3 Ways To Create Community (Fast!) on Your Clinic’s Instagram [Episode 179]

Molly: Hi, friends. I'm so happy to be back with you. So today's episode is a topic that I talk about a lot, but I just keep feeling the need to talk about it more because it works so freaking well, and so many people don't, don't implement it. And that is treating your marketing less like a billboard or your Instagram less like a billboard and more like this living, breathing community, and really doubling down on, really doubling down on your current patients first, okay?

'Cause I think so many people get this, like, shiny object, new, new, new syndrome. And I also wanna talk to you about a case study where, like I said, I know I've already talked about this, but I wanna talk about it yet again because, like, I have a newer case study to show you how effective this really is.

Even if you've heard this from me before, I am structuring it in a slightly different way, and I'm giving you three really actionable things that you can do, and I promise you that if you implement these things, even if you can just commit to one, you will come back a month from now and be like, "Oh, wow!

Okay, I'm really glad I did that." And the best part is that all three pieces of homework I'm gonna give you are completely free, and you could do this. They really don't take a whole lot of time. Okay? So here we go

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.

So let's come hang out while we chat all things easing 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.

Nicole: Hi, I'm Dr. Nicole Omoto, and I'm a Holistic Marketing Hub student and chiropractor in Gilbert, Arizona.

I listen to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast. Okay, so I've been doing this now for seven and a half years, and the pattern that I have seen time and ti- time again from my students and my clients was just reconfirmed in my latest round of my advanced, advanced coaching cohort. At the time you're listening to this, actually, I still may have a couple spots left for my next cohort.

We're kicking off September 30th. Um, it's just my advanced group co- group coaching. I only take, like, three to five practices max, and I really only like to take implementers and people who... I call it advanced because we really dive into, like, strategy. There's no, like, "Here's how you post a reel," or there's no me, like, coaching you through, like, kind of being scared to post.

It's kind of like, okay, you're already really comfortable doing all this stuff, and we just want to take things to the next level. We don't just do Instagram. We also, um, I bring in a, bring in a Google Business Profile expert. I bring in an SEO expert, and you get actual personalized audits of, not just audits, but personalized action steps and of your Google Business Profile and of your website.

So, um, and really the main thing that we do is I teach you how to batch create two weeks' worth of content, and then I personally review each post, it doesn't matter if they've already gone out, and, like, give you, like, really specific feedback on your hooks and how they're structured and all of that. One of the weeks, and it's a six-week live program, so like I said, if you're interested, just, like, DM me because I don't have, like, a whole sales page or anything 'cause I take so few people.

It might already be full, um, at the time this is coming out 'cause last time it sold out in a week. So I appreciate y'all so much. But one of the things that we covered that was, like, the most popular and where the practices that were in this cohort was I spent a whole, uh, week, it's like a six weeks, you know, it's six weeks one-hour calls.

I spent a whole week on, like, doubling down on warm traffic, okay? And I don't know why this is something that a lot of people, like, give me pushback. I don't know if it just doesn't seem, like, sexy enough 'cause it's not new. I don't know. But we do know that it costs roughly five to seven times more to acquire a new patient than it does to retain an existing one.

And I don't know how this data extrapolates, but I would be willing to bet money that it's also a heck of a lot cheaper to, you know, have an existing patient add on a family member or something like that, um, rather than, you know, just, like, going for new, right? Okay, just to give you, like, a little proof that this works, um, in this group coaching cohort that I was just talking about where I, you know, got confirmation, um, one of my students, when she first came in, was getting an average of around five thousand views a month on her Instagram.

After month one of our program, she was up to seventeen thousand views And then by the end of the program, there- she's up to over 40,000 views on her Instagram. And the best part was actually this message that she got from her office manager that says, and she titled it, it was so cute, "It's like this works or something."

Her office manager texted her, "I don't know what you posted, but there's been an influx of appointment requests today." So again, like I said, this definitely works when you actually do it. So I'm going to give you three really actionable things that you can implement right away to see results. And don't-- This isn't one of those, like, I tried it one time and it didn't work thing.

Like, I want you to try these things, like, solid try for four weeks and then report back to me, and I will be shooketh if you don't have growth of some sort. Okay? So tip number one is just making it part of your office culture to talk to your patients about your Instagram. Now, obviously, this might sound dumb to some of you, and that's fine.

I don't care. But I'm telling you, you're here for a reason, right? You're trying to, you know, use Instagram to attract more patients, right? So how you do that is y- getting your current patients as your cheerleader, like, on your page. Sorry, it's the end of the day. I usually record these earlier in the day, and I feel like my brain...

My sweet doggy, my sweet little Yorkie-Poo just had to get 11 teeth pulled. So I've been, you know, my nervous system's been a little frazzled today. Anyway, like I was saying, I think about when I am shopping for, like, a product, let's say, or even a, you know, a service. I go to, let's just say it is a product.

I go to that company's Instagram page, and the first place I look is the comments to see if they've gotten comments from people who are using the product. Example, I just was looking at those Pact leggings, and I went to Pact's Instagram page and saw that people were commenting, like, something about how they fit or whatever, and I, like, did end up buying them.

That's opp- obviously the opposite of what you want, but you see what I'm saying. You... People will come, like, when they see that your patients are interacting, it's like a community, right? And they're like, "Oh, my gosh, I wanna be a part of that." So how do you get your current patients involved? Friend, it is not just a sign at the front desk or up in your treatment rooms with a QR code that says, "Are you following us on Instagram?"

I mean, like, yes, you can do that, but, I mean, it's just not gonna really do the job that you want it to do. Make it part, even if you're solo in practice or if you have a front desk, whatever, make it literally part of every day. Obviously, you know the patients who probably aren't on Instagram, where you just talk about it like a normal conversation to a normal person.

I know I cannot be the only one that has such an excellent relationship with my chiropractic office. The office manager, the front desk, uh, the actual doctor themselves, like, we have a great rapport. It's actually, like, my favorite part of my week. And if they were like, "Hey, Molly, we're trying to grow our Instagram.

Would you make sure you're following us, and then while you're there, would you mind, like, commenting on some of our posts?" I'd be like, "Oh, yeah. Sure. Great. No problem." Just make it a part of your daily conversation, okay? And you could even come up with something fancy if you want. You can dub them, quote, "patient ambassadors" if you want to.

I think that's fun. You could even offer to, like, you know, "Hey, if you re-share a certain amount of posts or comment on a certain amount of posts or, you know, share us with a friend, you know, we'll give you a coffee gift card," or something like that. Whatever you're allowed to do in your state. You could make it fun if you want to.

But honestly, it doesn't... Like, they don't-- people don't need an incentive to help you, okay? Just like you ask for Google reviews, if, if you have changed someone's life, it is hardwired into our DNA to want to help you, right? What a gift. This is something my business coach Lacey told me. What a gift to really specifically give people a way that they can help you, and that's by, like I said, just like you would ask for a Google review, "Hey," just, just casual, "are you following us?

Would you mind leaving a couple comments? We're really trying to grow our Instagram so we can reach more people in the community." "Oh, yeah. Sure. No problem." So the second phase, like I said, of getting your current people involved is getting them... I, I'm calling it, like, a repost campaign, 'cause that just sounds fun to me, 'cause it's something you could track, okay?

And for in this campaign, here's what I want you to do. For the next four weeks, I want you to ask one to two patients a day, on the days that you're in clinic, to tap the repost button on your posts. Now, I will explain what the repost button is in just a second, but let me just give you this math. Let's say you're in clinic four days a week and you ask two patients on those days to repost, okay?

So that's, you know what, eight patients a week, okay? Let's just say that each of those eight patients has two hundred local followers. So that's sixteen hundred new local eyeballs on your content just per week, times four. That's six thousand local eyeballs on your content a month, people who don't know you exist.

If it feels awkward to ask people to do this, I really want you to ask yourself and, like, kind of dig deep as to why. 'Cause I promise you, like I said, it is hardwired in our DNA to want to help. I know that people would, like... You could blame it on me if you want. That's one of the other practices in the group cohort did.

"Hey, my new marketing coach is making me do this." You can totally say that, okay? Um, also, I don't know if this, this number is, rings true for clinics, but I do know that if you're running ads that a, a lead, you know, is usually around $7. And like I said, this, that might not be true for chiropractic or acupuncture or whatever practices.

But just thinking about the fact that this isn't necessarily, like, a lead on your email list per se, but it is still 6,000 new eyeballs on your con- like, seeing your content every month for free. So let me just go over that again. Ask one to two patients a day, the days you're in clinic, "Hey, would you mind tapping the repost button?

You know, we're really trying to reach more people in the community." Super easy. You could package that all into one, asking them to follow you, you know, comment, reshare, whatever. If you don't know what the repost button is, a lot of people get hung up on reposting and sharing and the difference, and I understand why you get hung up on it because, I mean, it's just crazy.

There's so many different little nuances. Sharing is what's been on Instagram forever. That's where it's that little paper airplane icon that's underneath your posts. People can tap to share your content to their stories. If they share your post to their stories, that's also great. Like, if they don't wanna tap the repost button, that's fine.

That's still more exposure. So, you know, the sh- the share button works too. But the repost button, it's the one that looks like the little recycling icon. It basically means that when, when... Let's say I, you know, I live in Cincinnati. If I hit repost on one of my chiropractor's posts, then now my chiropractor's post has the chance to show up in all of my followers' feeds.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it will, right? It still has, like, an algorithm that it goes through, but the odds are greatly increased. So I reshare stuff all the time, and I'll often see, like, people I follow are, like, have interacted with the content that I have reposted. I keep saying reshare, but it's repost.

Don't get into semantics. I've- If I've lost you and you're like, "I can't do this," because now you're feeling frustrated, like, I don't care. Just, uh, have them push a button. Just have them comment if you want, okay? But like I said, the reposting, um, is really the thing that kind of gives you that amplifier, that multiplier, if you will, as to, you know...

And I don't want you to get in the weeds and be like, "Well, you know, she's really not for... This- this- this patient's not from Cincinnati, so her- her followers are probably in a different state." Like, no, we're not gonna, we're not gonna get all that nitty-gritty with it, okay? We're just, we're just trying to amplify your message to more eyeballs for free.

If I tap the repost button, what happens on my account? Well, really m- two things. One, it goes to this random little tab on my grid. If you look at your grid, like up at the top, there'll be a repost button. You'll see everything I've ever reposted. Nobody really knows that exists. The other thing is, let's say I repost my chiropractor's post and one of my local friends sees it.

She'll see that I'm the one that reposted it because my profile picture, my face will kind of be like floating over the picture. Okay? So that's the only thing that happens. It's literally just a tap. It's so easy. And then the last thing, this is not Instagram, like spec- Well, it's driving to Instagram, but the last way to get more of your current people involved in your Instagram is to send my email template that asks your patients to follow you on Instagram.

I would highly recommend incorporating this into your onboarding, like if you have like new patient onboarding or whatever. But you would also think of this as like a campaign. Let's just say for like one month you're just running a campaign to get your current patients more involved on your Instagram.

So like you could just do this for a month where it's like maybe two or three times. If you just send it once, you're... Again, you'll get some, but it's not gonna be a ton. So I have email scripts. You can just go to mollykahill.com/email, or you can DM me the word email one. I have an email script that you can just fill in that's like, "Hey, are you following us on Instagram?

It's the best place to find out," blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the template is available for you. Bonus tip. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with getting people to your Instagram, but it does have everything to do with getting more people on your schedule and a quick win. Also on that email script is the script that has never let me down.

I can almost guarantee you... Well, I don't like to say guarantee, but y- you will get more you will fill holes in your schedule if you send, um, on those email scripts. Like the email script one is the one I'm talking about, like trying to drive your current patients to follow you. Email script two is my like secret weapon email, which is like where you just send it on Sundays to show what your availability is for the week.

Highly recommend sending that one. So what you could do for the month is like one Sunday send the Are You Following Us email. Next Sunday, send the availability email, and then vice-- and then do it again. You know, are you following us, availability. That is it. That is three ways to get your current patients involved and hyping you up on your Instagram 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. 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 @mollyacahill. That's C-A-H-I-L-L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.