The RDtoCEO Podcast
Dive into The RDtoCEO Podcast, hosted by Registered Dietitian and CEO, Eva Haldis, where she shares her journey in entrepreneurship, with discussions on the basics on building a private practice and becoming a confident CEO. The RDtoCEO Podcast is your go-to resource for mastering the art of transitioning from a dietitian to a successful CEO.
The RDtoCEO Podcast
Thrive Without Social Media: Proven Marketing Techniques For Your RD Private Practice
Feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to market your private practice on social media? You’re not alone, and guess what? You don’t need it to succeed. From my own journey through social media burnout, I’ll share why it might not be the most effective path for local, niche-based private practices. Instead, we’ll explore three alternative marketing methods that can help you grow your practice and connect more deeply with your ideal clients without the social media stress.
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*Please note that while we strive to provide valuable insights, our podcast is not a replacement for personalized legal or financial counsel. We strongly advise consulting with qualified professionals for specific advice tailored to your individual circumstances.*
Welcome to the RD to CEO podcast. I'm your host, eva Haldis, registered dietitian, who one day found herself a whole CEO of a business. Join me as we navigate the world of entrepreneurship so you can go from being an RD who sees clients in private practice to a confident CEO growing the practice of your dreams. Hi everyone, Welcome back to another episode of the RD to CEO podcast. I'm, as always, excited to be here and chatting about business things, and today is a topic that is something I think a lot of people think about or are curious about, and I mean really it's the core of how you grow. Business is marketing, and what I'm going to be talking about today in particular is how do we market without the use of social media as a primary marketing source? If you haven't listened to my podcast before, I have mentioned a few times how I don't think social media has to be the way that you need to go when it comes to marketing yourself as a private practice. I think social media totally has a place, but it really just depends on a few things, and we'll talk about what some of those things are today in this episode, so you'll maybe understand a little bit more about why I think for private practice in particular, it's not the best, but also, even if it was the best, it's not for everyone. I mean, I think social media can feel really stressful and it's hard to see your return often, and so it doesn't have to be the way that you go if it's not the way you want to in order to grow your private practice. So that is what I hope to chat a little bit about today, and hopefully it is helpful information Before we dive into the episode.
Speaker 1:I now and then want to always check in a little bit on, like, what's been going on in my business. It is mid-summer. I feel like things have slowed down a little bit. I feel like our referrals. I will say June was probably our slowest referral month that we've had all year. I think that's for a number of reasons. I mean, primarily, I think summertime is just a slow time for us. I mean, people are just on vacation and doing different things, and if we're seeing a college student, maybe they're back home, maybe it's not a state that we are licensed in or something like that. But yeah, I think there's just a lot of changes in schedules and people are just all over the place, so it's not really surprising that it's the slowest time. I find that our busiest time is before the summer, for sure, definitely like from like March till June. We get we're pretty busy, but, yeah, I definitely been seeing a little bit of a slowness, which is a great time. For me to talk about marketing today, because that is what I do when things are getting slow is, instead of you know, panicking which I do a little bit of that too I'm like, okay, what can I do to help bring those inquiries back up. So marketing is where I tend to go.
Speaker 1:With that, I feel like the last couple of months of my business have just felt so chaotic and I don't know well, I do know why. There's just been a lot of transition in my business the last few months. We have a clinician who's on maternity leave. We had a waitlist for a few weeks which was new. I mean, I think I've had a waitlist before, for sure, but not at the extent that we did this time, because everybody was just full and had no room for new clients and I was trying to hire and then I ended up hiring two people and yeah, so it's just been like a lot of transition. We switched. I've mentioned this before too. We used to bill through Office Ally and then we recently switched to our new clearinghouse, which is ClaimMD, through our EMR Practice, better. So there's just been a lot of transition in billing insurance.
Speaker 1:This is something I've also seen in Facebook groups, for group practice owners talked about is that we had a lot of people with credit card issues. So, whether it's like people that just don't have you know where it's coming up back as like insufficient funds or the card just being declined, or people are not putting in their credit card or they're giving a strong number just so many different things of I feel like we've just been dealing with a lot of these I don't even know what to say bottlenecks, but just challenges where there's a lot of emails happening all the time. So it just feels like it's been really chaotic energy in that sense. So I'm trying to make some changes and adjustments. The other big transition that's coming up is that our amazing administrative assistant is starting her dietetic internship this fall. So I'm now in the process of interviewing for a new admin and I'm hoping to sort of make them more of like an office manager. So there's just been a lot of things happening, changing and yeah, I just feel like and of course, maybe one of those aspects of it is that I was finding I really loved spending a lot of time talking about business, and so, you know, branching out and creating RD to CEO from the podcast to also the my business coaching be a separate thing. I've picked up a couple of new business coaching clients, so obviously there's been aspects of my workday that have also been filled up with more meetings. There are, just now, more team members. There's just more people for me to meet with. So I just feel like I'm in meetings all the time and, yeah, lots of chaotic energy.
Speaker 1:I also was just venting to my husband the other night and I'm like I don't know why I just feel so overwhelmed but I don't know what to do. I just feel sort of stuck and then I was like, oh yeah, and this might be TMI, but if you're somebody that ovulates or has a cycle, you may be familiar with the luteal phase, but it's always the worst time and this is something that's been really helpful for me of learning about myself and especially with my ADHD when I'm in that phase of my cycle. The ADHD is ADHD-ing when I'm in the luteal phase and I always say like, during this time I'm always like what am I doing? I don't know what's going on. I think I suck at all of this and then in like two weeks, I'm going to be like this is the best, I'm going to do this. I'm going to have all these ideas, I'm going to create this and do this and do that and just like come up with all this stuff and then, yeah, it just kind of crashes again shortly thereafter. So it's a cycle, and so the good thing is, the positive thing is is, as I was venting to my husband after feeling just like overwhelmed a full day, I was like, oh yeah, this is just cyclical for me. I know this part of myself and so which the good part of that is that I know it's not going to last forever and it's going to get better, probably in a couple of days. So hopefully, that is helpful to hear if you are also somebody that struggles with the constant changing of your energy and mood and productivity and just how overwhelmed you honestly feel. So, yeah, I think it's just it's.
Speaker 1:I've always had a challenge with transitions my whole life and, I think, different transitions obviously, but there's just been a lot of transitions and changes in my practice. And I think something that's always been hard for me since I've started my practice is not having time. I mean honestly, like I think, or even when I really started my practice and then, you know, covid sort of happened and everything sort of slowed down. I was so pregnant and I mean it was just COVID and life was just weird at that time. So it was like I couldn't really stay super motivated because I didn't really know what I was doing. And I think now, since having been having my set, of course, my time has slowly increased over the years with having time available for work stuff.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it just sometimes feels like when I am in those moves I know this is a big common thing with ADHD in particular, but knowing these cycles that I sort of get into it's like when I'm in those modes where I'm so productive and just wired in I want to spend so much time doing stuff and I sometimes just simply can't. And yeah, it often just feels like I have like a million projects or things I've started and can't seem to finish. But you know, that's just been part of the journey for me, and so there's always sort of this like antsiness that I feel of like I feel like I'm always on the cusp and I'm like ready for the next thing, but I have to sort of just take my time. But also, I think that's really the key and I think it's actually going to really come back full circle with. The episode is like with marketing it is the slow burn. It is slow and steady wins a race, and I think the same thing goes with practice building. But it is hard. I mean, it's hard when you're like ready for that like next thing, or just need that shiny new, exciting project or thing to kind of keep it going. It can be hard to like wait out the slower period. So if you are also experiencing that, I feel you, I see you and I am with you on that journey. But yeah, so that's kind of where things are at with my business life these days, and of course it is summertime, so I also, you know, want to be doing other things too. I want to be out and doing things with my son. But that is also the beauty of being your own boss that you can take time for yourself and make these changes in your schedule when needed. But I'm trying to, as always figure out how to balance it all. So that is where life has been lately to balance it all. So that's, that is where life has been lately.
Speaker 1:Now that we've gotten my update out of the way, just a couple reminders about the podcast. Well, one I don't know if I ever really say this, but you know new episodes drop every Wednesday. We are hoping to incorporate some kind of advice column, slash question column segment thing starting in August. So if you have a question about business or are looking for some advice around your business in particular, I'd love to hear from you. I am available to be reached via Instagram. You can reach me on the podcast slash business coaching side at RD to CEO, or you can also reach me at my personal account at evaheldus, underscore RD. Send me a message, a DM or a voice message. I would love a voice message because I want to be able to play the questions if possible, but if you'd rather just type it out, that works too. And yeah, like I said, we're going to hopefully start doing that in August, in just a couple of episodes. So stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited to start incorporating that into the episodes. And yeah, if you are enjoying the podcast. Please be sure to subscribe. Wherever you're getting the podcast, make sure you follow my new Instagram account at rd2ceo so you can stay up to date on all new episodes. I also, of course, have a mailing list, which stay up to date on all new episodes. I also, of course, have a mailing list which I feel like I say all the time, but I really only send out newsletters like once a quarter. So that is a good one, though, too, to have, because hopefully, once I get my shit together at some point, I hopefully will have some other offerings available on my website Lots of different, like spreadsheets in particular, and things I've created over the years that I think would just be helpful resources. So I'm hoping to make those available eventually, sometime soon. So stay tuned for that, and if you get on my email list, you'll be able to know when that actually is going to happen. So that is all I have to say about that.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, let's talk marketing without social media. Marketing is a scary thing to think about sometimes, and I think it can feel really overwhelming, too, of like where do I begin? How do I market myself, what do I need to do? And I think what we see often because we're people who are on social media in this day and age is we see people posting about what they're doing on their business on social media, and I think it makes a lot of sense why people think that is the route to take. I certainly have been there myself.
Speaker 1:I think when I first started I was like I went through like periods where I was like I'm going to post and just go for it and then I always found myself just getting burnt out or just kind of being over it. And one thing I really don't love is like when I post something, I'm like attached to my phone and I feel like I don't want to do that. I don't really want to like feel like I'm like constantly like seeking the validation of my social media. But I know that that's something that exists for me. It's like a part of me, for sure. So social media just never felt like the right marketing tool for me.
Speaker 1:And then, as I started to really learn about private practice in particular, I realized that social media is actually not really a great tool for marketing as private practices, because in order to really reach your target audience on social media, I mean, it has to be so specific, so niche and private practices often we're often local. We're often like having a very specifically set a niche or somebody that we're working, you know, to help and sort of be able to find those people in the state that you live in, on the state they are licensed in. I mean, there's just so many things that have to line up for you to find those clients and it's not to say that it's impossible, because there's tons of people that do, but I don't think it has to be the only thing you do, especially if you don't like it. And I think that's the other thing. I think a lot of people just don't like it because, yeah, taxing and like you are just at the, you know at the what's the saying, like the algorithm pretty much dictates what's going to happen and how you show up, so it sometimes doesn't feel super consistent and can feel really like what's the point of this? I don't even see the return that I'm getting on this, and so I see a lot of people asking questions like this in different Facebook groups that I'm in about, like okay, where do I get started with marketing? What should I do? And so I want to talk about today three things that I think can be really helpful ways to market your private practice without social media. But before I get into those three things, the number one thing that really you want to think about it's not necessarily like what's the best marketing. It's like who am I marketing to? Because that's going to determine where you go to market your services, because if you don't know who you're speaking to, then you're just speaking to the best.
Speaker 1:I think that's the thing with social media. It can just be you're speaking into like so many different people that are going to like see, or it's like a TikTok or real that it can be hard to find that like specific person that you're really trying to speak to. And so figuring out who is your ideal client and who are you gonna market to is gonna make all the difference when you wanna think about, okay, so how do I figure out who's my ideal client? Think about it of like almost like, if you can. I mean I remember when I was first starting out, my friends who were in prior practice. I mean I remember when I was first starting out, my friends who were in private practice. One of my friends sent me, you know, like almost like, a worksheet of, like you know, draw that person, like visualize who that person is that you are speaking to when you are marketing your services. So you can do something like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can really like go to that level of like visualizing, like who is this person that you want to help? Who are the clients you like working with? Who are the clients you like working with? Who are the people that you leave feeling super fulfilled? What's the area of expertise that you find that you maybe do your best work in no-transcript, you know, outside of just like visualizing the person. Things you might want to think about is like okay, so who are they? What age group? What you know, demographic, what, maybe gender, what are they Googling at three in the morning? You know, what are their main concerns, what are they hoping to get support in. And really sort of figuring out who that person is is going to help you in the next three things that I mentioned when it comes to marketing your services, and so that is what we say is.
Speaker 1:Step one is figure out who you want to market to. If you're just starting on private practice, you might not know, because you might be like well, I really like this type of client like I really like eating disorders but I also like working with maybe sports nutrition or like doing this, and so it can sort of be hard and you don't want to necessarily maybe pick a very specific niche, and that's also okay. I think having a general sense or like maybe you're like, well, I don't know if I want to do like work with diabetes or maybe you know heart disease, like it can also be in like a general sense of like medical nutrition therapies is the niche that you want to work in, to start and then figure out from there, like maybe there's like a specific area within medical nutrition therapy. Or maybe it's like well, generally I want to work with eating disorders, but then, as you do more work for me, I was like, ooh, I have ADHD. This makes a lot of sense to me. A lot of people with eating disorders also tend to have ADHD. It worked out in the more work I did and the more clients I saw that I was like, oh, this is actually the area that I like.
Speaker 1:So sometimes that part takes time to figure out who are the clients that you really enjoy working with and that also can change. But having a general sense of, maybe, what their main challenges or main issue is. It's going to be really important because then you'll know what to do with these next three steps that I share on how to market your services without the use of social media. So once you figure that out whether it's the general or very specific of like here's who I want to help here, I would say is, like the top three things that I either tried to focus on or have used and have found super beneficial as I've built the group practice that I have. So, number one, networking with potential referring providers, and that is going to change depending on who your ideal client have. So, number one, networking with potential referring providers, and that is going to change depending on who your ideal client is. So for us in particular, we work primarily on our practice with eating disorders and disordered eating. So generally, the way that people find us right, I always say with marketing, when you think about marketing, it's where is your ideal client going to find you? Where are they going to look for you? For us, I find a lot of client going to find you, like where are they going to look for you?
Speaker 1:For us, I find a lot of people tend to go to therapy first and then from there their therapist. Depending on if their therapist doesn't have experience working with eating disorders or doesn't specialize in eating disorders, they're like, okay, we need to get you a dietician to make sure one you're medically okay, but also it can be somebody like us who specializes in working with eating disorders to help support the client. So the therapist can do what they have expertise in and we can do what we have expertise in. So that might be the case for that. Or it could be a therapist who does work with eating disorders and somebody Googles therapist eating disorders and they start working with their therapist and then the therapist is like, okay, now I need somebody like a dietitian who works with eating disorders to help support the client and their needs.
Speaker 1:And another area for us is also treatment centers, which also I think is going to vary depending on where you live. So for us, where I live and where our practice is, it's right outside of Philly. We have a handful of bigger treatment centers. I would say we have like one sort of big one that has like a residential care and also a PHP and IOP. If you're in the industry world, you know what those means. But basically intensive, outpatient or partial hospitalization or day programs as they often are called now, or residential levels of care. We also have other treatment centers here that have more of the outpatient version, so the IOP or PHPs, but not residential. So we have a couple in Philly and then also not too far outside the city. So I've done a lot of networking with treatment centers and also treatment centers that are not necessarily local to Philly, because people from our area will still go to treatment centers in other states, so it's not to say that those other treatment centers don't get people who live in this area and who are looking for providers when they're discharged. So that's like how I sort of think about. It is like, okay, that's typically where our clients are going to find us, is they're either in therapy or at a treatment center primarily, and so that's really where I started and that's really where I've honed in and continue to primarily do.
Speaker 1:My marketing and networking is meeting with those referring providers. I've done a little bit with doctors and I feel like this is like for our practice in particular, like sort of this, like most untapped. It's a little bit challenging with medical offices. It's funny because I worked with my business coach Hannah on this a lot, because I don't even know what my hesitation on it is. I think when it comes to like meeting with therapists, for me it's just easy because I'm like I'll send them an email, we'll connect and then maybe we'll get coffee and chat or we'll go on Zoom and chat and that feels like easier than me walking to an office of a busy medical office. And maybe this is also because my mom's a physician and I just know how chaotic primary care offices can be and how little time the doctors actually have, that I'm like this is going to be hard to sort of get in and really make a solid connection, but that's not to say that that's impossible and I'm going to maybe share a couple other ways that you can do that or get in with doctor's offices, and I really, once again, I think it's going to so depend on, once again, your niche, who your ideal client is and where you live and where you're practicing.
Speaker 1:Because once again, for us there was one point where Sarah, who I've mentioned before, owns the therapy practice that we share office with. She and I went around the local offices, the doctor's offices in our area, near our office, and a lot of them are owned by one major hospital in our area. And when we went in they were like, you know, we were like we brought baked goods, we brought a bunch of our cards and stuff like that. We were like we'd love to, you know, could we chat with your office manager? We'd love to, like, come bring your provider's lunch, chat with them. And they said, you know, this is even like a pre-COVID thing with the hospital that owns the system now is, you know, they don't do basically those kind of visits anymore. So it was just like we just don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1:And so we were like, okay, so it's really hard to make a connection there, because of course the front desk is really important and of course me and the office manager was really important, but really it's like when people are going to see their doctors, it's like those are the people that are going to refer out and so not being able to really meet with the actual providers is a challenge. I mean, it's a huge challenge, right. So it's going to sort of depend. But like, conversely, in that same time that we were making those rounds, driving around, we happened upon an office that was a new medical office and it was actually a newer concierge to a medical office and we connected with a doctor and that was like literally as she was opening and, yeah, she's like referred to us a couple of times. I actually was just emailing with her nurse because they were needing a little bit more business cards from us. So that was like a really great connection that we were able to make. So it's not impossible but once again, it's all going to make a big difference.
Speaker 1:And I also think the other thing with doctor's offices that's key is you have to take insurance. I mean, you don't have to, but if you accept insurance it's going to make a bigger difference than if you don't, because doctors are seeing people that use their insurance and they're going to want to refer to people who also accept insurance and that's going to be really important and, I think, just a bigger challenge when you don't accept insurance, which is like okay, I don't think that means that doctors won't ever refer you, because you can still build up that connection elsewhere or in other ways. But it is a good marketing and sort of selling point when you accept insurance and you're trying to market yourself with doctor's offices. So it all will sort of depend.
Speaker 1:I've had other opportunities in doctor's offices. My neighbor's sister-in-law is actually a nurse manager at a local pediatrician's office and through just meeting her I was able to do actually what I wanted to do, which was bring lunch to the providers and meet them, and they have referred to us several times. So that was like one way for me just to get in. But ultimately, whether it's you're getting into the doctor's offices or you're meeting with a therapist or you're meeting with a different provider, the thing you want to think about is how are you going to help them? And sometimes I've done a lot of these networking calls over the years, like with therapists in particular. Sometimes I get on these calls and people are like here's my resume, you can refer to me this way, and it's like I just leave, kind of being like okay, like it's not a genuine, genuine connection, and I sort of felt like they were like here you go refer to me, thanks bye.
Speaker 1:Versus you know what I try to do when I meet people and this isn't like to be fake and you know you don't want to like. I'm not trying to say like go and like pretend like you don't. You know you care about something if you don't, but like genuinely. I mean it's like my coach, hannah, has said this before too like the cheesy saying of like people don't forget what you said, but they don't forget how you made them feel is so important, and it's really about okay, how am I going to make your job easier? How am I going to help you? How am I going to support you?
Speaker 1:Doctors, for example, they are so fucking busy. So, like, the way that we can say is like you want to have no time because you're seeing a million patients a day. You're expected especially general or primary doctors like, or primary care providers, nurse practitioners, pas right, they're being tasked to like know it all, or like have a general idea of everything and manage all the things, or, you know, refer out to people who have more specialization, and so that's something we can say like listen, if you have a client with like for us maybe it's like PCOS. This is something that we see a lot. We see a lot of people who get maybe advice around PCOS that ends up making things worse for them. You know, we can really support your patients and take that part off of you so that you're not the one that has to manage, right, like you can maybe manage the medical side of it, whereas we can help with the nutritional side or, you know, the emotional side of it maybe for us, right, with like disordered eating and things like that. So you sort of want to like sell how you can be helpful, not necessarily like here's my resume and I hope you refer to me, right and like you sort of like don't want to just like be a walking business card, right, you want to make a genuine connection but also really get to know the person. What are their pain points, what are the things that they're struggling with? What are they seeing in their offices, whether they're going to be a therapist or a doctor, whatever it may be, how can you really support them? And finding out what's actually going on and what they're actually seeing in their clients or in their patients. The other thing that I've really tried to do over the no-transcript they're looking for, you know, being able to say like, yeah, actually I do know something, and here's there's a thing, and like after you meet with them, you know, following up with an email and sort of staying top of mind is going to be really, really important and be like, oh, wow, this person really does know their stuff. Wow, this person was so helpful. I'm definitely gonna refer my clients to them, you know, whatever it might be, so that's something you want to think about when you're having these meetings is sort of how do we then have something to follow up with other than, hey, it was really nice to meet you. I hope we can connect more. But also just continuously sort of staying top of mind or staying connected with people makes such a difference too.
Speaker 1:I often think back to when I first started my practice and was like a baby. Well, I wasn't a baby RD, I'd already been an RD for a few years, but I was like a baby private practice RD and doing some of my very first networking meetings like this and one of my very first treatment center meetings that I did and just feeling so new. And I think I've mentioned this before. But now I've gone to a couple of events over the years. I mean like I would say like a couple. You know I'm going to one, I think in two weeks I was just a couple of weeks ago and a lot of the reps or like the local providers, like we see each other at these things all the time and so we're constantly like oh hey, it's so great to see you here, how's things going?
Speaker 1:And like you're just making these ongoing connections, which is really really nice to help once again stay top of mind for people so they remember you like we're all, we're all just trying to like stay afloat sometimes, right, like we sometimes just always don't always remember stuff, and so it's not that people might not like you, but they may also, might just forget, and so so number two I would say is like when people do refer to you, really maintaining that rapport and really maintain that connection, so that might look like you know, having a therapist that has referred to you and like for us because once again we work with insulters, we often collaborate with therapists really closely and having those really good relationships with therapists is one of the best marketing tools that we can do, and that's probably one of the better marketing tools. Like that we can do and that's probably one of the better ones that we have in our practice. Like there are some therapists who are who often will refer to the same clinician because they have a really good relationship with them. It makes the work so much easier when you know somebody and you know somebody well and yeah, it's like such a helpful tool and so like having that relationship is just so helpful and makes things it's like an easy, it's like a part of the job that you have to do anyway and it also can serve as such a good marketing tool.
Speaker 1:One thing that we haven't done once again, I would say like the doctor's office world is something we haven't really tapped into as much. And this is really where in the next I would say probably like the next quarters of the year what are we in Q3 now? I would say probably like the next quarters of the year, when we're in Q3. Now, q3 and Q4 is really focusing on our marketing and networking with medical providers and doctors, and one of those ways that we can do that is when a doctor's office is maybe it's a doctor, just your client's doctor, or maybe it's a doctor that has referred to. Like I said, we have this one pediatrician's office that refers so often.
Speaker 1:Something we don't do yet, but something I'm hoping we're going to do more of, is sending progress notes more consistently to doctor's offices. So the doctors are like hey, this is my patient. They're working with this dietitian. Here's the progress note that the dietitian is sending me. Great, that's awesome to know. Oh wow, I, oh wow. I have tons of patients who would use the statistician's help. Let me refer my patients to them, so having that sort of ongoing thing can be a really helpful tool as well.
Speaker 1:If, like the doctor that you're sending the note to, or the nurse practitioner or the PA are seeing your name constantly coming up, they're going to be like, oh wait, this person works with a couple of my patients and they all have had really positive results. I should send more people their way, and so I think that's really another way that you can continue to network and market your services is, when people do refer to you is to establish that connection. If you get a referral from somebody that you haven't networked with, that's a great in right. Send an email hey, we just got a referral from you. Like, just want to reach out and say thank you. I'd love to connect and grab a cup of coffee sometime and learn more about your work. You know, just a genuine thank you and a way to connect somebody.
Speaker 1:I know a couple people who and people have asked this before to have, like, can I send people gifts and things like that? I think that's really tricky and you want to be sort of cautious with that because I forget what the term is Kickbacks. I and you want to be sort of cautious with that because I forget what the term is Kickbacks. I think you want to be cautious about it like being this, like sort of kickback. I think our dietetic sort of ethics or like sort of like legal things we have a little bit different. Like I think therapists have very clear guidelines and they are unable to do things like you know, give somebody money if they refer. So if, like, you refer to me and you get like 10%, like that's considered a kickback. So if you're also sending somebody like a gift card or like money, that could be seen as a kickback. So we want to be cautious when we do things like that.
Speaker 1:And I think those are obviously really nice and like I had mentioned that concierge doctor and how I'm going to drop off some business cards they had asked for some more I'm going to also bring food. I'm going to bring something to the office with me. I think that's like totally okay. You know, when you make an office visit to like bring something, that's also okay to do those kinds of things, to like show your appreciation, but just be cautious with like not sending too many things that are more on the financial side of things, cause you want to be just careful around kickbacks and what could be perceived as such. But that's number two, I would say is like really just maintaining those connections with people and you'll find that, too, like you're going to be like it's so nice when I have a patient or a client with this provider, like I want to refer to them and they're going to refer to me. It's a great team that you can develop. So that's like an easy, I think an easier way to do it without really having to go like super out of your way. And then finally, number three, and I'm going to refer you to one of my episodes that I did with Courtney Vickery from C-Cloud Designs.
Speaker 1:But search engine, search engine optimization, aka SEO, is a big area that is so helpful. That is the thing that when you are, if you haven't seen the episode, search engine optimization basically is when people are Googling. How high are you going to rank when they search something? When they search dietitian near me, dietitian near Philly, how high is your website going to go? That is what search engine optimization is. It's pretty much optimizing when people are searching for you and so using SEO is such a, I think, a better, it has a better return when it comes to like the online marketing versus, of course, social media. Like this is really like.
Speaker 1:I will say I definitely think that I, if I Google somebody like I'm looking for a contractor for like, let's say, to do something around my house, I might look to see if they're on social media and see some of the projects that they've had. That might happen, but I'm probably I have a harder time looking on. You know I'm not going to like look on Instagram necessarily to find them. I might start with Google and then go to Instagram. I will say and this is, I think, where we kind of can think about with social media is like I will do that with some things. Like I will maybe go to TikTok when I'm like what's a good restaurant in this area? Like, I want to see people's videos, I want to see people have right, like that's going to be important. So I think when you're trying to reach a larger audience, that's really what you want to do. So social media because that's like, that's what people can do. They can look on their whatever app they're using to find maybe like a very general thing or a very specific thing, but it's going to be like for a larger audience.
Speaker 1:But we're doing seo. It really allows you to fine-tune sort of what when people are searching for something very specific and and how to find you, so like that might be know a special specialization, like PCOS dietitian near Philly, and having that built into your SEO to help people find you in that area. And SEO itself is like a very sort of complicated thing. But there's a lot of really great resources, really great tools out there. I bought Erica Juleson from the Unconventional RD's SEO course, which I believe now is going to be more of like a paid membership that she has that you pay towards monthly to have access to it, but really really helpful. Like with most courses that I buy, I didn't finish it all, but I got through a good chunk of it like early on and I would say the way that she explains things is so helpful. And I would say the way that she explains things is so helpful.
Speaker 1:I think SEO definitely is also one of those things that's great to outsource to people who really know it, because it is its own art, I would say, but it's certainly a way that you can really get people to find you and really find you when they're Googling you, which is probably what most people are doing anyway. And how do we get those people who are are looking for you, the right people that are going to be looking for you? Because when we get referrals, sometimes people fill out you know, some of our forms online. They'll say what. We have a question that says how did you find this? And people put google. I probably like, I wish I could kind of ask, maybe I could like what is you search? But I think people would be like what does that even mean? But it would be nice to sort of know and within google analytics, they can show you what people are searching to find you Like, whether it's like you know.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think for us we'll say like weekly nutrition, or it'll show like one of the clinicians names. So there is some information that you can find when you get into Google Analytics and all that stuff, which, once again, is like a world of its own. So, if it's within your budget, I would highly recommend investing in some SEO support. I hope to do that too, whether it's like this year or next, because I think that's sort of another area that I haven't really tapped into fully. I think the nice thing about all of this, too, is and this is really why it's important for me to keep track of all the inquiries we get is we also keep track of where they're coming from, and it allows me to know okay, we are getting most of our clients from therapists. Like, that is also where I do most of my marketing. So it would make sense if I was, you know, suddenly like if, say, you know, the next two quarters we're really focused on trying to get more in with medical providers and we're tracking that information. I can then see, like, okay, it's kind of stay the same, it's mostly still therapists, but some doctors, or maybe we're getting more doctors than we did this time last year. That's information that can be really helpful to know the investment that I'm making into this is there is a return on it.
Speaker 1:Providers and also SEO, these are all things that just take time, and I mean I think even the same way, social media, right, like businesses don't? Just I mean I think we see people who go viral and we're just like, oh my God, they did it, they made it. But really those businesses that have growth slow, steady, will really be able to maintain that growth. Because it does take time, because then you get to the issue of when things are really busy and then all of a sudden you're on a wait list and then it's like you're losing a bunch of clients. And so really taking your time and let it be what it is.
Speaker 1:And sometimes I think, especially with networking, it can feel like, okay, I met with this person and I had this really good connection and it's going to be really great, and like you kind of go into it feeling like I have to make the best impression and then you're like no, I haven't heard from them at all and they haven't referred to me. Do they hate me? Do I suck? And it's it's honestly sort of this ripple effect, I think, what ends up happening, because maybe they're not referring to you, because maybe they just don't have a client that they feel like needs the help, but maybe they have a friend who does right, like maybe they know a therapist who's like hey, does anyone know a dietician in this area? And they're like, actually, yeah, I just had coffee with one, she was great, he was great. Let me send you their info. That's sort of what ends up happening.
Speaker 1:Is this like ripple effect? Of like you're getting your name out there, you're meeting people, they know people, they're telling them about you, and so sometimes it just takes a little bit of time to see sort of the return and you might not see it right away. Of like I just spent all this time, you know, networking with this. Maybe this like one treatment center and I haven't heard anything from them. But like, especially with treatment centers, like the reps know people and they might be telling people about you and then they're sending you you know your clients, whatever it might be. So don't get super discouraged.
Speaker 1:I think just like with any tool, whether it's any of the things I mentioned today or social media, it does just take time and you might not see the return right away. But especially if you get some kind of return, this is really where tracking your inquiries is so, so important. Like I said earlier, then you'll actually know is the thing that I'm spending all this time doing actually having an impact? Right, like I worked with somebody Courtney actually, who I mentioned before, who was also on the podcast a few weeks ago to help us with some of our local SEO and I will say when we we did, I think, three months of working with her and she was able to see, on the Google side of things like that, our analytics, the numbers had gone up significantly. But when I was looking at our inquiries I was like, well, our inquiries from people searching us on Google haven't really like changed much, like they're maybe a little bit higher, but not like significantly. But I will say, in the month, since we consistently will get more people searching us through Google and I think that was really important part of like the work I did with with Courtney.
Speaker 1:I think SEO and just like with networking and marketing, it's one of those things that's sort of you have to sort of constantly be a little bit on it and there are times where you can sort of coast with it. Like I haven't really done a lot of, I haven't done a lot of one-on-one networking, intentionally networking, I think, with like providers. Lately I'm going to sort of get myself back out there and do a little bit more of them again now, but it's something that I'm oftentimes like. Every so often I do sort of a little bit of a marking push where I'll send a couple emails, have a couple coffee dates and it really just helps to continue to get your name out there and meet people, make those connections. And the same goes with SEO, just like sometimes you have to like really build up on it, but over time it's going to help really get people coming to your website, driving the traffic to your website so that people are finding you and finding your services. And so those are my three ways that you can market your services as a private practice without the use of social media. I hope they were helpful.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear from folks too of, like what you're finding is your best form of marketing for your services. Obviously, I'm speaking from my perspective and my experiences as a private practice who works with eating disorders. Where our clients are typically coming from, tend to, I think, be the same, depending on the main difference might be just like geographical differences, but really I think our clients tend to come from very similar places, but there's going to be a lot of places that are different. Like I have a dietitian who I work with for business coaching, who just got a great connection doing corporate wellness, like that's awesome, you know. Like they do a little bit more of the general nutrition stuff, or they do a little more sports nutrition, and this is like what their the corporate account really was a helpful one. So there are so many opportunities out there to make connections and not just like in, you know, the one-on-one meetings like I was mentioning, like with therapists or other providers who are going to be referring for others.
Speaker 1:There's lots of different ways to connect with people, but at the core of it, at the very end of it all, the most important thing is knowing who you are marketing to, and then you can find out. You know, where do I have to go to sort of get my name in front of those people that are going to get me to my ideal client? And so, yeah, that is. I think I'll have to say about that for now. As always, I hope this was a helpful episode.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind, especially if you have marketing questions, I'd love to talk about that too, especially if I have a guest on the podcast and you have a question specifically around what the guest is an expert in, it would be really helpful. So if you have a question, whether it's about marketing or other things business related, remember that we will be starting an advice slash question segment at the end of every episode, starting in August. So if you have something that you would love some advice around, feel free to send me a message, whether it's, you know, a typed out message or a voice message on my Instagram, at rd2cao or at evahaldus underscore rd. I would love to hear from you and let me know what you thought of this episode. I hope it was helpful. Thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to the RD to CEO podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for any resources mentioned or find more at wwwrdtoceocom. Never miss an episode by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time.
