Nowadays, effectively marketing your weight loss practice with minimal financial investment is easier than ever. Plus, these low/no-cost ideas tend to build more trust and create positive engagement with your current and future new patients.
Having a tight budget when it comes to marketing, or feeling like you might be paying with a poor return on investment, is unfortunately more common than you might think. In particular, small businesses tend to have tight marketing budgets, which can make it difficult to get the word out about you and your weight loss practice. No one likes to feel like you’re the best kept secret in town.
You may also be a little bored with the same old marketing strategies you’ve been using for a while that don’t seem to move the needle when it comes to attracting new patients, growing your email list, or growing your overall program and product sales. These are signs that it’s time to add energy and new strategies to your marketing plan that can effectively level the playing field with both the big box and local competitors.
These proven ideas and strategies are simple ways to generate real new leads for your business’s virtual and/or physical doors. They are also specific tactics to get your program and product sales back on track.
Make sure your online business footprint is in order
Before you add or expand these strategies to your weight loss practice, it’s important that you take the time to make sure your online business footprint is in order. This means.
- Objectively evaluating your website (analysis, SEO optimization, design and navigation, clear call to action)
- Looking carefully at your social media business accounts for branding continuity and links to your website
- Evaluate your Google Online Listing/Business Profile, including your online reviews
Don’t underestimate the value of your free Google Business Profile. This important piece of free marketing collateral is what allows you to appear in organic online searches. For this to happen or be most effective, you need to optimize it with your current business information and verify your ownership.
Finally, as you begin implementing these strategies, be sure to have a list of the most important keywords and hashtags people are searching for related to you, your business, what you offer, and your geographic area.
5 Low or No Cost Marketing Ideas for Your Weight Loss Practice
Below you’ll find five powerful low/no-cost marketing ideas, plus a few bonus ideas that work just as well:
1. Leveraged Content marketingContent marketing is a form of inbound marketing. It creates ways for people to learn more about you, trust your expertise, and become new patients. You can do this through SEO optimized videos, blogs, webinars, free resources, contests, challenges, surveys and engaging social media posts.
To make the most of your time and resources, you can use a single piece of content by displaying it in different ways. For example, you can create one video on the current topic, for example Dr. (insert name here) Top 5 Weight Loss Mistakes. This one asset/resource can be used in many optimized ways, such as a video on YouTube, a blog on your website, a free resource for people to download you to their email. after providing the post, quoting your photo and video and/or Instagram/Facebook reel;
They can also be attributed to your social media post timeline months later. The key is to make sure it’s enticing, highlights what you do or what makes you different, and leads back to your website with a clear call to action (starting the next step). In fact, you can group videos like this by recording them all at once to give you and your team enough content to last three, six or 12 months at a time.
2. Webinars, Events and Additional Resources: Listen to the needs of your ideal patients and put together a short webinar on the topic. Then promote the webinar so people can sign up to join live or watch as a replay. An example of a theme is “How to know if weight loss surgery is right for you?“. This webinar offer builds your email list with qualified leads and provides you with a recorded webinar/video that you can continue to promote.
You can also create an additional resource alongside your webinars for people to download and share with others. If you want to increase traffic to your practice, you can host an on-site event with raffles/gift bags, discounts, and “event only” specials, such as a discount on merchandise or another cash payment service you offer. the event.
3. Email marketing: Although email marketing is nothing new, it is one of the most reliable ways to get a great return on your investment. Unfortunately, it is one of the most underutilized low/worthless marketing goldmines for weight loss practitioners. Or it’s one that’s used with minimal return on investment because it’s presented as a long-winded “newsletter” without a purpose or a clear offer/call to action related to the service or product you offer.
Email marketing doesn’t have to be nerve wracking. Rather, follow best practice so it’s something prospective and current patients look forward to every week or two. Your email list is your own personal real estate that is not dependent on other platforms. Maximizing its value simply requires consistency, respect and continued growth. If you’re always adding more people to your email list (as outlined in the previous two strategies), you’re not marketing to the same people over and over. This is another way for people to get to know you, what you have to offer and say yes to your services and products.
4. Review and Referral programDid you know that 74 percent of consumers cite word of mouth as the primary reason for their purchase decisions? And 94 percent of consumers trust referrals from people they know.1: Incidentally, referrals can be your biggest compliment and cheapest marketing method.
When you help people achieve the transformation they want, they often want to share the news with others who want the same. However, like you, they are busy and may forget about it if you don’t remind them. You can do this by asking for immediate reviews and referrals while they share their happy feelings about their success and regularly emailing you. through mail marketing. You can also include a link to your online review in your email signature.
You can run a referral program, rewarding the referrer and the referred person when they become sick or make a purchase as well. If you offer food products, a simple gift card can be enough, and even if they don’t expect it, it helps reinforce why you and your team are so awesome.
5. Turn your team into ambassadors: Your team is probably on social media, a lot. They also probably love what they do and feel loyal to you and the way you work. When you have a new video, blog, promotion, event, post, interview, or anything else exciting happening at your practice, encourage them to share it on their social media as well. In fact, there have been times when team members may see a question on social media about weight loss or weight loss surgery, and they may proudly share a link to the options you and your team provide. This is a great way to get your services noticed on more forums and platforms.
Bonus Marketing Ideas for Your Weight Loss Practice
- Local SEO initiatives to appear in the top 3 Google recommendationsWhen you post any content, be sure to include keywords that indicate your local geographic location, as well as the name of the practitioner(s) and the name of your practice.
- Cross Promotion:If there’s another practice that you regularly refer patients to (ie, plastic surgeon, orthopedic, pulmonologist, otolaryngologist), reach out to them to host a joint webinar or Q&A that you both promote to your respective audiences. : Or reach out to a local podcaster or a patient who has used your services and has a podcast or great platform for an interview. Every time you can provide quality content on another person’s stage with the same audience as those you serve, you increase the likelihood that more people will discover how you positively impact lives and how you can too. help them
- User (Consumer) Generated ContentThis has many complications and is not often used in healthcare, but may be used more in the future. It essentially promotes positive content (usually from your customers) about what you offer that wasn’t created or posted by you.
These ideas are proven to work when implemented correctly. In fact, some practices rely solely on them in their marketing plan. See what works for you and have fun showcasing the many talents of you and your team, as well as the success stories of your many patients.
source(s):
1: https://review42.com/resources/referral-marketing-statistics/