Sept. 4, 2023

Why Podiatrists Can't Live Off of Google Alone

Welcome to the Podiatry Marketing podcast. In this episode, Jim McDannald, DPM , and Tyson E. Franklin tackle a topic that has become all too familiar for many in the podiatric field: the overwhelming reliance on Google for marketing. While Google's prominence is undeniable, putting all your marketing eggs in one basket has its share of perils. This episode aims to shed light on these challenges and present alternative strategies to ensure consistent and effective visibility for your practice.


Inside This Episode:

  1. Google: A Blessing and a Potential Curse:
    • Delve deep into the prevalent dependence on Google for marketing. Understand its advantages and the lurking pitfalls that might jeopardize your online visibility.
  2. The Risks Lying Beneath:
    • From unpredictable Google algorithm updates to the surge in competition and climbing ad costs, we'll dissect the vulnerabilities of an over-reliance on this search giant. And of course, we introduce the lifeboat in this scenario: marketing diversification.
  3. The Power of Diversified Marketing:
    • Learn how casting a wider net can reap manifold benefits. From tapping into fresh audience segments to mitigating risks, it's time to understand why diversification isn't just smart – it's essential.
  4. Beyond Google - The Vast Horizon:
    • We unpack alternative platforms tailored for podiatrists. Discover the potential of Bing, Yelp, HealthGrades, and more. It's a big digital world out there – time to explore!
  5. Content and Your Website: The Undying Allies of SEO:
    • Delve into the world of content marketing and the significance of a robust website. Learn how both play a pivotal role in enhancing your SEO game.
  6. The Magic of Email Marketing:
    • The age-old strategy that never fades. Understand how email marketing can be your secret weapon for patient retention and nurturing enduring relationships.
  7. The Future Wave: Local SEO and Voice Search:
    • As technology evolves, so should your strategies. We dive into the growing relevance of local SEO and voice search in the podiatry marketing realm.

If you've ever felt the tremors of a Google update or struggled with escalating ad costs, this episode is your playbook for a more stable, diversified, and effective marketing approach.


For more insights, strategies, and all things podiatry marketing, continue to tune into the Podiatry Marketing podcast at https://podiatry.marketing . See you in the digital realm!

Jim McDannald, DPM:

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

Tyson E. Franklin:

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me, as always, my trusty cohost, big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Tyson, doing well. Doing well. Feeling bigger than ever. You know, I get back in the gym today. Get get my get my lift on, go up for some runs.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, I think life is good here in Montreal. I've got no complaints.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Do you do weights or anything like that? Do you or you just run?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

I do some weights now. You know, I'm getting to that that mid forties when, you know, your your t or testosterone starts to dip, and it makes sense to you know, I don't wanna be old and weak, so, you know, I've gotta get out into the gym a little bit. Not that I'm lifting mega weights, but I definitely do a little bit of lifting.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Old and weak. I got a rotator cuff problem at the moment. It's just bugging me. Yeah. And the worst part about I can't remember what I did.

Tyson E. Franklin:

It's just all of a sudden, I heard it.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

It's light life.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So it's just, yeah, fun and games. So other than all their medical issues, what are we talking about today?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Well, today, we're gonna talk about why podiatrists can't live off Google alone. I think, you know, it's been a pretty good ten or fifteen year run where things like Google Ads, you know, Google Search, Google Business Profile, You know, it used to be called Google my Google My Business. A lot of these things have worked really well for a long time. And a lot of podiatry clinics and a lot of other marketers put kinda put all of their eggs into the Google basket. But, you know, like everything else in life, you know, things change and, you know, it it may be worth kind of for people to evaluate their current kind of marketing stack.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

What are they doing? How diverse is their marketing? Because, you know, maybe in three to five years, maybe Google's no longer the king. If you've always been doing Google related things, you may find yourself, you know, kinda falling behind. So today is just kind of talking about a little bit why Google's where it's at, and then ways to kind of diversify your your marketing stack.

Tyson E. Franklin:

It's actually quite refreshing to hear this because, Phil, like you said, the last ten or fifteen years, everything has been Google, Google, Google. If you're not on Google, if you're not using Google, then you're, you know, you're falling behind. All old school marketing is dead. You've gotta be doing Google Ads. And now you're saying that well, you explained that Google is now even having its run.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Things are starting to change.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. Definitely things are changing. You know, for a while there there was a kind of big push towards kind of voice search. You know, this kind of audio assistance, whether it be Amazon. Obviously, Google had their own as well.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, Siri from Apple. There's a lot of people concerned that, you people are gonna no longer be typing things into text boxes. They're gonna be speaking it out loud. So there was a time when that seemed like that was the thing that was really gonna be moving the needle when it comes to marketing or the way that people find information. You know, searching, you know, hey, Siri.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Who's the podiatrist near me? Or I my foot, you know, my foot hurts. Where what clinic should I go to? And speaking it out loud. But we've kinda noticed a little bit that some of the stuff has fallen off.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

The Amazon Echo is not something that's really that popular these days. People still like to type on their smartphones and into Google on their desktops and laptops. So that's kind of fallen away. But the thing that started to kind of take over now and you probably hear it a lot in the mainstream media these days is, you know, ChatGPT, AI, and even some different, Google competitors have kind of started baking in some of these features into their web browser, into their search engine. For example, Bing, it has a very tight relationship as Microsoft has a tight relationship with the the the makers of ChatGPT, which is a company called OpenAI, and it's baked into their that search engine.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So, you know, it's kind of a time of wonder what's gonna happen next. You know, Google has their own AI that they'll probably try to work into their own search, but things are kind of changing a little bit. So it's a good time for people to realize that the way people find theirs you know, the way that people are looking for podiatry services or looking for someone to, you know, to go see in a clinic that might be adapting and changing. So clinics have to be kind of on their toes as far as, you know, what worked five or ten years ago is not working now. Well, maybe it's working now a little bit, but you have to be ready to to make some changes down the road.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. It's amazing because even in when I wrote the world's greatest podiatry book, it's no secret there's money in podiatry. When I wrote that, and that was nine years ago, I make a comment in there about Google that at the moment, Google is the the king of search and all that. But I said, who's to say in the next ten years that everyone's going, Google who? Well, nine years ago, we still know who Google is.

Tyson E. Franklin:

But I think it's interesting how these other changes are coming about. And I do recall not too long ago where they were really pushing that voice was going to be the way people search. That's all they would do is just talk to their phone or their device that was on their desktop, and that would do all the searching for them. But it sort of just didn't didn't really take off. Why do you think that?

Tyson E. Franklin:

Why do you think that did not take off?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

I mean, I think people are you know, we're out in public, and, you know, it's easier just to type things in text to text box. I mean, I'm sometimes at home by myself. But even then, I think there's also some concerns about, you know, whether it be Google or Amazon, were they only limiting the time when you kinda activated the device to listening? I think there's some people concerned that I I've had this happen to myself even with my my iPhone. If I have the Facebook app, you know, on my phone, like, am I for sure that that app is not running kind of in the background?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So I think there's some concerns with people that, you know, some privacy aspects of things, but it's also just habits. You know, I think a lot of us are just really used to text input when we're searching for things and to kind of speak it out into the air felt kind of odd even though, I guess, people are pretty willing to have, you know, AirPods on and kinda walk down the street. You think someone's talking to themself, but they have AirPods on. But, you know, I think it is that it's a habit thing, but I think also, you know, texting something or doing it on your phone just feels a little bit more of a privacy situation there.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. And I have had times when I'll be a conversation with you or you're with people, and all of a sudden, your your watch will go off and will start saying, oh, can you please repeat that? I didn't hear what you said. And go, well, I wasn't talking to you in the first place. Or it'll just start saying, well, the set and then it'll start randomly talking to you and you go, no.

Tyson E. Franklin:

I wasn't asking you any questions. This was just a personal conversation. So you know, your devices are sitting there in the background listening to what you're saying. Plus, there's all these people in rooms that are listening in as well.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. I mean, living in Quebec, there was a point in time when I enjoyed kind of being around French people or hearing the French language because I didn't have to pay attention to it because I didn't understand it right. But the longer I've lived here, the more I understand things now. So like

Tyson E. Franklin:

And you realize what they're talking about.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. Exactly. But that being said, you know, I get this podcast isn't really about just slamming Google. I think it is something that's worked really well for a lot of clinics, and it works for the clinic the the clinics I work right now very well. Because, you know, Google is this kind of magical thing that takes people's, like, problems or they need some type of information and usually matches it very well with a result in in the search results.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So, you know, I think it is what's gonna disrupt Google is gonna have to be pretty great because it is a very, you know, compelling service, and it's something that, you know, has really added a lot of value to be able to kind of find answers to all, you know, almost a lot of different questions. So today is not really initially about like, oh, it's it's horrible. It's going away. But it is important to consider some diversification because if you become over reliant on Google. Right?

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. Was gonna say that. Are there risks involved? Like because I know not just podiatry, but I know other businesses when I asked them, oh, what's your marketing strategy? What's your plan?

Tyson E. Franklin:

And they go, oh, we just put everything into Google Ads. That everything is that's all they do.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Well, the thing is, yeah, you're definitely kind of at their at their mercy at times. Right? You know, there's these things that it won't sometimes make sense, but maybe one week, you're ranking number one for podiatrists in your local area. And then, you know, they haven't changed to the algorithm, and then which basically means the way that they rank the different, you know, the results that come onto the page. Maybe they decide they don't like your website.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, they have they have these crawlers that go onto your website and see something, and they think that maybe you're trying too hard to rank for something and it's not an authentic or your your your pay your web page or your website isn't as authoritative as somebody else. So Yeah. They rank higher, but it's at their whim to change this algorithm whenever they choose to. And it can have pretty catastrophic results for not I haven't seen it happen a lot with clinics. I've I've seen some traffic drop off due to algorithm changes, but there's certain, I would say, people that are on the fringes.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Right? Maybe you hired a a marketing agency that does what we call kinda black hat tactics, trying to do everything you can to get to be number one, and it's not always a legitimate page or they're doing things a little bit kind of on the slide that's that Google doesn't like. You know? So there's some of these changes in these algorithms that can really hurt websites from ranking, and that's something to be really aware of. I'm not sure if you've run into that at all, Tyson, but that that's a pretty common thing.

Tyson E. Franklin:

I have heard of people years ago trying to do sneaky things where they would have, like, a black area on their web page, and they'd have black text written in there. And it was just purely just cans, cans, cans, cans, or, yeah, Los Angeles, Los Angeles. And they they would just stack all these words in there thinking, well, no one can see that they're there, but this is why we're breaking. But then Google spanked them for doing that sort of thing.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. That those kind of black hat tactics, Google can kind of like I said, the the the bots that scrape those pages and look at those pages are much more sophisticated than they were, you know, ten or fifteen years ago. So it really it's not a great idea to to do those things. But, you know, sometimes desperate marketing agencies or people that just really wanna, like, prove, you know, amazing results as fast as possible will sometimes, you know, lower themselves to do those types of things.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So are you saying are you saying that sometimes they can do the wrong thing and can get you ranked high really early on, but then when the bots come through and they look at it and they go, no. And then they push the strap back down. Do you get punished long term for that? Like, if your website was continually producing pages that ranking high and then they go, no. That's rubbish.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Do they eventually just go, you're not gonna be ranking high no matter you do?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. There's definitely different ways that you know, we've talked about this in the past, Google is kind of a black box. So some people will try certain things and it'll work for a while, but definitely can lead to kind of your domain name. Right? Let's say you

Tyson E. Franklin:

have Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Your clinic domain name, that that's that kind of reputation kind of goes back to domain level. So if you're a website or domain name has been constantly kind of testing the limits or getting caught by Google, then, you know, it's kind of on the the naughty list from Google. And you you may you might, you know, suffer kind of long term consequences for that. It's not something that's just like, oh, we'll change it back to something good and it'll be okay. Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

It can have really bad a really bad impact on on your ranking on a long on a long term basis. Another thing that's really important to consider, you know, the risks of kind of over reliance on Google is that, you know, in the early days, it was easy to get traffic, relatively. But now every most people know about Google, and most people are really trying to be competitive, not only on the organic search or on the Google's business profile, but also the Google search ads. And what happens there is that, especially with search ads, you know, you're now you're kinda competing against other local providers for terms like podiatrist near me or podiatrist with the name of your your town or the name of your city. So, you know, these are based off these search ads are based off of an auction mechanism.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Right? So if multiple people are bidding on the same search terms, you know, there's only a certain amount of search volume that's available for those terms, and there's only certain terms that are really kind of what we call, like, low funnel. Right? What are those people that are typing into Google right now to find a podiatrist? There's only gonna be so many of those searches per day.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And if 30 clinics are bidding for those, you know, you can kinda get into a bidding war. So it's important to know that, you know, prices on Google Ads kind of go up over time. There's ways to, you know, be more specific. Like I said, if you're you're you're as long as you're targeting those lower kind of funnel keywords, that's one way to kinda limit your spend. But, you know, there's some some, you know, marketing providers that are willing to kind of bid on all kinds of terms, whether it be, you know, foot pain or plantar fasciitis.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

When you kind of bid on really generic terms or terms that may be, like, big national brands or, you know, big manufacturers of different products would want to bid for. If you're going against the big boys, you know, and you're a small clinic in a local clinic, the return on investment for that type of kind of marketing spend on Google is really not gonna be beneficial for you. So it's important to realize that the level of competition and the way you bid on keywords in these in these Google Ads is really, really important. And if people are too over reliant on that part of Google, it can really come back to bite you.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So if a podiatry clinic is in a smaller town where there might only be half a dozen podiatrists and only one or two of them are actually using Google Ads, then that isn't gonna be so much of a drama. It's more if you're in New York City

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Mhmm.

Tyson E. Franklin:

And there's more than six podiatrists, and you're trying to rank number one to be podiatrists in New York City, and you've got a ton of them that are all fighting for it. It could cost you an arm and a leg.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

No. It could cost a little arm and a leg, and it's like this it's kind of just like this the Goldilocks. Right? Kind of the right balance. Right?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You live in a big city that has a high density of people, but then there's a lot of podiatrists and a lot of people to bid against you.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You live in a you live in a small town, there's less people, less search volume. You'll pay less, but you'll have less people to draw in. So it's yeah. It's kind of a bit of a balance there with with that opportunity. But like I said, it's more and more people are aware of the power that it can provide, so it does get more expensive over time.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So what would you suggest podiatrists do?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. So I think it's really important to people to kind of look at where their spend is going in their current marketing plan. Right? Like, maybe from a percentage level, what are you spending with Google Ads? What percentage is going to your website?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

What are you spending on SEO? What are you spending on a newsletter? Are you doing anything on social, whether it be paid or organic? And and just really kinda figuring out, you know, what's a long term diversified approach you can take to make sure that you're not caught off guard. You know, if Google is, you know, 20 or 30% of your your marketing spend per month, that's probably, like, in a healthy range.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

I would say anything under 50% right now is pretty reasonable.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

But if you're in the 80 to 90% and everything is going through Google Ads and you're just doing Google related stuff, you know, maybe that's time to consider, you know, what other platforms are available to increase kind of your visibility. You know, what other kind of you know, what is there Facebook ads? Is there some segment of the population or segment of your local your local community you wanna get in front of? And are there ways you know, if you you know, you're working with a lot of if you want see to work with seniors, for example, you know, what are some of those channels you can reach out to them? Maybe they're still listening to the radio.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Maybe they're still watching TV. Maybe they read newspapers still. What are some ways that you can kinda get in front of those eyeballs? But you have to really kind of it's it's a risk. Right?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Everything in life is a risk. And what you're trying to do is, you know, not put all your eggs into the the Google basket. You know, back off a little bit, you know, understand what are those you know, maybe something's worth, you know maybe think, you know, we we joke a little bit about TikTok. Right? But, like, maybe a 10% ad buy on TikTok may be something to experiment with and see if that actually leads to people making an appointment in your clinic.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, there's different ways to kind of approach these different channels and working with the marketing provider that you work with to say, hey. Like, how are we making sure that, you know, AI doesn't eat Google's lunch? Or how can we, you know, test out some of these channels that younger people are using? So that's that's what I would say initially is kinda audit what you're currently doing, see if there's any kind of risk. You know, are you kind of over allocating to one of these different channels?

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And if you, you know, if you aren't, great. But if you are, there's definitely some ways to, you know, spend in some on some different channels that can provide significant amount of return on investment.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Well, it's even when you're talking before about, you know, senior citizens, all the people. And I know my mom, she is 79 this year, and she's forever on YouTube. And I've heard of YouTube advertising has actually been picking up quite well over the last couple of years.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. That's the thing about, you know, these social ads, whether it be Facebook ads or YouTube ads, you can usually, you know, put it just in your local area. Right? You can kinda put a a fence around, maybe it's five miles or 10 kilometers around, you know, where your clinic is at, and you can kinda feed some of these different ads to people in those local area to provide, you know, some visibility and some awareness of the care that you provide. You're probably not gonna get the same kind of ROI as someone typing in specific things into, you know, Google to find the podiatrist near them.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

But at the same time, if you're looking to kinda gain awareness that you exist or that maybe you have a very specific type of treatment for a new you know, have a new piece of medical equipment, maybe it's like Swift for warts or, you know, maybe you're doing shockwave therapy or something like that that can, you know, really benefit patients in local area. It's not something they would search into Google. Something like YouTube or Facebook ads is something they definitely can look into.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. I remember a diagram that I draw when I'm doing coaching clients, you might draw this big circle, and and that big circle might represent who their ideal patients are. But within that big circle, there's a lot smaller circle, and that smaller circle is who needs you right now. So you might say your ideal patient is, yeah, 40 40 five year old male who's active, but they may not have foot problems right now. But who who does have those problems right now?

Tyson E. Franklin:

And it's and it's then also finding out the people that are aware that they actually need to see somebody. So sometimes, yeah, you can have a sign up that says, you do have heel pain? And the person's going, I do have heel pain. I just thought I had to put up with it. So it's education over a period of time as well, which comes back to, like, the content on your website and and making sure the information is there.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So when somebody eventually says to him, oh, you got heel pain. Maybe you see a podiatrist. They go, oh, okay. Heel pain podiatry, and it's in your area as well.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And I think it's just one of those things. It's like multiple touch points. Right? Like, maybe someone won't remember you right away, but if they they see the ad two, three times, you're top of mind. And when they do have a problem or someone in their family has a problem, you know, they recognize who you are, and you become an option for for their care.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And I think there's there's definitely, like you know, so how do people kind of once they kind of audit, you know, what are those other channels that we talked about to kinda jump into or explore? Yeah. I'd say I would say that, you know, the the different platforms is starting with other search engines or other places where, you know, medical specialties are kind of visible. So that can be you know, Bing, like I mentioned, has has kind of incorporated some AI into their search. It's kinda gaining some popularity these days.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So, obviously, it's not as big as Google yet, it's gonna take a long time to be really competitive with Google. But Bing is one opportunity. It's pretty easy sometimes to actually transport over, like, Google Ads over to Bing to they have very a very similar ads platform, so that might be an opportunity. And there's also other kind of, you know, review type websites, whether it be Yelp, Healthgrades, Vitals. Those are other places you definitely wanna be aware of that are out there.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, I I would say that Google's reviews is also a huge platform and is probably still the dominant one you should be focused on. But, if you have a a one star over on Yelp or on Healthgrades, those definitely should be addressed. But that's kind of the the kind of the general platforms to be aware of. And then, obviously, making sure your website is is up to date and really professional and really helps answer questions that patients have. When they're searching for things in your local area, you want your name and your website to be number one whenever possible, whether that be on Google, some AI bot, or Bing or something.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

By having an authoritative website that really explains who you are and how you help people can really, really be beneficial. And that's a long term strategy, that's something that that you own. You're ranking on Google or, you know, even on Google Ads, that's something you're kinda paying for or

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, you're paying for time or effort to do SEO, and you have no control of that. But you can control your website and the image you portray on your website, whether that be on web pages you build, the blogs you do, the content marketing, the SEO on that page to make sure that it's as good as it can be and really displays your expertise so people can see that this kind of own channel that you own is is really, really important.

Tyson E. Franklin:

And I've seen that where somebody has done some form of advertising online. It might be Google, it could be YouTube, whatever it was. I will click on it. It'll take me through to their website. And then when I look at the website, I'm oh, I'm underwhelmed by it.

Tyson E. Franklin:

It's so not what I was expecting. The ad was so much better than the website, and you've gone to the website to get more information, and then when you get there, the information isn't there. You go, well, that was a that was a lost opportunity. Then you go to a competitor and you buy from them.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

No. For sure. It's when they don't have that kind of, like when the ad doesn't match your expectations on landing page on that website, if it's a total mismatch and the trust isn't kind of transported over yet, it leads to people bouncing in a waste of a click and really the ad. You have to have that a web page and a website in place that displays that expertise so people feel, you know, comfortable and you kinda build trust along that process. Another way to build trust and get to know patients is through email marketing.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And like I mentioned, you own your list. We've talked about this past. You don't you're not renting your list from someone. You'll be able to export your list if your email marketing provider isn't doing what you want. You though, you own those emails as long as you have permission from your patients.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So, you know, sending out consistent emails, you know, can really be helpful for patient retention, patient activation, and really builds long term relationships with patients, you know, whether that be, showing and displaying the the care you provide or, like you talked about in the past, sometimes, you know, showing the personality of who you are and and your staff is can really endear people too. So I think email marketing is super important.

Tyson E. Franklin:

And that's all on that topic too. And that's one of the things that the the bigger your email database is or and we've said before that your database is gold. I know businesses that will buy other businesses purely based on the size of the database because they know everything else about the business can be can break or change, but the database is so valuable. And it's it's building that over a long term, and then it's, yep, maintaining and nurturing it.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

No. For sure. I think it is it is a slow grind. It's just one email at a time. But like you talked about over years or decades, it can it can lead to a massive email list.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And like I talked about, you can build trust, build these long term relations with people. It's not only the people that are on your list, but also their network. It's their family that can really draw potential patients from. And it's a huge asset not only to if you're gonna sell a clinic, but if you own that list in your own clinic. The last little area I talk about is that you know, there is definitely room for social.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

You know, the organic social reach isn't great these days on kind of really older platforms like Facebook and Instagram. You're not gonna get too far with that, but, you know, maybe some new ones, like you talked about, you know, joking a little bit about TikTok or Snap Chat or other places. Maybe you can get a little further, on the organic reach. It's not an area that a lot of people are are utilizing, but maybe if you're looking for a younger population, that might be something to consider. And there's also paid advertising.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So if you really wanna get in front of people with a specific message or certain die wanna treat a certain diagnosis or provide a certain type of care, these paid ads can provide that. And last not but not least, I would say that making sure you're approaching things through a local perspective, I think a lot of it's the biggest kind of mistake I would see that a lot of clinics do these days, both podiatry clinics and other medical providers, that they don't endear themselves to the local area. Or maybe there's the name of where they're located at in the very bottom of the footer on the web page, but you really need to have pages built out to show the suburbs or the the areas of the city that you treat so you rank really well when people are, you know, searching maps or doing local searches. And, you know, the the last but not least is kind of this, you know, this artificial intelligence AI ChatGPT. There's still a lot these things are kind of being built into search engines, but it's important to kinda know that this could be pretty disruptive to this industry.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So, you know, whether it be, you know, taking that first step to kind of, you know, audit what you're currently doing in your marketing, making sure you're not over aligned on Google. You definitely wanna allocate as definitely a reasonable amount to Google still. We're not at the point where it's dead and you shouldn't allocate to it. But just being prepared that, you know, over the next three to five years or even ten years, we'll see if Google is still the dominant player when it comes to local search marketing, whether it be paid organic reviews. You know, times are a changing, and it's important to really be proactive when it comes to this stuff and work with a, you know, podiatry marketing provider that is aware of these things and making sure that they're experimenting in ways to to make sure you're staying ahead of the curve.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. So and what what I'm hearing in a lot of what you're saying is, like, what works today may not work tomorrow. So it's you've always gonna be looking at your marketing strategy, planning ahead, keeping track of trends, things that are actually happening, listening to podcasts like this one to just just hear information and sort of be aware of. If nobody thought about Google Ads maybe sort of declining and other things on the increase, just becoming more aware of it and then start looking at what you're doing and go, okay. Do I need to talk to somebody about this?

Tyson E. Franklin:

Do I need to just reassess what I'm doing? But it's just being aware that, like I said, what work now may not work next week, next year, or or the year after that.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. Like I talked about it, you know, Google has kinda dominated the local search and advertising scene for such a long period of time and it because it is such an amazing product. But, you know, like talked about in the past, that they are a black box and they're always changing things and, you know, they they themselves might get disrupted. You know? They disrupted the yellow pages.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

So who does who's to say that true? You know, the second, you know, the second coming, the Yellow Pages are gonna come eat Google's lunch. But I think it is. You know, just being aware these things are are out there, you know, and being proactive is really the two most important things. Awareness and being proactive with yourself and with the marketing provider you work with.

Tyson E. Franklin:

So who do you reckon Yellow Pages beat? Like, just thinking back, like, yeah, Google Google crushed Yellow Pages that nobody would go to the phone book now and look up something when you've got your computer phone and everything in front of But when Yellow Pages came out, did they crush somebody else or did there was just a new it was a new idea. It was putting everything in one Store

Jim McDannald, DPM:

storefront signs or clinic front signs? I don't know. Like, I'm trying to think of walking around town like a low like, probably back in those days, you had a lot of town squares, you know, smaller smaller places, and probably it's your proxim your physical proximity to somewhere probably had a lot more of an impact.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Probably word-of-mouth. Probably word word-of-mouth marketing

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yellow Pages. Yeah. Beforehand, I would say, hey, Jim. I need I need a painter. Who would you recommend?

Tyson E. Franklin:

But then a book came out and said, there's a whole pile of painters in here. I go to the painting and then and all of sudden, I don't I'm not reliant on word-of-mouth as much.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Yeah. Definitely word-of-mouth. And I think the the proximity thing I think is huge though too. I think some people get kind of we used to live in a very, I would say, local, like I mean, you don't know where you live. You know, even with cars and things, you don't necessarily you know, I I take it for granted now, like, when I was having some issues with my feet and ankles, I I went to see a podiatrist up in the Chicago Suburbs, and I felt like that was, like, you know, that was about two and a half hours from where I grew up.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

And there were podiatrists, you know, ten or fifteen minutes away from me, but we decided to go see the kind of best. And I think that was you know, we didn't find them in the, you know, the yellow pages. So I think you're you're right. The kind of word-of-mouth and finding ways to generate that word-of-mouth is hugely important. So, you know, as much as I love digital channels, you know, this this supplement word-of-mouth, and it could be a very powerful tool.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

But I think we talked about just, you know, figuring out, you know, where are you allocating your marketing funds and, you know, kinda being proactive are the kinda two things that hopefully people will take away from today's show.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Yeah. And it'll be interesting. Like you said, ten years time, you look back at this particular episode and you go, Jim was bright. Jim knew what was happening.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Hopefully, that's gonna be the case. Knock knock on wood.

Tyson E. Franklin:

And hopefully, we we've bought a lot of shares of whatever came up next.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

For sure. For

Tyson E. Franklin:

sure. Okay, Jim. This has been fantastic. I look forward to talking to next week.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

Alright, Tyson. Sounds great.

Tyson E. Franklin:

Okay. Bye. Bye.

Jim McDannald, DPM:

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.