How to Grow Your Practice Without Using Social Media

How to Grow Your Practice Without Using Social Media

Remember last month when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp suddenly went down for the day? (Seriously, who could forget?!) There seemed to be two major responses to that day’s events:

“Oh, I didn’t even realize it until later in the day. No biggie.”

“Panic. Sheer and total panic.”

If that day taught us anything, it’s how fragile the world of social media really is. In an instant, your access is gone.  If you’re relying solely on social media to grow your practice, the outage may have been a wake-up call for you.

So, if you’re looking for ways to grow your practice without leaning so heavily on social media, we’ve got you covered! Let’s explore five ways you can build your network and grow your practice outside of the social media world.

1. Partner With Other Practitioners on Community Events

No matter how you run your practice, there’s one thing we can all agree on – your local community is incredibly important. And it’s full of potential patients!

Building a reputation as an expert practitioner in your community doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. And you don’t want to be the ‘go-to’ guy for anything and everything. It’s much better to find ways to get in front of your ideal patients! 

So, how do you do that? One powerful way is to partner with other practitioners in your community who share similar patient types as you but provide different services.

For example, are you a prenatal chiropractor who adjusts moms and their babies? If so, team up with doulas, nutritionists, and other clinicians in your area who also work with pregnant mamas and their young babies.

Using this example, you and the other practitioners could create a community event that highlights each of your areas of expertise:

  • The nutritionist can speak on foods that nourish and give energy to moms and their developing babies.
  • The prenatal chiropractor can share ways moms can sleep comfortably and support their spines no matter what stage of pregnancy they’re in.
  • The doula can discuss tips to create a postpartum home care kit that promotes healing and rest.

By partnering with other clinicians who serve the same type of patients as you do, you’re able to get in front of their patients (who may not be your patients yet!) and serve them in meaningful ways.

2. Create a Robust Referral Network

Speaking of partnering, another effective way to grow your practice is to build up a strong referral network. 

Think about it. Let’s say you know a health and fitness coach who helps student-athletes. One day, the fitness coach gets a phone call from someone who wants help preparing for an upcoming marathon.  

Sure, the coach could probably help this person just fine. But marathon prep isn’t his zone of genius, nor does he enjoy doing that kind of work. However, the fitness coach knows about YOU and how you’re an incredible athlete who loves working with marathon runners.  Because you’ve created a solid referral network, others are happy to call and make the connection.

Now, imagine having this across multiple practitioner types – chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and so on. See the potential this can have for your practice?

3. Beef up Your Website

So, maybe you want to cool it on social media but not toss it away altogether. Having a strong website presence is a powerful way to market your practice without having to borrow the Facebook or Instagram platform. 

One way you can make your website digitally irresistible is through its content. To do that, consider…

  • Refreshing the copy on your website. Make sure your messaging is still relevant to your ideal patient. Make sure any new certifications or services are listed, swap out the photos for new ones, and make sure you have a few backlinks to other search engines such as YouTube, Google, and of course, FB and IG. 
  • Adding rich content to your site through blogging. Blogs are a wonderful way to provide valuable content that helps your patients achieve their health goals. They have the potential to establish credibility and position you as the expert in your area – which will undoubtedly help grow your practice. To make sure the juice is worth your squeeze, we recommend blogging twice a month. You can either do this yourself or outsource it to a service like ours.

4. Have a Powerful Google My Business Presence

Regardless of how people initially learn about your practice, most will check you out on Google before they ever pick up the phone. So, having an updated and optimized Google My Business (GMB) page is key.

If the thought of optimizing something on Google freaks you out, no worries. Here are three easy-breezy resources to get you going:

Don’t feel like you have to eat the whole elephant at once. Commit to taking small steps each week, and before long, your GMB will be up-to-date!

5. Ramp Up Your Email Marketing

One thing you might have noticed during last month’s social media outage is how many marketing gurus were quick to jump on the bandwagon of “this is why you should build an email list.”

Make no mistake. Building an email list is important. But it’s not immune to tech glitches either. When it comes to a marketing strategy, the goal is to create multiple ways to reach and engage your potential patients – so that if one fails, you have others to lean on.

We know that email marketing can sound like a lot and get overwhelming fast. Just know that it can be as simple as sending a couple of emails a month. Whatever your frequency, keep your email marketing easy and fun so that you stay consistent with it.

Grow Your Practice Without Social Media

Last month was a wake-up call for many business owners and practitioners. Maybe it was for you, too.

The cold hard truth is that social media is important and will likely never go away entirely. But rest assured that you can 100% build a practice without solely relying on it. In fact, it’s better if you don’t fully lean on social media to grow your practice. Try out one of these five strategies, so that the next time the social feeds freeze up or lock you out, your marketing doesn’t miss a beat.

Ronda Nelson

Hi, I’m Ronda Nelson and I help wellness practitioners grow thriving, profitable practices that allow them to work with ease, live a life they love and make an income they can be proud of.
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