The 5 Most Important Things To Know Before Marketing Your Clinic

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 Podiatry Marketing. With me as usual is Jim McDannald, aka Big Jim Mac. How are you doing today, Jim?

Tyson, things are good. Things are good here in in Quebec, in Montreal. Loving life. You know, it's getting to the fall time now, so leaves are changing colors. It's you we're kinda heading towards winter, so I'm trying to hold on to to fall for as long as possible.

I always like it. Whatever's happening in your part of the world, it is the exact opposite that is happening in my part of the world. So as you head into the fall, as you call it, we're heading into summer, and it starts to get really, really warm. Okay, Jim. Let's just dive straight into today's topic.

What is it we're talking about?

Yeah. So today, we're gonna talk about kind of the five things to consider before kinda getting started in your marketing. Right? I think we've talked about in the past about, you know, when is somebody ready to start? You know, should they delegate it?

Should they do it themselves? Those are all really important important things to start as far as understanding how to execute it when you are ready. But, you know, what are those kind of things that you should know yourself before you start doing your own marketing or hire somebody out? And that's where we're gonna kinda get in today because we wanna make sure that people take kind of careful consideration of really kinda like foundational elements, some some knowledge they can get before they they start because I think it's really pivotal having marketing success is to have these kind of understand these things before you just dive in without a plan or without really the kind of the knowledge you need to be successful.

Yeah. I think that's really important because I have heard people say, oh, I need to market my podiatry business. And Right. And you're waiting for them to start asking more questions. They go, so I'm doing this.

And you go, oh, why why would you do that? Oh, because the I saw another podiatrist do that somewhere else. I'm thinking, just because it work for them doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. So I I think these questions that people need to ask themselves first before they dive into anything are really important.

Well, I think it's hugely important because they have to have kind of a target and understanding what the objective they're trying to go for. Right? If they just try to copy paste what somebody else is doing without understanding kind of the why behind it, You know, if if things aren't working or it doesn't they they don't understand why something's not working, then it feels it becomes even more frustrating because they don't understand why they're trying to do it in the first place. Right? Like so that's a really important component is to kind of understand these foundational elements of your marketing before you just dive in there.

So if things do get tough or things are working well, you can make sure that you're kind of aiming at the right target. You're not just kind of, you know, doing scattershot marketing, trying to achieve things that are meaningless to your business. Right? If you get a million page views or a million likes or something, but it's not really driving the bottom line into practice, you know, was that a a reasonable spend of budget. Right?

So, know, hopefully, these five areas we talk about today will kinda lay down that foundation of why you're doing for what you're doing with the marketing of practice.

So where do they start? What's number one?

Where we start is something that we you and I touch on probably once every two or three episodes, to be honest. It's a very common theme that we kinda keep coming back to, and that's really knowing who your ideal patients are. Right? If you're wanting to go into sports medicine, it's not gonna make a lot of sense for you to try to, you know, have a ton of information about diabetic foot wounds or doing, you know, massive reconstructive surgeries if you're really focused on more your weekend warrior or your high level athlete. You know, some athletes will need surgery, so I'm not trying to say you can't, you know, show that you're a surgeon, but you really have to kind of know your ideal patient before you jump into your marketing.

Because otherwise, like I say, if we're doing this kind of scattershot marketing, you're trying to do be everything to everyone. It's really, really hard. So you really wanna understand who your primary patients are. Like I said, are these athletes? Are these elderly individuals?

Are you going after working professionals? Are you going after, you know, parents so you can see more more kids, more pediatric patients? Just really understanding what are the needs of these people that you're trying to go after and understand kind of the behaviors that they engage in to make sure that you're having kind of the right overall tone, you're creating the right kind of content, and you're being seen in those channels that are really gonna help multiply your marketing efforts. That's really that kind of first step.

Yeah. Because I have seen well, I I know of podiatrists who their clinic was really aimed at high risk people, but elderly high risk people. I mean, probably people 75 and over, that was majority of their market. And their marketing they were marketing on Instagram, I think it was. And I said to him, have you ever asked if any of your patients even look at Instagram?

I go, yeah. But I'm on there all the time. So and I went, just ask them. And when they came and when I spoke based on my they weren't a coaching client. It was just someone that I knew.

But I spoke to them afterwards and went, do you know none of my patients are on Instagram? I'm thinking, well, that's why you need to know who your audience is. You need to understand who your audience is before you do any marketing or and that was spending a lot of time putting these videos together and clever captions and but just totally missing the mark.

That's a perfect example of kind of, you know, bad kind of pattern matching. Right? Like, finding, you know, where is that overlap of the right channel for the right patient? And maybe that is, you know, a local seniors newspaper or a local seniors magazine of some sort, if that's who you're going after. But it it is one of those things where you have to kind of take yourself back to the start and say, if I was and it's not always easy.

Right? People are busy. It's sometimes maybe it's easy to put yourself in the patient's shoes a little bit more when they're sitting in your in your practice. But when it comes to the marketing thing, you you do have to kind of think about, you know, either have maybe talk to your parents, maybe talk to an older friend if that if you're going up to that senior market to understand where are they getting their information from. You know, what things are generating awareness for them because maybe you're out of touch.

You know, like like, I I like to give examples that, like, you know, every generation is kind of like disrupting the one older than them. For example, like my parents are halfway decent at the Internet.

Yeah.

But my my grandparents, they it's a concept that they could never during the last twenty or thirty years of their life, it's a concept that they could never fully grasp or kind of incorporate into their life. Right? So you have to understand kind of what is normal for different generations or different demographics of patients, and then you're able to speak to them. You know. Otherwise, you're kind of either speaking past them like you like your friend was doing the inner Instagram stuff.

It's not that they were maybe giving bad messages. It's just nobody from that demographic was in that channel. Right? So you have to kind of find that, you know, kinda walk in the the shoes of that patient or the patient persona so that you can deliver the right message to them.

Yeah. I think that's actually a really important message that you said there about each generation disrupts the one before them, and I do. And I I I look at my mom, for example. She's in the late seventies, 70 nine. And, yeah, she she's okay on her computer but knows nothing really about if anything went wrong, has no idea.

I know exactly what I'm doing. But I think, actually, the generation behind us well, I look at my daughter's generation, and they're not good on computers either.

They're all on phones.

Because they're all on their phones. They do they do so much on their phone and maybe their iPad. The computer is really just a tool that she uses because she's at uni. If it wasn't for that, I don't think she'd ever pick up or and it's a bigger screen to watch Netflix on.

But Yeah.

They don't tend to use the computer the same way that you and I have used it, yeah, over the last, say, yeah, fifteen, twenty years. So I think that generation is sort of disrupting us because they their their phones and iPads. So you need to understand that if that age group is who you who you wanna talk to.

No. Perfect example of your daughter. I think you have you have to kinda know what what those channels and how you can get in front of those people. And that's whether it be my parents or my grandparents' generation or your daughter's generation. I think those are good examples.

So

Oh, you asked my daughter about Facebook. She goes, that's for old people.

Yeah. It's where, like, people our age, like, stalk their high school classmates to see what they're doing. So, yeah, I don't spend that much time on Facebook these days, except for except for the podiatry what? Business Owners Club.

Oh, podiatry business owners club. Yeah. It's a great mob to be with.

Yeah. That's the best that's the best place. That's where I spend most of my time.

So But it's well, it's funny because somebody said once your parents are on something, it's no longer cool.

So you should get on TikTok ASAP.

My daughter put Snapchat on my phone because it's the only way I can talk to her. If I send her a a text message, she'd never respond to my phone if she doesn't pick up the phone. If I so she hooked up Snapchat. She's I only ever look at Snapchat. And I so she put it on my phone, and it's true.

I wanna talk to her. I send a I I send a message through there, or I send a photo of the dog. And she always responds. If I send a photo of me, she never she responds fifty fifty. Send one of the dog doing something to sleeping.

Oh, how cute. Always respond. So it's that's how her and all her friends communicate is through Snapchat.

There you go. That's crazy. Well, enough of the social media channels. We'll have to the the next thing that you should know before kinda getting started with your marketing, and that is understanding what your unique, like, selling proposition is. You know?

Or what is your what expertise do you have that really sets you apart from other podiatrists? You know, by determining what makes your clinic stand out from competitors, you're, you know, you're kind of standing out. And that and that's a good thing because you don't wanna be kind of everything to everybody.

Yeah.

We can still do all the kind of procedures or take care of the problems that everyone does. But if you're going for a specific kind of patient demographic, wanna make sure that you seem like the best option. You know, is there, you know, a specific kind of treatment method that you like to do a lot of or a specific kind of maybe modality that you have in your practice that you think really is kind of state of the art and is kind of steps ahead of other people in your local area? Maybe it's kind of the the the type of care or the how quick you can, you know, get patients to be seen, you know, in twenty four hours, they can come to an appointment. Whatever makes you different, you really wanna highlight that, not only on your website, but within your marketing.

And knowing how you differentiate yourself from from other people should be kind of a conscious decision. It's something you can't kinda find out as you practice. Right? Like, you know, from day one, if you cold open a clinic right out of residency, maybe it's gonna take you a bit of time. Maybe understanding kinda what pays best.

That's not what probably how you should, you know, make all of your decisions. But, obviously, if there are some financially rewarding aspects of podiatry that you really enjoy, making sure you're showing those things and being visible

Mhmm.

For those things and separating yourself from others is really hugely important. But it's really kind of the cornerstone of your marketing message. Right? You wanna make sure that the message you're sending out to the public, what you're being seen for in the local community, it really has to be compelling and clear. So when you understand what that kind of unique proposition or what your knee unique expertise is that you wanna highlight is, it makes marketing your practice much, much easier.

Yeah. I've got a really cool Venn diagram of how to sort of create your USP. It is a very cool diagram. Once you understand the diagram, it helps you understand, ah, okay. This is my USP.

I didn't realize that's what it was, and this might be what my competitors are. So it helps you then understand that and then understand what your patients want.

Number one and number two. And number three is budget allocation.

Oh, that's big one.

Right? So so a lot of and I've talked about this a little bit in the past, but a lot of, you know, clinics, you you see kind of the the cost of marketing. Right? And but really what you're trying to do is invest in the kinda local visibility or maybe it's the national visibility of what the the kinda services and care you're trying to provide. So and hopefully, you see that people will see that more as an investment, but you'll have to define how much you're willing to spend and how you're willing to kinda allocate that budget across different channels.

And when you're first getting started, it may not, you know, oh, I want a website. So I'll pay a few thousand dollars of website. It'll just sit there. Or I'll pay $200 a month on Google Ads and that'll be enough. Or I'll do this one thing and I want my budget to be around, you know, 2 or $300 a month.

So I think we talked in the past about where those kind of active budgets are, and it's gonna be different for every practice. Right? So I'm not saying that the person just into practice needs to spend thousands of dollars a month. But if you have a practice that's, you know, five or six podiatrists, you're trying to actively be the leader in your local area. You know, if you're in a larger metro area, things are competitive.

So understanding kind of what that looks like, what you get kind of the what's the most bang for the buck as far as some of these channels that you select and working with, you know, a marketing consultant or someone that does these services that can really help you identify those kind of high kinda high ROI channels and opportunities is really, really important. Because whether you're focusing on digital advertising, maybe you're still utilizing some traditional media for to get to your patient demographic, whether it's maybe you're working on some community events, you really gotta have a clear budget We'll help you prioritize and measure your ROI. Right? Because if like we talked about, you have to have that kind of clear goal or objective to make sure that what you're spending with your marketing budget is kinda getting that either those patients or that kind of desired effect, the desired result back to you and finding a way to measure it's super important. So understanding where you're at kind of in the spectrum of your practice, you know, what you can afford, and, like, what's what's out there already as far as what's a reasonable budget allocation is something that's really important to kind of know what you're you're willing to do before you start marketing your practice.

Yeah. I I used to look at our marketing budget very similar to our rent. That to me, rent is something you have to pay rent. If you're renting someone, let's see, unless you buy your own building. But when we were renting, rent was a monthly expense that was locked in for the next five years.

That's just what was happening. I used to look at my marketing budget as the same. The only difference was my marketing budget was always a percentage of what our gross turnover was. And that was always the deal that had whatever our gross turnover was, I'd take a percentage of that, and that would go towards marketing. And no matter what was happening, all of a sudden, there was a bit of a downturn in the economy and it, say, dropped a little bit, which didn't really happen.

But if it did, then our marketing budget would have dropped proportionally, but it would have been the same percentage. The last thing I would have done if it hadn't been quiet was cut my marketing altogether. Biggest mistake. It almost be at the sale, Julia Roberts in Pretty Wool. Big mistake.

Huge. Shouldn't do that. It's I make a lot of movie references every now and then, don't I?

Yeah. Movies are fun. I I like I like I like the movie references.

But it's but that's the thing. I've seen so many people that the business is in not not in trouble, but it's taken a bit of a downturn for whatever reason. And the first thing they wanna cut is their marketing. I'm going, that's the last thing you should be cutting, is look at other areas to to cut your cost, maybe your own spending habits in general, but keep the marketing going. And that was something that I'd learned really early on, and it's something I did through my whole career.

Every clinic I owned, percentage went towards marketing was always allocated. Didn't mean we always used it. It was just allocated. It was put into a in an area that that's what we're gonna spend each month. Most of the times, it was spent.

Yeah. You don't wanna turn off the faucet. Right? Like No. Know, all the things are going down, so they gotta turn out, then you're you're kinda getting rid of your visibility and and awareness in your local community when you do that.

So definitely, yeah, you gotta kinda find the right place to cut sometimes, but cutting that marketing can be difficult. It can be sometimes take a while to kinda build back up up after that as well. So Mhmm. Just something to consider.

And like you said, it it helps you prioritize where you're gonna put your money and what return you're gonna get in the investment. So if I said this to someone, if you spend 2,000, you get $10 back. If you spend 4, you get 20 back. How much are you prepared to spend? If you know that every time you spend it, you're gonna get and that's why you need to know what your return on investment is in all the marketing that you're doing.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Like, I'd spend I'd spend if I knew if I could spend a hundred grand a month and it was gonna give me back a million dollars a month, it would be a no brainer. What's the next one?

Yeah. So number four is kinda knowing the competitive landscape. I think it's important that, you know, when you're starting your practice or you've been in practice for a while, that you study what other podiatry clinics or similar medical service providers are doing in terms of their marketing. This is not to mean that you're gonna like copy paste exactly what they're doing, but you need to know like who's running in what lane. Right?

So like we talked about previously, like who are the other people that are doing sports medicine in your local area? Who are the people that are doing catering to seniors? Who are the people that are doing pediatric foot and ankle things? So this will help you kind of identify the gaps in the market. You know, if you go to a community and notice is really pushing hard on treating runners, helping at local marathons, doing road race events, you know, kind of really stepping up in that area, that could be a huge opportunity if that's something you like to do.

So, you know, identifying these gaps is number is really, really important. Also, it can really open up ideas for potential partnerships. These partnership are opportunities with, you know, maybe there is a sports medicine clinic or there is, you know, physios or there is running shoe stores in your local area. So really kinda like gaining these potential partnerships can really, like we talked about in your in the previous podcast with you is that kinda make it an exponential increase in your patient, you know, referrals because you are seen as that expert in running injuries because you are the one that's doing all these things. You know, really understand the strategies that are either effective or ineffective in your local region.

Right? If you're, you know, you're in South Florida with a bunch of retirees and you're trying to advertise on Snapchat, probably, you know, you're going after a senior market, probably not gonna be very successful with that. But you wanna make sure that you understand who is who is doing Facebook ads, who is doing Google ads, who has their website, you know, really looking like a like a a nice place for seniors to go, you know, a big phone number or, you know, what are the some of the kind of the gaps or who's not doing it right? Kinda understanding what the competitive landscape is. You know, sometimes when I work with with my clients, we do a really thorough audit of, you know, not only your practice, but also understanding that maybe three to five other, you clinics in the local area just so you can get a general sense of what they look like and who they're catering to.

And depending on what local area you're in, maybe there's enough patients for everybody. Right? And most of the time, it seems to be that way. I mean, unless you're in New York City or maybe San Francisco where things you know, there's a five podiatrists on every block. There's usually enough, you know, patients to go around.

But just knowing how you can show your expertise in a professional way that's helpful to your patients through this kind of understanding this competitive landscape can really be really beneficial.

Yeah. I think what you said there is right. There's plenty of patients around for everybody, but the patients won't know to come to you if you're not putting the right information in front of them using the right channel. If if you don't do that, then they're gonna go to your competitors because they might be giving you might be better at something than what they are, but you're not if you're not telling people the right way, they'll never know about it.

Yeah. If you're not telling them the right way, you're not showing in a way that appeals to them. Right? There's specific types of, you know, clientele likes to be talked to in a certain way or shown, like, kind of, like, trust signals, right, or kind of these, like, badges that you are an authority. For example, maybe, you know, if like, when I when I was growing up and I had a a foot problem, you know, the kind of the badge that was most appealing to me as a a young person, and maybe my parents thought it was interesting as well, is that when I had a running injury, I went to the doctor who took care of, like, the 1980 and 1984, like, Olympic gold medalist in the mile.

Right? So right. Actually, the 1,500 meters. So was I ever gonna be an Olympian? Well, I ended up going to the Olympics, but not running in it.

I worked in a different capacity. But, you know, it's that well, if this person does works with them or if this person has this level of trust or certification, then they must be the right person. So you have to understand where on that totem pole is. You know, if you're are you moving into, like, for example, the Bay Area? There's a there's a running basically, most well known podiatrist in sports more specimen sports medicine and running is Amol Saxena, and he's in the Palo Alto San Francisco area.

And if you try to open up shop in Palo Alto next to Amal, I mean, you'll probably see some weekend warriors, but you're not gonna get those Olympic level athletes because he is the guy that everybody sees in the and it's a pretty small community, you know, professional runners. But not so you can't do it, but just kind of knowing the market demographics and what you're going after can really be help really inform you as far as how you put your practice out there and how you market your practice in an efficient way.

I tell you, I'm writing notes down as you're talking because some of the things that you're saying, I'm just going, wow. That that can be expanded upon this some yeah. I think you know how ideas just go off in your head? Somebody will say something, and all of sudden you go, so I've got all these different ideas. I just when you're talking about the like that podiatrist, for example, who's an Olympic athlete.

So he has really defined who he is, and people know who he is because he was at the Olympics. But there's no difference between him and say, yourself, Jim, who if you really define who you are and you let people know who you are, then people will flock to you as well.

Yeah. But you have to you have to define that. Right? You can't just imagine that it's gonna, like, people are gonna find out these things. You have to tell them.

Yeah. But that podiatrist is fortunate that the world and the media has told everyone, hey. He's a podiatrist, and he's set up here, and he was at the Olympics. But straight away, if you're a runner, you're gonna know that. But there's a lot of podiatrists out there who could really help Olympic type athletes.

So therefore, they need to put it out there that that's what they can do if that's who they wanna treat.

They gotta take that first step. Right?

Yeah. Okay. Number five, the last one.

Yeah. The fifth and final kind of thing to consider before getting started with the marketing is you gotta really understand what the regulatory and, you know, take some ethical ethical considerations when it comes to advertising and marketing. Right? Obviously, we have a international podcast and some of the things that I say when it comes to most likely testimonials and patient reviews

Yeah.

Don't always apply to to to our friends down under. And, you know, so they gotta take things with a grain of salt. Maybe some, you know, some regulations will vary from United in The United States from state to state or in Canada from province to province. Or I don't know if there's different parts of The UK where you can do certain things and not say certain things, but you really wanna ensure that your marketing plans align with, you know, medical advertising regulations and that you're being ethical what you're doing. Right?

You don't want to oversell or, you know, fabricate results that you've gathered with patients. Obviously, that goes without saying, but I have to say it because you wanna be honest and trustworthy. And, you know, that one person that is untrustworthy or does something nefarious doesn't only reflect on him and hurt his patients or her patients, but also reflects poorly on the entire profession in The US and in Australia and Canada and The UK. So it's really, really important that whatever your mark in your advertising is legitimate and you're hiding holding yourself at a high ethical standard. You gotta maintain patient confidentiality.

So if you are if you're able to show before and after or get patient testimonials, you wanna make sure that you have releases and legal documentation to kind of safeguard the patient's health information. If they're willing to hand that over and, you know, share the world about how great you are and it's and it's legal and okay to do in your in your in your location, fantastic. But you always wanna air on side of preserving patient confidentiality, not only for legal reasons, but for ethical reasons. Like I said, be truthful in your advertising claims. You don't wanna, you know, promise the moon and, you know, get two feet off the ground.

You have to, like, you know, back up what you say. Yeah. And then also, you wanna make sure these patient testimonials endorsements are genuine, you know, and that they're that someone is willing to do it. Right? You don't wanna ever make a patient feel whether it would be a review or a testimonial that they have they have to do it or that feel pressured to do it because you're not number one, you're not gonna get a very good testimonial from someone like that or a review from someone like that.

But, also, it just really damages the kind of patient physician relationship if the patient is not, you know, open to it. And they'll tell you, like, you know, when you ask, you can either through the words they say or their body language, if you feel like they're super nervous or super timid about it, you can always say, you know, that's okay. I can tell that you're I I can tell that you're feeling a little bit nervous about, you know, me asking you this. Not a problem. You don't have to do it.

So always on the side of letting them get out of it. But that that's really, you know, kind of taking into consideration the the legal and ethical considerations around marketing. And number one, if you're not doing the marketing yourself, wanna make sure you align yourself with a consultant or an expert who has a track record of, you know, doing things that are the right way with the way they do their advertising, website, any kind of marketing collateral that's created by those people that you work with should be kind of above board. So those are important things to consider when you're, you know, getting those kind of five things you should consider when you're getting started. And, you know, with all these considerations in mind, you can really able to kinda develop a marketing plan that's not only effective, but it's like I said, it's respectful, it's professional, and it really reflects the values and standards of your clinic.

So that's kind of the spiel here, those those top five things.

Yeah. Just on that last one about ethical considerations. Every registration board will usually have guidelines about ethics and marketing. Just read them. Put some time aside.

Grab a drink, glass of wine or a beer, and and just sit there and read them and understand them. And if you're going to do something and you're not sure because somebody once said to me, jokingly, can say, it's easy to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. That's one thing. But, also, if you have to ask yourself whether you should or shouldn't do something, the answer is usually you shouldn't. Because if you've gotta ask that question, then there's something in the back of your mind that's already telling you there could be a a slight problem with it.

So just Yeah. Always say, they're on the side of caution. But if you if you still wanna do it and you're not sure, look at the rules. If if that's not really clear to be great, ask your lawyer. Give it to yeah.

Run it past your lawyer. So can I just get your opinion? I'm reading this rule. This is what I wanna do. Am I breaking the rule?

If they go, no. That wouldn't hold up because it's too vague, then that's then you know that okay. And that's sometimes a little voice in the back of your head where it's just a little bit of confusion. So just on the side of caution because you don't wanna get in trouble.

No. You wanna maintain your reputation. Right? You wanna have, you know, your reputation proceeds. It kind of it leads it kind of goes everywhere before you even get to places.

Right? So, you know, your name, the name of your clinic, you you really want to kind of maintain that because, know, when you're taking care of people, especially, you know, it's not like we're in this profession selling products and, you know, things break, blah blah blah. This is these are people's lives and this is people's livelihoods. Right? You know, they need their feet to be active to do to live the life they wanna lead.

So you wanna make sure that you're doing everything and erring on the side of doing no harm is kind of what we all kind of swear to across the world to take care of people and their feet. So I think it's maintaining a reputation and doing things above board is the only way to go.

Well, okay, big Jim. I think that was a fantastic top five of the most important things to know before marketing your clinic. So if you got nothing further, I look forward to talking again next week.

Sounds

great. Okay. See you.

Bye. 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.