Resetting Your Marketing Strategy for a Successful 2025

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

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of the podiatry marketing podcast. With me as usual, as he is every week, big Jim Mack, aka Jim McDannald. We can use your last name. And happy New Year, Jim, and happy New Year to everybody who's listening to this.

Yeah. Happy New Year to New Year to you, and happy New Year to the the the millions of fans of the podiatry marketing podcast. It's Millions. First episode of twenty twenty five. It's hard to believe that we're kind of nearing the midway of this decade.

It's kind of a a crazy thing. I guess we're this is starting, what, year three or year four for us? I'm I'm losing track of the numbers here.

You want to ever say January.

So this is we're starting year four.

Is it year four? Yeah. And time fly when you're having fun.

Absolutely.

I can't believe it's 2025 already, and it's and that once again, I got so many things booked in already. Before before we know, we'll be going, ah, happy New Year, Jim. It's 2028. Absolutely. Okay.

So what are we talking about today?

Yeah. So, you know, since we're starting a new year, I thought it made sense to, you know, try to let our listeners have a kinda kick off 2025 in style. We're gonna talk a little bit today about resetting your marketing strategy for successful 2025. You know, I think on this podcast and obviously everywhere on the Internet, there's lots of different kind of marketing tactics to get kinda popped around and, you is it search GPT or is it Google Ads? We talk a lot about tactics.

But Yeah. You know, it's really really important that, you know, we kind of go beyond the tactics sometimes and, you know, you know, because without a, you know, without a strategy, know, it's like running without a without a destination in mind. So, you know, you feel you know, maybe you feel busy. You feel like you're making meaningful progress, but, you know, you really would need to make sure you have your goals in line. What better time of year than to kinda get things started off talking about some kind of general strategies to implement in 2025 for a successful year for your practice?

It is the as soon as it hits the new year, it's one of those things that's like a clean slate. What whatever's happened in the past is past you go, and we get sound effects. You just wipe that clean, and you start fresh. That's why I do that word of the year. I always choose a word of the year that's gonna motivate me for the year.

So I'm looking forward to digging into this.

I'm looking forward to hearing your word of the year. That's gonna be a good reveal maybe on a future podcast.

Oh, I can tell. I know about my word. I've already yeah. I know my word of the year. I alright.

Do want me to tell you what it is?

You can or you can hang out for maybe we can have a whole podcast about

Okay. Yeah. I'll leave my word

the applies.

Yeah. I'll do that. I might do that next week's episode. I'll do my word of the year. That should be interesting.

Sounds like a plan. So the first thing to be aware of is, you know, you really wanna make sure you define clear goals and set, you know, key performance indicators or KPIs. So, you know, maybe there was something you in 2024, you're like, you know, when it becomes 2025, I no longer want to do x, y, z. Or maybe in 2025, I wanna see more sports medicine patients, for example. Maybe there's a certain niche of patient you wanna go after, but really getting you know, defining what your clear goals are for your practice.

Maybe it's, you know, bringing on associate. Maybe it's opening up a satellite clinic somewhere. Maybe it's a second practice somewhere. Maybe you're getting ready to transition out of practice and you wanna, you know, bring on someone to to buy your practice or an associate. You really need to have an idea of what you wanna achieve because otherwise, you're just kinda like going in a million directions.

Right? So, you know, understanding what your goals are and then developing some, you know, some KPIs or key performance indicators around those goals. You know? How many of those runners are you getting into your practice in sports medicine patients? You know?

Are you making active steps to recruit someone as an associate or, you know, potentially, you know, having someone evaluate your practice, understand potentially what you could, you know, get for your practice? What are those steps you need to do to achieve your goals? And there's no better time of year than here in January to get things going?

And I know some people so I know a lot of people will actually say, I find it really hard to set goals. They really struggle on setting goals, and and and sometimes, I think if you find how do you set goals, write a list of all the things you don't want. And and that's what the thing that they call inversion thinking. So if you don't know what you really want or you're not quite sure what the goal is going to be, then write down what you definitely don't want. And when you know what that is, then you'll profile your goal is very close to the opposite to that.

No. Absolutely. I I think it's a great point because it is sometimes hard to understand, like because there's so many different options, different opportunities. Right? Sometimes when we go into podiatry school or even residency, you know, we're foot and ankle doctors, we can treat a ton of different things.

But if you wanna get really good at something, you have to kind of cut out certain aspects of practice to really become the expert in that kind of subspecialty of podiatry. And I think I think you're breaking up a great point that by, you know, kind of saying things you don't wanna do, it can kinda get the ball rolling a little bit.

Yeah. Well, if you said, what type of podiatrist do you wanna be this time next year? Do you wanna be average? I don't think anyone wants to be average. So if you don't wanna be average, think about what does the average podiatrist do?

What's the average business owner do? And therefore, don't do what they're doing. You need to and then that will help you go, oh, okay. That's what you mean. I need to be doing more or at least be aiming towards something.

Absolutely.

Okay. So what's next after they set their goal? They know what it is that they want. They've got some key performance indicators in there. Now what?

So now you really wanna kinda step back a little bit and try to see your practice from the viewpoint of a patient. We talked about it a bit in the past when we talked about marketing sales funnels, but you really wanna try to understand what the patient journey is and what activities you're doing in order to, number one, attract patients to your practice. You know you know, are doing things? Are you if you're wanting to see sports medicine athletes, are you engaging with with runners and and athletes in any any way? Are you, like, a team doctor for somebody?

Are you running ads? Are you making connections with other people that are treating runners or sports medicine athletes? You know, whatever your subspecialty is or whatever type of agents you wanna see from step one is like trying to map out how is that ideal patient gonna find you, number one. And then what's gonna convince them that you are that right fit expert to kinda take care of and provide them a solution for whatever they're doing. So, you know, really gotta step back and kinda dissect the different things you're doing both in the real world and online to try to, you know, make sure you're are you consistently you know, is your branding consistent with what you're trying to attract?

Are are you putting out a consistent message across multiple platforms to attract that right fit patient? You really need to and maybe it's talking to some you know, maybe some talking sometimes to the those patients in your practice that found you in certain ways and doing a little research as far as, you setting up steps to know how they found you. Or, you know, maybe you have friends that are kind of in that cohort of patient and say, know, if you were to try to solve this problem, you know, how would you solve if you twisted your ankle, who would you go see? What would be your thought process? So trying to lay out that patient journey is hugely important.

Yeah. I love the point you said then about making sure the patient's the right fit for your your business as well. Because I know some people say, oh, yeah. I wanna I wanna have a clinic that attracts more sports patients. But then you look at their business and you go, doesn't scream sports patients.

It screams the exact opposite with your beige carpet and and your your fixtures and finish. It just looks old and dated. And most sports people, yeah, they want the latest and greatest. So you've gotta even if you can't afford the latest and greatest equipment, you can change floor coverings. You can do a soft refurb of your clinic and just keep it looking up to date.

That's going to attract those type of you got more chance of attracting those type of patients than you have if you just let it get run down. And I also think if you want certain patients, look at yourself. Stand in the mirror and actually take a look at yourself. And if you're not happy with what you see, then start making some changes. Set those as one of your goals.

Yeah. If I was a runner, I don't wanna go and see a a slob who smells the cigarettes and, yeah, reeks of tobacco and it's just doesn't look the part. It doesn't mean that you have to be ripped. It just means you gotta look healthy. If wanna treat sports, you gotta look healthy.

Yeah. Absolutely. That's a great point. So so number three, we'll jump into now is really try to prioritize your local marketing. I think that's one thing that, you know, people overlook.

I think there's different people that overlook it sometimes. You know, you wanna do a lot of surgery or you wanna do something, and people focus a lot on the diagnosis and the treatments and not necessarily, number one, kind of the offline things you can do, whether it be through, you know, local sponsorships or partnerships with both health care professionals and local businesses. Maybe it's with gyms and wellness centers. But then it's also the online component. You know?

You have the you know, a lot of, you know, website providers, and and our space will sometimes give you the top 50 diagnosis and top 50 treatments, but there's no kind of relation to the local community. Right? Are you a podiatrist that treats patients in Alexandria or Chicago or San Francisco or the surrounding suburbs in that area? Making sure you have relevant landing pages for people or looking for services in a specific local area to land on these areas. We serve pages to both, you know, drive kind of local traffic and make it easier for people to find you online.

It could like I said, it can be very easy to kind of not see yourself as, you know, the as a local clinic. You know, sometimes even if you wanna have a national reputation, you need to make sure that you're servicing those people in that easy radius around your clinic. And by, you know, both doing things online and offline, it's a great opportunity to really be seen as that local expert. If you choose to expand to other areas, fantastic. But start local first and really make sure that our you know, evaluate whether you're capturing that local demand for foot and ankle care.

Yeah. And just a little add on to that too. I think if you're in your local market, you're writing local articles and all that, yeah, about your area, is if you can try and include images from your area on your website in in your social media pages as well. So if you got a photo of a runner, have them running, but can you get a photo of a runner that's in a prominent area? When as soon as people see that, they know that's your area.

And I remember seeing might have been we're in Arizona. I saw a podiatrist website there, and I think the photo and I had the and you can see the surf in the background. And I can't remember the last time I went to the surf when I was in Arizona, and I've going every year for the last decade. And surf's never been up, but it just it looked wrong. The whole image just looked wrong with what they were with what they were doing.

So like I said, if you're if you're gonna prioritize your local marketing, make sure images fit the local market as well.

No. Absolutely. It's if it's not relevant and it doesn't speak to people from that local area, it's almost it feels fake or just doesn't feel trustworthy. So you wanna make sure you're whether you're doing things online, offline, you're building that that that trust with people who live in that local area.

Mhmm. They got marketing in New York City with straw sticking out of your mouth, plaid shirt leaning on a cow. Just wouldn't fit.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I don't think it would anyway. What's number four?

So really developing kind of a omnichannel or a multichannel, like, content calendar or marketing calendar.

Oh, yeah.

You know, what is, you know, your quarter one goals? Right? Like, what kind of patients or type of campaigns do you wanna run-in q one, q '2, q '3, and q four. I think it's good, especially when people are getting started marketing their practice to have more, you know, quarterly goals. I think you can have sometimes, you know, have ideas for what you want to do.

You know, maybe it's more than two goals during that quarter, but trying to work harder in that quarter to achieve something, it's gonna be much more measurable. And then, you know, like, sometimes, you know, podiatry can be seasonal as well. Right? People are gonna before it becomes, you know, bare feet and flip flop flip flops or thongs time, people are gonna want nail care or not to have those thick toenails anymore. So there's different ways to kind of, you know, kind of develop a calendar around your marketing activities.

So you so not only do you have these KPIs, but you can try to test stuff at different times of year and see what resonates, what doesn't resonate, and see if you can get some results in that way. So you're not always feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel. Once you see something hit, you know, maybe you can try it in the next quarter or maybe hold that back for the next, you know, q two or q three of or the next year. There's different ways of doing it. But sometimes when you think more in the the line of, like, a time frame or a calendar, it's gonna help you achieve these goals more than just trying to do everything all at once or everything all in January, and you get overwhelmed and overloaded.

And by the time, you know, February or March, it's kinda like the gyms. Like, no one's going anymore. No one's when they They have all these great, you know, New Year's resolutions. You're gonna mark your practice by, you know, February, you're you're out of the game. So, you know, it gives by doing things on a quarterly basis, it's helped helps you kinda build into it and have some different goals along the way.

Yeah. And it's also one of the things too. I think if you if you plan out your your calendar for the year with, you know, the different channels in that you're gonna use, when you do something and it seems to work really well at a certain time of the year, is please make a mental note of that, rinse it, and repeat it, and do it again the following year. We used to always have a campaign, and it went, oh, the party's over, and it's time to exercise, but a painful feet is stopping you. If so, you should see the foot doctor's approach podiatry.

You'll be pain free again in no time. So it was a fifteen second commercial. I had five images that went with it. We did it online. We did it in print.

We did it in different areas. We repeated that same message January and February every year, and it went gangbusters. Just the first time we did it, it just went nuts. So the next year, went, well, we should do it again. So then we didn't have to think about it.

And I think this is the idea when like, your marketing calendar is if you got one there, once you start getting these things in place, less thought needs to go into it because it it you constantly just keep repeating it.

Yeah. Absolutely. And it kinda ties into my last point, and that's kind of you know, when you're thinking kind of in seasons or quarters, you're able to commit to regular reviews and adaptation. Right? So you can, you know, see what's working, see what's not working.

I think sometimes people you know, I've seen people like, oh, I tried Google Ads for two weeks at, you know, $200 and it didn't work. Or I tried it for one month and it just didn't seem to work for me. I I think, you know, you have to give things a bit of time when it comes to marketing your practice just like it is when you're building up your practice. And and reviewing having these quarterly reviews, maybe it's monthly reviews for certain things that are more important to your practice, and then learning to adapt. Right?

Maybe Google search ads is drawing is drive a lot of new patient visits. You know, maybe you pro maybe you provide a service that's not something that's searched a lot online. So maybe, you know, utilizing Instagram ads or Facebook ads is something to consider. But, you know, kinda looking and assessing things in a regular cadence, whether that be monthly or quarterly, to review your your your kind of how you're progressing towards those goals or, you know, just making sure you're you're moving along during 2025 so you can be successful with whatever those goals are that you set in in step one.

Yeah. It's funny that, like, Facebook will tell you at certain times who engages with you the most at certain times with on Facebook and on Instagram. And what I find funny is Facebook interaction for the different things that I've done have been an hour earlier than Instagram on average. So if if Facebook was 6AM with most of the most of people will engage, Instagram's about an hour later consistently. And then I'm thinking about my own habits.

I'm like, that actually makes sense. Do want me to tell you why? Why is that? You might wanna edit this out. When I wake up when I wake up in the morning, I wake up, I have my coffee.

And while I'm having my coffee, I sit there and I'm on Facebook, I'm just scrolling through Facebook to see what's going on. And then, I might have something to eat, then my bowels cut in. And then when they do, I go, oh, I gotta go the bathroom. So I go to bathroom, my phone's in my pocket. I look at Instagram.

I'll never look at Instagram the same way.

I know. That's what I said. You might wanna edit that out. But and it makes me wonder, oh, do people have the same patterns? Does that does anyone wake up and go straight to Instagram or do they go to Facebook first and then Instagram later on?

And I know a lot of people that said they scroll on Instagram when they go to the bathroom. Obviously, you're not one of those people, Jim.

Not right now. So

But now you go. You'll never go to the bathroom again. The same you go, damn it. I wanna look at Instagram now.

I'm gonna blame you if I drop my phone in the toilet.

I don't. Yeah. Don't stand there holding a phone. Just sitting there relaxed because something need something to do. Then I haven't got I saw a research thing recently, and it said that hemorrhoids have gone up.

The percentage of people getting hemorrhoids has gone up over the years because more people

sitting on their phones.

They're sitting on the toilet longer than they used to.

Instagram's gonna have a class action lawsuit, it sounds like.

How educational is this podcast?

Just nuggets of knowledge being dropped.

Oh, nuggets nuggets of nuggets of knowledge being dropped. That is fantastic, Jim. I coulda that is that is funny. People listening to us now going, well, this podcast for 2025 has really gone to the gone to the toilet, hasn't it?

It has. It has.

Anything else you wanna say before we wrap up on this?

Yeah. Just if I can compose myself, I would say, you know, attack 2025 with a strategy. Right? You know, have a plan. You know, if you need help, if you need some coaching, obviously, Tyson is available.

If you wanna have a digital marketing plan to try to attack 2025 at your best, feel free to reach out to me. But I think 2025 is gonna be a great year, not only, you know, for our podcast, but for everyone who's listening. So excited to start year four with you here, Tyson, and excited to hear about some of our listener successes in 2025.

No. That's I think this episode's been a great way to start. And, yeah, maybe we need to bring a bit more bath bathroom humor into into each episode. So, Jim, once again, good talking with you, and I'll see you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. See you.

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