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Simple Email Strategies For Every Acupuncturist – Jeffrey Grossman

 

 

“we weren’t really given the tools on how to effectively market and grow our practice. So that’s what I’m here to do. I’m here to spend the next 20 minutes or so with you to share some insights about how you can do just that.”

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi folks, Jeffrey Grossman here, and I am really glad that you are joining me here. And I’m really grateful for the American Acupuncture Council. We yet, again, to invite me for an opportunity to share some business and marketing with you, I’m thrilled to be back here to share 20 minutes of insights and inspiration to help you build your practice, um, and to attract more patients and to really tap into the tools that we weren’t really given when in acupuncture school, we really received everything that we needed in order to grow our practice. We were given all the tools, all the know-how, all the insights and all the wisdom to be amazing pulse diagnosticians and tongue, tongue readers, and pulse readers. But we weren’t really given the tools on how to effectively market and grow our practice. So that’s what I’m here to do. I’m here to spend the next 20 minutes or so with you to share some insights about how you can do just that.

So, um, you know what we’re going to be talking about today, we were talking about a couple of things that some of you might not think are appropriate. We’re going to talk about email marketing, but I want to hear me. You, I want you to hear me out as we talk a little further, I’m going to lay out the facts as to why email marketing should be important and incorporated into your marketing strategies. And at the end of today’s training, I want to give you a link because I know that if I give you the link now that, um, you’ll go ahead, I’ll lose you, you’ll download it. And I want you to stay focused with me because our time together is really important. So I want to give you a link to an ebook that we just released. Um, um, uh, it’s called resetting your practice for 20, 21, how to get patients on your treatment table.

So if that’s okay, just stick with me at the end, I’ll get that link for you. So welcome. My name is Jeffrey Grossman, though, for those of you that don’t know me, I’m the founder and the owner of acupuncture, media works and acupuncture websites, and Accu downloads 2.0. So I started my practice back in 98 and I struggled just like many of you did back in the days. My background was as a graphic designer. And, um, and, uh, that was what the world that I was working in before I became an acupuncturist. So when I became an acupuncturist, I realized that like, there weren’t enough tools for me to help me grow my practice. I didn’t have the know how to grow my practice. I didn’t have the skills, the techniques and the insights on how to make that happen. So I, I sought some help.

I actually started coaching. Um, I paid about 15 grand to work with, um, a chiropractic coach to help me maximize my patient communications and my marketing strategies. And it paid off in spades for me. So it was one of the best things that I ever did. Um, I just want to just encourage you guys with the fact that marketing is important. And the idea is that in order to grow your practice, you need new people coming in. Therefore you need to have tap into these ideas and these skills and these insights that I’m sharing with you and that the AAC brings to you on a weekly basis. So you guys are an incredible resource. People are looking for you, especially now. They want the type of healing that you offer, right? They want something safe. They want something natural. They want something that lets them feel less anxious and more balanced. And this

Is what you have to offer. This is how you,

As an acupuncturist, changes lives, and people need you. They need your services, but a lot of people don’t know that you exist. And that’s what I want to do is I want to help you get more people in your treatment table. And that’s what these talks are all about us to help you be seen, to be heard and ultimately to bring people into your practice so you can make more money, help more people and change the world. One person, one needle at a time. So if at the end here, if you’re interested in learning more, if you need a little bit of hand holding some help, I’ll, I’ll give you, um, uh, an email address at which you could reach out. And, and, and, you know, if you’re looking for some support, please feel free to reach out to me. So there are more opportunities than ever right now for you to be tapping into growing your practice, especially now, especially now that we’re many of us are working from home and we have to reinvent ourselves.

And one of the easiest ways to do it, excuse me, is what I’m going to be talking about today, which is using email marketing, right? So, um, um, you know, one or two of these suggestions that you come up with in the ebook that I have for you at the end today, that you could download and even in today’s training, could that you put them into use, can make a massive change and a massive difference in your practice. So, today what I want to do is I want to talk to you about, um, a resource that is such an easy tool to use in your practice. And most of us use it every day. All of your patients have access to it and those kids, they probably use it too, right? So this is about tapping into the power of it and to grow your practice.

And I’m sure that when I talked about email marketing and using emails in your practice, I heard a universal grown, right? And, um, I heard people saying that, Oh gosh, email marketing. There’s no way I’m going to be using that in my practice. So sending emails is one of those things that every practitioner should embrace, whether you’re an acupuncturist, a dentist, a chiropractor, massage therapist, or even a big box store, everyone is using emails these days to communicate with your audience and it should be a priority for you in your practice. And here’s a couple of reasons why it’s important. One, it allows you to reach more patients in real time, right? It’s affordable. It keeps you on top of mind awareness within, um, it’s personable and it can be action oriented and you can see results almost immediately after you send out that email.

So think about your own experiences, right? You have email how your friends and family members have emailed. How many times do you check your email out every day? Right. Do you know anyone who doesn’t have an email address these days? Okay. So it’s here to stay and email us something that you need to embrace in your practice. And when you approach email marketing, um, there are a couple of things I want you to consider. Um, and a couple of things to think about when you formulate your emails and your plan to make that happen is the first thing to think about is why are you emailing them, right? What do you want to get across to them? What kind of message are you sending? And what do you want people to know? Okay, these are all important aspects. When you sit down to draft your emails or when you sit down and, and, and, and, and think about what you want to, what kind of messaging and what kind of things you want to get across to them.

It’s important to think about that first. Why are you emailing them? What do you want to get across to them? What’s the message. And also what’s the next step that you can get across to people, uh, to, you know, how can you get them to take the next action? Okay. So you got to have a valid and valuable reason that would motivate them to take some form of action in an email. And I’m going to review five types of emails with you that you should be sending to your patients on a regular basis. And these five emails are the perspective, email, the offer, email, the newsletter email, um, add the benefit email and the simple email, right? And I’m going to talk about each of these five briefly. Um, so let’s talk about the perspective email. This email is designed for you to offer, uh, your, to offer your take on a relevant and trending topic, right?

So the key to this email is not to chime in, um, every time there’s a celebrity gossip or a story or a new figure that are released in the economy. This type of email should be commentary, right? And old area areas that can imply expertise. And when things are relevant, like if there’s, uh, some information about acupuncture and immunity, that’s relevant for today, acupuncture, anxiety, that’s relevant for today, acupuncture for alleviating low back pain from people working from home and sitting in their chair all day that’s relevant for today. So think about how you can chime in to what is on people’s minds these days, and how to make it relevant for them in one of your emails, a couple of tips to consider are be current, okay. Make sure your content is based in today’s right. Think about what your audience or in this case your patients are going through.

Now what’s on top of their mind. What’s their most pressing concern. When you tap into that, you can talk to them and tap into what’s on top of their minds. It’s the what’s in it for me syndrome, right? People want to know what you could do for them. They don’t. They like to understand about all the cool things that you have to offer, but what they really want to know is what’s in it for me, what are my benefits? Okay. Therefore you need to play into their current state of mind and to get that information out to them. Next thing to do is to be factual, okay. Facts for, from up belief. And they can be very important when adjusting people who may not have all the same views as you do. So when you use facts, people can rely on the idea that they are rooted in truth, and that the, they may be more inclined to move closer to your beliefs.

And then the other thing about making stories relevant or emails relevant is to share stories from your perspective. There’s a saying that facts tell and stories sell. So people learn through stories and it’s part of our DNA. It’s what we want. And we really can learn more when things are given us in story form. And when we facts into a story, when you re read the relevance of a study or a program or something, or, or, or research into an email, um, it makes your story more relevant, excuse me, and, um, and gives you a better perspective that you’re talking on it with that topic. Okay. So the next type of email that you should be sending is the offer email, and everyone loves a good offer, right? So that’s why sending out an offer email can bring in inactive patients and prospects. And this email is perfect.

When you have a, a new therapy, a new technique, a new topics to talk about new research that you just unearth new products that you’re carrying or whatever it is when you have something that you want to offer, this is the perfect type of email to get out there. So there’s a couple of types of offers that you could be doing, which is one is a test drive offer. Okay. The test drive offer is exactly that. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Letting people come in to test drive a therapy or a service before they buy it. And before they sign up as a new patient, it’s getting them to take step foot in the door so they can learn about you learn about your offer and then take the next steps, become a full fledged pain patient. The next type of offer, um, is a solution offer.

Okay? And this offer provides answers to people’s most pressing problems, and it can be very powerful and invites people into your clinic. They get them clarity on a particular condition, right? So your offer could be, learn five ways that acupuncture can alleviate headaches or migraines, or, um, you know, it could be come in to get a seven point, you know, back paid assessment exam. Okay, whatever your offer is, what solution are you offering for them? Um, that, you know, that, that th that might be on top of their mind, right? Anxiety come in to receive a two point acupuncture, anxiety, and stress reduction, treatment data solution, you’re offering a solution to anxiety. Um, and that could be part of that email, the other type of offer that you could be offering as a stress reduction offer, and this offer, it does what it says, right?

This is one of my favorite offers that I’ve done in the past. Um, I’ve used it for all of my health fairs. And, uh, as, as a marketing tool, for me, basically offering an acupuncture, stress reduction treatment, um, and who doesn’t have stress these days, right? So the stress reduction offer is perfect to get people to come in for a free or reduced rate stress reduction offer, and that’s pretty straightforward. So those are the different types of offer emails that I feel are important. The test drive offer the solution offer and the stress reduction offer. Okay. So the next, this type of email that you should be sending out regularly is the newsletter, right? So if your practice doesn’t currently send a regular newsletter to your patient base, consider starting one. Okay. It’s um, massive missed opportunity. If you overlook any type of email for that matter, specifically, if you overload, overlook the idea of sending out, um, monthly newsletters.

Okay. And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Um, it’s important to stay in top of mind awareness with your patients. And, um, you know, it’s all too easy to have patients fall out of care, simply because they were, you know, were feeling better and they just forgot about you. Life happens, they just get caught up in it and they feel good. They forget about you, but I’m not receiving a monthly newsletter or an email from you for that matter puts you back in top of mind awareness. So when they need you next time, they’ll remember where to turn because they understood, or they read an article about how you could help with XYZ condition, um, um, in that way. So hopefully that makes sense. So a monthly, quarterly, or even an annual email newsletter give you the opportunity to share important information and remind patients of the practice.

And of course, you know, keeps you in top of mind awareness. So here’s a couple of things to consider when you put together your newsletter. One thing you could talk about is discussing your practices outreach, or any sponsorship or any type of community involvement. You can highlight any new clinic changes or a new staff members that you may be brought on announced marriages or new babies or new grandchildren, whatever that is. So talk about a new line products or new services that you’ve added. You can highlight condition, specific information. You can obviously always request referrals and online reviews with every type of email you put out there, especially with your newsletter. You can also address seasonal health concerns like or sports injury, or immune acupressure routines and things like that. Um, you can remind and encourage people, um, you know, about good healthy habits. And of course, when you use any type of email, especially your newsletter, you need to promote it, um, on your social media channels.

Okay? So there’s so many topics that you, as an acupuncturist can talk about in your newsletters. There’s no lack of content that you can put in your newsletters, but if there’s any type of email that you should be doing consistently is the newsletter email, and the other type of email that you should be putting out there of course, is the benefit and tips, email. And this type of email never gets old because as long as you can talk about new benefits that people can receive and tips that can help your audience, there are always people who want to hear them. So it’s all too common for practices to make the mistake of talking about how amazing what you do is, and how awesome the thing that you have is while you’re excited about it. Um, you know, you, you know, about the latest, cool thing that you do.

Some people might not care, right? People care again about what’s in it. For me, it’s the, what’s in it for me syndrome. People want to know what they can get out of it, what are their benefits? Okay. And, um, it’s always good to start with that in mind. So here are a couple ideas that you could be using, how to end back pain once and for all three simple techniques and, um, two acupressure points you could learn in the comfort of your home or suffering from depression. Here are three supplements that you could use in two powerful acupressure points to help or seven tips to supercharge your immune system. All right. So I’m not sure if you’ve opened emails that talk about X number of tips or ideas or whatever it is. And, but people love learning from emails like these people. And there’s a couple things I want you to consider when you put out these what’s in it, the, these, um, these emails considering your patient’s view of what’s in it for them.

Okay. Is it new? Is it useful? And is it beneficial? Okay. So is it new, given your topic? Is there a new angle or twist on it that you could take? Is there an update or a surprising bit of news that you can share? Do you have something that other people don’t know about yet or something that you’re the other one in your town that’s using, right. Something that your audience hasn’t heard or considered yet that’s about being new. Is it useful given your topic? Is there an application that your audience could use, right. Can you help them sort through or think through a common problem in some way, do you have a solution to something that they face and is it beneficial? Right? So again, given your topic and more importantly, given what keeps audience up at night, what is it that you have that will help them, right?

What is it about your topic that will benefit your audience? Is there a silver lining for them? Is there a net gain for them? How will, what you offer them, change their lives. And finally, the last type of email that I want to talk about is the simple email. So this is such a simple email. I send these out periodically and I’m amazed at the responses I get, and this is the type of email that can get your patients back in care pretty quickly with just a couple of sentences, even it’s so simple, but it works. And, um, it’s short, it’s sweet. And it’s getting an interested party to take notice. So here’s the framework. You have a simple subject line, something like patient’s first name only. So it would say like Jeffrey, right, or something like patient’s name Jeffrey. Can I share this with you?

Okay. One email that I’ve sent to other practitioners is, Hey, Jeffrey, are you looking for new patients? And that got me a ton of responses. And as you can imagine, most practitioners are looking for new patients. So emails like this with, um, curiosity, uh, subject lines, really pique people’s interest. They’re short, they’re sweet they’re to the point, and they get people to take quick action. So first think about, on your patient’s mind right now, right? Is it stress? Is it good health? Is it immunity? Is it better sleep? Okay. So what do they want to learn about where are they at with that? So send off a couple emails, says, Hey, Jeffrey, do you want to learn about better sleep? Hey, Jeffrey, do you want to learn about four points for immune health? Hey, Jeffrey. Um, do you want to learn about, um, you know, uh, five ways to alleviate your back pain?

Okay. So I want to run down a couple of examples of, of, of what the, the S the copy itself could read, like super simple stuff. Okay. Really, really easy. So it could say, Hey, Jeffrey, um, Hey, Jeff, you want to learn about immunity? Question Mark. That’s a subject line. And then the copy of, of, of, of the body, of the text of the email, if you’d be like, Hey, Jeffrey, can I share these immune points with you? These are two acupressure points that alleviate immunity. Um, if you know, um, if you’re interested, just respond to this email and I’ll get right back to you as soon as possible, that’s it? That’s really simple, right? Hey, Jeffrey, I’ve got two acupuncture points to share with you about better sleep. Do you want to know about them? Or, you know, that’s it, you know, so, um, that’s all you’ve got to do for those emails.

Okay. So, Hey, Jeffrey, are you still interested in getting help with back pain or learning how to boost your immunity or getting help with insomnia? If so, respond to this email and I’ll reach out to you as soon as possible your name, that’s the email, like three sentences at most, and that’s it. So people will get back to you. It’s almost like these emails work like magic. And if you haven’t sent an email like this one before, try it right. And let me know what kind of response do you get? You’re basically checking in with them, nagging them as really simple offer. And it’s one of the easiest emails to really send out. And I wouldn’t be doing you any justice today. If I didn’t mention that these other types of emails that you should be sending, like the missed appointment, email, the follow-up email of the reminder and confirmation emails, happy birthday emails. And of course the, please give us a review email. Okay. So I hope that helps.