Marketing Doesn't Have to Be the M-Word

Are you ready to see more kids in your practice this year? If you are, then the big question you’re probably asking yourself is how do I get more kids on the schedule?

I can tell you with certainty, there is no shortage of children that can benefit from acupuncture.  With an estimated 7.1 million children suffering from asthma and 9 million children with ear infections annually you could have a full practice just treating these two conditions!

The main thing stopping parents from making a beeline to your office is that they don’t know acupuncture can help! They have no idea it’s even an option for their child. And we can’t expect parents to intuitively know how amazing our medicine is.

That’s where marketing comes in. That’s right. I said it. The dreaded M-word.

I used to detest marketing, but I knew I had to do to keep the doors open.  What came to mind when I thought about marketing was:

• I’m not good at selling.
• Marketing doesn’t come naturally.
• I don’t want to convince people.
• High-pressure sales tactics are icky.
• Can’t someone else do it for me?

I didn’t want to market, I just wanted to treat patients.

Sound familiar?

The way I thought about marketing represented everything I disliked about the way bad marketers had tried to sell stuff to me.  It felt yucky, sleazy and salesy and I wanted NOTHING to do with it!

That kind of old-school marketing turns everyone off, but what I realized is that it doesn’t have to be that way.  As acupuncturists, we’re not trying to sell something people don’t need. We don’t harm the environment or make money at the expense of others.

We help adults and children restore their health. What we do adds value to the world and both parties benefit from the exchange. 

But we can’t add value to the world and help more kids if parents don’t understand how acupuncture can help. Or if they can’t find us!

Then I reframed the way I saw marketing.

It’s not about selling people stuff. Rather, it’s about enlightening people about how our medicine can help them. When we understand our potential patient’s frustrations, concerns and desires we can speak to those on a deeper, more meaningful level.

My good friend and heart-centered business coach, Lindsay Pera, calls this resonance.  Lindsay says, “Resonance is a vibrational exchange, an attractive process that draws the right patients, team members and circumstances to you in such an authentic way it feels effortless.”

When you use resonance marketing it allows you to draw upon the skills that come naturally to you—providing value and helping others. Marketing becomes about enlightening potential new patients on the many ways you can help them with acupuncture. That becomes your guiding light and directs all your marketing activities, from copy writing to choosing speaking engagements.

Resonance marketing can completely transformation your practice like it did with Luriko’s.

Luriko is a pediatric specialist and she’s passionate about helping kids. Even though she felt confident about her treatments, she was only seeing one paying pediatric patient at this time last year.

But in 2014 her practice went through a major expansion.

“Now I’m treating 6-8 pediatric patients a week and that number is still growing. My word-of-mouth referrals are growing and many of my new patients make their appointments through my online scheduling system for their child or themselves! That tells me there’s an implicit trust happening on their end” 

So what shifted for Luriko?

First, she worked through some of her blockages on marketing and focused on creating resonance to attract her ideal clients on her website and in all her marketing activities.

That led her to speak at a local preschool education night. She provided value to parents by teaching them about pediatric nutrition. It came from a heart-centered space of truly wanting to help, but it also positioned her as an expert.

“That pediatric nutrition class was literally the catalyst that started this whole movement of children coming in for treatment. Parents finally saw and heard me as an expert speaking about good things and providing valuable information.”

At the end 2014, she had her best quarter ever and by making more money doing what she loves, she’s been able to work with a business coach and outsource some of the stuff she doesn’t love like bookkeeping and patient newsletters.

You’ll find, like Luriko, embracing resonance marketing can truly transform your practice and help you create a life and practice you love!

Resonance marketing feels like:

Helping Educating Chatting Providing Value Enlightening Being Authentic Inspiring

With resonance you can learn to LOVE marketing because you're sharing your business in an authentic way.

The more people know what TCM has to offer, the more kids you can help.  The more kids you help, the more money you make and then you can hire people to help you with the stuff you don’t love! Wouldn’t it be amazing to spend most of your time treating patients instead of billing insurance or entering receipts in Quickbooks?

To get you started with resonance marketing, I created this free PDF: Mini Guide to Resonance Marketing.pdf  It contains questions to help you with your resonance and then gives you 3 big ways you can jumpstart your pediatric practice.

Look for my e-mail Wednesday, because I’m going to share more details about my Advanced Acupuncture Pediatrics training program which is goes in-depth on resonance marketing and gives you the tools you need to overcome blockages, like uncertainty and under-charging, so you can grow a thriving practice helping kids.