All right, guys. Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of the Rocket Chiro podcast, the business and marketing podcast for chiropractors. My name is Jerry. I'm your host. If you're new to the podcast, I am a former chiropractor. I now help chiropractors with websites and SEO. I also do this podcast. And what we're going to talk about today is we're going to talk about how different people take a different amount of time and exposure to start following you on social.
We're also going to talk about what this actually means for your marketing and why it's going to be important that your marketing intention and your marketing process line up so that you're not wasting a bunch of money as a chiropractor. So that's going to be the plan for the day. Before I get into that, I do want to say if you want help with your website and SEO, go to rocketchiro.com, request a free new patient search review.
I had trouble getting those words out because I just changed the name. So the new patient search review is basically allows, I'll look at your website, look at your local SEO and look at it from a patient's perspective and give you some insight on what you're doing well, what you could be doing better and if Rocket Chiro can help you. There's no obligation, no pressure, nothing like that. It's just a free review for those of you who are interested in that.
If you're just getting started with your practice or you've been out for a while and you're feeling a little bit stuck, check out my Next Step program. That's what it's designed for is to help give you some uh foundational business and marketing information to help you either get started or get unstuck. And also you get some access to me along the way. So if you're listening to this podcast and you like what you're hearing and you want more, check out my next step program.
It's a, it's a logical next step. No pun intended. All right guys. So on the last podcast, I talked to Shaq Smith and we actually talked about how there's this growing distrust that's happening with all the different generations, not just Gen Z, although we did talk about Gen Z quite a bit because that was the focus of the article that we talked about. ah I thought this would be a good follow-up episode because I saw this info graphic and it was a company called NP Digital.
I don't know anything about the company, but they did this graphic where they were asking people, How many interactions did they need to have with a brand before they started following them on social? And I think they asked a hundred people in each of these groups. was Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and then Boomers. And the thing that's probably, I think where there's some potential error in this survey is that people were asked based on their recollection. And I don't know how accurate that is.
I would imagine if you ask enough people, you know, if you ask thousands of people, you'll probably get a more accurate. a number than if you ask 10 or 50 or in this case, 100. So just keep that in mind. But it does align with something that we have said for a long time kind of in the marketing world, which is that people generally take seven or eight positive exposures with a company before they become a buyer.
Like people don't generally just find out about you and then decide to pick up the phone or go online or whatever and schedule an appointment or kind of take that next step. unless they're in a crisis. Now that's the situation where obviously all of this kind of gets thrown out the window from a buying standpoint.
But generally speaking, and this is, and I don't even know where that information came from, but it's something that's been said for a long time, which is people take seven or eight different exposures with a business before they become a buyer. There's sort of a trust that's being built there. What this survey said was that Gen Z was the biggest uh kind of lag by far. between when they're exposed to a company and when they started following.
Gen Z claimed that they took 11 positive, I'm assuming positive posts, because why would you follow someone if you didn't like their posts? So there's 11 exposures, 11 interactions with a company before they started following. Boomers were the smallest number and it was three. And then Millennials and Gen Z were kind of in the middle there with six and seven.
So, and it looks like millennials and Gen Z sort of falls in line with what we've been saying for a long time, which is around that six, seven, eight number in terms of buying. It seems to overlap with social media. Now, what are some things that we can kind of gather from this? uh My first thought was, I wonder why Gen Z was so drastically different.
And the thing that sort of comes to mind for me that I think you should take into consideration if you're marketing to a younger demographic is that they're in content overload. Like Gen Z is consuming content at a rate that has never been done ever in human history. And because of that, there tends to be a little bit of content blindness. they're going through it fast, they're seeing it but not seeing it, like that sort of thing.
I think probably why the boomer number is so much lower is because boomers are not doing that. And even probably millennials in Gen X, are probably not doing that quite at the rate that Gen Z is. Like when you've been, the Gen Z has been living in a world where the internet is prevalent, social media is prevalent, like sort of grew up in this space versus Gen X and boomers, that was not uh a normal part of life for a good part of our life. And then millennials are somewhere in the middle.
So you have this generation of people that have this content overload and when you're on social media as a chiropractor, and you want people to follow you, you want people like you, you want people to interact with your your practice, you have to consider that also, you're not competing just with other chiropractors, you're competing with cat videos and political posts and car stuff and hobby things and kids things and parent things and jokes and movie stuff.
And it's just you're competing with everything. And the algorithm doesn't really have uh there's some built in biases with the algorithm, but it's not generally going to affect chiropractors. It's probably going to affect politics more than anything. But what happens generally speaking is the things you're interested in are the things that the algorithm shows you. There's sort of like an addictive nature to social media.
And so if your stuff as a chiropractor is not all that interesting, it just doesn't show up in people's feeds, which is why a lot of chiropractors that do well on social are paying for ads. It's because they're sort of forcing that that view, they're forcing that uh opportunity for people to see them, which sort of makes a lot of sense.
And so the other thing that you have to understand from this standpoint, and this is true for all marketing because ah it's important just to keep this in mind when you're reaching out, whether it's online or offline, you have to understand that the process of going from not knowing about you to being a follower, trusting you, whatever, that process takes time. And what should be built into your marketing, what should be built into your process is that understanding.
And there's a certain level of patience that has to come from that as well. I don't mean patients like the people coming in your door that you're taking care of. mean, just being patient. Because if you're going into a marketing situation, you're like, man, I need people today. And I'm going to start doing content marketing. That's probably not the best approach. Because you're you're you're doing a marketing that is trust building and authority building, which can be great.
It's sort of like networking. You're to go out your community and you're going to build relationships. You're going to network. That could be the greatest thing you ever do for your practice. It could be the most valuable thing you ever do for your practice. It's probably not going to get you patients today. It's probably not going to get you patients this month because of that lag time that takes place. And obviously if you're focusing on a younger demographic, that lag time is even more.
And so it's important to just keep that in mind when you're doing your marketing is that if you're doing content marketing, if you're doing authority marketing, if you're doing relationship style marketing, it needs to have multiple points that are, that you're covering. So they're kind of getting people from different angles and you also need to be patient.
If you need people today, and it sort of brings me into my next topic is that if you need people today, you should focus on acute care or focus on older people. Because those are the people that even if we look at this and we say, well, boomers only take three interactions to follow. Well, then maybe if you're focusing on chronic conditions and focusing on acute pain, that might get you patients in the door quicker.
And that's sort of the last, that's kind of the last thing I wanted to talk about on the podcast is sort of what I was thinking about when I was looking at this is that this sort of flows into a different conversation. And that different conversation is making sure that your marketing intention, your marketing plan, your marketing expectations, your marketing execution, where you're marketing, who you're marketing to, what are you saying, what are you trying to do?
I've used the analogy of fishing on this podcast before. It's like if you're going to go fishing for catfish, you need to understand things about catfish that are gonna be different than bass. If you're gonna go fish for swordfish, it's gonna be different than if you're fishing for catfish. And so the same thing is true for marketing for human beings is that when you look at stuff like this, like, okay, there's a growing distrust.
Okay, so that's going to take longer unless they're in an acute situation. There's this lag time and really content overload that's happening on social media. So, okay, I might have to be more patient. I might have to pay for ads, whatever. But then we say, well, if we're going to talk about, let's say we want to do acute care or we want to we want to focus on acute care marketing or we want to focus on chronic conditions. Well, that was going to be an older demographic.
Where's that older demographic at? They're not on TikTok for as a general rule. And that's not me hating on TikTok. It's just, that's, that's not where they are. So if you're focusing on building a community and getting people on social media and getting some organic trust and building authority, I don't know that Facebook is a place you're going to get that done. Facebook is sort of a dying thing.
There's there's some aspects of Facebook that are really great with groups and different things like that. There are some aspects that still work. But if you're going to be on Facebook, you should probably focus on acute care and chronic conditions. Like don't don't put ads and don't put marketing and don't put outreach, don't put language, don't put images, don't put videos out there that appeal to a younger demographic. If you're gonna you're gonna put out your your goofy chiropractor videos.
on Facebook, it's probably going to do less. It's going to be less impressive to your grandpa. It's going to be less impressive to an old buddy, daddy like me. And so just keep that in mind that the branding, the marketing, the content, the ads, everything that you're doing, make sure that it lines up with your expectations and with your approach. because otherwise you end up in a situation where you could be spending money fishing in the wrong pond.
You could be spending money expecting the fish to bite when it's not the time of day or not the season for fish to bite. It's not a good time to do that. They're sort of mixing metaphors here, but that's the idea. And so this understanding of, it takes a little longer for some people than others and people are different and And what's the exception? The exception to that is acute care.
Someone who's in an acute care situation, they're in acute pain, they need help now, they sort of shorten this whole process. I mean, if you're start having leaking in your basement, there's flooding and you need to get a hold of a plumber, you know, you're not sitting around going, well, you know, let's check social and let's what like you're not doing that. And so what is this? What does this look like? We'll kind of give you some practical stuff.
And then we'll we'll wrap it up with some quick tips. Acute care marketing, you're going to focus on search engine optimization, uh search ads. And what I mean by search ads is that could be like YouTube and stuff like that. uh And then networking, because networking, if somebody is like, I'm in pain and I'm going to go to this particular doctor, I'm going to reach out to this particular professional, that person may refer that person to you if you're a good fit for them.
Now, obviously the networking takes time, but if you're going to focus on acute care, search engine optimization and search type ads like Google ads, YouTube ads, stuff like that. Authority marketing is going to be content, online, offline content. It could be video, could be print, could be images, face to face. So getting out in your community, getting involved, uh reviews and testimonials fall into the category of authority marketing.
uh And then uh association, celebrity referrals fall into this category as well. So there's like a transfer of trust. What I mean by association, is if the years ago it was like you know chiropractor would take a picture. I believe it was Matthew Loop. He was I don't know if he's still popular. He used to try to teach chiropractor stuff and you know claim all kinds of things.
He used to tell people all the time like you go take a picture with the celebrity and put those pictures all over your office and people assume that you are a big deal because you're around people that are big deal. I'm not a big fan of being disingenuine, but if you do have a celebrity client, a celebrity patient, you have a celebrity friend, I think it's perfectly fine to take advantage of that.
ah Especially online, when I was doing the deep dive into Instagram chiropractors that are popular, some of the ones that are most popular had famous clients. Like there was people that were on their Instagram page that was like a movie star, an athlete, maybe a local celebrity or whatever. There's something to that.
If you're focusing on older demographic, the type of marketing you want to consider is possibly snail mail, which I know that sounds ridiculous in this day and age, but there's something to that. Not if you're focusing on younger demographic, but if you're focusing on an older demographic, uh sending something in the mail is not a bad idea. TV, radio, billboards, uh email, Facebook, print ads, younger demographic, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, YouTube ads.
Influencer Co-Labs, which is sort of the modern day referral. So whereas if you're focusing on an older demographic or you kind of have more of a professional approach to referrals, you may meet all the other, if you're doing sports chiropractic, you might meet all the other sports people in the area. And then those coaches and those trainers and those people all know you, they refer to you, you become very known within that space.
You could do that with medical doctors, lawyers, things like that. That's sort of the same idea. Online influencer collabs, uh collabs, I'm probably saying it wrong because I'm old and I'm an idiot. But uh this is really common. Like other influencers go to your practice, you do something with them. Like there's all kinds of stuff. You'll see this. You'll see this with really super popular chiropractors that are just kind of trying to be influencers.
Some of it's kind of gross, in my personal opinion. But that's what they're doing. I mean, they're basically just uh I was gonna use that expression. It's not very, not very cooth. I'm not gonna use that expression. They're ah benefiting from each other's popularity and clout. ah Content sponsorship is also another option.
If your demographic is watching a particular podcast or consuming content from a different source, from a different Instagram thing or TikTok thing or whatever, a lot of these people do sponsorships. Now the thing to keep in mind with that is that you want to keep your advertising local. So paying for Worldwide exposure when you don't have a worldwide business is not a good way to spend money. So just be aware of that.
If you're going to do something like that, make sure that it's local enough or can be local enough that it uh moves the needle locally that's going to actually help your practice. What are some final thoughts as I kind of wrap this up? Just some things I wrote down. Be intentional with your marketing. Like have a plan, be intentional, be consistent.
Because if your marketing is going to take time and you're building relationships, you're building trust, which is essentially what you're doing, the better you do that, the more effective all of your marketing is going to be. So just be consistent. Be willing to adapt. There could be new platforms that happen in the next, you know, five, 10 years that take the place of what we have now.
And it's something we have to learn or something we have to get on and I don't think you have to be the earliest adapter to all things. There are things like Periscope and other stuff that have come and gone uh that people thought was going to be the next thing. But I do think you have to be willing to adapt. If a particular type of content works really well now, it may not work really well five years from now. Be excellent.
I say this all the time with the podcast, but just be committed to excellent. Be approachable. I think that being genuine and being approachable is good. I don't think that being fake is good. There are people out there that have made big careers being fake. uh Ellen DeGeneres is the one that comes to mind actually, like a lot of people. uh She kind of had a falling out recently because everybody found out that she's not a nice person and she was pretending to be a nice person.
And I guess that works if there's a certain level of buffer between you and the people that you're pretending with. But ah I would encourage you to actually genuinely be a nice person and to be approachable and just find ways to communicate that. in a genuine way on your social media. don't have to, don't be somebody that you're not. I'm never gonna be the one doing like lip sync videos and doing like dumb stuff like that.
But I do think that some of the content that I put out online shows my personality and the podcast and stuff. We'll see little glimmers of Jerry and a lot of people that reach out to me, they feel like they know me because I'm being fairly genuine. I say fairly, I don't know, maybe I'm not being as genuine. I don't tell you guys everything.
Last is be patient which is sort of the point of all of this is just be patient be patient with the process understand the process and Be smart Alright guys, that's it. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Thank you for listening Thank you for subscribing if you'd be willing to share the podcast with another chiropractor I'd be super thankful for that That would be awesome.
If you'd be willing to leave a review in iTunes, that would be awesome, too It's sort of a pain in the tush But if you'd be willing to do it, that would be really cool And I'd be really thankful if you want help and you want to work together Go to Rocket Chiro. I'll be happy to help you however I can reach out to me there. Alright guys, that's it. I'll talk to you on the next episode. See ya.