Self Reflective Marketing

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 cohost, my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin.

I like that. What? Oh, sorry. Do you wanna do

that again? Trusty? No. It's good.

That's good. I like that. Trusty trusty cohost. I'm good today, big Jim. You can be big Jim big trusty Jim.

Yeah. No. Things are good over here in Montreal. No complaints. Middle of summer, feeling good.

It's getting a little hot, but it's, you know, it's much better than freezing. Freezing like we do in the wintertime. So

I look at your temperatures over there, and even when you get your summer, it's such a short period of time, and you just go now one day, everyone just we do we see everyone in North America, how much do they celebrate summer? And they go out and they do certain things because you don't have a lot of time to enjoy it.

Yeah. You gotta make hay while the sun is shining red because it's gonna be gone before you know it.

Okay. So we're gonna get onto today's topic.

So what are we gonna talk about today?

Today, I wanna talk about self reflective marketing. And the idea of it, it's sort of this comes off the back of two previous episodes that we did. One was episode 70, where we're talking about developing micro pillars. And also episode 72, where we're talking about finding black caviar, which was a lot to do with testing and measuring and and figuring out, you know, just because something works today doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work tomorrow. When you put those two things together, one of the biggest thing is when we when I talked about the marketing pillars, said every time you're doing something, you should be noting down what you're doing and and trying to record what was happening.

It could be doesn't really matter what the marketing pillar was that you're using, but take note of other things that are going around. The weather is important, especially like you what we just mentioned before. In summer, I'm sure what you do as a as an individual is completely different to what you do in the middle of winter where you live.

No. For sure. Yeah. I'm inside a lot more during the the colder months and outside trying to enjoy the the mountain and and get out for some runs when it's when the weather's nice.

Yeah. So where you are is probably very seasonal on the different activities you do, which would probably affect patients and their problems that they have and what and what they come with. And there's probably certain patients too that, yeah, when it's 10 feet of snow, probably do not wanna leave the house and go and see anybody. They might be trapped. You know, appointments get messed up and things like that.

So I think the whole idea of self reflective marketing is just whenever you're doing anything is just sit back and reflect on what you did. Is try and learn as much as you can with every single marketing activity you do and also getting feedback from from the people around you. So when patients are coming in, is look at the type of patients that are coming in and if they saw some marketing you did, it could have been it could have been a Google ad that you did or it might have been a blog article or it might be something you posted on Facebook. Dig down on how they found you. And you can even ask them questions like, what was it about my that particular ad that you saw or the marketing that did that made you say, now was the time to actually take action on it?

And they might go, oh, now I've seen I've seen it so many times. I just keep thinking I've gotta do something I've gotta do something I've gotta do something. And then yesterday, I went to go for a run because the weather's better, and also, bang, I had the same problem I had last year. Stuff up, I'm not putting up with this anymore. So to me, noting all that down is something you can reflect on later.

Yeah. Next year, same time. What sort of responses you were getting from different people, different places?

No. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think there's a certain amount of awareness you need to have depending on where you're practicing and, you know, asking additional questions like you mentioned is a great way to kinda dig below the surface. If someone just says, you know, oh, I found you on Google. Yeah.

Digging a little bit deeper will help you realize was it an ad? Was it was it a link in the kind of the organic section? I think it's also important is that sometimes, you know, if you're not kind of curious enough or you're not really asking these questions, you're just never gonna know. For example, you know, when are you gonna live in somewhere like in Canada or North America? You know, people can kind of get away with having their fungal toenails throughout the winter.

It's not top of mind.

But Yeah.

Once like sandal season comes along, there's a real opportunity here that if you you're aware and you realize that people are gonna wanna start wearing sandals in a month or two, you know, once the spring starts kicking off, you know, there's an opportunity to kinda make your local patients aware of that and kinda tap into that, you know, wanting to go to the beach or wanting to get outside aspect of kind of how activity and how your patients' lives are changing. But if you're just kind of not curious and you're just kinda like going through the motions with your marketing or with the services you provide, you're gonna miss those great opportunities.

Yeah. And when I was talking before about weather too, it's really paying attention because she might run a marketing campaign during summer, you know, leading up to summer. You know, people are gonna be more in open shoes and they're concerned, yeah, especially women with fungal nails and these ugly looking things looking, yeah, sticking out there. They're nice. They're going to the races.

They've got beautiful dress on, nice shoes, and you get these big fungal things sitting at the end of their feet. So you might be, say, spring into summer looking at all that and going, yeah, two years ago, oh, we we did really, really well because we did this particular campaign. You go, oh, but then the next year, we we changed the campaign. We did something else. It didn't work as well.

And you might be thinking, but did not work as well because it was a different campaign. It did not work as well because it was an exceptionally wet spring or summer. And therefore, that changed everybody's activity. So when it comes when we spoke before about finding black caviar and testing and measuring what you're doing, it's not just testing and measuring the results from a particular campaign. It's reflecting on a lot of different other aspects.

It's taking trying to take a lot more into account. So anytime you go and do everything anything, think about it. Did it work? What worked? What didn't work?

And the big question is if you're doing it again, and I've mentioned this on other recordings, what would you do differently? And this is about this is the real self reflective reflective part is if you were running that same same campaign again with what you know right now, what would you do different? And noting that down and why, so when you go to do it again, you can you're reflecting back on what you've already reflected on.

Yeah. It helps you really adapt and adjust. Right? Yeah. I think that's a really important component is that, you know, a lot of people see kind of cookie cutter marketing ideas or things that have worked in the past.

And I think sometimes they they're expecting to get the exact same results as they had previously. Right? But like you said, the environment can change. Preferences can change. Maybe there's been improvements in certain types of technology.

So kind of, you know, being up to date and understanding that you're gonna have to adjust and adapt somewhat. Maybe it is, you know, you try something a little bit different than last time. It doesn't work as well, so you go back to that old thing. But unless you're testing and trying to get a little bit better each time doing it, yeah, you're just gonna kinda either get you're gonna think you're gonna get what you're always gonna get, but you may also get, you know, a a lesser result or maybe a better result sometimes. But when you're taking into account those different variables, you can kinda make better decisions about why things work and then better decisions for the future.

Yeah. And it's not always copying what everybody else is doing. Yeah. Take Instagram, for example. I've seen some things on Instagram that podiatrists do.

Go, wow. That's really clever, and I can see why that works for them. But I can see some other podiatrists who try to copy exactly what they're doing, and I'm going, it just doesn't work for you. Please. You shouldn't be doing that.

But I think just because they've seen three other podiatrists do it, therefore, it must it must work for them. And they won't just do it once. They'll be doing it for two years. And you go, at no stage are they actually stopping and looking at it. Well, we had 45 comments from 45 podiatrists.

But if are you doing this marketing for podiatrists? Are you doing the marketing for patients? So if it's only other podiatrists that are looking at what you're doing, are you really are you wasting time there? Because you only have a certain amount of time to do certain things. So your time is really, really valuable.

So it's good to reflect on, look at all the activities you're doing, and what is giving you the best bang for your buck? And if spending half a day doing some videos and putting on Instagram and waving your hands about is not really giving you the return, where else could you spend that time?

I think you break up a really good a really important point there is, like, understanding who the kinda, like, for lack of better terms, kinda like the end user. Like, who who are you trying to connect with? Like, when you're being kind of very deliberate about the marketing you do or the types of information you're getting out there into the community, who are you trying to really kind of bring in with that type of stuff? And are you getting those folks? Like you said, there's a lot of podiatrists who'll make content for other podiatrists and there's nothing wrong with that.

Not at all.

But if you're trying to I know a couple of guys that do it, you know, every so often.

It's like, we probably always just talking about before when I was waving my hands about the air. I'm thinking, you're probably gonna cut that out as a as a video stupid to go, here's Tyson waving his hands in the air. And if you put music to it, I'll be really dirty.

Yeah. We're gonna get we're gonna go viral. We're gonna get millions of views with Tyson's TikTok dance there. But but, no, I think it is something where it is good to you know, are you connecting with that? Know, obviously, on this podcast, we're trying to connect with other podiatrists.

But, you know, if we were we're not making it a consumer or like a pod a podiatry podcast for the local area or something. So making sure that you're like you said, it's not just views and likes and stuff from anybody, but it's really connecting with that kind of target audience or that kind of local patient that you wanna bring into practice.

And and this is the part about reflecting on on what you're doing is sometimes you you would have heard the term or you would have, yeah, about vanity numbers, where someone will will create something, and what they wanna see is is likes and shares and comments. And and the more they get, the it makes them feel good. It's almost it's like a dopamine hit. They post something, straight away they get 25 likes, it's a big dopamine hit, makes them feel good, and they wanna just keep doing it. But you're better to to do something and have five likes, but those five likes are from five people who potentially are gonna use your services than having a hundred likes of people that are overseas that are never going to use your business or your services in any way.

This happens a lot in podcasting. So for example, some places that sell advertising on podcasts, they'll go, when your episodes hit 10,000 downloads per episode, we will then put you in touch with different suppliers or people that advertise. And I'm thinking from an advertiser's point of view, you look at, say, Podiatry Legends, or you look at this podcast, we'll have a lot smaller number of downloads per episode. But the people that listen to it are podiatrists. It's podiatrists that listen to podiatry legends.

It's podiatrists that listen to podiatry marketing. You might get a few outside of that, but predominantly, it's podiatrists. So if you're an advertiser, you think, I wouldn't mind talking to podiatrists. Well, we know a couple of good podcasts that you could advertise on. And that's the self reflecting part.

It's just looking back at what you're doing and going, am I really talking to the right people at the right time using the right medium, and and am I getting the right results? It's deep.

No. You know, obviously, we work on this every day, so it's I think it's it's it's I mean, I would say it's easier for us to understand, but we can kind of reflect on these things we teach to other people. Right? But, you know, sometimes when you're getting busy, you know, you're seeing 30 to 40 patients a day, you're trying to take care of your staff, work with your staff, manage your staff, and you're doing some marketing on the side, you know, that that kind of self reflective time is not always there. But I think, you know, take taking that extra half an hour each week or maybe you try to do it on a monthly basis to see, you know, once you're gathering the information about the the types of campaigns you're running or the takeaways, you know, is it really leading to kind of, you know, return on investment for your practice?

It kinda pays dividends because you're gonna stop wasting money, you're gonna stop wasting your time, and you're really gonna be honing in on messages and mediums that really help propel your practice forward.

Yeah. And the one thing I always like people to understand when it comes to marketing, marketing is fun. I don't care what anybody says. Marketing is fun because there's nothing better than coming up with an idea, putting you know, creating a plan around it around it, a strategy, putting it yeah. Letting it loose on the general public or whoever it is, and then you get a response from it.

And that's the best thing about marketing is you know when it works is because you get a response. And and there's nothing nothing puts a bigger smile on your face than when you apply an idea and you get a return on that idea and you go, oh, that was fantastic. That was so good. And then you keep tweaking it and you're making it better. You you reflect on it.

How can I improve it? You make little tweaks. Sometimes not every tweak is good. Sometimes you tweak it, you go, oh, bugger that up. Retweak it, go back to to what worked, and you just just keep repeating it.

And if people don't have time for it, find out is there anyone within your business that loves marketing? And maybe they can help you more. Or if not, you talk to Jim. You talk to myself. Hey, can you guys help me put together a marketing plan that will actually work?

It's like I said, if you haven't got time to do it, that means you're making a lot of money. So if you if you to be honest, if you do not have time to do marketing in your business, there are only two reasons. You hate it, you don't like doing it, or you're that busy and you're making so much money, you haven't got time to do it. So if you if you need marketing done for you, just reach out to somebody and get them help you.

No. That's a perfect example. I I couldn't put it better than that. It's just hugely important to to get the message out there and to kinda, like, track down those kind of ideal patients and by doing you know, by by putting the messages out there, by marketing yourself, you're gonna be seen in your local area as that expert. It can really pay dividends for your practice.

Yeah. And the other part with self reflection too is you don't have to be marketing it every on every social media platform. You don't need to be marketing in every marketing pillar 100% all the time. You just need to pick certain things and just double down on them. The one try try different things.

Work out what's working, do more what's working, and just double down on that and and keep doing it. When I had the podiatric clinic in Cairns, there was one print ad that we used to use, and I used the same print ad for twenty years, pretty much. And the reason I used it is because it bloody worked, and it brought patients in. Every time I ran it, it worked really well. We had maybe two or three radio ads that we would do every now and then.

Every time we ran them, they worked. We had some videos that we we played online, and we also played late at night on TV because it was really cheap. And I know that I live in a regional area, and I think if anybody lives in a regional area, those yeah. Things marketing has changed. Would I advertise on TV now?

Yeah. Probably not. I was saying that wouldn't in regional areas, I still think there's there's a certain way that you can use it that works well. With radio, there's still a certain way that you can use it. Print, yeah, not sure about that, depending on the town that you're in.

But the whole online thing with all the different platforms that are out there, you can't be good on them all. So just be really good on a cup on one or two of them.

I think that's a huge that's a huge, you know, comment there, and I think you're you're right on the ball when it comes to, you know, the self reflective, you know, obviously, the numbers and those kind of things, but making sure you're staying true to the vision of kind of your ideal practice, you know? And the fact that unless you want to be maybe a nationwide or an international renowned surgeon, most of the people that listen to this podcast, you know, are in a kind of a geographic location. So the more you can be seen online and be visible for, you know, the different areas that, you know, where your patients are coming from, if you're the most visible option and and seen as the most, you know, the the expert that that does those different types of things that you wanna do, the patients are gonna come your way. If you're invisible, you're not putting your best foot forward, you're just kind of hoping patients come your way, best of luck to you. Maybe have an amazing referral network, but you really have to be visible.

And like I said, this kind of tying in the self reflectiveness as far as, like, the numbers and the strategy you're trying and the and the different tactics you're trying with kind of who you want to be and the road you kinda wanna walk down and kind of grow as a practice and as a clinic, the more successful we'd be in the future.

No. I agree. It's and especially, I've seen podiatry clinics that are safe for sale, and some of them will say, we have a really an amazing referral network. And whenever I see that, I go, okay. Just hope you got something else as well, not just a really good referral network because maybe they're referring to the clinic because they know you.

But if I buy your clinic and you're no longer there, is that their is that their reason to leave you and go somewhere else? So I would never purchase a clinic that just said to me, we have an amazing referral network without them telling me, tell me the rest of your marketing plan. Let me know how else you're bringing patients in because if that pillar falls over, that referral pillar falls over, I know the other five of them are doing well. So that's the part where you've always gotta reflect it in your own business thinking. Always think, when you're setting a business up, from day dot of setting it up, your intention is to sell it.

You may never sell it, but you should be setting up that if someone came along and wanted to buy it tomorrow, I can tell them exactly this is what this is how the patients flow into my clinic.

Yeah. It's when you're a business owner. Right? You're gonna build up the asset and you and obviously, we're we're in health care and medicine, so it's maybe not always. People aren't always thinking about this, but obviously if you're in private practice already, you're thinking about, you know, how can you build value into your clinic, make it a valuable thing.

There's different ways of doing that. And, you know, obviously, like you talked about like, you know, selling the practice in the future and kind of building it up to be almost self sustainable without you. You know, whether you bring on associates and other folks, you know, how can you step away from the business as as it still runs? Right? So there's a lot of you you know better than I do when it comes to to building a private practice, but that's you there's a lot of kind of business acumen that's required to really make something successful.

So the last the final thing I just wanna wrap up with people is just it doesn't matter what marketing you're doing. While it's actually happening is reflect on what's happening. Is think about the results that you're getting. When that marketing campaign is finished, is reflect on as many areas as possible of all the things that may have potentially influenced it in a good way or a bad way. I like, last example, I remember we had a podiatry clinic set up in a certain area.

And about three months of setting up, we were doing this certain ad campaign. And but then on the fourth month of doing it, all of a sudden, which got all these patients coming here, oh my god. Haven't done anything differently. But then I heard this podiatrist had been in town for ten, fifteen years, closed. They were trying to sell the practice, couldn't so they closed the doors and left.

All of sudden, all their patients are looking for a podiatrist, and they came in and saw us. Now, when I was asking them how they find out about now they'd seen our advertising before, but they didn't wanna change. They weren't looking for a new podiatrist. But when that person left, because they'd seen stuff that we'd done, that's why they came and saw us. But I couldn't say that it was just because of that marketing campaign that all of sudden had all these extra patients.

There was a big external factor, a podiatry clinic closed down, which is always a good thing.

Well, it's like you said, like, sometimes these things are difficult to measure. Right? So, like, we're we're we're we're kind of talking about being reflect you know, self reflective and measuring things, but there's some kind of occurrences that happen in your local area that can you can you calculate the ROI on that all the marketing that you did Yeah. Led it led to these people to come your way? Was there, like an easy chart or an easy graph to see like why that happens?

Like, no. You have to kind of piece some of these things together. Right? Like things that happen in the real world that happened in your clinic and then, you know, what the what that means for the finances of your practice. Right?

So we think it is important to be self reflective of those things, but realize that you're not gonna be able to measure every single thing either.

No. But it's also the reason why you or no matter how busy your clinic is, you should always be seen and heard. You always just be putting yourself out there. Even if you reduce the scope a little bit, but you just keep the practice up of making sure you're always marketing yourself. Because even though like, if that podiatry clinic closed, and I had never done any marketing prior to that, When all those people were looking for a podiatrist, they'd be going scratching their head going, oh, where should we go?

But because I've been doing marketing and they had seen me there seen the clinic there, they go, okay. Well, we know there's another one now. When it closed straight away, we were top of mind, and they just came flooding in, which was which was really good. And that's where sometimes you can't just pat belt your chest and go, oh, I'm a genius. Look what I just did.

There's so many other factors that are involved in having a good practice. There is timing. There is location. There's so many things involved. But I think my next talk that I'm gonna do, because you're gonna be talking next week on your topic, but I'm gonna talk about taking big clinics on head on.

Oh. It's a good one. There's It's gonna be

a spicy one.

Well, there's there's reasons for doing it. So that's gonna be next week's topic. When or not next week. Two weeks time when I do my topic, taking big clinics head on. Like a truck.

Well, I'm looking forward to it, Tyson. It should be a good one.

And we are gonna be getting together in October. Yep. Well, that was enthusiastic there, Jim. We are doing a marketing workshop. We're doing a marketing workshop together in October in Chicago.

So all the details will be on where are all the details, Jim?

They'll be at podiatry growth dot com blacks backslashpmlfor podiatry marketing live.

Oh, pml. I like that. So people go and check that out. So, Jim, that's it for me this week. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds good, Tyson. Okay. See you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald.

Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.