Top Mistakes I See Chiropractors & Other Health Pros Make with Instagram Marketing (And How to Fix Them) PART 2 [Episode 95]

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the show. Do you want me to start singing for you? I'm not a good singer. Actually, I used to be a good singer. Fun fact about me. I swear on my life. I used to be this good little singer. I even had solos in choir. I had, I got to play the part of Lily in the Andy play in eighth grade. It was, was so fun.

[00:00:20] Had my own little lavalier mic and all that jazz. And then I guess it's just like an instrument. Like now I sound like a, like a, a bellowing, dying cow when I sing. Yeah, I should probably have like kept up with that. Okay, welcome back to part two of six mistakes, six common mistakes I see brick and mortar health practitioners making with their Instagram marketing and how we can fix them.

[00:00:46] So this is really like my chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncture, Reiki, maybe you have a functional medicine practice or nutrition practice. As I said in the last episode, this is really more targeted towards people who are pulling a local audience. Fun fact, even if you are online only, I still recommend that you start with pulling a local audience.

[00:01:09] I have a whole episode on why I recommend that. Okay, back episode 61. The title was Marketing to Attract Ideal Clients as an Online Health and Life Coach or Functional Medicine Provider. So, I gave some really specific tips there and talk about why I, even if I was virtual only, I would lean into, well, I am virtual only, that's how I started my business, was leaning into local marketing first.

[00:01:36] I know it can be really tempting to be like, well, I can see people anywhere and everywhere. Um, but there's a lot of advantages to playing into your local community, so I talk about that. Yeah, so last on last week's episode, if you did not tune in, today's episode will still make sense by itself. I'm just giving the other three mistakes that I see, but in last week's episode, like I said, I give three more mistakes.

[00:01:59] So like I said, they make, they make sense on their, these episodes make sense on their own. I would go back and listen to last week's though, if you haven't already. So. Without further ado, let's dive in.

[00:02:15] Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions. And you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.

[00:02:34] So let's come hanging out while we chat all things easy in your marketing and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a quote should to a I get to. More dream patients and clients. Yes, please. Hi, I'm Melissa Birdsell and I'm a chiropractor in Moline, Illinois. And I listen to the holistic marketing simplified podcast.

[00:02:58] So on last week's episode, part one, we talked about the three mistakes that I see and how to fix them being around your Instagram bio, not being set up properly or optimized for search or being too vague. I also talked about how you're not, you are likely not optimizing for local search or optimizing for growing your local community.

[00:03:18] And then the third mistake I talked about was. your profile being too generic, no personalization, stock photos, just only not having photos or videos doing the thing you say you do. Like you say you work on pregnant women, but there's no photos of pregnant women. So that was, those were the three mistakes that I talked about this week.

[00:03:38] This last week, this week, the other three mistakes I'm going to dive right in. So we'll just call it number four, is that you're only posting educational content. And look, I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. There's so much education that needs to happen in the holistic health space. People just don't know.

[00:03:58] People like, what is it, the small, if we're gonna, if we're even talking about just about chiropractic, I don't know the numbers for acupuncture. I feel like massage is a little different and correct me if I'm wrong, like people are like more open to massage, but like I said, other brick and mortar, like Reiki, or maybe you do.

[00:04:15] Like I said, like, uh, nutrition, coaching, or functional medicine. I just feel like there's, there's so much education that still needs to happen. And so I totally understand wanting to just like educate the crap out of your audience. And I'm not saying you should not do educational content because you should.

[00:04:33] However, if you just post educational content and don't follow, um, everyone has their own way of teaching different Some people call them content pillars, content buckets, content themes, whatever. I don't like traditional, the way like traditional content pillars are taught where it's basically like, um, I'm going to talk about my educational content pillars are tongue tie, pregnancy, like pain, breech, babies, and colic or whatever.

[00:05:03] That is just not the full picture. Those, yes, you can have those content buckets. under your educational theme, but there's so many other pieces that are missing if you're just educating. And I call it my content ecosystem. I have done several episodes around my full content ecosystem. So I don't want to get into like the weeds of all of the different types of themes you need to have.

[00:05:29] I hate to use the word need or should or anything like that because I'm like, look, if the only way you're going to show up is because it's to do educational content, then like, sure, that's fine. But I would advise that you download my content ecosystem. It's just mollykhill. com slash content planner. Um, it said, I don't know why that's our pretty link.

[00:05:50] It should be content ecosystem. So mollykhill. com slash content planner, or if you just DM me the word ecosystem, um, you will get this, like, like I said, spelled out in full. And I've done, like I said, other episodes around this content ecosystem. But what happens when you're just educating is your content falls flat because you're just like talking at your audience.

[00:06:13] Okay. And it's not doing a lot in the way of encouraging them to talk back. Now you can get really creative with your educational content. So where it is more engaging and people are talking back and interacting with you. But as a general rule, if you want people to pay attention to your educational content and be like, Oh my gosh, chiropractic care can help me with my baby's torticollis.

[00:06:36] Then you also need to include other types of content. Like some of it's what I call my engaging content or can't help myself. That looks like doing really fun polls. Like I said, well, people just can't help themselves, but want to talk back to you. Some examples that I always use are If you named your child after your pregnancy cravings, what would their name be?

[00:06:56] And it's like people can't help themselves. They have to interact. Comment the last three things you bought on Amazon. No cheating. A lot of times, not always, but we'll get some new clients to our Instagram management agency and they're like, um, no, I'm sorry. Could you please take these out? We only want to educate.

[00:07:12] And I'm like, I, again, I get it. I get it. I get it. But then I was actually just with one of my longterm, actually it's just been a year. Dr. Ashley. We were together in Miami and she's like, yeah, I used to wonder why y'all posted those. And I was like, why are we? And she's like, and now when I look at my stats, those are the things that have the most engagement.

[00:07:29] And it's like, yes. Now are we only going to post little silly things like that? Absolutely not. But the point in those types of posts is it like, again, it's, it's now your post, your feed becomes like a two way conversation rather than me just talking at you and educating you. People can't help, but want to play along.

[00:07:46] And it doesn't even have to be something silly like that. It could be like, We're looking to go on a date night Friday night. Where's your local favorite local restaurant like they can maybe even be something like that. You can be on your feet or in your stories. It's just getting people to talk back to you.

[00:07:58] So that when you do post educational content, they're more likely the people who have been commenting on your more fun posts are more likely to see it. So I said, I tell people, I'm like, if you're only doing educational, then you're really narrowing the pool. Cause the algorithm's going to go, Oh, nobody likes this.

[00:08:16] And it's not going to show it to as many people. Whereas if you add in the fun, engaging content, then your educational stuff, which is so important to you is going to be seen by more people. The other super easy type of posts that you can throw in today, and you can do this again, stories, feed, I recommend doing both.

[00:08:31] And it's a really what I call like a, like a direct pitch of your, uh, appointment openings. So if you are in more of a coaching model, I have four spots for new coaching, nutrition coaching. clients in January or something like that, or we have three new patient appointment openings next week. DM us to grab them really blunt openings like that.

[00:08:55] And every time I'm guarantee you, you post that you will fill the spots. It's great. It's amazing. Also, more personal content. This does not mean private, okay? But people want to see, you know, people buy into the whole lifestyle of what it is that you do. How you're going on a road trip to see your family for Christmas.

[00:09:14] They want to see what snacks you're packing in the car and how you pack your supplements and organize them and that you're getting your adjustment or your acupuncture or your massage or whatever before you go on your trip and after. People want to see that kind of stuff, okay? They love like the whole, like I said, think about how buying into another way to think of it as like lifestyle content.

[00:09:34] And then the other big one that I see missing, and I touched on this in part one, but it's collaboration posts. And these are hard. Like if I was to audit my own, if I was, if I were, if I were, if I was at work, I just see my own profile. I would say, Molly, you're missing collaboration content. I've just been in this weird, like really.

[00:09:57] Like, I was kind of on sabbatical and then this busy phase where anyway, yes, I need more collaborative content on my own page right now. About five, six episodes back, I did a whole podcast episode on creating a collaboration post. If you are in holistic marketing hub, I elaborate on each one of these topics, the content ecosystem that I talked about.

[00:10:21] Uh, you have a step by step video on how to create a collaboration post with like 10 different specific ideas of how to use collaboration posts. That's just one of the fastest and best ways to grow your audience and your community because not only does that post live on your page, but it lives on the other person's page too.

[00:10:38] Like I said, that's, that's like I said, one of the big mistakes I see is education, only educational content being posted. Mistake number five would be forgetting, oh man, I'm so glad I love this one, forgetting about your current patients or clients and thinking my Instagram, my marketing efforts are only for new, new, new, new, new, new, new patients.

[00:11:03] Not saying even if you need new patients or you need new clients in your door, yes, totally what it can be used for. What's the stat about? Let's see. All right, so I just paused it to look up the stat, and there's some, like, conflicting views, but, A probability of selling to an existing customer is generally 60 to 70 percent, which is much higher than the 5 to 20 percent chance of selling to a new customer.

[00:11:27] So I always like to, like I said, hammer home that don't overlook the power that your Instagram and email haven't talked, much about email, but man, email marketing is so great for this is for getting people to be consistent with their care, getting them rebooked, maybe even getting them reactivated. Maybe they haven't been in a year.

[00:11:50] One of the best things you can do for this is to get your current patients or clients, not just following you on Instagram, but also engaging with your content. This can be Um, a little more like one way to accomplish this a little more passively is to email your current patients or clients and ask them to follow you.

[00:12:10] I have some really engaging scripts for this because you're not just going to email them and then the subject line be. Are you following us on Instagram? And then the email will be like, follow us on Instagram. Like that's probably, I mean, maybe it might work, but I have some more engaging ways to do that.

[00:12:23] You can get those scripts for free at mollykhill. com slash email, or DM me the word email one. It has to have the one on the end email one, and you'll get those scripts. Again, if you're in the hub, I have a full lesson on this with video showing you even how to set this up. So yeah, it's good to email your current people.

[00:12:43] And then the other is just like I said, it's a little more scrappy. It's manual. I've talked about this in my scrappy ways to increase engagement, but. Uh, you know how you'll ask your patients for or clients for Google reviews will do the same thing, like as you're done with their adjustment or their massage or consultation or whatever, like, hey, can you do us a favor?

[00:13:02] We're trying to get our Instagram to be shown to more people in the area. Would you mind following us and then maybe like commenting like on two or three posts and people will say, sure. So train yourself, train your front desk, train whoever's answering the phones, whatever, for that to be just part of the everyday conversations that you're having.

[00:13:22] And you will be shooketh at what that would do for your page. And then on top of that, you get a lot of the social proof of your current people. Oh, we couldn't live without our adjustments from Dr. Davis. Like you'll people see those comments on your posts and it's like built in social proof right there for the new people.

[00:13:41] And the other benefit of this is if more of your current patients or clients are following Following you, then that teaches the algorithm, Oh, okay, show this person's posts to more people like this. Like, it's almost like training the algorithm for what you want your audience, like who your audience is, if that makes sense.

[00:14:01] It's almost like if you were to run ads and you're running it to a lookalike audience, it's like, Oh, you're already like your current patients or clients are following you and show it to more people like this. So again, just go to Molly Cahill dot com slash email or DM me the word email one and you'll get those scripts.

[00:14:16] Um, if you're in the hub, you've got the full classroom there and you've got your slack channel to ask me for any specific questions about your own email service provider if you need help with that. The last mistake, last but not least, is, doesn't have anything to do with something you might be actually doing on Instagram, but it's what you're not doing to get there and it's that you're not asking for help.

[00:14:44] So I see and so go back to the episode was two weeks ago, three weeks ago with my friend Keeley Scheider. I've also done two other episodes. on outsourcing. And it's just this idea that if you find yourself going, Oh, I just can't seem to be consistent or I'm so behind or I've been in a busy season or when XYZ slows down, then I will start posting more frequently.

[00:15:07] If any of those things, or you just like really don't like it, you're just like, meh, like this is like something I would love to not have in my business. You need to ask for help. That help could come in the form of delegating your social media to somebody who currently works for you, maybe your front desk or an assistant or a CA, hiring someone to help you do it.

[00:15:30] You could outsource to our team, but right now we're on a waitlist. We're likely going to start onboarding clients, some new clients, February 2025. If you just go to MollyCahill. com, Instagram management tab at the top, you can hop on our waitlist. Right now it's about 17 people deep, so, but. If the demand is there, I will continue to expand the team and we can onboard some, some new peeps.

[00:15:54] Yeah, like, it's okay to ask for help, even, and it's not going to be as expensive as you think. And it's, it's, you can start slow. Like, even if you just want help filming videos, but you'll put it all together or vice versa. You film the videos and you just want somebody to put it together. There's all different ways that you can outsource this.

[00:16:12] But. The holistic marketing hub, my like all in one marketing solution can literally be your training program for this person you hire. So if one of your barriers to getting help is like, I don't have, I don't have time to train somebody and I don't want to train somebody and I don't have the knowledge to train somebody how to do our social media properly.

[00:16:35] The majority of students who have bought my hub within the last, it's really been a trend. I would say the last year have been clinics who have like, you're allowed to have a plus one. And so they get added to the emails. You, they, you share your username and password with them. They get added to, you know, The hub private Slack channel for questions and they can literally go through.

[00:16:58] I can even see what videos have been watched. So if you're like, Hey, can you tell me if my front desk gal has actually watched the videos? Like I can be like, yes, she has. They're like, no, they haven't inside of the hub. I have a full checklist, like. whether you, um, the checklist can be edited where it's like, Hey, I don't even have this person.

[00:17:17] I need a job description. It's all right there. I've sampled job description. If you already have the person and all you need is the deliverables. I literally just had a hub student DM me last week and he was like, Hey, I We've hired a new front desk girl and part of her role is going to be our social media.

[00:17:33] He asked, what can I expect in terms of how many hours she's going to need for this, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, never fear. Just log into your hub and it's all right there. I have the whole deliverables checklist of what they ideally should be doing. It's, it's where those deliverables came from. It's exactly what we do for our Instagram management clients.

[00:17:51] So yeah, a lot of people use the hub and then that person can also go into the hubs content library and grab the posts and just copy and paste like it's so easy, so easy. Everyone I've had who's joined recently has been like, Oh, why didn't I do this sooner? So just telling you. If you're not sure if it's the right fit for you, my DMS are always open.

[00:18:13] I love chatting with you. Just shoot me a DM. Um, or if you want to learn more, go to my website, mollykhill. com and click holistic marketing hub. Fun fact, I just learned about a month ago, someone was like, I couldn't find any of your information on your website. And I'm like, what? And I realized that not everybody knows when you go to a website on mobile.

[00:18:38] That those little horizontal lines at the top are the menu. Am I the only one that just thought, is that like a common thing that people don't know? That's okay if it isn't. I'm just, I'm just like, seriously, tell me. They're like, Oh! So if you're looking at my website on mobile and you're like, I don't see the hub information anywhere.

[00:18:57] There's just little lines at the top of the screen. You tap that and you'll see the full menu. I think that is, like I said, those are my top six mistakes. Like I said, if you want to go back to the last week's episode and hear the first three, and then this week's were. Only posting educational content, forgetting or not putting enough stock into your current patients or clients and making, have them follow you.

[00:19:23] And then the last mistake was not asking for help. I hope you all have an excellent rest of your day. I know we're gearing up for the holidays. And as always, I really appreciate you letting me be in your ear for What were we at? 23? How long were we today? Anyway, thank you so, so much. Have a great day.

[00:19:44] Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified. And hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast? Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce to bring you free information.

[00:20:00] So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could, please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A. Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support.

[00:20:20] I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.