How To Make A Marketing Plan For A New Health&Wellness Practice - a podcast by Dr. Danielle Eaton

Welcome to the Health and Wellness Practitioners Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Danielle Angela. In this show, I and my guest experts will talk about everything from getting your practice started to developing your clinical skills, growing your practice your way, and of course, dealing with the real stuff like burnout and work-life balance. Whether you've been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you'll find something here for you. So take a deep breath and enjoy the show.

Hello, hello friends. Welcome to the Health and Wellness Practitioners Podcast, episode 238. I am your host, Dr. Danielle Angela, and in this episode, we are going to be talking about how to make a marketing plan for a new practice or business.

Now, before you run away from this podcast, I know that you don't like hearing about marketing, but I just want to encourage you that, you know, if you went through the time to study the modality that you practice, whether it's midwifery, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, whatever it is, you are a smart person. You are capable of learning new things, and marketing is just a skill. It's just a skill. Some of us have, you know, invested a lot of time and energy in developing that skill, and others haven't. But wherever you are, it's okay. You can learn the skill of marketing.

And don't forget too that, you know, marketing is the essential, like the first component, the first function of running a business. And if you want to be able to help people, then you've got to be able to get the word out about what you do and how you serve in your practice, right? So don't be afraid. And well, actually, even if you are afraid, it's okay. You can still move forward and learn the skill of marketing anyway. And remember why you are doing this. It is ultimately at the end of the day to be able to help more people. And as a reward, you make money and you get to live a better life. 

Okay, so. When it comes to making a marketing plan for a new practice, it can get really confusing real fast because there are so many different strategies and tactics that you can take, especially in 2023 with so many different social media platforms.

Before we dive into specifics, I want to give a shout out to one of my favorite books on this topic, which is the One Page Marketing Plan. And the One Page Marketing Plan kind of breaks down the overall strategy and then the tactics. So the strategy is like the approach and the tactics are the “what to do”. If you really wanna go deeper into this topic and you want to spend time improving your skill set and marketing, then I definitely highly recommend getting the one-page marketing plan. It is called the One Page Marketing Plan, but it is not a one page book. It's just FYI. 

Okay, so...as I was mentioning, there are so many different things you can do and so many different ways you can go with marketing your business in today's world, right? So let me give you first, two things that I really, really, really encourage new practitioners or people who are starting a new practice; you could be a very seasoned practitioner and not a seasoned business owner, right? You could be in practice for two decades and not have ever owned your own business, but maybe you want to start one now whatever the case is. if you are starting your own channel business. I highly encourage you to get a jumpstart on social media as soon as you can. 

So if you are a student and you're studying your modality, you're a chiropractic student or an acupuncture student, it doesn't really matter what you're studying. Start a social media account for your future business as soon as you know that there will be a future business. This really freaks a lot of people out, by the way, because they're like, oh my gosh, I'm just a student, I know nothing, I don't even have a business yet, can I really put it out there? And the answer to that question is yes, you can. And the only person that can really decide that you can't is you. Although, yes, you have to abide by the user terms of agreement for any social media platform that you decide to use - you can start using that social media platform within those terms of agreement anytime that you are ready to take the leap.

And I know as a student, you might be thinking, well, I can't give people advice. I don't know enough information, et cetera. But you know that most of the things that you follow on social media are not educational per se, right? They're not teaching you the encyclopedia. Oh my gosh, I just aged myself big time by saying the encyclopedia. I used to go to the library and read the encyclopedia before dance class after school. Okay, that was a side note, but you don't have to teach people in-depth information. In fact, you can just share about your life and share about who you are and what you're studying and why you're excited about what you're studying. And that's really enough.

But imagine that you get a one to two year jumpstart on social media before you even start the business. You'll be so much better off because the people that follow you will already know what's up. They'll already know why you're doing what you do. They'll already know what it is that you've been learning and what you're offering. And they'll be in the know when it's time for you to open your business and start booking new clients or new patients. So I highly, highly, highly, highly, highly encourage you to get started on social media as soon as you are willing to take the leap.

Okay, the second thing that you need to start doing as soon as possible is narrowing down a target market for your future business. Now, again, this can be kind of a scary suggestion for some people because they think that I'm telling them that they need to have a niche and they don't have to have a niche to have a target market. 

In other words, that doesn't mean that you have to be an expert in something very, very specific in order for you to be clear about who the target market is for your business. So I know we've talked a lot, a lot, a lot about target marketing and ideal patients or clients on this podcast, but it bears repeating because it gets misunderstood so often. 

So hear me, okay? Listen up. This is important. This is really important as a future business owner. In the quest to become a leader, you want to have a successful business, then you need to have a defined target market for that business. This is not the same as having a niche practice. A niche practice definitely requires having a very clear target market, but the beauty of target marketing is that when you're marketing to a select group of people, you will actually attract all kinds of people through your marketing. So you've probably heard me say this before, but I'll say it again. Marketing to everyone is like marketing to no one. When you're just trying to market to everyone, nobody really listens because it's not connecting with people on a deeper emotional level.

When you're clear about who your target market is, you can then connect with those people on a deeper level because you can express your understanding of what they struggle with and what they're really going through in their real lives and also that you can help them.

See the difference? So yes, while you need to have a target market to have a successful business or practice, it doesn't mean that you have to have a niche practice. Your target market will be attracted to what your target market is expressing through your marketing, but so will lots of other kinds of people. And that doesn't mean that your target marketing isn't working by the way, so don't get distracted. Stay focused on the target markets, even when your marketing is attracting other types of people. It just means that your marketing is working.

So if you want to market to no one, then try marketing to everyone. Or if you market to everyone, you're really marketing to no one. If you want your time and energy in marketing to be effective, then you need to have a clear target market. 

So what is a clear target market? Let's be really clear about what a clear target market is. A clear target market is not women. A clear target market is not children. And a clear target market is not families. A clear target market is actually narrowed all the way down to a specific type of person. One type of person.

I have been on a sabbatical from practice for a few years now, but when I was still actively practicing and growing in practice, my ideal patient avatar's name was Sarah. And Sarah was a photographer. She had three children, she was married, she was running her own business, and she was very busy with all of her kids' sport activities. Sarah struggled with headaches and there was definitely a correlation between her menstrual cycle and her headaches, but one of the only things that she found that relieved her headaches once they came on was chiropractic care.

Of course, it took Sarah a bit to understand that. If she stayed consistent under chiropractic care, then her headaches didn't come back. But it was when she got off track with her appointments, when she had long shoots at weddings, wore her camera around her neck, you know, like with the strap that goes around her neck, set her computer for very long hours editing photos - that the headaches would come on.

So eventually Sarah learned that chiropractic definitely helped her with her headaches and if she stayed consistent with care over the long term, her headaches were far less frequent and far less intense. So that was Sarah. Sarah is someone that I could clearly help because chiropractic helped relieve her headache intensity when she had a headache, but it also helped her reduce the frequency and intensity of her headaches over the long term and I'm really good at helping people relieve headaches and neck pain through chiropractic care. 

So I felt really comfortable focusing on that target market in my practice. So see how specific I was with my ideal patient avatar? That's really, really specific, right? A lot of times I ask people, who is your target market? And they're like, women between the ages of 25 to 65. That's not clear enough, friends. I don't know about you, but I was a different person when I was 25, when I was 35, and I'll surely be a different person when I'm 45 than I am right now.

I have different problems, I have different needs, I have different dreams. So to be able to be effective in marketing to any specific person, you need to be really clear about eating healthy a very narrow population, if you will.

Don't let this scare you.

Don't let this scare you.

Don't let this scare you.

Because what often happens is your brain will tell you and other people in your life around you will also tell you that you're scared turning people away by focusing on a target market. But again, remember, when you market to everyone, you really market to no one. It's very ineffective and it can feel like you're putting out a lot of energy and getting nowhere. So if you want to be effective in marketing, you've gotta be clear about who the target market is, even if your friends and your colleagues tell you that you're doing it wrong or that you're gonna be risking making people feel excluded from what you offer by being clear about who the target market is for your business.

I don't know why this is such a struggle for us in health and wellness professions, because it is just an obvious, necessary, essential part of business outside of health and wellness professions. I think because we learn specific modalities and maybe because some of the other mentors and teachers that we learned from back in the day when they were growing their own businesses, it was probably less important for them to have a target market and they could just be like, oh, I have this amazing thing that I do, chiropractic, or, you know, I'm gonna do this acupuncture, right, or Reiki. And they could just talk about that in their communities, they could advertise it in the newspaper, they could put something in the church bulletin, and people would think, hmm I need to try this chiropractic thing. But that doesn't happen anymore. It doesn't work that way anymore. 

So we can't just go out and try to teach the world about whatever the modality is that we learned, whether it was chiropractic or again, Reiki, acupuncture, massage therapy, whatever it may be. You have to be able to connect with people with where they are and what is going on in their lives right now in order for you to be seen and heard and for them to know that what you offer is for them.

Okay, so far we have covered starting out on social media and we've also talked about target marketing. Next we're going to dive into relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing is so, so, so simple. And as we talked about in the last episode, it's so important. You can get easily distracted by Facebook ads and Google AdWords and email marketing and TikTok and Instagram and as I shared in the last episode if for any reason any of those platforms were taken away from you because maybe you violated terms of service or your account was hacked or whatever happens then you lose all of the work that you've put in there. And if that is the only way that you are bringing in new patients or clients to your business, you're in big trouble.

So instead of putting all of your eggs in one basket, a basket that could be very quickly and swiftly taken away from you, you need to focus on relationship marketing. All relationship marketing is, is just getting to know people in your local area, or if you're an online or hybrid type of business, getting to know people who are in your area are in similar types of professions or businesses as yours that do something a bit different, but there's also some overlap.

Building these relationships is key because when people know you, like you, and trust you, and they also understand what it is that you do that's unique and different, aka who your target market is, then they'll refer their friends, their family, their potential clients, who are maybe not the right fit for them, to you instead, because they know, oh, this person has this problem.

I know the exact person to help you with that problem. Person A has a problem. Person B is the expert in solving that problem. Person A, you need to go see Person B. So that's what we want working for you, right? We want people to know you as the go-to expert for a problem. And when you are known as a GoToExpert, you will be receiving referrals from existing clients, from existing patients, from other practitioners, providers, and professionals in your local area or even around the world.

The beauty of this is that you will be receiving those referrals and not having to rely solely on social media or spending money on advertising. The downfall of this is that you never know where those referrals are coming from or when they're coming, so you can't rely on this strategy alone. However, that being said, this is the foundation of marketing when you are a health and wellness practitioner who works with clients one-to-one, especially if you have a brick and mortar service. 

If you work with your clients in person because what you do is so personal. People need to know you. They need to like you. They need to trust you in your community as well as amongst your patient or client population. When that's happening, you'll be receiving referrals like you won't believe.

Okay, so, oh, oh, oh, I don't want to forget to add, and I didn't talk about this in the last episode.

The people that come to you by referral are very, very often your ideal patients or clients. The people that find you through social media ads are usually not. They're usually people that are looking for a deal or they're just wanting to try this out for a visit or two.But the people that come to you by referral have been informed by someone that they know, who they trust, who has said, this is what you need to do, go see this person. And they've probably also shared a bit about their experience and what to expect, right? 

So the people that schedule with you as a new patient or client who have been referred to by an existing patient or client or another practitioner, provider, professional are very often amazing patients or clients to work with in your practice. So it's worth it. It's so worth the time and the energy that you invest in building those relationships.

Another thing that I want to express to you about building relationships, aka relationship marketing, is that it doesn't have to be cheesy. You don't have to take lunch to the medical doctor's office down the street. You don't have to go door to door from business to business passing out brochures and business cards. You don't have to take a cake to, oh, I don't know, the auto shop down the road and introduce yourself. It doesn't have to be what other people have shown you that it is. It can just be reaching out to people that don't already know you, that you don't already know, who you want to get to know, and you want to find out, are they like-minded? Do you like them and are you interested in what they do, who they are, et cetera? And from there, relationships grow and develop, and eventually referral relationships grow and develop as well.

So this is key, but so often overlooked. What I don't want is for you to DM me on Facebook or Instagram and say, oh my gosh, I'm so struggling with getting new clients or patients. My business is so slow. Please help me and you say, and I ask him what have you been doing for marketing? And you're like, well I tried running some ads, but that didn't really work.

And I'm like, okay, what else have you been doing for marketing? And you don't know, or there's just nothing. You've been doing nothing.

There are so many episodes in this podcast to help you get momentum going in your practice and they're all free. So implement what you learn here on this podcast because it works, okay? And on the note of it working, I wanna give you two stellar examples. 

First, my client Dr. Katie. She is in Illinois. She came to me, gosh, initially probably like 2016, she was thinking about starting a practice and she was working for another company, earning a really high salary. And it was very comfortable for her. She wanted to start her own practice, but she wasn't quite ready yet. So she came to me later in 2019, I believe it was, and she was like, all right, I'm ready, let's do this. So she started her own practice that year. And she started to feel fine. Now, three and a half years later, she just celebrated her highest grossing month in January and then celebrated her highest grossing month in February of 2023. She also bought a brand new dream vehicle and paid herself five figures for the first time this month. Imagine if that was you. Let me tell you how she did it.

She was very specific about a target market. She is known as a go-to expert in her area for helping babies and for prenatal care, but really a lot of her clinical time is spent working with babies. So, that is example number one. Her target market is babies, oftentimes with lip and tongue tie issues, tethered oral tissue, maybe plagiocephaly, torticollis, etc.

Okay, example number two is Dr. Erika. Similar situation, but a little different. She was, I think, about seven months pregnant with her third child when she came to me and said she wanted to start her own practice and I was like, well, okay, go for it. And she said, everyone thinks I'm crazy because I'm so pregnant and I wanna start my own business, but I don't wanna go back to work as an associate. Okay, totally doable. So let's do this. 

She kept her expenses low, just like Dr. Katie did. She made sure that she was focused on a target market. She set the hours that she wanted to work only. And now, roughly, what, five or six years later, she's making a lot of money. In her practice, she's working part-time hours. Granted, she has a lot of things going on. She's got a lot of side projects happening now, but her practice has nearly exploded. And it has happened because she's become the go-to expert in her community for helping children with sensory issues, children on the spectrum, et cetera. 

So two amazing examples of how this can work for you. Okay. And in both of those cases, yes, people told them you shouldn't do it that way. You should do it this way, but they followed the advice that I share here on this podcast, as well as what I offer in my coaching programs. They did it and they're doing it so successfully.

Okay, so, how to make a marketing plan for a new practice. First, start on social media as quickly as you can. Don't be afraid that you don't know enough. Just get started, be a real human and the payoff will come when your business is ready to open. 

Secondly, ensure that you know who the target market is. Oh, I want to add to this just a quick note that defining a target market is a decision. You don't have to go on like a soul searching journey to discover who you're meant to serve. Just decide this is a target market that you want to work with. Even if you're not entirely sure, it's okay. Define a target market. You can let it evolve as you evolve as a practitioner.

Then third, start building relationships now or as soon as you can, if it's not today, OK? These three things are going to help you get such momentum when you are ready to open your practice. If you need further guidance on how to build relationships and how to become that go-to expert in your community, how to become KNOWN as the person to go to for a specific problem so that you are receiving referrals and not wasting your nights and weekends at screenings and health fairs or spending thousands of dollars on social media ads that you don't really have to spend anyway. Reach out to me because I have a group coaching program starting in March called KNOWN and it is going to be exactly for you whether you have just started to practice or starting one soon, or you're a seasoned practitioner who just needs to get a better handle on growing your business. 

KNOWN will be amazing. It's such a simple, simple process that I teach in this experience, but it's so easy that it's sustainable and actually can even feel fun. All right, so DM me on Instagram if you want to learn more and chat about if it's a good fit for you. You can find me at Dr. Danielle Angela on Instagram. And then be sure to join me next week for another new episode. I will see you then. Take care.

Hey, thanks so much for joining me for today's episode. If you love this podcast, then be sure to join our free community, the Health and Wellness Practitioners Group over on Facebook where you can continue the discussion and get to know other people in the community as well. We're a group of chiropractors, naturopaths, acupuncturists, midwives, doulas, massage therapists, mental health therapists, counselors, nutritionists, and the list goes on. So come join us, get to know other people, build some personal and professional relationships. You can find the group by heading to drdanielangela.com forward slash community and request to join the group. I will see you inside from there.

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