#18 - Top 3 Marketing Must-Do’s for Your Practice with Colin Swala, DC - Part 1

FAKTR, spelled F-A-K-T-R, stands for Functional and Kinetic Treatment with Rehabilitation. Over the past decade, this unique approach to treating pain and dysfunction has been utilized by healthcare providers on 6 continents. Serving as a framework that guides clinical decision-making in patient visits around the globe on a daily basis. With this podcast, our goal is simple: to bring the best and brightest in clinical education to the forefront and empower practitioners with cutting-edge, evidence-based content that improves patient outcomes and inspires healthcare providers to continually evolve their approach to treatment. In each episode, we will feature a training or interview with some of the top minds in healthcare in a short format that is easy to digest with actionable information that you can implement into practice right away. Let's get started. Hi guys, welcome to a new episode of The Factor Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome and thanks for listening. In today's episode, we kick off a new training with Dr. Colin Swala on the top 3 online must-dos for your practice. Dr. Swala is an established digital marketing expert specializing in marketing for chiropractors. He is the Director of Technology for PIF Digital, the founder of the New Patient Generator, and the co-founder for familyhealthadvocacy.com, which is a natural health blog and practitioner directory. He is also the author of the New Patient Generator Digital Marketing Step-by-Step Guide that he wrote specifically to help healthcare practitioners. Now, before we get started, I know what you may be thinking. Another chiropractic marketing expert. Eye roll inserted there. But hear me out. Dr. Swala really knows what he's talking about. And if he got through my screening process, he's the real deal. Now, many of you may not know this about me, but I'm not a practitioner. I'm not a clinician. I have no healthcare background other than in marketing with healthcare professionals. I've spent my entire career in marketing, working with a variety of different industries and businesses, large and small, and working both on the client side and in some of the top marketing agencies in the Southeast US. I've worn just about every hat under the marketing umbrella, willingly and unwillingly, in my own businesses, and I've seen dozens and dozens of chiropractic marketing gurus Throughout the years that just repackage other people's content and try to sell it to chiropractors. You know the ones I'm talking about. But what struck me about Dr. Swala is that chiropractic is his second career. His first was in computer science. He has managed millions in advertising budgets. His unique skill set has allowed him to develop 3 online applications to date, which have all been designed to help chiropractors serve their communities in a greater capacity. In this 2-part training, Dr. Swala breaks down how to pandemic-proof your practice, best practices for Facebook ads, simple tactics to boost your search engine ranking, and the most important social media platform that you should be engaging with. So let's cue up the intro music and get started. Really excited to be here today.

I think that if you take what you learn today and apply it, then I really think that you need to do that because there's never been a more important time for people to be educated and connected to natural health providers like you or future natural health providers, since I think that there is some students joining us today. But my goal today really is to help you optimize your practice online by narrowing your focus And sharing exactly what you need to do in 2021. Because if you ever tried to explore all the stuff that you can do when it comes to marketing from email marketing or blog writing or Facebook advertising, it can be quite cumbersome because there's a lot to learn. So I think it's really important that we just narrow things down and so that you don't waste any time and you focus on what actually works and then go from there. So my promise is that this information will be practical. So you can actually take what I'm going to share with you today to grow your practice. And that's what I'm saying, make sure that you do do that because it— this stuff works. So just a little bit about me. I've been a registered chiropractor for over 12 years now, but prior I graduated from college in programming and web development. And since the inception of the New Patient Generator, which is one of the platforms I've developed, I've managed millions of dollars in advertising budgets and just with NPG alone, I've generated over 34,000 patients to date and I've reached millions of people educating them on how chiropractic can impact their lives. And my goal though is to connect 1 million people to natural health professionals worldwide. And I'm gonna do that through the applications that I've developed and my 3 latest projects are the New Patient Generator which I already mentioned. Family Health Advocacy, which is a natural health blog and practitioner directory, and FIF545, which is in its— provide a specific unique tool for naturally minded health practitioners to connect and support with their patients. Now, just a little bit about you now. So are you somebody when it comes to doing marketing for your practice, Are you somebody who likes to do it yourself or are you somebody who likes help? So somebody who would like to do it with me or somebody who you want it done for you specifically? So let me tell you why this information is so important, because let's be honest, we are living in a different time now. This past year has forced a lot of changes on us. And depending on where you live, you probably aren't allowed to hang out at trade shows since many states and provinces are limiting public events. And who knows how long that will go on for. Maybe you had done booths at the mall to help promote your practice, or maybe even outdoor festivals like this. And please trust me on this one, when it comes to marketing my practice, I've done every single one of these and I did them for almost 10 years straight. But whether COVID is preventing you from doing these in-person screenings or not, would you even do them if you didn't have to? I mean, yes, they're costly, they're time-consuming, and they're moderately effective. So it wasn't COVID that made me have to change my new patient marketing, although It was a major event that forced me to explore other options. And unfortunately, my mom got really sick and it was absolutely crushing news for me. She had cancer and eventually passed away from that. And I know many of you maybe have probably gone through the same thing. And if I consider my true values in life and what they are, well, it's family. And especially with my mom at that time, I really needed to spend more time with her And less time standing at trade shows all weekend. So I needed to discover another way to generate quality new patients to keep my practice alive. And that is when I turned my attention to online. And here I am 5 years later, and what I've learned and developed has never been more important to help our profession thrive and navigate through these challenging and changing times, which is why I'm so excited to share this webinar with you. So today we're going to cover all of this. It's going to be a mouthful and tough to swallow all of it, but I think these are the most important topics that will serve you the best this year online. So first, I'm going to start by discussing Facebook ads. Now I've been managing ads for clients for the last 5 years, so I've seen it all. And today, you know what, I'm going to share exactly what you should and what you shouldn't do when it comes to Facebook ads. And most likely by now you've probably either tried some ads yourself or you've worked with an expert or an agency, and you might even know some of the challenges that I'm going to share. And I'll be honest, it shouldn't be that difficult to produce patient leads. However, it's more difficult to produce quality leads, and it's even harder to produce quality leads for an extended period of time. And by quality, I'm referring to patients who start, stay, and refer. So if you've ever run an ad yourself or with an agency and have had it be great for a month or two, but then have it die off, it's most likely that it's because you're lacking content. Lack of content is an absolute ad killer. And if an ad campaign starts to underperform, it's most likely more about your audience suffering from ad fatigue versus the idea that the market is becoming saturated with more people running ads, which I believe is a common misconception. So my suggestion is to find hot topics and that will give you the best bang for your buck. So to start, you should be basically split testing as much as you can to get at least 9 or 10 topics that you find success with, and hopefully you or your agency will know the campaign Key performance indicators to assess it properly. And once you have the topics nailed down from your analysis, then you can start producing loads of content for each one of those topics. And stick with specific health conditions as well, because they work the best because the audience can relate their problem to your solution.

Holy cow, can you believe 2020 is almost over? For so many of us, it seemed like this year was a race to the finish line, but now we aren't quite sure why we were trying to rush so much in the first place. Now, yes, COVID is still a concern, but overall, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I think we as a society are in a better position than we were this time last year. Right? So as we round the corner on our final episode of 2021, I wanted to take a quick second to say a huge thank you. If you're listening right now, that means you're tuning in for our podcast, have probably attended a free webinar or one of our continuing ed courses along the way. We could not do what we do without you, and we can't wait to tell you more about what we have planned As we look ahead to 2022, we want to do our part to say thank you where it truly matters— in your wallet. So January 1st, we launch our Share the Love program where you can earn money back for referring your friends and colleagues to any of our online or live courses. Here's how it works. So first, you tell everyone you know about our live courses or online course offerings. Your friends, your colleagues, your classmates, other healthcare practitioners that you know. When your friend or colleague registers for a course, make sure they input your email address in the How Did You Hear About Us field at checkout. Then you'll receive an email with 2 promo codes for each person that registers and gives us your email address. So every single person that you refer that registers, you'll receive an email. And in that email, you'll get one promo code good for $25 in our online store, where you can use that to purchase any Factor products. And the other promo code is good for $25 on our online course platform, which you can of course then apply to any of our online courses that you've been eyeing. Stack up the promo codes and tell as many people as you want. This is a great way to get a jump And of course, if you aren't yet on our email list to receive details on all of our special offers, any of our new upcoming free webinars we have planned for the new year, upcoming podcast episodes, etc., I highly suggest you sign up to receive our emails at the link in our show notes. Again, guys, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for making 2021 an incredible year. Let's get back to the show.

So a big don't is don't try to overdo it with your ads. Ads that feel too much like an ad don't work. All of us are absolutely bombarded. I'm sure you can agree with me on this. We're bombarded with ads all day, every day. So if your Facebook campaign isn't doing so well, then you might want to try harder to give The appearance that you're providing useful information rather than simply handing them a deal on a stick. So for example, there may be a time and a place for some heavy graphic art or Hollywood productions with your videos. However, most of the time people unconsciously recognize it as sales and will skip right over it. So if you're making a video discussing a specific health condition, then it should appear more like you were pulled aside between patients and you're just dropping a few knowledge bombs on the fly versus something like overly prepared with graphics, cuts, and overlays. And now don't get me wrong, I'm still suggesting to be creative, but just focus on your ad not looking like an ad. You gotta have the correct expectations with your ad results. Think about this, like what type of patients are you looking for? You probably have an idea in mind of the ideal patient. Now, I think it's common that docs are looking for the excitement and trust that you get with an internal referral-based patient with, and expecting that same result with their online marketing. And then some patients come from Facebook and they still have their guard up when they arrive. And, and so they get classified as a quote unquote bad patient, but these people need help as well. And mastering how to meet them where they're at. Can overcome this barrier. And Facebook leads generally won't be as warm as a referral, an internal referral, but once they've seen the light, they can be a fantastic source of those fuzzy internal referrals. And make sure that you engage in the process. And docs, I'm referring to you on this one. So patients coming from your ads typically come in via an electronic notification like a text or an email. So prospective patients must be called to schedule them efficiently. So docs might not want to take part in that, but if you do, you will have way more success if you make the calls yourself and interact with the people as the doctor. And the thought might cross your mind, because I have clients that have said this to me, that you think you're not going to be as successful because The people might be thinking that, oh, this doc can't afford staff or some other silly belief like that. But we've experienced the exact opposite with this. They tend to be extremely appreciative to have a call from the doc who has taken the time out of his busy schedule to connect with them. So if your ads are struggling, then as an experiment, take over the calls and watch the difference. If you improve the result, which I guarantee that you will, And you still want to have your staff make the calls after, which is totally fine, then you just may need to spend more time training with them to get a real rockstar chiropractic assistant. So, and last, don't give up too early. Like realistically, how fast do you believe the new patient numbers should arrive? Like, should you see 20 in the first week, one per day minimum? What about if you don't see a single request for 2 weeks? Has your campaign run out of steam then? Campaigns can build momentum over time by building social proof. That's one thing that's really cool about Facebook advertising is that there's the opportunity within the advertising, which you don't get with newspaper, where people can engage with the ad. They share, they react, and they comment. So if you're cutting it off too early, that can be a common problem that I've observed. And I can assure you that one thing is absolutely certain. There is no certainty when running these campaigns. Your results will fluctuate without a pattern. You can run one topic to your audience at one particular time in the year and completely crush it, and then do the same topic another time to the same audience and have it completely tank. That's why the key to long-term success all revolves around having loads of content And understanding your stats to know exactly when the right time is to change it up. Okay. So I hope that was helpful and you got something out of that. If you make sure your advertising follows those guidelines, you will have continued success as we've had with our done-for-you marketing service, the New Patient Generator. And we apply all that with our service. So now let me share the next point, which is secrets on helping you move your practice up the Google search ranking. Now, unfortunately, there is no simple secret on this one, but I'll share some insights to help you stay focused on what to spend your time on and what to avoid, as some things could be a complete waste of time. So, you got to think about first, what's your goal with this anyways? Why do you want to get to the front page of Google? Why do you want to get to the top of the search? Realistically, if you want to move your website up, as high in the search as possible, then you're probably hoping that some new people will passively find you and your practice and make an appointment, right? Is that right? So if you're not getting any patients through your website, then you're probably not ranking high enough for the keywords that are related to your profession in your city or your town. You know, it's that simple. Search engine research shows, which is, I find quite interesting, that 33% of all search traffic flows through the very first position, which is huge. 15% of all of the search traffic flows through the second position, and 9% of all of the search traffic flows through the third position. So 75% of all search traffic flows through the first page, and this continues to drop off exponentially the further you are down the list. So my first bit of advice is, and I'm sure you probably get this already, is to be— you should be striving to reach page 1 of Google for keywords that are related to your profession. So for example, if you're a chiropractor in Toronto, which is where I'm from here in Canada, then when someone searches chiropractor in Toronto, then you've made it to the first page. Or if someone searches, I don't know, acupuncturist near me, And you're an acupuncturist, then the chances of you getting a patient are 75% higher if you're showing up somewhere on the first page. So how do you get to page 1 of Google? Well, let me be very clear about this one, is that it either takes a lot of effort or a lot of money. And the reason being is because it's quite complicated. So the path to the top is a challenging one. Although there are some tips about what you can do to optimize your website to help move your search position up the rankings. However, the exact path or clearly defined rules are not available. And apparently even people who work at Google and help program the thing and help program their algorithm, they can't even pipe and chime in on this. And making it Even more complicated is that Google keeps updating their algorithm, changing the game, all in the interest of making it a better user experience. But if we keep in mind that the strategy for one will not be the same for everyone, but you're most likely a chiropractor or a health professional, so you should apply a strategy where people searching for your profession or the conditions/symptoms that you can help with will be what they use to find you first. So I just want to share some low-hanging fruit here, and this stuff is easy to do. It's stuff that you can do yourself and treat this as a checklist. So first, this stuff is really a no-brainer. So make sure that you've got— you're taking care of all of this stuff. It's the stuff you can do on your own, as I said. So the number one low-hanging fruit thing to do, and hopefully most of you that are watching this, if you have a practice already, you've already done this, is to ensure that you have a Google My Business account set up for your practice. Make sure the profile is completed. In full and then start ramping up your Google reviews. Now, improving your credibility online will help you receive more new patients and also help with the quality of the people coming in to see you because you're helping to bridge trust. So strategies for growing Google reviews are available in my book. So the next thing that you'll need to make sure that you're doing is referencing your city or, or town in the header tags of your homepage. So, If you're using a website service, then I'm sure it's already been done, but double-check on that. And it's also helpful to include your profession in line with that as well, kind of like this. Here's an example. So you also note that the reference to the profession in the city is also in the paragraph as well. This is because for this website, they are optimizing the page for the keyword Mississauga chiropractors, which is a commonly searched term. For someone looking locally in this city for a chiropractor. However, make a note that if just simply making these changes, these, this low-hanging fruit changes was all that you did, then the chances of ranking your website for new patients would be very low because everyone can easily do this. So Google needs to go deeper when sorting through what is the most relevant sites So the next level of optimization for your website is to forever build out your content. Build your content on your website and your social media. Now, blogs are the easiest way to grow your website content. So hopefully you have a website that allows you to easily write and publish blogs. So if so, then you're golden. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that your type of website as a health professional Is a local business website, and your top goal should be to generate new patients from it, right? So that means that your SEO, or search engine optimization strategy, will differ from a generic health blog site hoping to reach the world because Google will differentiate the search results if the search terms are thought to be local versus worldwide. And the strategy for optimizing your site locally with content should be done by writing blogs that answer all of the most common questions that people have about your profession. That's where you start. And then after you've finished and you published all those FAQ blogs answering the common questions about your profession, then you can start to expand on that to the top 6 conditions or things that you can help people with, which will refine your content. and then let Google know that you are the expert in your area for those topics. And remember to write those blogs, the condition blogs, in the same way as the FAQs. And think of the common questions that people have about the 6 conditions that you chose and create a blog for each of them. All right, and now for the harder part, the stuff that really separates the leaders on Google from those trailing behind. Now, you can have 2 websites who have optimized everything else, but one of them has more references to it from other websites for content surrounding the specific profession, and that one will be ranking higher. So these— what I'm referring to right now is something called backlinks. And way back in the early growth days of Google, you could just simply go and create a bunch of bogus websites that link to yours, and people would even go as far as to create link farms that just produce links without any other value whatsoever. And it worked for a little while, but then Google caught on and they actually started punishing websites if they were linked to by one of them. And in some cases booted them into the oblivion, never to be found again. So needless to say that this part has to be done without trying to scam your way into it. There is no simple way around it. For the most part, It's as hard as it sounds. You may get the odd site randomly linking to you if they stumble across your content, but the chances of getting enough that way are slim to none. So literally, you have to try to find other websites that will link to you. And not just any website, has to be credible websites. And the more credible, the more power that link actually gives you. And the best of the best would be really credible local websites. So it's rare that you'll find a credible website that will link to you for nothing. Simply asking them is not going to be enough. And you used to be able to pay for links, but Google has now caught onto that as well. And if you get caught, then you could end up on Google's bad side, which is obviously something you want to avoid at all costs. However, considering you are a health professional, you have something very special in your title that you can take advantage of. Since one of the latest Google updates, the search engine giant is now scrutinizing health blogs, which means that they care about who is actually writing the articles. So that makes you very valuable. So there's thousands of flourishing health blogs out there that need their content to be authored by someone exactly like you. So by aligning yourself with these websites, that will allow you to provide content for them as long as they agree to include and let you include links back to your own website. And this right there is a very solid strategy for 2021.

That's it for today's episode. Be sure to tune in for episode 19, where we continue this training and dive deeper into the most important social media platforms that your company should be on, how to navigate Facebook advertising in light of Apple iOS security updates, and we'll cover guidelines for creating a blog that will not only increase your search engine rankings, but draw new patients into your practice. You won't want to miss it. Episode 19 drops in 2 weeks, or 1 week for our Patreon subscribers. You can subscribe to The Factor Podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or the podcast app that works best for you. Give us a 5-star rating to help us grow the show. Leave us a great review. Every little bit helps. And last but certainly not least, be sure to visit the show notes for a link to download the PDF of today's full presentation, as well as learn more about our special offers that we featured in today's episode. We'll see you next time. Hey guys, if you like what you heard today, I encourage you to visit our website at factor-store.com. That's spelled F-A-K-T-R hyphen store dot com to find out more information about all that we have to offer. We have a variety of online offerings as well as our hands-on Factor Rehab System course scheduled in cities around the globe. Be sure to also check out our event calendar and bookmark any of these upcoming live webinar dates coming up in the near future so you can join us live. And of course, the biggest compliment we can receive. is for you to help us spread the word to your friends, colleagues, and classmates. You'll find all the important links as well as info about our sponsors in the show notes, so be sure to check those out.