Promotional SWAG for Your Podiatry Practice

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 cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, what's going on today?

Oh, I'm oh, not not a lot today. Big Jim, just got a few weather issues at the moment. So if anybody hears a bit of sputtering noise in the background, it's because there's a little bit of rain around at the moment. So but it cools things down, cools the pool down. So, yeah, I look forward to the wet weather every now and then.

Hopefully, it doesn't come into your office, but we'll keep we'll keep an eye out for it.

Yeah. Yeah. You ever seen that movie Sharknado?

I've seen the trailer and, like, you know, off clips of it, never the the entire thing.

I've watched the first three, and I think there's, six movies. But I I read somewhere, and this is an interesting fact for everyone listening to this, I read somewhere that Sharknado, no matter how stupid you think it is about sharks getting caught in a tornado and thrown into your house, which is ridiculous, it is the biggest grossing franchise in history.

Really?

Yeah. You can Google it. Go and Google it. Someone someone told me, I went, I don't believe you. Someone googled it, and it and it went, yeah.

Because it's not just from the dumb movies, but it's the yeah. It's a merchandise and the licensing off the back of it and games and everything else. It has just absolutely killed it. So if you're sitting there today and you think, hey, I've got this really silly idea. Remember, someone made Sharknado the movie, and someone also invented the hula hoop.

There you go. And made a lot of money from it. Or the pool noodle. Imagine someone sitting there saying to their friends, got this idea. I'm gonna make this long bit of foam.

I'm gonna call it a pool noodle. And they go, oh, that won't work. And now they're sitting on a beach somewhere in Hawaii drinking a Mai Tai. And So I think no idea is too crazy. So we should get on to today's subject.

Yeah. So what are gonna jump into today?

I wanna talk about what we call promotional swag for your podiatry practice or your podiatry business. And swag is all these things that you have, promotional items that you give out to people. I went and did a little bit of background research on swag because I'm thinking it was I thought swag's a really interesting name. I'd never heard to me, going back ten years ago, it was always just called promotional items. There was nothing more than just promotional items.

And then about ten years ago, heard swag for the first time. So I went and looked up the word swag, it says, traditionally, it means stuff we all get, which I think is pretty cool. So promotional giveaways used in marketing, but swag also derived from the word swagger, which also means cool. So when you put the two together, you wanna develop swag for your podiatry practice that I think is cool. That's the idea of this particular subject.

And it was so because I was going to do this talk, as I said, I did a bit of research, and there was a study that was done, and it said 50% of people who receive useful promotional products that can use them on a daily basis will actually more impressed with that company and they look at that company more positively.

I think that the word useful there is really really important. I Oh, yeah. I'm curious to hear what you think is useful when it comes to swag. I know that I've been to my fair share of conferences and other places, and I still have a bunch of pins from like twenty years ago. But besides that, I I I can't think of any other piece of swag that really has kind of, you know, made the test of time or kind of lasted quite that long.

Yeah. Well, I've got yeah. I had I was actually do clean at my office the other day, and

I threw out a lot

of stuff that's just useless. So, yes, there there are some swag yeah, swags or promotional items that look, if you're doing a really cheap crappy keyring, what do we need another keyring? No. So if you're just throwing that in a bag or a really cheap pen, people don't want that sort of rubbish. So you wanna make it useful.

So some good examples would be a stubby holder or as you would call them over there, koozies, I think. You call them koozies?

That's it. A beverage?

Yeah. Yeah. See? I speak both languages. So we call them stubby holders because our beer is a stubby.

But you could do cooler bags, which would be very useful. So if you had your podiatry business on the side of a cooler bag now I'll talk about in a second about who you were given to, but whether you had shirts, whether it's tote bags, I don't think we need any more coffee cups. I've got a number of mugs around the place that I've got, yeah, work smarter, not harder one. I've one from Headliner. I've got a couple of podcasting ones.

Mugs are still useful. People don't throw mugs out. That is one good thing. So if you if you design a mug, come up with something really cool. But quality water bottles, this one I've got here from Dollarcast, it's a metal one.

There we go. Sound effects. And so I think if you're gonna do water bottles, depending on where you're gonna use them, if you were going to go to a sporting event, you wanted to do a whole pile of those really cheap plastic ones, that's great, but no one's gonna probably use them afterwards. They'll get there. People might use them on the day for water, but they're gonna get tossed aside.

If I went to her cupboard, a few years back when my daughter was still at school, probably 30 of them sitting in there. And then one day, we just tossed them all out. They're just taking up room. But if you got a really good quality one, which this one is that I picked up at a conference, you will use it more often. But pens that work are also really good, and that's I put I wanna highlight that.

It's pens that actually work. Because I've received some pens from you gotta write with them, and I've almost got RSI after writing four words. It's oh, it's just tough to write

with. It does the opposite. Right? It has the opposite effect. If you give somebody a pen that doesn't work and they're staring at your name and it's either they're having to like push down so hard or no ink is coming out and they see your name there, it has the complete opposite effect of what why it gave the swag in the first place.

Yes. If you're gonna do pens, then just make sure they're quality pens. But I did I was gonna grab a poll of things so I could show them on video here of things that I had done because I've got a lot around the place. But I've done stubby holders. That's how it came up the other day in conversation.

But I used to have pro arch podiatry golf balls, which were fantastic when we went to golf events. We had pro arch podiatry hats. I still have yeah. I have hats for the podcast, which are quite popular. But we used to do wine bottles.

A friend recently gave me a bottle of whiskey from Interstate Music when I was over in Nashville. Then he went to a whiskey company, got it relabeled with his own stuff, and the whiskey was really, really nice. It's just a shame he only gave me one bottle, but it was it was really great. But even if it's gift baskets so depending on the relationship you're having, who you're giving it to, where you're using it, will determine how much money you sort of spend in this particular area.

Now that makes sense. I think, yeah, you have to kind of gauge the usefulness and the kind of who who it's going to. Right? And then you can kinda figure out what price point or, you know, what makes sense for that relationship.

Yeah. And I love swag, especially t shirts. I'm and the same thing. If you're gonna do t shirts, do good t shirts. Don't do these really cheap ones where you put them on and the sleeves poke out like triangles.

You want those ones, yeah, they sort of fit. They make it when you put it on, you look good in it. You don't put it on and go, yeah, this looks like a really cheap shirt. Because all ends up happening, it just becomes a rag at somebody's house. And once again, it has a negative effect.

If you produce really cheap swag but you're trying to pass off as being quality, then people will notice it. The other person is gonna say, is the swag must be useful. That's the other thing. So here in Cairns, I live in the tropics. If you wanna make do swag in their beanies for for your head, probably not very useful here.

Now, if I was in Ontario, it might be completely different. Beanies might be very popular. And like I said before, no one needs another key ring. So if you're thinking about doing key rings and giving them out to people, they're gonna get them. We're gonna put them in the bin.

And also, it sort of I think it represents the personality of your business as well. The reason we did stubby holders or koozies, as you call them, was because being in Cairns, a lot of my patients, they're beer drinkers. I knew that they would actually use them. And I can go around to a few people's places in Cairns that I know who have become friendly with who were patients back in the day. And every and then, I'll be in their bar and I see the ProArch podiatry stubby holder there.

And I'm like and they always say to me, k. These are the best buddy stubby holders I've ever had. I said, I know. I've got six of them. And and I still use them all the time.

That's why I was doing I was on something last night, and I was having a beer while we were talking, and I actually had the ProArch study holder, which is what prompted this particular topic. And also, it's gotta fit the audience that you're chasing or you're trying to connect with. So if you if you look at who you wanna connect with, and say, for example, you want to connect with service professional referrers, and that's why I got here. Think about the types of items your patients or professional referrers would use and keep around them on a daily basis. That's the best thing to do.

If it was like and that's what we talk about. The the bigger the ticket item like a a cooler bag, for example. It might cost you $50 to get it printed and get it done. But if you put a few items in there and gave that as like a gift basket to a professional referrer who was referring a lot of people to you, no one is gonna throw out a cooler bag. It just doesn't happen.

Even if we've 10 of them, they're never gonna throw it out.

No, for sure. Like, that's a a great great item and like you said, you kind of have to think about the value being exchanged. Right? If someone's sending you ten, twenty patients a year, a $50 cooler bag is not such a big deal to kind of give you a token of your appreciation and to kind of remain kind of top of mind with them that show them that you do, you know, appreciate the the patients they're sending over.

Yeah. And that's why we're the we used to do our own wine bottles. We go to a place, taste the whole pot up. We go and taste a number of wines, see which one that we liked, and then we would get, you know, four cases of done, and we would deliver them out to different places at different times. We'd also have a couple ourselves, and our staff enjoyed them.

But and that's the other part with your team, is your team will enjoy your swag just as much as your patients and referrers. So just be aware of that that whatever your patients and referrers are using, your team's probably also gonna like you know, they'll like having your Byzantine on a hat that they can wear out and about. And the more stuff that they have, the prouder they're gonna feel about your about your business, which I'm gonna jump on to something. I was gonna talk about this towards the end. But now that I just mentioned the team, think I'll talk about it now.

And it was about improving your team culture. It's just so something that I've already just said, the more swag an employee can use on a day to day basis, the more they feel that they're part of your team or or connected with your business. And and they reckon and research has found that companies that've got a well established culture, you know, so your your team members feel they're part of it because they're wearing your, you know, business shirts and hats and and other sort of swag that you sort of developed just for your team. They said a team a business has got a better team culture, has something like the staff turnover is only, 14% compared to a a company that has a really bad culture, the turnover is usually 50%. But what adds to the team culture is them making them feel that they're part of the business, and swag is actually a a way of doing that.

I thought it was interesting.

That's an interesting study. Think you're right about it can kind of everyone's wearing the same thing. They're all kind of pushing the same direction. And it's almost like a team uniform in a way that really helps them feel like they're a part of something. And they are kind of representing that brand and they're wearing other chests that are maybe have it on their head or they are using a pin.

Just a constant reminder of togetherness and trying to achieve similar goals.

Yeah. And I remember, you know, some of the people used to work with me and we had, like, we had our work shirts, but we also had some casual shirts done. We had running hats, and I'd see photos of them online wearing wearing the hat. I'd go to their house, and they had 52 of my pens scattered around the house because they'd take one home every single day. But if I was seeing them, it means other people that were visiting their house would see them.

We used their proarch podiatry socks. We had yeah. And the golf balls, most of the people that worked with me a few few of the ones that worked with me played golf. So every now and then, I'd always give them a few golf balls to go and play with. And then I didn't even care if they lost them because if they lose them, usually somebody else finds them, which means straight away and I remember we'd be on a golf course on a corporate day, and every day, I would just drop a ProArch Podiatry golf ball deliberately somewhere where I know it would be found because I knew that person would pick up and go, oh, ProArch Podiatry.

Two feet away from better golf. So yeah. Which that leads on to? What's that?

So it's a good tagline.

It was a good tagline. And so that leads on to how you're gonna distribute your your swag once you actually have it. So it could be local events, yeah, in your community. You might sponsor a certain event, and you might provide 50 hats for for a particular event or for a school or just something that's actually happening in the community. It might be a face to face meeting that you're having with someone and you and you leave this information or you leave the swag behind.

You might post something to to that person. So if it was a say, for example, you went and got bottles of whiskey done, which you can do and every country can do this. If you got whiskey done and it was and it was quite nice, then do you have a meeting with them hand hand delivered, or do you get it delivered to them somehow by a courier and all of sudden, there's like a big unveiling in their in their reception area if it was for a professional referrer? But we had some patients. They referred so many patients to us.

I mean, they were just best word-of-mouth referrers. And we would always be giving them bottle yeah. They come in, we give them another bottle of wine. And then they would take it home, and then they would take a photo of a bottle of wine that they got from their business. And you can also use them as incentives in different ways.

I think one thing about distribution, I know in The US, it can be a little tricky with, like, things being conceived as kickbacks to other providers.

Oh, hell yeah.

There are there are some rule there are some rules in The US when it comes to providing gifts to other people. It's not that you can't, but I think there's certain rules and stipulations you have to kind of look into before you you give too much to somebody else because it can be seen as an illegal kickback.

Yeah. Well, what we how we used to do it yeah. I I would always let a professional referrer know, I'm not giving you this gift for that patient. Because to me, that would be if you tell me 10, you get 10 bottles of whiskey. No.

That's not how I do things. But it'd be I would give them something as a thank you for the overall generosity that they the support that they give my business. Yeah. So I agree with that. It shouldn't just be you give me this, and I'll give you that.

You give me this, I'll give you that.

That no.

No. That's not sort of what saying.

More generalized. I just wanted to bring up that portion of it because because I think someone might be listening to this like, oh, like, then, you know, you're kinda like doing this the math in your head. No. It's just like it's a token of your appreciation. If you keep it that way, then it'd be okay.

Yeah. And it's no different. Like, everybody knows themselves when it's one of the it's the law of reciprocity. When someone does something nice for you, you do something back. So that's how you end up building these working relationships.

It's not a bribe. It's a thank you for the support. But I did I did have a doctor once where I dropped off a bottle of the two doctors work at this medical center. I dropped off two bottles of wine for them. And one of them actually rang me up said, oh, Tyson, I really don't feel comfortable that you gave me a bottle of wine just because I refer patients.

I I feel like that's a kickback. And that's exactly what he said. Oh, no. Sorry, Michael. Didn't realize you felt that way.

And so I rang Peter, the other medical the other doctor there who I was friends with, and said, hey, Peter. Did you get a bottle of wine? He goes, yeah. Thanks for that. I said, oh, Michael doesn't want his.

He goes, silly bastard. I'll take his. He said, can I have both of them? I said, yeah. You can have both.

He goes, okay. It's it's how it's perceived from the person. So if that doctor never sent anything else to me, because I knew that made him feel uncomfortable. Whereas Peter did not have an issue with it at all. He had no problem with it.

It's a good point that you bring up.

Yep.

So the next point was always trying to do quality over quantity. Cheaper items are fine as long as they're really, really useful. This metal water bottle that I have, I have no idea how much that cost to do. I don't think it would have been over the top expensive. But if they were relatively cheap, as long as the quality is still good so it doesn't necessarily mean cheaper items can't also be of good quality, but as long as they're they're useful, unlike a key ring.

We don't want key rings.

Zero key rings. Never a key ring.

There's all these podiatrists out there. Like, damn. Just had another 5,000 key rings done. Now the thing with Swag two, it increases your brand awareness. It keeps your practice or your business and the business name top of mind with your referrers and also with your patients.

So that's why if if you can find something that they use every day now I have a stapler here that is just a brand name stapler. But if you had a quality stapler done, and that person then has it on their desk all the time and that's why when you walk into a lot of doctor's clinics, you will see branded items all over their desks because suppliers know if they give them something and it's useful and it stays in their eyesight on a regular basis, it's going to be top of mind and there's more chance of actually getting referrals.

Yeah. For my for my clients or the podiatrist I work with, I generally provide in the past on Christmas, I've given the these kind of YETI coffee cups, you know, like a really quality

Oh, yeah.

Coffee cup. And you know, something they can maybe fill up either at home or on the way and they just have it sitting in their office, know, or in their clinic nook and they're drinking coffee all day and they have this podiatry growth, you know, really nice premium cup with them that keeps the coffee nice and warm. So it is yeah. It depending on who that, you know, who you're getting the swag for, it can really be beneficial to provide something that is, you know, a little bit more premium. So you do stay top of mind and something they use on a consistent basis.

Well, when we first started working together and because I was doing so much work in the early stages, you sent me two whiskey glasses. And and I use them all the time. And even though they're not engraved or anything, but they are really, really nice whiskey glasses. And every time I have a whiskey out of it, and even though it doesn't have your name on it, every whiskey I have, I think you'd be when I'm doing it. Well, yeah.

So if my if my liver ends up having a problem

It's my fault. It's all fine. I'm gonna get your medical bills here. Is that what you're

trying to It's my glasses. If it wasn't how good those glasses are, I wouldn't have kept drinking. But the other good part with certain swag too, if it's used on a daily basis and it's something that's practical, whether it's a a t shirt or whatever it is, is it's recognized by others when they see it. So it's not just top of mind with your with your patients and your referrers. If they're keeping it with them and they see it on a daily basis, it means other people are are seeing it as well.

The next point I wanna make is just about with majority of swag like, you can get some really expensive swag or promotional items done. But majority of time, they're low cost and they they have a lasting impact. So if you compare it to other types of marketing, it I think swag is actually quite inexpensive. And once you have it out there, it does last a long time. It's like I picked this water bottle up from Dollar Cast, who are getting a bit of a promotion here.

But I picked this water bottle up. They got it in June. This is now, yeah, 2024. So over six months, I've had this water bottle sitting on my desk that I use it constantly all the time. It's low cost, but it has a lasting impact on me.

Not that I need a dollar cast machine at the moment. But if somebody said to me, oh, can you think of a shockwave machine? That's the first one that's gonna pop into my head because I've been looking at it every day for six months. I'm not gonna think about any other one. Oh, the other part with Swag as well is it does provide free advertising.

Some people will definitely certain promotional items we give them or Swag, they will post it online. Like, when we gave out wine bottles, there were a lot of times where people would post that image of of the wine, and especially if it if it's got a bit of humor to it or because we would do these bottles of wine around Australia Day, and we'd say, yeah, at one time of the year, it's okay to wear thongs. Now, for North Americans, that's on your feet. No. Not be bummed.

If you've listened to this enough times, you probably know the difference by now. If the items that you're giving out, the swag you're giving out is very useful, some people will even re gift it to other people. They might not need it themselves. They might have the coffee mug from Podiatry Growth that they sort of go, oh, yes, thing this is my favorite one. But somebody else gives them another one, they go, oh, I like it, not as good as Jim's.

So then they'll hand it off to somebody else, but it's it's still out and about. That's the thing. If it's a useful item, and that's the part I wanna keep getting back to on this, it's gotta be useful. The more useful it is, the more it's gonna get used, the the more it'll be seen. Swag is also versatile.

You can theme certain products based on a particular event that you're doing or a product launch or or a launch. That's why that's how we did the golf balls because we used to do corporate golf days all the time. I would invite a few other people, a physio that I knew, a dietitian and a doctor. We'd all go and play golf together, and I would give them the golf balls for the day. I said, I don't care how many you lose, but then I'd also those golf balls, we would give them out boxes of eight, I think it was, as part of the first, second, and third prize for the golf day.

And so tailor it to what you're doing. Yeah. Like, if you're doing tote bags or shirts with a funny slogan on it, think about where will they be used and and how can they be used. And you might even create something odd like a, yeah, a squeaky dog toy.

Something memorable, Well, yeah, I've

got one under here. Dog's not here at the moment. Oh, hang on a sec. Hear that? Yeah.

That's a squeaky dog toy that's under my desk. And the dog is probably now going nuts outside because I've just started playing with this toy. But if you had a toy like that that had your, yeah, practice name on there and the person's got a pet, every time that pet squeaks that toy, they're gonna remember, oh, that was, yeah, ProArch Podiatry, for example. So sometimes it can just be it don't have to be mainstream. But if you know someone's got a dog, the dog loves chewing on things, give them a squeaky toy.

Well, sometimes things that are a little unexpected can be more memorable. Right? If you've gotten a pin from every business in town, it's the squeaky dog toy is gonna stand out. So therefore, your your practice or, you know, your referral will remember you a little bit better because it is a little bit, you know, off the beaten path.

Yeah. Especially if it's a squeaky foot. Can you imagine a rubber squeaky foot? I'm sure somebody out there does rubber squeaky feet, that you could get your name put on there and every person and you could have a notice up in your reception that says, do you have a dog that loves squeaky toys?' And that's all the question is. And patients will say, 'Yeah, my dog loves squeaky toys.' No, my dog loves squeaky toys.' And you go, 'Okay, you pull one out from the box and you give it to them.

Now, they're gonna take that home every time that dog squeaks that foot. Every time they see that foot, they're gonna think of your podiatry business. There you go. I think that is the number one takeaway from this. Everyone needs to get some squeaky squeaky feet.

Squeaky dog toys for the win on the podcast.

Squeaky feet. I love that. That is really good. And, also, it's your swag can be an alternative to just giving someone a business card. You might you might have a pocket full of squeaky feet.

You're talking to people, hey, do you have you ever been to a podcast conference?

I have not been to a podcast conference before. No.

Okay. So I went to podcast movement in 02/2019, I think it was, 02/2018. There were 3,000 people there. Talk about swag. I I I when I went to that conference, my wife said to me, do not, under any circumstances, bring any more t shirts home.

I said, I promise I won't buy any shirts. And we came home with nine shirts, and and she said, I thought you said no more shirts. I said, I didn't buy any of these. They were all given to me. Some of them, though, were absolutely spectacular that that were just fantastic.

And every time I put them on, I think of that company because the shirt was that memorable. So it's much better than a business card. For sure. And I think I've pretty much oh, that that just the last point I wanna cover because I know I've gone on a fair bit. This pretty it's a big subject is it can also promote your company values.

If you're quite environmentally conscious, then you might make your swag sort of reflect that. So, for example, we used to have Pro Arch Podiatry nail files. So you see it pull off that slippy thing there, you turn it around, and there's the naily bit. These were very popular with our female patients. They loved them.

But if you're right into the environment, you might get these made out of something that's biodegradable or it might be made out of bamboo. I know a dentist that was getting bamboo toothbrushes made. He said the plastic ones that he was getting from Colgate or whichever company was supplying them, well, that's fine, but they got bamboo ones done because it was better for the environment. I've seen friends that riding against plastic straws because of them going up the noses of turtles. So they they developed these metal straws that were collapsible, and it has your business name on there.

I did have one around here. Someone was gonna show it. I've got heaps of heaps of swag around all all over over the place, and I just could be more prepared next time. But that was the last point. It's just it can really become part of your your your business values.

If you're right into the environment, then let your patients know that you've developed these things with the environment in mind. It's not something that's going to become landfill.

I've been looking into business cards and some other promotional stuff as I go to some conferences. And you're right, there's a lot of different environmentally friendly options out there these days. So if you want something biodegradable or something that's made of 95% recycled this or that or the other, that's available now. So yeah, there's definitely a lot of options there.

Yeah. And if you're doing that, I think it's really important to let your patients know, hey, this shirt was made out of Bamboo. Yeah. Bamboo. Yeah.

It's a bamboo shirt. And especially if you know and this is where you've gotta get to know who your clientele are and then match your swag to actually suit them. It's the same as with your referrers, and it's the same with your team. And so I think you can have different swag for different people. I I know people that are doing gyms, for example, or martial arts gyms.

They've got certain clothing and and swag that they their members will wear, but their team has other swag that they have that looks slightly cooler than I think what the members get. And, yeah, I'll be trying to score one. But it makes the but you see the team that's there, and they have a really, really good culture as well. I don't know if anyone that's ever joined the gym. They're they're at this they're over in Philadelphia.

Dragon Gym, give them a shout out, and Exton in Pennsylvania. I'd never hear of them talking about team members leaving because I think they have such a great team culture, but they also have a massive amount of swag that goes with their business. And I've got a few of their shirts and other things, and I love wearing the gear. Even even my wife says to me, jeez, you look good in that shirt. So I'll wear it

more often. Fantastic.

Yeah. Okay, Jim. I think I've just about covered that. But it's but like I said, it's one of those topics that I just absolutely love.

I can tell. You're you're a swag t shirt guy. You gotta have that swag, and it definitely brings the joy to your eye. I can see just the way you're talking about and the looking right now.

So Yeah. I'm a swag hoe.

There's worse things, I guess.

Oh, it is. And I've got I know some podiatrists. Yeah. Carly O'Donohue, who's a few people may have heard that name before and who would know. And she just says the same thing.

I just love swag. She goes, I just can't get enough of it. As long as it and then the more useful it is, the more the more we like it. And I'm sure we're not the only ones.

Probably not.

Okay, Jim. I will I look forward to talking to you next week. What are we gonna talk about next week anyway? We could do a prelude. What is it?

Prelude or an open loop? Oh, an open loop. It's gonna be something regarding photography.

Oh, okay. I look forward to it. Okay. Well, I'll talk to you next week.

Sounds good, Tyson. Okay.

See you.

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.