I recently came back from attending the Hubspot Marketing conference in Boston. The whole conference was fantastic. But the keynote delivered by Gary Vaynerchuk was my favourite.
Gary Vanderchuck is an inspiring and unconventional entrepreneur. A marketing and business genius. Gary is a pretty in-your-face kinda guy. He’s loud, swears a lot, and gets straight down to the point. Some might say they don’t like him, or they feel offended by him. But for a guy who built a $3M business to a $60M in just 5 years, then moved onto run VaynerMedia with 750 employees that service the biggest companies worldwide - well, you’d be stupid to ignore what he has to say. And like I said, it was one of my favourite keynotes.
I wanted to share my takeaways with you because what Gary had to share may just have the most incredible impact on your health business. I know it will on mine.
So here we’re going to cover:
- The era of opportunity for clinic owners
- The new face of communication
- What type of marketing you need to do
- 3 killer health business growth tactics
- Also you can watch Gary's keynote at this event :)
Let’s dive in...
Hillary versus Trump
When I was in Boston, it was during the Hillary and Trump elections. We all know how that played out now. But interestingly at the time, everyone was worried about the outcome.
Gary starts his keynote with a pretty confronting statement:
“If you believe that whether Hillary or Donald wins effects you, you are a loser.”
Yep, like I said, Gary is an in-your-face kinda guy.
But, there is a lot of truth in it.
The point he was making is, we’re more in control of our lives than the media makes out. Traditional media outlets - TV and radio - hype stuff up to the max. Stuff that does not really affect us.
As entrepreneurs, the opportunities we have available to us right now are incredible - if we’re prepared to step up, invest the time and take the action.
In fact, Gary suggests right now, we’re smack bang in the middle of the greatest era of communication change, the most opportunistic time, and we live in the luckiest countries in the developed world.
I'm currently reading Gary's latest book on "One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness". This book is an awesome read and gets me inspired every morning.
Gary gets personal so this book is in a Q&A format and he answers everything you need to know about leadership and social media marketing.
If you’re still sitting on the fence not getting your feet wet in the social media and content creation waters, you’re like an old goat put out to pasture.
It’s time to WAKE UP.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the face of communication has changed and it’s never turning back!
Smart phones are the new media. People carry them around with them 24/7!
We’re living through this major shift right now and the opportunity is this: you can use the communication channels to own the airways.
This shift in communication is the single biggest opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Content Creation is New Age Marketing
If you are not producing content, you are losing.
Marketing has shifted to the online space.
This is my favourite line from Gary: "If you are sitting here and doing well, you are in danger". 95 % of the biggest brands have declined in market share over the last 2 years due to lack of creativity.
What we’re talking about here is content you produce for your business - blog posts & webinars (like I do here every week), free reports - the type of content that will attract and engage your audience. etc... before & after patient documentaries, back pain self guides, TMJ workshops, phone pre assessments...
We’re also talking about paid ads that help drive your business forward, Google Adwords and Facebook ads for instance.
So I learned a few killer tactics from Gary that can help us supercharge our content and get eyeballs to view our products and services.
3 Killer Business Growth Tactics
TACTIC #1 Facebook Ads
If you’ve been considering Facebook ads but haven’t been using them, the time to do it is now. In facebook you can target people or audience so you can show personalized videos or images that is relevant to them.
According to Gary’s foresight, there is going to be a huge market shift occurring in the next 2-3 years that will see the cost of Facebook ads go from an average $5 to $30 a click.
As the larger companies stop investing in traditional media and shift their budgets to the online space, this is going to dramatically shift the opportunity that exists right now.
Key Message: Start running Facebook ads NOW
Spend 10 hours to learn the basics, read and watch videos and start running those ads.
Check out this article by Neil Patel on: Facebook Advertising Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide. Or read Gary's book on One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness".
TACTIC #2 Facebook video
Gary says Facebook video is just as powerful as running an advertisement at the Superbowl, which costs 6 million dollars. Of course, it won’t cost you $6M on Facebook and if you can get just a little market share, you’re winning.
With all your content, the key is to Brand and Market. Most people market a lot but they do not BRAND.
One advantage of Facebook is you can do marketing and branding in the one place.
In terms of video advertising, it’s incredibly underutilized.
“Creative is the variable of success,” says Gary.
In the game of content marketing, we are all battling for attention. But, once you grab people’s attention they’re in.
Here’s the thing: If your creative is crap, you won’t get people’s attention.
Respect people’s time. Create compelling content. Create diamonds. Not pieces of crap no one cares about.
We’ve under priced attention. But here’s the key tip for marketing: investing in quality, creative content is well worth the returns.
In my previous blog, 5 Ways to Boost Your Practice With Social Media, I showed how @strivephysicaltherapy uses video documentaries on facebook to grab more clicks back to their website. Look at how many videos shares - 12K views with 3K clicks back to their website.
TACTIC #3: Influencer Marketing
Tapping into influencers who already have the attention of your target market is the fast way to success.
Search Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for influencers in your market. Map the people that have lots of followers for your business. Make a database, then set out to contact them one by one and see how you can help them.
In 5 Ways to Boost Your Practice With Social Media, I showed how Vinh Pham @myodetox in Toronto has done a kick ass job in Instagram (with over 125,000 followers) and really figure out influencer marketing. And this has really helped their brand with hiring physiotherapist and chiropractors globally.
For another example, look at what we did at #clinic accelerator blog. We interviewed some of the brightest clinic owners to share with our blog subscribers:
- Clinic Owner Krista Williams - What it takes to upgrade to a 4300 SF clinic
- Clinic Owner Paul Wright - Set up your business freedom blueprint
- Clinic Owner Jeff Walsh - How to Have it All in Business and Life
- Clinic Owner Kim Hall - Have Coffee With Smart People
- Clinic Owner Darin Cohen - Why I decided to have business partners
Aside from those killer tactics I had a couple more key takeaways.
Make Long Term Decisions
One of the questions I ask many clinic owners, is how much is a client worth to you? Or a better question is what is the life time value of your client? A happy client that graduates from their treatment plan, comes back for other services, gives you a 5.0 google review and refers a friend is worth thousands thousands of dollars.
It's better to be in the LONG GAME and do the right things for your clients versus making short term decisions. And this includes making short term marketing decisions.
Many companies are being left behind because they aren’t paying attention to the shift in communication - even the huge companies. There are young people coming into the game FAST and they are super savvy.
You need to think ahead and get savvy with your marketing. And like I said, it’s all happening ONLINE!
Think ahead about the ways you can secure your business in the local and online marketplace. And take the actions needed to achieve that.
Take Chances
Take chances on things that aren’t mainstream yet. You only need some things to win for it to work BIG TIME!!
For instance, are there ways you can use Snapchat, Instagram and new platforms to position your brand and market your business?
We need more risk tolerance on new platforms. Take the chances. Invest the time.
As a clinic owner in the digital age, you can go on offense or defense. Your choice.
The opportunity right now is equal playing field for EVERYONE - individuals, small clinics and large clinics.
But...the time is NOW.
Google what you need to know. Spend the time to learn and most importantly, implement.
TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF IT AND BE A WINNER!
“It’s not complicated. Just do it,” says Gary.
And he’s right. It will cost you either money or time - meaning you can pay someone to implement for you, or learn stuff yourself and put it into action.
But if you want to set your clinic up for success, you need to join the party and just do it - if you haven’t already.
Gary’s closing statement:
“This is the greatest golden era, of not only business, but life. And you really need to fuckin grab it!”
So I challenge you to get on board.
What one thing are you going to do to take your business marketing to the next level?
Check out Gary's Keynote at this event. It's awesome and will get you inspired in building your health businesss again :)
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