The Benefits of Creating a Plan

Jim McDannald 0:02
Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm Jim McDannald. Here with my co host Tyson. Franklin. Tyson. How's it going today?

Tyson Franklin 0:17
It's really good, Jim. It's okay. Always tell you warm and Cairns a little bit warmer than where you are in Canada.

Jim McDannald 0:25
Exactly. You're always going to be me in that game.

Tyson Franklin 0:27
I think. I think all year round, I'll pretty well beat you in that game, even our winter, I think is warmer than probably your summer.

Jim McDannald 0:33
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised when it comes to that. But how would you feel on the folks today kind of what we're going to be discussing and kind of the direction we're going to take him today? Oh,

Tyson Franklin 0:42
So this episode, episode number five, we're going to talk about an idea that I've seen similar things in other places. Everyone knows what a matrix is. So what we're going to talk about is a Content Matrix. And it's looking at all the things you do. And then also all the places you can market it and when you put it the and what across the top of the places where you can market it and all the things you do along the side. And then you try and line them up, what is going to work best on what platform or what type of way of marketing?

Jim McDannald 1:18
Yeah, so I'm curious to hear kind of like how you started off with this idea. And obviously, you know, being a practice yourself, it probably came in handy back in the day. But just feel some a little bit about how you kind of came up with this idea?

Tyson Franklin 1:29
Well, I'd love to say that I did do this when I had my practice five years ago, I wish I had have done this five years ago, I'd done something similar, but not to the same sort of detail. So because I've been doing coaching with one on one with a lot of people, this idea sort of adapted and evolved from that. When said on a previous episode, we were talking about what you love doing in podiatry. So this is sort of like looking at your services and sort of looking at all the things you do and and putting them in order what you like doing as well. But then when you look at all the different platforms, and it sort of came about, because sometimes a podiatrist will go I need to be on Instagram, or I need to be doing this because I see everybody else doing it. But does that is that really the best platform for you with the type of services that you offer, because not every podiatrist offers the same services.

Jim McDannald 2:18
And I think that's a really good point, not every podiatrist is going to be treating the exact same kind of patient demographic, right. There's not a lot of probably senior citizens on Tik Tok. So if you're willing to, you know, work with an older generation of folks, I know that there's some grandmas on there, I'm not gonna lie, there's probably, you know, probably go viral, if you're the right age, and you're able to, you know, shake it the right way. But at the same time, like I think you bring up a good point like these different people kind of congregate in different areas and how to get in front of those. You know, right? Patients from a demographic standpoint, or from a specific kind of diagnosis procedure, side of things can be a huge make a huge impact on your practice.

Tyson Franklin 2:56
Even if you just think social media, I was listening to a podcast one day and there was a builder on there, and his own his own building business. And someone mentioned something about tick tock and he says, I want to stand there doing all these silly dances and the goat I know it's not all about that you can just do the short live information video. So he started doing something about what you can do with a hammer. And he just started doing all these like crazy little videos. And next thing he had a couple of 100,000 people following him on Tik Tok. And the amount of business he generated from that was incredible. Initially, he thought no tick tock wouldn't be a good platform for him. And but I've seen some podiatrist do it. Well, I've seen some podiatrist do it. embarrassingly bad.

Jim McDannald 3:41
Yeah, I guess it's trying to know what you want to get out of it. Before it kind of like starting on a channel or, you know, like, what, what are you trying to go for? How do you want to position your expertise in a way that will gather awareness and kind of gain more notoriety for the type of care you want to provide?

Tyson Franklin 3:57
Yeah, so you might look at something like that, let's think of a basic service that nearly everybody does, might be shocked by, for example. So you've got the shock wave machine, where is going to be the best place when you look at that particular service, and the things that it can treat. When you look at all the different social media platforms and other ways of marketing your business, you know, the six pillars of marketing, which is the best platform to put that on? Is it YouTube? Should you be posting something on Facebook? Is it Instagram, and but one thing I think people make mistake is they try and be on too many platforms. And they and they don't have time, they don't have the time to do it. Right? So they try and be on six different platforms. Whereas you go, Well, maybe you should be on two and do them really well. And then pick which services that you do are going to match the best platform or marketing pillar.

Jim McDannald 4:50
No, definitely. I think you're making a good point there. I think people feel like they need to be everywhere doing everything but obviously, time is a scarce resource and yeah, outsources out sourcing some of this can be difficult to get the messaging right on the market. I think one area you brought up multiple times with me and I think it definitely is, while I skew more to the digital side is is that, you know, go where those patients are and not don't forget about those traditional kind of shoe leather marketing channels because, you know, you know, people that need you know, foot and ankle care services have a wide variety of, you know, places where they're out whether it's it is on social, that can be a huge thing. But also out in the real world, or even old school traditional publications. At times.

Tyson Franklin 5:33
you will pick the example I'll stick with shockwave is you can do a video of you doing shockwave and somebody. Now shockwave is boring live, let alone watching shockwave on a video. So is that the best service to be if you're trying to promote it, you might put something on YouTube or something on Instagram or Facebook, but it's not the most exciting visual thing to be watching. It's boring. However, we took our shockwave unit. And we did the rounds going see a lot of Doctor surgeries who we weren't getting referrals from. And we showed them what the shockwave was and how it worked and the percussion effect. And we got so many more referrals from that than we did from anything else that we did about Shockwave. So it was purely using it as a demonstration. So if we were then doing an expo or something and you had a display set up having a shockwave unit there, and showing people how it worked was by far the best way to market their particular service. So when you look at it on the matrix, we could have shot by on the list coming down. And when we go across expos demonstrations, one on one face meetings, what's the best way to actually market it? So that's sort of how the matrix works?

Jim McDannald 6:49
No, that totally makes sense. And I think you bring up a really good point, you know, I think a lot of podiatrists or even sometimes I get focused in on like, okay, the way to get more patients is to get right in front of those specific people, those patients, but yeah, there is other layers to explore and opportunities to, you know, provide value provide education to other kind of what I call like, like kind of partners or more like kind of these kinds of connectors in a way, right. So whether that's other clinics, whether that's other healthcare providers, whether that's like you want to treat more runners and going to a running shoe store, like getting in good or showing value and providing helpful information education to these people that can kind of help you like exponentially get in front of more people, as opposed to like, building a brick by brick or one person at a time, which can sometimes feel like either expensive or a bit of a difficult from a time management perspective.

Tyson Franklin 7:44
Well, the good part is when you're looking at it as a visual diagram, like The Matrix, and you have sticker shock, and you've got shockwave down there, and then across the top, you've got all the different ways that you can actually promote Shockwave, through the social media platforms, ultimate marketing. And what it is you keep testing which ones and as you test them, if you get wet, did a couple of videos and shopper did nothing. How much time did it cost us to record it? Was it worthwhile, so then you might cross out that YouTube is not the platform for that, or that one particular service. And then you just keep testing things. And once you find the ones that were here, okay, shock wave, face to face. So and then you might go, for example, you might have the services you offer, but then you might have at the top of patients that you want to see as well, more running patients, where's the best place to to get more running patients, like you said, you would go out to a shoe shop, be at weekend running events. So these are all the things you tried to line things up. And the more often you do it. And the more mistakes you made, the better you get. Until eventually you can look at your matrix and everything's already mapped out for you. When you're trying to think of what are we going to do this year, you can use that to help set your planning up.

Jim McDannald 8:52
Now that totally makes sense and not to totally sidetrack the conversation. But like every time I'm hearing you say the word matrix, yeah, kind of curious, in the back of my mind whether or not this new Keanu Reeves movie is any good or not.

Tyson Franklin 9:03
I know. I've seen it like The Matrix. Or like Keanu Reeves. I've got the three matrix movies here at home, but I just noticed that they're on binge as well. It's one of the streaming platforms. So I want to watch the three movies again before I think the fourth one came, comes out, or came out in December. The 22nd.

Jim McDannald 9:25
I think it's out now. But this is not a plug for for Kiana or the Matrix movie. But I just wanted to note that that when you're saying that, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking like, is that new one going to be any good, but

Tyson Franklin 9:35
I know I'm really concerned that. I don't think they would release it if it was going to be I don't think Keanu Reeves would do it. If it wasn't going to be a good movie.

Jim McDannald 9:46
Yeah, I'm hopeful, but I guess we'll have to find that out. People

Tyson Franklin 9:49
listen to this and get to name a movie review. But I don't think you can see the word matrix without thinking of the matrix.

Jim McDannald 9:56
For sure. But speaking of your matrix Okeanos Like, like, how do you think, you know, people on our audience like, what's a good way to kind of like get started? Obviously, you kind of talked a little bit about like, focusing on those, you know, things you want to do, or the demographic of patients you want to help like, you know, as far as kind of like, getting initiated into doing something in their own practice, you said, you know, testing a little bit. But yeah, there are specific examples about how you think things should be rolled out.

Tyson Franklin 10:22
Yeah, well, I think right now you sit down and work at what do you already do? What are you currently doing to get that on paper? But what services do you have, you know, or skills that you offer? Or type of patients that you want? Write them all down? And then look at where are you currently promoting that service or that type of treatment? And that'll give you an idea of what you're already doing? And now think, is it working? So, whatever it is that you're doing, you may have been, say Instagram, for example, I know a lot of people spend a lot of time on Instagram, creating movies, and diagrams and things flashing up on the screen, and they put it on Instagram all the time. But when we look at the followers, the numbers aren't really that high. And we never look at all the people that actually engage in like that what they're putting out there. 80% of them are usually other podiatrists or friends. So think it, is it having the impact now, if they're going, Oh, yes, I put so many hours a week into doing this. And we know that we get so many new patients every month from those things, then keep it on your matrix. But if it's not working, think, put less time into it and maybe put your time somewhere else.

Jim McDannald 11:31
No, that totally makes sense. I think one of the tough things, you know, when you're and I can remember being in practice myself is that like, you know, the patients in front of us, we're doing those things, we're doing the notes for billing, all those kinds of things, but like how to kind of create metrics around, I think that's a huge component of it is like, whether it's outsourced or doing someone's doing it in house, in a clinic, from the marketing perspective, like having some kind of like key performance indicators and KPIs that are checked on a consistent basis over a few months, because I think, you know, there's going to be ups and downs with no matter what kind of platform you're using. So it's really kind of like, trying to follow trends with some of these things, whether it's like, how many dollars that it cost to acquire a new patient on a certain channel, or like you talked about, like, are we experiencing growth in our Facebook page, and I know, like from an organic standpoint, because I think that's one thing that I've found with some pupils that they're on these channels, because they feel like they need to learn like other people are doing them. But even, you know, like you said, the, the effort to like, effort or money towards like actual benefits is like way skewed towards, like, way too much money for not enough output. But but it's like a matter of like, if it's not working, you know, having someone to bounce ideas off of or figure out if it's not working in this certain thread, like how are ways to change it to try to get more engagement or more, you know, benefit from some of those channels before moving on. Because I think, like you said, if it's not working, you know, find out what it is. But until you can measure it on a consistent basis, sometimes it can seem a little like, like, you know, like boxing in the dark or throwing you know, darts blindfolded. It's like, how do I measure this? Like if I, I'm not, I'm not a marketing specialist. I don't know. Like, I feel like I shouldn't be doing these things. But I can't tell if it's working or not. Because I think that's, you know, and you're not always getting clear metrics or clinical results are not always being tied to some of these marketing efforts. And that's what sometimes makes it a bit of a gray area for people in practice.

Tyson Franklin 13:33
Yeah, a one thing just popped in my head of even watched voluntold boxing,

Jim McDannald 13:37
I have not seen. Throw that out there.

Tyson Franklin 13:41
It is so funny. They put blindfolds on people on to people that put them in the ring, they ring the bell. And they're both just walking around just throwing haymakers because they don't know where they are. And then what's really funny, then they sort of, they slow down a little bit because they're wearing themselves out. All sudden they touch each other. And my God is like rock and sock and robots, the punches go, and then they sort of break apart and they can't find each other again. So yeah, that's really funny. But getting back to what you said, other than if you've got to watch blindfolded boxing, one day, I

Jim McDannald 14:09
I'm gonna look it on YouTube right after we're done.

Tyson Franklin 14:11
Is, like you said, sometimes people just need help to do this. And they need to need a way of measuring what they're doing to see what sort of results that they're getting. I think it's Peter Drucker says the if you can't measure it, don't do it. And what he's saying is if you're doing something, you can't measure the results from it, then maybe it's something you shouldn't be doing, you should be doing something that's we can measure results. So that's why I reckon if people don't have time to do marketing for the business, that they need to engage with somebody to help them in certain areas, it just makes sense to do it.

Jim McDannald 14:44
Either getting help or just like learning about these channels kind of one at a time as opposed to like spreading their time and efforts over like you said, like five or 10 Still feeling lost about not how not knowing how they work. Yeah, obviously, you know, we're trying to be putting Ankle Specialists in not necessarily, you know, internet marketing gurus or you know, traditional media savvy folks. But uh, so it's not rocket science, it's a matter of like how to best allocate that scarce resource known as time to kind of benefit the clinic and kind of build that ideal practice. That's in line with your your values, but also, you know, providing a huge benefits here in your local community and the patients, you treat

Tyson Franklin 15:23
Yeah, t's getting experience from other people. So one of my coaching clients recently, over the last 12 months from where they were to where they are now the business had like their $350,000 increase in the one year, just tweaking a couple of things, they already had a good business, but it was just just took it up to another level. And I remember reading somewhere once in someone, someone was complaining, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. And this person said, you could grab all the wealth in the world, divided evenly between everybody, to the person living on the street to the rich has got everyone gets the same amount of money. He said, in 10 years time, the rich will be rich, and the poor will be poor. It's because you can take all the money off of a rich person, and they will make it back in because they know how to do it. So it's no different way I could set up podiatry clinic up tomorrow. And because I've done it so many times, I just know what to do. Whereas if someone's got a business, and they're so busy just being a podiatrist, and they don't have time, like you said they've either got to go and learn it one by one, just get the experience and doing it or ask for help. know for sure. For sure. So the I went a bit off track then. But that's well, it is it's it's one of those things, like you said was was great is pick one platform and learn it and get good at it. And does that fit in on your matrix? Does it gonna fit in what services they're going to work with? Because, for example, you might have certain things you're going to do. And audio could be one of those marketing things across the top. What do you do that would match with audio really? Well,

Jim McDannald 17:04
No, 100% That's a huge platform. And I think it's also a matter of like, if people do engage with outside sources or providers, you know, it's totally okay to ask for something like an audit, you know, to like, you know, get to know those folks, or, you know, be kind of a first step because, you know, even if you feel like you have your marketing completely figured out, and it's rolling, there's it's kind of a constantly changing ecosystem of like opportunities, you know, for example, like, like Google Ads used to be able to kind of like, measure very closely a click to like, when someone's scheduled an appointment. But now with kind of browser, you know, different privacy policies, which can be a good thing, that ability to kind of attribute a click to a new patient appointment is not that kind of same clear path. So like, you know, a lot of the things that helped us make good financial decisions. And Mark and I get a little bit more murky because of privacy concerns, for good reason. So like, you know, it can be sometimes sometimes a little tough to nail down, you know, specifics, but when you have kind of an outside perspective about where an industry is going, or some new ways to try to get your carry, provide in front of the right eyeballs. You know, it's a matter of just kind of constantly experiment, experimentation and testing. Like, you talked about trying some different stuff along the way, not having to do all the things at once, but just getting familiar with what's all out there, either yourself or with the help of others, will just really help you. You know, like I said, build that kind of ideal practice down the road. It's not, no one's gonna get all figured out tomorrow. It's a matter of continuous learning and life, right? Yeah. And

Tyson Franklin 18:40
When you said it, you got to try things out and test the waters. And that's where I think drawing it all out. And like a diagram and a matrix sort of diagram. Like I said, it'll show you what you're doing right now he might find it. Well, what I'm doing right now is not working. So keep adding things to the matrix. And so you get a visual idea of maybe what you've done in the past, if you want to, you can do it as a spreadsheet, you can color code, red, bad, we've done that didn't work. And sometimes it's not always a bad idea. It could be, you've just, you've got a good idea, but you've chosen the wrong platform to put it on. Not what I said right at the beginning about shockwave to put shockwave on your YouTube video would be simply boring, unless you're talking over the top and explaining what it is that you're doing. But just to say shockwave did do puts me to sleep. But so definitely make a YouTube you make that read. Not a great, great platform, but face to face. Whether it's a meeting or an expo or display works well. So that's great. And as the years go on, your knowledge will get better and better. So down the track, you got to open up a second third clinic, fourth grade 10th clinic, you're going to your matrix and just keep repeating what you've already learned,

Jim McDannald 19:58
Even though there's change there's certain things You know, kind of last the test of time. So I think that's a great point to bring up,

Tyson Franklin 20:03
I think back to podiatry 10 years ago to now just how much it has changed. So I can just imagine what it's going to be like in the next 10 years. But the things that don't change. There's people out there who are asking questions every single day, I have this problem, how can I fix it. And you've got to be able to get your skill and expertise in front of them in some way, whether it's an online platform, whether it's old school, whether it whether it's face to face, that will never change. So regardless of all the other changes go on, that won't change.

Jim McDannald 20:36
And when you're providing great care, I think that is, you know, that's something that's gonna spread both kind of old school and word of mouth, like there's, it's a great flywheel, but you have to kind of get that flywheel started.

Tyson Franklin 20:49
So the final thing I just want to say is, regardless of what we've spoken about in the past, and what we're going to talk about in the future, still, it's really important to remember your clinical you got to be good. If you're if someone does, you might think, Oh, the guy didn't read, he's a terrible podiatrist. He's awful. He should be arrested shouldn't be allowed to work. If he's that bad, the public will find out so don't worry about him. Always just focus on what you're doing your own clinical skills, your own business, and just keep just keep getting better at marketing as time goes on.

Jim McDannald 21:22
That's that's sound advice. I really resonate with that. So yeah, so this is a fun kind of dive into your content Content Matrix there. There, Neo.

Tyson Franklin 21:31
So yeah. So say yes. And then in a future episode, we'll report back on what what we thought of the movie once we'd like to see it. So Jim, that's been fun. It was good talking with you.

Jim McDannald 21:43
Yeah. great talking to you as well, Tyson. Thanks for listening dietary marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald. subscribe and learn more at podiatry marketing. That's the website address podiatry dot marketing.