Marketing Online
When you think of marketing your private practice online there are so many different avenues you can take and there are some that are “sexier” than others. When starting your practice we want to have the easiest way to market with the lowest investment to build up your presence and traffic. With all that being said, if you are like me, I really had no idea what any of that meant and just thought I needed to be posting on Facebook and everything would be amazing.
While social media is a great tool for promoting your private practice, it isn’t the only tool you can use to connect with new clients and existing ones. In today’s post, I want to share a few ideas that you can start with today’s to slowly build up your online presences and build you as an expert in your community.
1. Blogging & Newsletter
One key principle that took me a bit to really get past in marketing is readers, clients, etc. want to get to know YOU!. Yes, they want to know you are qualified to be giving them advice, and more importantly your nutrition counseling style and how you communicate complex nutrition information to the world. As you write, take photos, anything is you and keep your tone authentic to your brand and you. By keeping you apart of your brand I promise it will even be more fun!
Let’s start blogging! If you are like me this was dred and I would have to go fighting to get myself to blog! I never knew why this was so important to my business and would ignore it always. Here are the facts about blogging:
- Build your online credibility as an expert
- Adds to your website
- Google like to see websites that are growing all the time and points clients to websites that are active
- This is called SEO (search Engine Optimization)- meaning your website becomes easy to find
- Develops and grow customer relationships
- People get to know you through your words and images to build up the know, like, trust factor
- When you become and expert blogger you could turn this into a side revenue (not me yet- and will point you to places to learn how)
- You are able to have content for your newsletter (double win!)
But….What to Write about? Writing may come easily to some, and for me, it has been a big push to think about what and when to write. What has helped me, is to continue to become clear who I am writing for. Each time I write a blog I have 1 person in mind I am writing for and know exactly what tips and tools would really help that one person.
Another trick that has helped me is planning everything out! I will spend a day per month and plan out the theme of the month and come up with the 4-5 blog topic. During this brainstorm and creative powerhouse I will do a quick outline of what the blog needs to cover, so when I come back to it I don’t have to spend a ton of time thinking about details and everything.
2. Ask for Reviews
On your Google map page, there is the place for reviews. Ask friends, family, and clients (only to use initials) to write a review of what it is like to work with you. Also on Yelp do the same thing. What this does is to again help to build up your online expert presence along with your SEO. The more the internet sees your companies name and people commenting about it and saying positive things about than your company will show up in searches faster and on the top of the page.
When you send an email and in your waiting room have a link or information on how to write a review. You can even have it on your social media channels to continue to build up buzz and positive vibe about your company.
3. Let’s get social
I purposefully put social media as the last topic to talk about because it truly should be the last priority in your on-line marketing plan. The reason is you need to have a clear and thought out plan for all your marketing to build up a positive social media presence. Once you have your professional pages set up (really strongly recommend you have a professional profile because you can dose much more with professional than personal), then building up your page through a post that targets your ideal client. Keep in mind to continue to be you in your posting and using hashtags appropriately.
One of the keys to building up a following is to keep people engaged. Don’t just post and walk away. Post, ask questions, get your audience talking to you and you engaging with them. Don’t worry about a number of followers worry about how your post are with building up engagement.
Once you have your professional pages going, leave a comment below with your professional link so we can like and support your work!
Adrien Paczosa is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian practicing in Austin, Texas and the surrounding counties.
She is the owner and founder of I Live Well Nutrition her Dietitian practice which started in 2007 and serves clients in the Austin, Texas area in two locations. Fearless Practitioners, the division of her business that offers training to dietitians and wellness professionals.