Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
Digital marketing is evolving faster than ever, and as a chiropractor, you're not just a healthcare provider—you’re also the CEO and marketer of your practice. Without a solid grasp of marketing fundamentals, it's easy to fall for one-size-fits-all strategies that waste time and money.
Join us as we break down proven, cost-effective, and innovative marketing tactics designed specifically for chiropractors. From social media mastery to Google Ads that convert, we’ll equip you with the tools to attract more patients, build lasting relationships, and dominate your local market. Stay ahead, stay profitable, and take control of your practice’s growth!
Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
Secrets to Successful Email and Social Media Marketing
Uncover the secrets of compelling copywriting with Linda Malone, a seasoned copywriter who shares her inspiring journey from the fitness industry to the dynamic world of marketing. Linda offers invaluable insights into her transition from print to online writing, revealing the challenges she overcame and the strategies she developed to capture audience attention through effective email marketing. With practical advice on delegating tasks and the art of hiring the right people, Linda's experiences are a must-listen for any aspiring entrepreneur seeking success in an ever-evolving industry.
Explore the fascinating intersection of AI and writing as we discuss how tools like ChatGPT can transform your creative process while maintaining a personal touch. Linda and I delve into the nuances of using AI for brainstorming, editing, and crafting detailed prompts, all while acknowledging its limitations. Learn how to integrate AI into platforms such as Meta and LinkedIn without losing the authenticity that resonates with audiences. This episode provides a balanced view of AI's role as an assistant, not a replacement, ensuring your unique voice shines through.
Finally, gear up for a deep dive into effective marketing strategies with insights drawn from major companies. We cover the essentials of creating impactful Facebook ads using A-B testing and frameworks like PAS and AIDA. Discover the power of a strong value proposition and the importance of competitor analysis to stand out. Plus, learn how to leverage social media and email lists to build genuine connections with your audience. Packed with personal stories and professional wisdom, this episode is a treasure trove for those eager to excel in marketing and entrepreneurship.
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Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing 101. Fun and special guest this week. We got Linda Malone from the Copy Works and we're going to get into some great marketing tips. She knows her stuff. I won't tell you how old she is, but she's 31, and she's going to tell you some great stuff over her career. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me on it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love your story. Tell us a little bit about how you got into this and how you do what you do today.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm one of those serial entrepreneurs. I've kind of done everything in my life, but the two constants have been fitness and writing. And so I have a degree in nutrition, a bachelor's. I thought I wanted to be a registered dietitian. I found it was just too dry for me. I'm a very creative person Ended up really getting into writing. It's something I've always loved.
Speaker 2:I was a personal trainer first and what happened is I was doing personal training and I would get this free publication every week. I lived in Orange County, california. The magazine was called OC Metro and they had a column, a fitness column, and I thought you know, I'm training people County, california. The magazine was called OC Metro and they had a column, a fitness column, and I thought you know, I'm training people inside their houses, why don't I pitch them an idea how to set up your own home gym? So I pitched the editor an article about that and he loved it. He called me and said do you want to keep writing for us? We really love you, know your style. So, long story short, I ended up writing everything for them. It was cover stories and sometimes I had five articles in this magazine. Then I branched out into the nationals and I've been in. My work has even appeared in Time Magazine, I've been in Family Circle, I've been in Woman's Day. Some of these magazines aren't even around anymore Self and Shape and all of that.
Speaker 2:And then that the print publication world just kind of folded in about I'm thinking 2014, 2015. And I said let me just do online writing. And that was not easy because I was getting paid about 25% of what I had been paid for writing for print and uh, and they wanted all rights like to everything for the rest of my life. And it just was not. It just wasn't good anymore. So I said let me start a course for women over 50 fitness online course. I did that for about five years.
Speaker 2:I did it all wrong, I hired the wrong people. I ended up I just couldn't make money on it from my own, just my own fault and I said you know what, let me go back to writing. But I didn't want to do content anymore because of the state of that business, and so I always loved marketing end of writing. And I thought well, I've heard of this copywriting, especially conversion copywriting, which some people say is a bogus term, but it's not. I mean, I'm trained specifically as a conversion copywriter and so I took, I studied with some really high level copywriting coaches. I call myself certified because one of them, the coach I work with had a certification and that's where I am now. So now I specialize, I kind of combine my fitness background because I was 20 years doing personal training and writing into now helping other health and fitness companies just market themselves, and so that's where I am.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's so great. I mean, yeah, no copywriting, I mean writing in general is so important and and many of us, you know, are trying to be entrepreneurs, run our businesses and we may not be writers. I'm definitely not a straight A student, but English was not not in the top, you know, of my courses. It was probably what I struggled with my whole life growing up. So, but English was not in the top of my courses, it was probably what I struggled with my whole life growing up. But even as doing my own ads and my own advertising and writing my own copy the ones that are good, you know, because the results are just better the results are better, those emails are better, those ads are better, you get a better response from it because you've captivated your audience with something right, something, an emotion or a trigger or whatever it may be. So I think this episode is going to be great about writing, not literature 101, but let's just go through just the importance of knowing or hiring or delegating properly as a CEO of your business. I think what you learn as you get older or you run a business long enough is that you have to learn how to delegate, and it's been such a huge learning curve for me running different businesses and I'm still horrible at it. I still try and do so much myself because, one, I think others can't do it as good as me, which is absolutely incorrect, and two, you just don't find the right people, and I'm glad you said that about some of your endeavors of like I just didn't have the right people, and I'm glad you said that about some of your endeavors of like I just didn't have the right people. I hired the. You actually said I hired the wrong people. I think that's a difficult sentence for me to say with a full stop at the end, because I don't want to admit that, but the truth is, you got to find the right people and that's what this podcast is all about Finding people like Linda to maybe help you in a specific role. She's not going to tell you she's going to run all your Facebook and Instagram ads for you. She's going to tell you what she does really well. So let's get into that.
Speaker 1:What has been your number one or two tips when it comes to writing and captivating your audience? And let's think of an email more mindful, because I think email, you can take your time, you can make it as short or as long as you like. Email marketing what do you find is the best techniques to getting emails out there? Or what's you know as a chiropractor? We're trying to tell people hey, come on in and get adjusted. It's really important to get adjusted, get adjusted, get adjusted, get your kids adjusted, get your dogs adjusted, get everyone adjusted. But those emails are really boring. I think it's just like Costco come buy this, come buy that, come buy this. You're not going to open every email if that's what you're getting all the time. So what's your tips.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a couple of things I mean. For one, you're in a business that lends itself to stories. You know, and, and, starting out and I know this from doing so much magazine writing, almost every article I wrote would start with a story. If it was an article about heart health, it opens with a person having a heart attack and, and it was an actual interview, it wasn't, like, you know, just make this up. So, talking to people, pulling them in to the emotions, because, as you know, you know emotions, we make decisions based on emotion. We justify it with logic, but all of us and and people confuse emotions with emotional. It doesn't mean, you know, you have to cry over the ad, but you, you have, you feel something and that triggers that decision-making. So, starting with a story, um, the number one thing with emails is to have that subject line capture them, cause if they don't, they don't open it, they're never going to see it anyway. So I'd say, spend like 80% of your time on figuring out what is going to be best and testing subject lines. One way I do this is I write the body of the email first and then I start thinking about what will be a great title subject line to pull people in. So either starting with a story, starting with emails, are a great way to engage people on a personal level. Whenever I write emails, I I imagine I'm sending it to one person and you write like you talk, or you write like your clients talk, like make sure you use their language and lingo, which you know you should be familiar with as a business owner. So what is on their minds? So, if it's something about like so you gave the example of you know just come in and buy, or come in and you know, get adjusted, well, what happens if you don't? You know what, what could go wrong? And not to not to freak out anyone, but to just remind them of why they started getting adjustments to begin with, if they're current clients, or what is it that they could improve. So you hit that pain point and so you really want them to think about okay, if I don't take care of this, you know what's going to happen down the road, because maybe it's not something that's right now.
Speaker 2:But paint that picture and then show how you know you have the solution and I think the most important thing, because you're in a competitive business, is what differentiates you from your competition. You know I talk a lot about value propositions. You know you should have like a single line that differentiates you. It should be unique, desirable to your potential, to your prospects, and memorable but sets you apart. Like when I was working with personal training clients. I had a client who had a number of shoulder surgeries and she went to a physician who specialized in not just shoulders but shoulders for women and you would think that is really specific and the doctor was swapped. I mean she had a waiting list, specific and the doctor was swapped. I mean she had a waiting list. So don't be afraid to niche down into something that differentiates you. So I think those are some of the most important things.
Speaker 2:And then the call to action at the end should be something that they want and make it something that kind of leads into it. You don't have to be salesy with it, it's just hey, if you want to know more about this, give us a call or something that kind of leads into it. You don't have to be salesy with it, it's just hey, if you want to know more about this, you know, give us a call or something that's sort of casual, more than you know. Click here to I don't know to. You know like a direct call to action. But you also want to have more value to your emails than calls to action. You can have like a kind of a soft call to action at the end of each one, but you want to have value, like each email should have a ton of value where they maybe they save it. It's like you know I got to remember this and they they save it in a file and then when they have a problem they know you, know you're top of mind and they know to call you.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Yeah, I gave out the rule 70% of your emails are value and 30% are call to action. So that way, people always know that they're going to be getting some value. It's worth opening up that email from Dr D? Yeah, for sure. Great tips there. So as we transition that. So emails telling stories is fantastic. I love that. You said that. I think that's just a great. Sometimes we have writer's block. We're like, oh man, I got to do an email. It's been a while. This should be consistent. Emails should be consistent. I've been telling people you pretty much have to email people daily just to stay relevant in their inbox because they get so much stuff. Good luck with that. What's your feeling on AI? Because you said emotion and it's got to be in your voice and it's got to be. I'm not anti-AI. I love it. It's got great tools to it. But how do you feel about AI? Can AI write all your emails for you?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say to let it write for you, but I use. I use it for brainstorming. Just this morning I use there's a I'm very active on LinkedIn and so I did a post and I wanted to repurpose a post from years ago, so I took it and I ran it by. There's an AI I use called redactai. I found this is the one it's for specifically for LinkedIn. So, if you're, I found this is the one it's for specifically for LinkedIn. So if you're, it's not just for regular email writing, but you can repurpose an email and it'll give you three versions. I mean three versions of your post, LinkedIn post, and I have not found anything that matches my voice as close as that AI. So I will edit it still, but it's also I'm also entering a previous post that I've written, so it's my voice. But I use chat GPT. Of course I pay $20 for the upgraded version.
Speaker 2:I created my own chat GPT which you can do, like where you put in who, like you, give directions to the AI. Like you are a. You know, for me it's like you are a copywriter who specialized in health and fitness and blah, blah, blah. And then I pulled in my previous copywriting coaches in the style of, and I named them. And so when I asked the chat GPT a question it's funny because he'll respond in a voice that I can tell is one of my copywriting coaches it writes like her, um. So those are the things that I think tell is one of my copywriting coaches, it writes like her. So those are the things that I think are really effective. I tried the other ones there's Jasper, there's I don't see a huge difference in a lot of them, but they all have to be edited to. For one, make it yours. You know you have to have your unique voice in it and you want to add the emotion. That's one thing that chat cannot do is to add emotion. It doesn't have a story, it doesn't have a backstory, so it doesn't know people, it doesn't, and it also pulls from whatever the what's already been done. So you want to have a unique message. So you know, use it as a guide, I use it for outlines, I use it for I actually use it to hire my virtual assistant.
Speaker 2:I plugged in all of the because I told you that I messed up in the past. You know, hiring people, the wrong people. I interviewed four people for assistant position, took their transcripts, dumped it into chat and I put my job description, what I wanted them to do, and I said I asked what I wanted them to do. And I said I asked which one is the best person. And chat is very verbose and it's going to give you a ton of stuff, but it broke down what each of the interviews, what were the pros and cons for each person, and, of course, within nanoseconds too. This is like you just see this thing pumping out these words and it said this is the only person that had all of your, everything you wanted, and she was the most expensive one. And I hesitated. She says well, you asked for this, this and this, and this person is the only one who could do it. I hired her. She's been with me almost a year and it's it's been great.
Speaker 2:So you have to, you can get creative with it and I use it as like an assistant. I keep it open and when I have things that pop up, it's like even handling a client management. You know, if somebody I have contracts with people and if they, if there's a problem with the contractor, they overstep like a. What I see is outside of the scope and if I get too emotional about what I'm afraid my response is going to be. I'll ask chat, can you word this in a professional way that gets across what I want, without you know, but still being firm, and it's helped me, and I don't I don't cut and paste that either. I mean I'll look at it and say, okay, this is where you know I need that kind of tone. So I mean, there's a variety of things, but writing is the least of it, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean for those of you that are not into AI or chat GPT, use the free version, get into it and, like Linda said, they can't be one sentence prompts Like all the prompts that I get that are paragraphs. I have to. I have to tell chat GPT a story of what I need. It can't just be like write me a blog about sciatica, you need it. Can't just be like write me a blog about sciatica, you're not going to get a very good blog out of that. So if you want a blog post, you know you're going to write.
Speaker 1:I'm a chiropractor wanting my audience to learn more about the effects of sciatica and the benefits of chiropractic care. If they do choose to use chiropractic care for sciatica, please list some peer reviewed studies from the internet post 2005 and sites. You know chiropractic care is being beneficial in this blog post Boom. Then you got to edit it a little bit by putting in your name and your location and your and your office name redundantly through that blog post Cause that's what blogs are for and put it in there. But you can do that for an email, you can do that for everything else. So that's great tips too.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you noticed on Meta and, I think, linkedin, they have AI built in already on your posting. You can post and then use AI to make the post funny, professional, emotional, you know. So it's, it's everywhere. If you hate AI, you're going to hate the future. Embrace it, but it can't do everything. It really it just can't. It's got you, got to be you. So, as we transition from email to ad copy, which I think now you're going to get a lot of the audience's attention is how to make ad copy more engaging and more useful and more conversionable. It's not a word told you. Literature is horrible. Um, what do you? What are your tips for that?
Speaker 2:Well, the the most popular copywriting formula is PAS pain agitation solution and it's pretty popular in marketing, so that's the easiest one to use and it's the easiest one to remember as well. So there's something like 30 different formulas, but I would keep that in mind for any ad, especially as a chiropractor. I mean. There there's literal pain, and then you also have emotional pain, so what is going to capture their attention? Like when I was doing an ad for my, when I had my online business and I was writing for facebook ads. Facebook, um, well, I guess now it's called man. I don't know what these are called anymore. Twitter x um. I would open with something.
Speaker 2:You have to be really careful, though, because on Facebook they don't. There's a lot they don't allow, and so it would take sometimes three tries, and I was working with a Facebook ads person at the time to help me like, for example, putting a, an image of a tape measure. They said this is going to make people feel bad. It wasn't around a person, it was just a tape measure, and so I ended is going to make people feel bad. It wasn't around a person, it was just a tape measure, and so I ended up having. I remember the image I used was some of the more popular ones was a person with her elbow up on a fitness ball. Another was a stack. It was a pair of jeans with an apple on top. So you kind of get the point across, but not in a way that's insulting or upsetting to people. But you have to grab them with the image.
Speaker 2:If it's an image based ad, and also the, the headline. I mean, the biggest thing, most important thing to remember is to just test everything and you really need to do A-B testing because sometimes the things that you think aren't going to work are the ones people like. When I used to pitch editors for magazine articles, I would send out stuff and say I shouldn't send this and it ends up being accepted for a huge piece and it's like I didn't think that was going to work. So don't second guess yourself. Just test different things and there's different ways to do it. But um, ab testing you can do through email very easily. Most of them have that option. But the image is super important the headline, the subheading, um, but the PAS would be the, the pain.
Speaker 2:So that would be what is going to bring them to your ad and then the agitation would be kind of rubbing salt in the wound, a little bit like okay so. So, for example, I would say, if a woman was trying to fit into her jeans, your favorite pair of pants suddenly shrunk. You know, you don't know what happened. And and then the next line might be you know, you know if you you can ignore it, and then what happens. You know, when it gets to be January 2nd and you're buying a second, you know a bigger pair of pants, really tell them what could be the problem down the road. And then, but you know you don't have to, you don't have to go through this anymore. And here's a solution. So it's the pain, agitation solution.
Speaker 2:So, even if it's, it could be a Twitter, a single, like three lines in an ad that could encompass all three. So it's, it's going to pull them. Or another one that's popular. It's called AIDA, a-i-d-a, which is attention, interest, desire and action. That's more for bigger ads and it's probably better for, like, a website copy, so you get their attention. A company like Apple uses that a lot. They're known, kind of known, for that. So they grab your attention, they get your interest and then they give you wave something in front of you desire to have, and then the action they ask for a call to action.
Speaker 1:Nice, great tips. These are fascinating. I'm listening, I'm now one of your audience. That's fantastic, that's great stuff. And when people work with you, like I guess it would be companies that would hire you to help in certain ways, how do you bring value to those companies? Like, maybe I don't know if chiropractors would be one of your ideal clients, I'm not sure but how do you help them in their business?
Speaker 2:The first thing I do is to really go through what is their value proposition, because I am always amazed at how people don't have one. Like what, in a single sentence, differentiates you? If somebody says well, you know, I'm shopping around for a chiropractor, I have five people. I'm considering what makes you so different? You need to be able to answer that. That's the number one thing, because from that value proposition, everything, all your copy trickles down from that. Like, when I work with a client, I have this whole procedure. I have a 50 point checklist. I go through social media, I go through a competitor analysis. What are your competitors saying? What are people complaining about on Reddit about chiropractors? Like, I really go deep into it and I start creating these charts and it's it helps me not to interview people either, maybe your current clients, past ones, what you know. Ask them what made you different from everyone else? Why did you choose this chiropractor versus everyone else? And so that's when you start pulling out.
Speaker 2:You know, when you hear the same thing being said about the person. Like, for example, what I'm hearing a lot lately is anyone who really, who doesn't have an automated phone system is winning. Because I had one company, it was not a health company, it was a SaaS software as a service. And everyone said to me you know their family, their family focused. They're a family based business and when I call that company, I know I'm going to get some money and they're going to be get back to me and it's so important to me I don't get caught in this phone loop and I kept hearing that over and over and that ended up being one of their big headlines. You know somebody will answer the phone. We're here, we're real people, especially in the time of AI. So that's the number one thing and you have to.
Speaker 2:Really, before you do anything else, you need to find that and a lot of people don't. They'll just start, you know, writing, just start writing. It's like well, how, how are you going to work this into what you do? So, for example, my value prop is that you know I create conversion focus copy for B2B health and fitness brands, leveraging insider experience from both sides of the industry, because I've been on, you know, a trainer on a trainer, and that's what separates me from other copywriters. I mean, that's the most important thing. And then from that, it's what are your goals? What are you trying to do? Is it emails? Is it website copy? I like emails to start with people because you can see immediate results Is it working or not? If you do a website web pages, it could take you six months before you see if the copy's working, sometimes up to a year. Emails, though you can see are the open rates going up, are the click rates going up? And you can see it instantly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great tips. Yeah, we tips. Yeah, we tell them I'm a big fan of MailChimp just for anybody really. They just cover all bases and they make sure everything's delivered and you don't end up in spam. And their their metrics are really, really good, even for a beginner. They're more than enough for an entrepreneur to look at and see if their emails are getting better or worse. So definitely look into it. Worth it. It's worth to have that because it also stores as a CRM and gives you everything that you need all the time. Keep this information I mean emails, phone numbers, names are valuable to any business. So those are great tips too.
Speaker 1:So I'm already thinking on different ways how you could help my business. So I'm sure a lot of chiropractors out there like, oh, maybe there is something to the back end to this, to kind of level up, because we want to work smarter, not harder, going forward. I mean I think people are. We're just tired, there's just too much.
Speaker 1:I had this whole rant, probably about six months ago about how many apps and subscriptions we pay for every day. I'm like it's almost more expensive to run a business now than ever before. I've got so many automatic payments coming out of my business for everything, all the apps that we have QuickBooks, chatgpt, my software, my EHR, my telephone, my three telephone apps, and then you got six editing software apps and CapCut, and I'll go on and on. But the utilization of all that can't be that good, because you only use one or two apps most of the time. The rest you have there are extra and not being utilized properly. But your voice and your copy is who you are and how you're going to sell yourself. So I like what you said there. Unique selling proposition is what I teach. What did you say? That was that everyone needs to know.
Speaker 2:Value proposition. So it's the same Same thing, right? Unique value proposition.
Speaker 1:What did you say? That was that everyone needs to know.
Speaker 2:Value proposition. So it's the same Same thing, right? Unique value proposition.
Speaker 1:What makes you unique? Yeah, that's great. I mean, you're repeating the stuff that we've been saying for a long time, which is great, because you're outside of the industry and it makes it relevant and it makes me look a little smarter, which is good too. That's awesome. Thank you so much for me. What else do you recommend? I mean, here's your chance, now that you know a little bit about chiropractic. What do you think we should move forward? Moving into 2025? Where should we spend more of our energy? If we're going to write and we're going to spend some time and captivate our audiences, where should we be focusing most of our energy? Moving forward?
Speaker 2:I would say email marketing is huge. It will never not be huge. Email marketing. It's always a combination, right? I mean you have social media. I don't know how effective it is for your industry in particular. Do people?
Speaker 1:Social media is how I built my practice here in Florida.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, so it works. So, wherever. I think that's the key, though, is to find what is it that's working for you and double down on it. You know like I use LinkedIn, I'm hardly. I have a Instagram account and Facebook account, and I get on TikTok just to look at cute animals, but I really don't. I don't post there, I only post on LinkedIn, and like all my energies in LinkedIn, cause that's where I find potential clients. It's business oriented. I get more support there than it. So if you know if it's other social medias it's working for you, then find ways to double down on it. But your email list I mean I'm sure you've heard this I mean you own that. But when you don't have an email list or it's dependent on a social media platform, if anything happens like remember Vine and all these other ones that people had, they just went away there goes your audience, right. So the emails I like because they're personal. You can make them personal, you know, making them people relate to you.
Speaker 2:I think we're just people, are just hungry for actual human interaction yes you know, I it's just tired of the everything is everything is social media and it's great up to a point. But then they want to know that you really care you. And I gave an example I talked about on LinkedIn. I have my own podcast, b2b Marketing and Copywriting, and I get into that mode of interviewing people so much. And I went into my dentist and the hygienist. I was like in this interview mode, so I said so what motivated you to become a dental hygienist? And he actually started talking to me.
Speaker 2:My father was a dentist. It was too stressful, I didn't want to do that. I was in chemistry and at the end of the appointment I actually asked him because I wanted to be distracted from the dental work, because I just didn't really want to be there. And at the end he says thank you so much for asking me. Because he says you know, it's really nice to have somebody show an interest and that's, I think, what people want. So you can do that through email more easier than than anything. Email and, yeah, social media, you absolutely can.
Speaker 1:Great, I'll have all your links in there, especially LinkedIn, so people can find you and chat. I'm sure Linda's open to any questions you have. Reach out to her. She definitely knows her stuff. Been in the business a long time. Thank you for being on the show, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate you asking me yeah.
