kind of technical technical things that have to be done on the back end once you decide that you're gonna start sending out these marketing emails.

Tyson E. Franklin:21:00

Can the average person do this themselves or they better get somebody else to do it for them?

Jim McDannald, DPM:21:04

I mean, it's probably gonna be save you a lot of time and effort to have someone else do it for you

Tyson E. Franklin:21:09

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:21:09

To be honest. But yeah, like this is something that I do for the clients I work with and generally I'm the one that's writing the emails as well. But it's something that you have set up for you and if you wanted to do it yourself you could. But you know, tools like you know, kit and Mailchimp, they're all capable of developing and handling kind of basic patient newsletter workflows as long as you're, like I said, as long as you're keeping that personal health information out of it, your emails. But, yeah, it's it's one of those things where I've done it a lot, so it's easy for me.

Jim McDannald, DPM:21:36

But I do remember what it was like the first couple times of trying to set these things up and how confusing slash frustrating it could be. So, you know, if you're busy in clinic and don't have time to learn these things, it's definitely good to have someone knowledgeable on board with you.

Tyson E. Franklin:21:49

Okay. So if you need help with it, reach out to Jim. Don't reach out to me because I don't wanna do it. But Jim will help you. So how do how do people choose the what's what's right for the clinic?

Jim McDannald, DPM:22:00

Yeah. Like I said, I think it's the first step of any kind of email system or software is I think really focused on those marketing messages. So, you know, starting with kind of the actual email content that that you wanna put out there. Right? Like, I think we talked about, you wanna make sure that you're educating folks.

Jim McDannald, DPM:22:16

You're showing you're a good part of the community. What do you want more of in your clinic? It's you know, you're just if you're just sending kind of newsletters and updates and general tips, like, you know, it's maybe that's not, you know, just because everybody else is doing it without kind of really, you know, showing your personality. I know you've talked in the past, Tyson, about, you know, whether you're showing people, like, the burgers you're eating or the bourbon you like and those things. So it's a way to show off your personality.

Jim McDannald, DPM:22:40

It's definitely something that, you know, as a marketing platform, you know, it's it's not gonna take a whole lot to cover your costs. So, you know, it's something that, like I said, trying some of these different marketing platforms that I mentioned, whether it be Kit, Mailchimp, Mail Alight, those are the places to kinda start off with. If you plan to include any kind of patient specific data or you wanna really kind of drill down more into diagnosis based messaging, you're gonna need something that's more HIPAA compliant that works well with your EMR. So, you know, maybe it's something you talk with your EMR company about a little bit and say, hey, I'd really like to do these recall campaigns about plantar fasciitis or orthotic patients. I don't wanna just send out general emails anymore.

Jim McDannald, DPM:23:17

You know, what does the EMR work with? Does it work in our software? Do we have to kind of partner with a third party and tie in the API? How does that work? So working with your EMR company, I think, is a really, really important component if you wanna get more detailed into those diagnosis based or patient specific data type emails.

Tyson E. Franklin:23:36

Okay. That'll make sense. So what next? What so some of the listeners now, they've got this far. What are they doing?

Jim McDannald, DPM:23:43

Yeah. I mean, like I talked about, said, just consider where your clinic strategy is heading overall. You know, what what kind of how is this playing into your overall marketing plan? Because it it kinda comes down to that. Right?

Jim McDannald, DPM:23:54

Like, you know, it's you know, whether it be a monthly email, generally, I recommend quarterly. But just know kinda where you're going and what you're wanting to do in your practice. Now if there's a future, you know, need to scale your clinical communications, kinda factor that into your platform decision. Right? If you're you're you're adding, you know, 500 emails every three or four months, getting a general sense of like, you know, what are the next plans above it?

Jim McDannald, DPM:24:19

How easy it is to scale, you know, with this email software. But you know, it's one the things if you don't like it, it is your list. So you can always switch over to another provider if it's not working out well for you. You know, but for most clinics, like I said, especially in the early stages, a non HIPAA compliant tool is gonna be more than enough because emails are really a powerful way to stay connected with your patients, grow your clinic. But the software can sometimes, like I said, be a bit confusing.

Jim McDannald, DPM:24:46

There's a lot of choice out there. A lot of people kind of marketing email software in general, and there's people that are gonna try to scare podiatrists and say, oh, you you have to have the other compliance stuff or you have to have the it has to be compliant. And in reality, just getting started if you're not sharing health information, you know, something like kid or Mailchimp is a is a solid way to get started.

Tyson E. Franklin:25:07

Yeah. And and and you mentioned you recommend quarterly doing the newsletters. Whereas when I had my podiatry, I used to like doing it monthly. We had a format that we actually followed, but I think it comes down to whether you do it monthly or quarterly, just if you're going to do it, just be consistent.

Jim McDannald, DPM:25:27

No. Absolutely. Consistency is key. And like I talked about, it's one those things where you're gonna get the you're gonna get your return on investment back with email marketing

Tyson E. Franklin:25:36

Oh, easily.

Jim McDannald, DPM:25:37

A platform. But but at the same time, you know, don't feel like you have to overpay for that compliance if you don't actually need it. So like I said, start with the strategy that's right for your clinic. You know where you're heading, what you wanna talk about, you know, kinda creating a list so you can kind of roll it out in a way that's gonna not come across as spam to the bots and not come across spammy to people that are reading it. And build consistency in the campaigns, whether it be monthly or quarterly with your kind of ideal patient in mind.

Tyson E. Franklin:26:06

Oh, yeah. And definitely, I love that last bit about your ideal patient. So if you if you don't want a certain thing in your clinic, slap yourself if you put it in your newsletter. And I've seen people say, I don't want any more routine foot care. So one of their main articles is treating a corn.

Tyson E. Franklin:26:21

You go, you don't want any more that's not what you're after. Don't put it in the newsletter. Put some just put the things in there that you want more of in your clinic. It's a whole idea of doing it. Not just promote all your services, but promote what you want more of.

Jim McDannald, DPM:26:36

Absolutely. You know, it it you don't want to be everything to everyone because then you will be stuck in clinic doing things that you're not excited about. So this this newsletter, these marketing newsletters are just a great way, like I said, of showcasing who you are, you know, what you wanna become. You know, maybe maybe you're not seeing as many sports medicine patients as you want to right now. But, you know, by by sending out this email newsletter on a monthly or, you know, a quarterly basis, it's gonna help people build trust in you, like you talked about, kind of being top of mind for the type of care you wanna provide.

Jim McDannald, DPM:27:09

So it's a bit aspirational, but it's a bit practical as well. So, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, you got the list, they've given you permission, it's just time to pick out the right software for you and get started.

Tyson E. Franklin:27:21

Okay. So anything else before we wrap up?

Jim McDannald, DPM:27:23

Nothing is a good place to stop, Tyson.

Tyson E. Franklin:27:25

Okay. So if people need help with any of this, especially setting up the email newsletter, you're not quite sure about the compliance side of things, talk to Jim.

Jim McDannald, DPM:27:34

Yep. They can reach us on podiatry.marketing and send us a form there or just email me jim@podiatrygrowth.com.

Tyson E. Franklin:27:40

Okay. Okay, big Jim. I look forward to talking again next week.

Jim McDannald, DPM:27:44

Sounds great, Tyson.

Tyson E. Franklin:27:45

Okay. See you later. Bye.

Jim McDannald, DPM:27:46

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.