How to Get the Most Out of your Practice’s Facebook Page


You might already have a Facebook Practice Page. If you don’t, you should – in fact, setting one up should be the very next thing you do after reading this article.

Why? Facebook has more than 2 billion active monthly users. 

Regardless of where your practice is located or what you sell, the chances are excellent that a solid majority of your patients and potential patients have Facebook accounts.

The issue that keeps coming up is that many of the practices that have Facebook pages aren’t making the most of them. And that is a tragedy. Your Facebook Page can be a substantial marketing tool for your practice!

Fortunately, there are some easy fixes you can make to turn your Facebook page into a powerhouse. Here’s what you need to know.

Choose a Recognizable Profile Picture 

Your profile pic and your cover banner are the first things most people will see when they visit your page or see your content. That means it’s got to be clear and easy to recognize.

The most obvious option is to use either your company logo or your picture for your profile. The former makes sense if you have a practice with a recognizable logo or one where people don’t automatically associate you with your practice.

Use a photograph if you choose to be more personally recognizable than your practice.

Either way, make sure your profile pic is the right size. You can find the details in Facebook’s guide, here.

Add a Compelling Cover Photo 

Your cover photo takes up more space on your Facebook Practice Page than anything else. For that reason, it’s got to be compelling and professional.

A lot of practices use an image of their reception area or gym as a cover photo. Others use a group photo of their staff – something that makes sense for a service-oriented practice.

Make sure to use the proper dimensions for your photographs. Facebook changes the dimensions frequently – you can double check here.

Tip: A better idea is to have a compelling design that leverages a call to action such as ‘Click Here’ to encourage others to click on the page’s cover to get more information or to give something away. 

What happens next when someone clicks on the cover banner is a lightbox or modal opens up on the screen with a sidebar. It is here where a practice can provide compelling text and link to a website to encourage others to opt-in to get something of value. 

Unfortunately this is a missed opportunity to leverage Facebook to funnel all of that traffic back to your business for the purpose of building a list or selling your services!

 

Minimize Admin Access to Your Page

You’re busy and it might be tempting to give an employee access to your Facebook page, so they can post content while you handle other aspects of your practice. There’s nothing wrong with that – until there is.

If you decide to delegate social media responsibilities to employees, make sure that you:

  • Provide proper training about the type of content to be posted, your social media strategy, and the “voice” you want to use in your posts
  • Make the parameters of their responsibilities clear
  • Lay out the process for dealing with negative comments and complaints
  • Limit access to one or two trusted employees at most

You can change your Page Access settings by clicking Settings > Page Roles.

Add a Call to Action Button  

You know that your social media posts and emails all need a call to action at the end that tells people what to do next. The same is true of your Facebook Practice Page.

In recent years, Facebook has added Call to Action Buttons for Practice Pages. The button appears on the right side of your Facebook Practice Page just underneath your cover photo. Some of the options available include:

  • Call Now
  • Book Now
  • Learn More
  • Watch Video
  • Sign Up

Choose the CTA button that is most suited to your Facebook marketing goals. You can add it by clicking the “Add Button” button on your Facebook Practice Page. If you already have a CTA button and want to change it, you can do it by hovering over the button until the “Edit Button” option appears. Click it and you’ll be able to select a new button for your page.

Don’t Neglect Your “About” Section  

The “About” section of your Facebook Practice Page is vital to your page’s success. People will click “About” to learn more about your practice. If you don’t provide them with the information they need, they may decide not to follow you.

You should make sure to at least include your full practice name, address, telephone number, hours, and the URL of your website. You should also consider optimizing the section that’s most likely to sell people on your practice. For example, you might:

  • Provide a detailed company history
  • Explain your key service you offer
  • Share your mission statement and company values

It’s also a good idea to add some company milestones to your profile, including your founding date, the launch of a new location or service, and key anniversaries.

Check Your Metrics  

One of the most common Facebook marketing mistakes is failing to use the free tools that you get when you sign up for a Facebook Practice Page. You might not know it, but Facebook Insights provides a ton of useful information about the people who follow your page and what they want to see.

The best way to use Facebook Insights is to track your engagement. I recommend focusing on:

  • The times of day most people see your posts
  • The kinds of content that get the most engagement

For example, you might look at Facebook Insights and discover that more people read your posts between 9 AM and noon on weekdays than at any other time. You might also discover that your video content is leaving other content types in the dust.

Using that information, you can then create a content strategy that will allow you to get the maximum organic reach for your content.

Promote Your Content 

Speaking of content, are you publishing content consistently?

Your potential and existing patients want to consume your content! When was the last time you posted something? 

How often are you posting? Once a month? Once every 4 months?

Recency bias has a big part in how much your audience engages with your Page. Posting infrequently just isn’t going to cut it. You have to have a content marketing strategy which incorporates consistent and ongoing publishing that helps you connect with your audience!

It is also worth mentioning that increasingly, Facebook has tweaked its algorithm to prioritize personal content and minimize the reach of practices. They say it’s because it’s what users want, but it’s also a way for them to maximize their ad revenue.

Either way, the only way to be sure that your content is seen by your followers is to promote it. I don’t recommend doing that with everything you post. But, if you’re sharing something important – like an event or a new service launch – it makes sense to drop a bit of money and promote your content.

Facebook marketing is like anything else – you get out of it what you put into it. Your Facebook Practice Page is where it all starts. Use the tips here to get the most from your page and turn your Facebook marketing into the powerhouse it should be.

 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


Facebook Ad Objectives…Explained


Most practices should advertise on Facebook. That’s what I believe, and the evidence backs me up. It’s cost-effective and, if you do it right, it can help your practice to grow.

But that is easier said than done.

While Facebook ads are effective, many health care business owners don’t know which objectives to choose for their ads. Choosing the wrong objective may lead to a low return on your investment and possibly a dreaded feeling that you’ve wasted money.

With that in mind, here’s my rundown of Facebook ad objectives to help you understand which objective makes the most sense for your practice.

 

What are the Available Ad Objectives on Facebook?  

When you create an ad for your practice on Facebook, you can choose from 11 objectives divided into three categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Let’s review them.

  1. Brand Awareness. These ads generally do not get a high click-through rate because their objective is to make people aware of your brand. They are best used as the first step in a campaign to attract new patients.
  2. Reach. If you want to get your ad in front of as many people in your target audience as possible, this is the objective to choose. Here again, you may not get a ton of engagement, but you will be sure that your ad appears in your target audience’s feed.
  3. Traffic. Traffic ads are designed to direct more traffic to the URL you choose, usually a link on your website. Facebook tracks only the number of people who click on your links, meaning that you’ll need to track conversions separately. 
  4. Engagement. On Facebook, engagement means likes, comments, and shares. If you want to get more people to engage with your content, this is the ad objective you should choose.
  5. App Installs. This one’s self-explanatory. If you’ve got an app to sell or promote, choose App Installs as your objective.
  6. Video Views. Have a video to promote? Choose the Video Views objective to get more people to watch your video. This objective is ideal for service demo and explainer videos.
  7. Lead Generation. If you’ve got a great lead magnet to promote, the Lead Generation objective is ideal because it allows the people who see your ad to opt in and get your lead magnet without leaving Facebook.
  8. Messages. Message ads are designed to get more people in your target audience to message your practice on Facebook. They can be useful if you want to initiate conversations, answer questions, and nurture leads.
  9. Conversions. If your goal is to get more people to take a specific action, such as adding an item to their cart, buying a service, or RSVPing to an event, this is the ad objective to choose on Facebook. It works best when targeted to people who are already familiar with your brand.
  10. Catalog Sales. Another ad objective that may be effective when targeted to people who already know your brand is the Catalog Sales objective. You can use it to connect Facebook with your service catalog and display individual services to your audience.
  11. Store Visits. This ad objective can help you entice more patients to visit your practice. To use it, you’ll need to make sure that your practice location(s) are accurate in Practice Manager. (Be mindful of this objective as recent changes to mobile operating systems like iOS 14 might negatively impact your results)

You should think first about which objective you want to achieve. Consider the options we’ve explained above. Then, choose the ad objective that will help you get there.

Which Facebook Ad Objective is Right for Your Practice?

Now, let’s talk about which Facebook ad objectives make the most sense for local practices. Some simply are not good choices if you’ve got a small audience to target.

Brand Awareness is a good objective, particularly if you feel like your competitors have more brand recognition than you do or if you haven’t been in practice for long. Recency bias can get you started down the path of getting your audience aware of your practice. It’s a good idea that the ad you create is a compelling representation of your brand, including your brand’s personality, voice, and ethics.

Unless you have a large audience, the Reach objective is probably not ideal. The goal for that objective is to reach as many people as possible. Most small practices should steer clear of this objective.

Traffic can be a good objective for practices who want to get more people to visit their websites. However, you should make sure that you have a well-designed landing page before you spend any money on traffic. You need to give people a reason to stay on your website once they click the link. That reason should be very clear and we would recommend the objective is to capture a lead or opt-in. For instance, getting an email address or SMS Text numbering exchange for something of value.

Store Visits as an ad objective for practices was awesome. It’s arguably the most highly focused ad objective available. But, with recent changes to mobile operating systems and privacy concerns, leveraging this objective might need to be revisited as results may be skewed based on target users’ privacy preferences.

 

The key with this is to test and see how your ad costs and the results of your campaign area affected. The argument worth considering is the results may still be compelling as a patient who registers as an actual store visit may be more valuable to a practice owner than say an ‘aware’ community. 

If you decide to use the Store (practice) Visit objective make sure your location is and information is up-to-date. It’s worth mentioning to target the ad to people who live within proximity to your practice! Then test and expand your ad’s radius to see if it makes sense reaching people who aren’t necessarily within an easy traveling distance.

If you have an online store, then the Catalog Sales objective may be useful as well. It can help you show off your most popular services and get them in front of an audience. Again, targeting is going to be important. You should use this ad objective with an audience already familiar with your brand for the best results.

The Messages objective may be right for your company if you feel that you need one-on-one contact with patients to overcome their buying objections. However, you should only use this objective if you’re ready to monitor your messages and respond promptly when people write to you. A slow response time can undo any good you do with the ad itself. You may want to consider installing a chatbot in Facebook Messenger to send an immediate response.

Visiting your Facebook Ads Manager page will give you additional information and guidance as you create your ad. Remember, the ad objective you choose should be carefully selected to align with your practice growth objectives for the best results. 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


5 Ways to Engage Patients on Instagram to Get Results


Instagram can be an amazing source of traffic and leads. But is it working for you or have you noticed less than favorable results for your marketing efforts?

If you’ve noticed this, it’s time to get serious about patient engagement on Instagram. Instagram, like all social media platforms, is constantly changing its algorithms. The latest change is that Likes – which used to be the gold standard of patient engagement – will no longer be displayed on your feed.

DON’T PANIC. You’ll still be able to see your Likes in your analytics and insights, but this new reality signals a change with Instagram engagement. 

Here are 5 things you can do to engage your patients that go far beyond a simple Like.

#1: Organize Your Stories into Highlights

Instagram Stories can be a terrific marketing tool, but they only stick around for 24 hours – or do they? 

One of my favorite tips for Instagram Stories is to feature them as highlights on your profile page. Your stories can provide new subscribers with an overview of who you are and what you do. 

Here are the steps to follow:

  • Log in to your Instagram account
  • Navigate to your profile page and tap Story Highlights (underneath your name and bio)
  • Tap the plus sign to add a Story to your Highlights
  • Tap to choose the Instagram Story you want to feature 
  • Tap Edit Cover
  • Choose a cover photo for your Highlight
  • Tap Done

Once you have added an Instagram Story to your highlights, it will remain there until you remove it. This simple move gives new life to your Stories and increases engagement by giving new followers something substantial to view when they visit your profile.

As a practice you have a lot to share. A few great ways to leverage highlights might be to feature behind the scenes of your practice or to inform, educate and entertain. Another opportunity might be to feature your audience’s posts to your stories and then to your audience. Showing the human side of you and your practice will often resonate with your audience.

#2: Use Geotags for Local Engagement 

For healthcare business owners, the Holy Grail of Instagram marketing is attracting local followers. After all, these are the people who are most likely to patronize your practice and convert to loyal patients. One local follower is worth hundreds of followers who only look at your photos and never buy from you. And it is so much easier to sell more and more often to an existing patient.

One of the easiest ways to amp up your local engagement is to use geotags when you post on Instagram. You can create a Geotag specifically for your practice, but you can also use state, city, and even neighborhood geotags to pinpoint your location.

Here is something really cool that you may not have been aware of, geotags can have their own Stories on Instagram. Using a geotag for your city, your posts will become part of that day’s Story, making it that much easier for patients to discover you and your practice.

We highly recommend leveraging geotags as part of your Instagram campaigns.

 

#3: Post Videos to Get More Comments 

In their 2018 Instagram Engagement Report, Mention revealed that videos on Instagram receive 46% of all Likes. Since there are far more photos posted on Instagram than videos, these numbers show that videos attract a ton of engagement on Instagram.

With the importance of Likes on the decline thanks to the new algorithm changes, it’s also interesting to note that videos seem to get more comments than photos. If you haven’t already started posting videos on Instagram, 2021 is the year to start.

The current rules for Instagram video are as follows:

  • Up to 60 seconds for videos posted on your feed
  • Up to 15 seconds for videos posted as part of an Instagram Story
  • Up to 60 minutes for Instagram Live video
  • Up to 60 minutes for IGTV video

Posting more videos can help you grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

It may seem unnerving to get yourself on video, but if you are looking for results and increased engagement, you have to find a way to get over putting yourself on video!

 

Think of it as a massive opportunity for new and existing patients to discover and engage with your content!

#4: Create More Savable Posts

One of the things about Instagram is that it’s easy to miss posts or to gloss over them. But what if there was a way to keep your audience engaged by getting them to revisit a post frequently? 

There is! More brands are recognizing the importance of creating posts that their followers will want to save and return to. That’s unlikely to happen with a simple photograph, but there are ways to create content that’s suitable for Instagram and provide ongoing value to your followers. Here are a few ideas:

  • Create carousel-style posts with multiple images organized around a theme. For example, a massage therapist “how to work on headaches” or “how to work on carpal tunnel.”

A carousel in the feed encourages viewers to swipe left and right on your post. You can have up to 10 images within the carousel. This also encourages viewers to ‘stay on’ you post that much longer. 

The key is to think about what your target audience will find valuable and provide it to them, Instagram-style.

 

#5: Add Instagram Stickers to Your Stories  

Instagram Stories are great for engagement, especially if you let your followers now how you want them to engage with you. A great way to boost Story engagement is by using interactive Instagram Stickers.

Instagram Stickers appear on Stories and offer your patients an easy way to interact with you. The options available include:

  • Question stickers: Ask your followers a question, such as which services they’d like to see from you. The question sticker is a great way to collect valuable information from your followers.
  • Quiz stickers: Offer your followers a multiple choice question to boost engagement.
  • Countdown stickers: Add a countdown to your Story to build excitement for a new service or launch or a big announcement. 

Here are the steps to add a sticker to your Instagram Story:

  • Add a picture to your story
  • Click the peeling smiley face icon to bring up your sticker options
  • Tap to add the sticker you like
  • Rearrange it on the page – you can make it bigger or smaller and choose where to place it and add a question or countdown

Another fun sticker to use is a ‘slider’ sticker. A great way to use it is to position it on your canvas in a manner that allows your viewer to slide the dial left or right…or…up or down. Now consider having an image that has 3-5 choices and you leverage the slider to have the viewer engage with your image. You can get very creative and have a lot of fun with it!

 

Engaging patients on Instagram isn’t just a numbers game and the new algorithm changes mean that Likes are only the tip of the iceberg. These five engagement tips here will help you take advantage of the updates and make it your best year ever on Instagram.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


How To Run a Practice Marketing Audit

Practice Marketing Audit | Practice Insiders Edge

How To Run a Practice Marketing Audit

Marketing…. Shmarketing – I do enough of it!

Really….. Are you sure?!

Have you ever done a marketing audit on your practice?

So if you want to see how you can take a walkthrough of your current marketing and where you may stack up make sure to watch this week’s video.

In other words, how is your practice performing with respect to:
Website Review
     It all starts with the HQ of your practice
Online Scheduling
     Do you offer this option?
Payment Options
     Great way to boost cash flow every month
Loyalty Programs
     Is there a way for you to incorporate a loyalty program?
Search Engine Optimization
     Are you the #1 Provider for search in your community?
Email Marketing
     You are sending out at least 1 email/newsletter per month… right?
Social Media Presence
     Just pick one and run with it.

Sure, this is not the most fun way to spend 60 minutes but what if it brings in one or two more patients per month into the practice, is it worth it then?

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking for some advice on running a Practice Marketing Audit or you are looking to grow and scale your practice – we are here for you! You can do one of two things:
(1) Drop a comment below with the words: Marketing Audit and we will get back in touch with you
(2) Set yourself up with a Triage Call here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call


Getting Back to Basics: Facebook Marketing 101


You’re probably already marketing your practice on Facebook. If you’re not, you should be – but it’s not just a question of having a Facebook page and using it. You’ve got to use it wisely if you want to get great results.

It’s not uncommon for healthcare business owners to dive into Facebook marketing without really knowing what they’re doing at first.  I mean come on, at some point you just have to dive in, right?  You may even have some decent results but I’m willing to bet they’re not as good as they could be.

So… let’s get back to basics. What do you need to know to earn a big return on your Facebook investment? Let me break it down for you.

Create Your Page. 

If you don’t already have a Facebook page for your practice, the first step is creating one. To do it, click the plus sign at the top right-hand side of your page once you’re logged in. (Note: this used to be on the Pages sidebar, which has been removed with the latest Facebook update.)

You’ll be prompted to enter information about your practice including what type of practice it is so be as specific as you can.

Use Consistent Branding  

When you create your Facebook practice page, make sure to keep your branding consistent. That means using the same photo across all social media sites. I suggest using your practice logo as your profile picture, if you can.

You should also keep your language consistent with your brand’s tone and personality. It’s a must to create a seamless cross-channel experience for patients when they interact with your practice on social media or your website.

Optimize Your Listing 

When you add your profile picture, you should also be optimizing your listing. You’ll need to include:

  • A link to your website
  • Your practice hours
  • Your physical address if you have one
  • Your contact information

You may also want to add a call to action button that will appear on your page. Some of the options include:

  • Learn More
  • Sign Up
  • Shop Now
  • Send Message

Decide what action you want visitors to your page to take and use that as your call to action to get the best results.

Use Facebook Groups 

One thing that a lot of healthcare business owners forget on social media is that the social part is just as important as anything else. People follow their favorite brands on Facebook because they want a give and take.

You can start by joining Facebook groups and starting a Facebook group of your own. Research shows that approximately 1.4 billion people use Facebook groups. More importantly, consumers welcome brands’ participation in groups provided they offer real value and aren’t just trying to make sales.

Interact with Your Patients 

The name of the game in Facebook marketing is engagement. If your followers aren’t liking and sharing your posts, commenting on them, or asking questions, your marketing strategy isn’t working.

In other words, if someone comments, write back! If they ask a question, answer it. If they share a post featuring your service, reshare it with their permission. The more you do to let your followers know that you see and hear them, the more loyal they will be.

Integrate Patient Service with Facebook

Speaking of interacting with your patients, you should also be integrating your patient service with Facebook. It doesn’t matter if you prefer to field patient questions or complaints on your website or by phone. Patients expect the brands they follow to be responsive to their requests across all channels.

Your best bet? Assign an employee to monitor your Facebook messages and respond to service requests as they arise. In addition to expecting to get service wherever they request it, Facebook users also expect speedy responses. 

Run Facebook Ads

Facebook advertising is quite affordable and if you do it right, it can be a great way to attract more followers, build your list, or increase your sales.

Let’s talk about what doing it right means. You’ll need to:

  • Identify the best target audience for your ads
  • Create a compelling ad with a hero image or a video
  • Decide on a goal for your ad
  • Test alternatives for headlines, calls to action, etc.
  • Monitor your results and tweak your ad content accordingly

While you’re testing content, you may want to start with a small budget until you’ve optimized your ad. Then, you can increase your spending to get the results you want.

Post Useful Content 

The key to engaging your followers on Facebook is posting useful content. Here are some suggestions:

  • Provide answers to common questions and concerns.
  • Give options on how to use and/or make the most of your service.
  • Use Facebook Live to do a Q & A, introduce your staff, or offer a behind-the-scenes tour of your practice.
  • Run Facebook contests and giveaways.

Keep in mind that you should share a mix of original and curated content. With curated content, make sure to offer your own take on it – and only share content that is relevant to your brand and followers.

Use Messenger/Chatbot Marketing –

It can take up your valuable time if you need to monitor Facebook messages around the clock. The best way to take the stress out of the situation is to use a chatbot to send automated responses to people who message you.

Building a chatbot for Facebook Messenger is easy and affordable. If all you’re looking for is a series of automated responses, you can use a tool such as ManyChat or Chatfuel or MobileMonkey to quickly create a chatbot that meets your needs and provides patients with the immediate responses they expect.

Take Advantage of Retargeting  

It would be great if every potential patient who visited your website filled out your lead form the first time they interacted with your brand. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works!

The solution is to use Facebook’s retargeting option to reconnect with people who stopped short of completing your opt-in form, downloading your lead magnet, or making a purchase. Retargeting can help you to reconnect with those people, educate them about your brand, and get them to take the next step. All you need to do is install a Facebook pixel on your site. You can read more about it here.

The bottom line is that Facebook marketing is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to meet your marketing and growth goals. Use the information here to optimize your page, engage with your target audience, and take your practice to the next level.

 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


Need a Conversation Starter for Your Practices Content?

5 Conversation Starters for your practices content

Need a Conversation Starter for Content for your practice?


Today I wanted to talk with you…. yes I want to have a conversation with you about conversations! 🗣

And… sorry but it’s just me going solo again – I know you miss Terri (me too)!

When you ask questions…. Most people like to give answers!

We don’t always have to like them but we can always learn from them… or at least you should be open to learning about them.

There are some really cool things that start to happen when you get conversations going with your patients and even more important, your prospective patients like….
1. They help to build trust and bond you with your market!
2. They help you to come up with future content!
3. They help you to connect with your community!
4. And…. much, much more!

If you want to learn more about the 5 conversation starters to keep your audience talking about you and your practice then make sure to watch the video. 🎥

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking for some advice on Conversation Starters or you are looking to grow and scale your practice – we are here for you! You can do one of two things:
(1) Drop a comment below with the word: CONVERSATION and we will get back in touch with you
(2) Set yourself up with a Triage Call here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call


Why Every Practice Should Leverage Digital Marketing


Digital marketing isn’t optional. 

The fact remains, though, that only 84% of practices have a content marketing strategy as of early 2021. 

16% don’t.

If you’re one of the people who has put off digital marketing or done it haphazardly, it’s time to get serious about it. 

You may have claimed your Google My Business listing – and that counts as digital marketing. It’s also the bare minimum you can do.

So, with that in mind, let’s talk about why every practice – including yours – needs digital marketing, and which marketing strategies we recommend.

What is Digital Marketing?  

Some healthcare business owners don’t understand what digital marketing is and that’s part of the problem, so, let’s explain a little more about what it is.

Digital marketing is the sum of any efforts you make to promote your practice online. It may include:

  • Email marketing
  • Blogging
  • Search engine advertising (PPC)
  • Social media posting
  • Social media advertising
  • Practice listings
  • SEO
  • Video marketing

The key to making the most of digital marketing is choosing the strategies that are most likely to deliver the results you want.

Target Local Keywords  

The first thing you need to recognize is that in the world of digital marketing, everything is local. If you try to compete for the same keywords used by big corporations with huge marketing budgets, you’re going to lose. You’ll get far more bang for your buck if you think local.

Local keywords should be a combination of industry-specific words that identify what your practice does and local words that let people know where you are. For example, a massage therapist in Minneapolis might target words such as:

  • Minneapolis massage therapy business
  • Twin Cities massage
  • Emergency massage care Minneapolis

You get the idea. You want the words you target to be specific to both your practice and your location. Google prioritizes local search already and optimizing your website and ads for local keywords will give you the best possible chance of connecting with people in your area.

Claim Your Local Listings 

A big part of digital marketing is creating a consistent online presence. A person who finds you on Yelp should have access to the same basic information about your practice as someone who searches for you on Google or someone who navigates directly to your website thanks to a referral from a friend.

Local listings such as Google My Busines, Yelp, Angie’s List, and others act as online directories. They’re there to help people find the practices they need. If you haven’t already done so, you should claim every listing for your practice. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to update and standardize all information to create a seamless presence.

Use Social Media Wisely

Social media should be part of your digital marketing strategy. As of 2020, 3.8 billion people worldwide use social media. Your patients use social media.

The trick, of course, is to know which social media options your patients prefer. 

B2B companies should focus on LinkedIn. Any company with a visual or aspirational service would do well to invest in Instagram and Pinterest marketing. Most practices can benefit from having a Facebook presence.

Once you’ve decided which social media accounts to create, you still need to use them wisely. That means using both organic posts and advertising to connect with your target audience. A practice can focus on local patients by using carefully-chosen hashtags and participating in community events such as Throwback Thursday.

Don’t Forget Email Marketing 

Email marketing isn’t the new kid on the block, but it is still one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies around. It’s particularly effective for keeping existing patients engaged and coming back to your practice.

If you don’t already have an email list, you can build one by creating content to give away and advertising it on Google or social media. If people want to download the content, they’ll need to provide you with their email address.

You can get the most from your email marketing by creating unique content for the people on your list and combining it with special coupons and giveaways.

Advertise on YouTube

YouTube advertising is something that a lot of practices miss out on because they don’t understand how effective it is. Fully 90% of patients say they have learned about a new service from seeing an ad on YouTube.

Marketers agree that pre-roll skippable ads are the most effective format for YouTube ads. However – and this is anecdotal – we’ve noticed an increase in the number of short, non-skippable pre-roll ads we’re seeing. Patients are less likely to mind sitting through a 15-second ad they can’t skip than an ad that’s longer and not skippable. 

YouTube is owned by Google and that’s one reason that YouTube is a great option for retargeting patients who have visited your site without buying anything. 

Encourage Reviews

You already know that reviews are important. You should consider them an essential part of your digital marketing strategy.

If you’re not already doing so, start encouraging patients to write online reviews. You can ask them in person either during or after treatment or, if you have an email list or Facebook account, ask them to leave a review and link to your preferred review site. 

Optimize for Mobile 

It’s safe to say that in 2021, all digital marketing is mobile marketing. We don’t mean that nobody accesses a website or social media on a computer but it’s a fact that mobile search has surpassed desktop search and almost everybody has a smartphone.

In practical terms, that means you’ve got to be sure that your website is optimized for mobile. Ideally, you should have:

  • A mobile responsive design that looks equally good on any device
  • Mobile-friendly content
  • Clickable buttons

No mobile user should need to zoom in to hit your call to action button or scroll horizontally to read your blog posts. There’s no excuse for ignoring mobile users – so don’t do it.

Digital marketing is here to stay – and it’s time to take it seriously. By focusing on the marketing strategies we’ve mentioned here, you’ll be able to differentiate your practice from competitors and attract a steady stream of new patients.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


How to Identify Your Audience and Find YOUR future patients Online


We’ve all had the experience of looking for something and not being able to find it. It’s frustrating and time consuming and can feel like a pointless exercise if we’re forced to keep at it for long.

For a healthcare business owner, there’s nothing more frustrating than knowing there’s an audience for your service and not knowing who they are – or where to find them. 

In this article, I’ll break down the process to help you first identify and then locate your audience, so you can fine-tune your marketing and get the leads you need.

Let’s dig in!

Identifying Your Audience

We can look to social media for some guidance in how to identify an audience. If you have an existing patient base, you can begin by analyzing it using two categories of information: demographics and psychographics. From there, you can use information about the problems your service solves to narrow your search.

Demographics

Demographics are easy, so let’s start there. Demographics are facts about your patients (and your target audience) that can help you identify them. They include:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Geographical location
  • Education level
  • Income level
  • Marital status
  • Employment/industry

Having basic information about who your patients are can help you identify the right target audience for your service. 

Psychographics

Psychographics illustrate your target audience’s interests and preferences. 

For example, if you run a gym inside of your practice, some interests to consider might include the following.

  • Health
  • Fitness
  • Weight loss
  • Running

You could also consider pop culture interests. If you own a clothing boutique, you might target people who watch fashion shows such as Project Runway or Say Yes to the Dress, or who follow fashion designers such as Christian Siriano or Ralph Lauren.

Benefits/Problem Solving

Finally, you should give some thought to what problems your service solves, or what benefits it provides to the people who are likely to buy it. Here are some questions to ask yourself.

  • What types of people might have the problem I’m trying to solve?
  • What solutions are they looking for?
  • Why do they need a solution – that is, what are their pain points?
  • What am I offering that’s different from my competitors?

Asking these questions may help you fine-tune your demographic and psychographic requirements. By the time you have worked your way through all three categories here, you should have a good idea of who is in your target audience.

How to Find Your Audience Online

After you have identified your target audience, it’s time to think about where to find them online. Here again, there are multiple methods you can use, alone or in combination, to find your audience.

Let’s start with social media, which can be extremely useful for connecting with your target audience. You can use demographics to identify the sites where your audience is most likely to be, so let’s start there.

  • Facebook is the largest social media site and skews the oldest. 69% of Americans have a Facebook account and with the exception of people age 65 and over, a majority in every age group use Facebook.
  • Instagram users skew much younger than Facebook users, with approximately two-thirds of Americans under the age of 30 active on the platform. There are more women than men who use Instagram.
  • Twitter users encompass only about 22% of the US adult population and more men than women use the platform. Twitter users tend to be urban and educated when compared to other social media platforms.
  • Users of Pinterest skew heavily female and tend to be affluent and educated. They encompass every age group, although it’s worth noting that the smallest demographic is people over the age of 65.
  • LinkedIn users tend to be under the age of 65 and highly educated. They mostly live in cities and suburbs and are more likely to be looking for professional services than consumer goods.

You should also consider the type of service you sell and where people are likely to look for it. We’ll talk about Google later, but on social media, here are some general guidelines. 

It’s also worth mentioning if you have a locally based practice, Facebook is really good at getting in front of users based on geolocation. Sometimes we run ads and only use zip codes as our qualifying targeting criteria if we are interested in reaching everyone that lives, works and plays within our targeted areas.

 

  • Facebook users look for all types of services, ranging from consumer goods to services at every level.
  • Instagram is likely to be most useful for selling services although some services can lend themselves to Instagram as well. For example, any service where you can show before and after photos is a good match for Instagram.
  • Pinterest users are accustomed to finding services on the site and often “Pin” services for later purchase.
  • LinkedIn users tend to be professionals and are most likely to search for services.
  • YouTube can also be leveraged! Tapping into YouTube Ads makes sense if you are a national, international or even a practice. Their ads via Google are compelling!

For example, if you have a clothing store, it probably makes sense to find your audience on Instagram and Pinterest. If you own a law firm, LinkedIn and Facebook might be the best choices.

Search Engine Marketing

In addition to finding your audience online, you must make it easy for your audience to find you. Search engine optimization and marketing are designed to help people in search of your services find you.

SEO comes down to having a properly optimized website and a well-established online presence. You’ll need to target the right keywords and identify the search terms that people in your target audience will use when searching for a practice like yours. You’ll need to make sure that your site is mobile-friendly and optimized for voice search.

At the same time, you should standardize your online listings and claim your listings on review sites such as Yelp and Google. Most consumers search for practices online before they decide where to obtain a service. Having reliable information about your practice and good reviews will make your practice more visible on Google and other search engines.

Understanding who your audience is and where to find them is a must for every practice. Once you have identified who you’re selling to, you’ll be able to fine-tune your marketing campaigns and you’ll spend less to attract new patients.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


The 3 D’s To Success For Your Practice

The 3 Ds To Success In Your Practice

The 3 D’s To Success For Your Practice


This week I’m sharing a video that I shot on Saturday April 10th, 2021 after taking a morning walk. In Illinois we had a bad few days of weather but I’ve got to get my walk in regardless. Movement is critical for me to have a good day!

I went live in our Private FB Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2557935974436456/) and I thought I would share that video with you too! This info is too important for you to not have this and start to think about this as you head into your week.

So… what are the 3 D’s?

DO — DELEGATE — DELETE

Pretty simple yet many of the best things in life and business are simple!

Well…. We should at least be doing our best to make as many aspects of our life as simple as possible with process and systems.

This video will go over the ways in which you should take action on ANYTHING that comes across your day.

Side note – if you are treating patients… I’d suggest you just DO your very best and not delegate or delete them… you might get in trouble!

But for anything else that comes to you through the day you should:
1. Do it
2. Delegate it
3. Delete it

I’d love to know what you think?


5 Types of Content Marketing for Your Practice

5 Types of Content Marketing for your practice | Practice Insiders Edge | Practice Leverage Method

5 Types of Content Marketing for Your Practice

This is to build off of last weeks video on the 4 tips for creating local content to help build your patient base and spread community support.

Today, we wanted to share with you 5 different types of content marketing you can employ for your practice:

1. Blog and Vlog posts
2. Infographics
3. Patient Testimonials
4. Patient Case Studies
5. Educational or Fun Videos

Give it a watch and feel free to share your content with us, we’d love to see how you are making it work for your practice.

 

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking for some advice on Creating Content or you are looking to grow and scale your practice – we are here for you! You can do one of two things: (1) Drop a comment below with the word: CONTENT and we will get back in touch with you (2) Set yourself up with a Triage Call here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call​

 


8 Social Media Myths and Misconceptions to Forget in 2021


There’s no question that social media marketing is, and will continue to be, important for practices. If we hold this to be true, we should also acknowledge there to be some myths around social media that could contribute to being harmful to your practice.

Ready to bust some myths?

Here are 8 of the most widely believed myths you may want to avoid if you want to grow your practice with social media.

 

#1: You Need a Presence on Every Social Media Site

The idea that you need a presence on every social media site is one of the most harmful myths for healthcare business owners. It takes time, effort, and money to maintain an active presence on ANY social media site and nobody has time for all of them.

A better idea is to have an active and meaningful presence on the sites that offer you the best opportunity to connect with your target audience and engage your patients. Nothing else matters!

It’s my opinion most practices should be on Facebook. B2B companies should have a presence on LinkedIn. If you’re selling an aspirational service, then it makes sense to be on Instagram or Pinterest.

Does this mean you should never try something new? 

Of course not! 

Set up a profile and give it a try. But if the site you choose isn’t giving you the results you want, cut it loose and add the time you would have been allocating to those efforts and apply them to platforms that deliver the results you’re after!

#2: Fans and Followers are Worthless if They Don’t Become Paying Patients  

You should use social media to attract new patients. That’s obvious and it makes sense. But I hear a lot of healthcare business owners who think that followers who aren’t paying patients aren’t worth having – and that’s simply not true.

Your fans and followers don’t need to buy from you to be useful. Having a large following can raise your profile and help new patients find you. If you’ve got fans or followers who have a lot of clout, you’ll get some of it by association. 

Most importantly, a follower who doesn’t buy your services could still refer their friends and followers to your practice. You should run ads designed to attract paying patients but don’t ignore the benefits of followers who aren’t your patients. They’re still helpful.

Lastly, a fan or follower who doesn’t buy from you today or this month, might convert to a transactional patient tomorrow, next month or sometime in the future!

 

#3: It’s Useful to Have Your Friends and Family “Like” Your Posts

It’s a common misconception among healthcare business owners that asking friends and family to “Like” your posts will help you get more engagement. The bad news? Social media algorithms are more sophisticated than that and you need a wide range of people to engage with your posts.

Does this mean you should tell the people who care about you not to like your posts? Of course not! What it means is that you should always be asking your fans and followers to engage with your posts – and giving them a reason to do so. Ask a question, encourage them to share your posts, and most of all, share content that’s useful and entertaining to them so they’ll want to engage with you.

You never know, sometimes family and friends can be great referrals for you should they have contacts that need what you offer!

 

#4: You Shouldn’t Schedule Posts on the Weekend

It’s a common trend for practices not to share new social media content on the weekend. While it’s true that some of your followers might not spend as much time on social media on the weekends as they do during the week, you shouldn’t assume that weekend content is unnecessary.

Instead, try scheduling a few weekend posts to see how they do. You can use Facebook Insights or whatever analytics tool you prefer to determine which days and times are the best for posting.

Social platforms don’t close down on the weekends nor does the attention of your audience. I’d recommend posting on the weekends!

 

#5: You Must Respond to Social Media Comments Immediately

There’s no doubt that it’s important to respond when a social media follower asks a question or leaves a comment. But responding in a timely manner doesn’t mean you must drop everything to respond immediately – with one exception.

If you have incorporated your patient support with social media, then you should be sure that you can respond as quickly as possible. A lot of practices have added chatbots to Facebook Messenger to minimize wait times for their patients.

However, a comment that doesn’t require patient support involvement can wait a little while for a response. As a rule, try to respond within 24 hours.

 

#6: Social Media Posts Must Always Be About Practice

Social media is social first and media second, but a lot of healthcare business owners forget that. 

Their social media posts are as dry as dust and don’t get any engagement. And they wonder why.

Don’t be afraid to inject some personality into your social media posts. Even if you offer a professional service, you can still use appropriate humor or compassion in your posts. This is the place to showcase your brand personality. Make sure that anybody who is empowered to post on your social media accounts understands the persona you want to project.

 

#7: You Need Endless New Content to Post

You need to have some new content to post on your social media sites. However, there’s nothing wrong with repurposing or resharing old content if you don’t have time to write something new.

Keep in mind, too, that you can “curate” content by finding articles in industry publications and posts from influencers to share with your followers. Provided that you keep the content you post relevant your followers will be happy to see it.

Curating content can be a rewarding method delivering different perspectives while saving time of producing your own original content all of the time!

 

#8: Social Media Marketing is Free

This final myth is one that I hear often. While it is free to set up a social media account for your practice, you’re unlikely to get the results you want without spending some money.

Social media algorithms have grown increasingly sophisticated. The only way you can be sure that your followers will see your most important content is to boost it. Social media marketing can help you get your content in front of potential patients. The good news is that you don’t need to spend much to get the results you want.

You can build a substantial audience rather quickly without a massive advertising budget. Our recommendation is to leverage social media to build an actual audience list in the form of email and sms list acquisition. Once you build this list, you have a true asset that pays for itself!

Consider these 8 myths…My recommendation is to contextualize them in your marketing and you’ll see your social media marketing results improve – and your practice grow.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call 


3 Common Mistakes Everyone Makes Using Facebook Ads To Market Your Practice


Did you know that the average Facebook user clicks on 12 ads per month? It’s true – and it illustrates why Facebook ads are still one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your target audience and promote your practice.

If only you weren’t messing them up…

Look, we can’t say whether your Facebook ads are perfect. Maybe they are. But the truth is that most people do mess them up – and the mistakes they make cause their ad campaigns to be more expensive (and less effective) than they should be.

Fortunately, there’s a quick fix. Once you understand the 3 most common mistakes people make, you can stop making them – and starting to get the results you deserve. Here they are.

#1: Targeting Ads to People Who Aren’t Already Fans 

There’s a few ways to think about this one…

This first mistake can be a real head scratcher for small healthcare business owners. Aren’t you supposed to use Facebook ads to grow your audience?

The short answer is no, not really. You can – and we’re not saying that you should never run an ad that targets new patients. But you’ll get more engagement and more clicks if you target the people who already like your company.

If you think about it, it should make sense. The people who follow you on Facebook are qualified leads. Some may have already bought from you but all of them are people who had enough interest in your company to click that Follow button. 

Running ads that appear only to followers is a great way to nurture leads, encourage repeat practice, and let your followers know that you want them to connect with you. 

But we get it. It’s the old “Which came first; the chicken or the egg?”

 

What if you don’t have a following or you want to grow your following?

 

If you are a practice, it makes sense to run awareness ads to your locale. ‘Like’ campaigns are still a valuable way to bring that attention and awareness to your FB Page and to your practice.

 

What makes that campaign that much more valuable is your subsequent ad strategy by running ads to people who are already familiar with your practice and those who want to do practice with you.

 

#2: Not Testing Your Ad Images 

Very few people can get an ad right the first time they create it. Even professional marketers struggle with creating ads that work and it’s what they do for a living.

A case in point? Ad images. 

The right image can stop someone mid-scroll and get them to click on your ad. The wrong image will make them ignore your ad or – worse – view it with disdain. 

The goal of your ad is to stop a browser from scrolling in the first place!

There’s only one way to find out which image will resonate the most with your target audience and that’s to test multiple images. 

Now, we’d be remiss if we didn’t say that you should be testing everything in your ads. But images have the potential to make or break your ad in a heartbeat and that means you should be prioritizing them. You may want to check out Facebook’s breakdown of ad image best practices, here.

 

#3: Not Segmenting Your Ads 

The third and final mistake we want to tell you about is one that may also be the most common: not segmenting your ads.

There’s no denying that it requires less effort to create a single ad to reach every follower. The problem is that an ad that’s highly appealing to one follower may be a complete dud for another. You’ll be better off thinking about the various segments of your target audience and creating an array of ads to appeal to each segment than to try to shoehorn everybody into the same box.

Let’s consider one potential example of this. Imagine a practice that has multiple service areas and locations. They create a single ad that targets their entire list of followers. That might be okay, but think about how much more successful they would be if they:

  • Created location-specific ads that let their followers in each service area know that they are a local company.
  • Used images that were tailored to each location.
  • Offered location-based incentives to people who click on each ad.

The main thing to remember is that it’s rare for a “one size fits all” ad to be as effective as an ad that is targeted to a specific segment of your audience. People are far more likely to respond favorably to an ad that is meant for them than to one that’s trying to be all things to all people.

Facebook ads are undeniably effective if you do them right. By reviewing your existing ads and eliminating the 3 mistakes we’ve outlined here, you’re likely to get more engagement, more clicks, and more leads than you are now – without spending more money.

So… if you are a private practice healthcare business owner and you are looking to grow and scale your practice or generate more new patients for the practice – we are here for you!  Drop a comment below if you have questions or if you’d like to set up a call with us go here: https://bit.ly/PIE-FB-Triage-Call