In this episode, Dr. Anne Truong shares her expertise on attracting patients to your medical practice using social media. She emphasizes the importance of creating content that addresses your target audience’s questions and concerns, and discusses strategies for identifying these topics through reverse engineering and investigating what patients are searching for on Google, YouTube, and Answer the Public.
Dr. Truong explains how to create engaging content, such as videos, that showcase your personality and expertise while avoiding technical jargon. She also shares tips on effectively using platforms like YouTube, which can help you establish a long-lasting presence and attract potential patients to your website or landing page. By providing value and nurturing relationships with your audience, you can convert them into patients who know, like, and trust you.
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Transcript:
Dr. Mike: [00:00:00] Hey guys, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming, welcome to another edition of BootstrapMD, the podcast for physician and healthcare entrepreneurs. If you joined us last week, we’re doing a series of how to bring cash based services into your medical practice Whether you’re first starting out or perhaps you have a practice insurance based looking to add some cash services, or perhaps you’ve got cash services now, you feel that you could be a little bit more successful in doing so we’ve got an amazing expert here.
Her name is. Dr. Anne Truong. She is a medical practice owner. She has a very successful sexual [00:01:00] health practice in Virginia last week. If you missed it you’ll definitely want to go and get that recorded. We talked about finding a niche for your cash based medical practice. And now we’re talking about real stuff here, guys, how to attract patients online and has been doing this very successfully using social media.
Perhaps you’ve even seen her on her YouTube. I think you said you have over 40, 000 followers,
Dr. Anne Truong: 65, 000.
Dr. Mike: Yeah, it’s amazing. You’ll definitely want to listen. This is going to be incredible. And again, welcome to the program. So let’s dive into it. How can we attract more patients using social media to our medical practice?
Dr. Anne Truong: So the key to any successful practice is to get leads to get patient into the door, right? Because once you treat the patient, they may get better or they may leave you or they move out. But you always need to have an influx of leads in. So that’s [00:02:00] called leads because they’re not quite your patient yet.
But how do you attract them? Because right now your doctors may think, oh social media is so overwhelmed, blah. And they just go scrolling on there to be entertained, right? So there are two re two things why people go on social media. Social media to be entertained or to learn.
Something, right? So the different platform have different purposes like YouTube. It’s entertain or to learn and I love YouTube and YouTube is actually considered a social media platform. It’s different but it’s also a social media platform. I love YouTube because it’s owned by Google, and Google is a larger search engine and whatever you put on YouTube it actually be searchable on Google plus if you put your content on YouTube, it stays there forever for years on end versus Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Do you know that if you put a post out on that it [00:03:00] may stay longest, like one day, sometimes just minutes, minutes and it’s gone. So think of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok as like you’re standing on the highway. You’re standing on the highway, you see all these cars going by and I 95, that’s the post. You’re standing there and when your post comes out, boom, it just goes by somebody like that because it doesn’t stay there for days or years or you would we would think that a post stays there, it doesn’t okay. And those other platform is you know pay to play meaning if the post goes has more engagement or more views they’ll show it to more people. But if your post doesn’t have engagement, they won’t show it to people. So let’s get back to what social media platform should you be on YouTube and why do you need to do that?
Because that’s how you’re going to get people to know who you are and what you do. The last episode we talked about niching down and let’s say you’re a doctor [00:04:00] and you do you treat a patient with knee pain. You put out content meaning you create videos on youtube that is geared towards knee pain. So i’m working with a doctor right now where i’m coaching her on how to attract patient online to go to her practice. But the patient needs to know who you are and what you do and they need to know and like you and trust you.
How did they know that online by seeing you on a video, right? It’s not just a post with a picture of you. Seeing you on a video and seeing how you are how you act how you talk, right? And so the way to attract is to create content or material that people are looking for.
So let’s say you’re on YouTube, you type in knee pain. If you create a video that says a knee pain while walking, what that video will pop up and that person will say, Oh, I’m walking, I have knee [00:05:00] pain. They want to watch that video. And you talk about why you have a knee pain while you’re walking and what are the treatment and they see that they like it, they will follow you. So that’s the whole journey of that. Having said that the last time we said niche down, this time we’re saying create the content. How do you create the content that people are searching for? That’s why niching down is helpful because once you know what services you do, you’re going to know who is that customer.
I want you to figure out who is that customer that you love to work with, that you look forward to seeing, that is willing to pay you, right? For me, for myself, it’s a man in his fifties that has sexual dysfunction, that’s a business owner, or an executive, it’s fairly healthy.
It’s either marry or divorce or dating a younger woman play sport, play tennis, or even pickleball. So I want you to get down to the granular detail, what they [00:06:00] do, what they love, what their occupation is. And then you go on Google that you can type in the Google search bar.
What the, type in knee pain while walking and you see all the topic come up, those are the search items that people are searching for. That’s how you do investigative work. So it’s like reverse engineering. You investigate what people are searching for, and then you create content about that. So that way, you know that people are searching for it. So that way you creating the content that your customer are searching, not create the content that you think the patient should know about. There’s a big difference, right? Big difference. And you give patient what they give your customer what they want.
All right, and you give them what they need when they come into your office. But you got to give you how do you attract people online? Is that you create the content that they’re searching for? [00:07:00] So that way they can find you so you go on google search and then you can go to a site called answer the public and find out what they’re searching for and you can even go on youtube and do under search bar type in knee pain and then you’ll see all the different topics that pop up and and each one of those is one video.
You answer one video per question , and when you record you want to avoid technobabble. You don’t, you want to talk like at a fifth or fourth grade level. I, it’s called kitchen table talk. All right, that’s what people talk when they’re eating dinner at the table that you want to record at a fourth grade level.
There’s an app called Hemingway that you can input your text in there. It’ll tell you what grade that is. So you want to record at fifth grade level. So that way people can easily understand that and can relate to that as well. You don’t want to say the word ACL or [00:08:00] lateral collateral ligament because that, yeah, a confused mind will not buy.
So if you lose somebody, they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna follow you. Avoid the technobabble, talk at a fifth grade level, and do investigation on what the customer is searching for. And that’s how you’re gonna catch their interest, right? Because, if you’re putting out content that people are not searching for, they’re not gonna find you.
All right, so you have to get out there, doc. I know that sometimes as a doctor we’re not comfortable being on camera or showing our personality. If you want to have freedom if you want to get away from the insurance and you want to have the process of your dream, you need to get out there.
So that way your customer can find you right because they don’t know what you do. They don’t know who you are. They’re not going to come to you and the days of referrals are over, all right, if you’re dependent upon referral from the doctors in town [00:09:00] or the health system in town, it’s over I can tell you that with me.
I found out how in around maybe 2015 or so when I had three neurosurgeon and 10 orthopedic surgeon was feeding me patient throughout the year. They got bought over by the health care system and the health care system brought in their own pmr person. So guess what? All my referral got shut down because they had to refer within their network, and they wouldn’t refer it out to me because I’m not part of the network.
If you’re dependent upon referral, that’s referrals are very finicky, right? If you’re dependent upon a word of mouth, that’s also finicky as well, too. You have to go out there and create your own stream of attraction, meaning you have to be out there for your customer to find you. And that’s how you get to social media.
You create the content that they are searching for. What I just show you how to do create [00:10:00] the video. So that way they get some actionable item on there. Just know on social media. There’s two reason why people are on there. They’re there to learn or they’re there to entertain as doctors. I guess we could entertain.
You could do a combination of both. There are doctors that are in. That have big following on social media that are very entertaining, but it’s also educational as well. I, some, I’m not a funny person, but I can, have inject some personality into who I am, but be authentic, be who you are.
As long as you deliver value people will follow you, no matter what. And as doctors, already, as doctors we are an influencer because we have the expertise, and we have the credibility. People will die for the expertise and the credibility that we have as a medical doctor. All you need is reach.
Meaning the audience to follow you. So if people see what you do, then what they’re going to do, they’re going to go to your profile. They’re going to find out, Oh, okay. I wonder what Dr. Mike does. [00:11:00] And then on there will be his website. And they’ll click on your website and they’re going to try to find what you do or they, or you can create a funnel, which is essentially like a one page website. Is a one page that would will show them exactly what you do. I would suggest a funnel that instead of your website. Because a website, a lot of doctors website can be confusing and it doesn’t if somebody go on your website, within 30 seconds, they should know exactly what you do for them.
We always remember, how do you attract your customer? It’s what’s in it for me? Because if you attract your customer, if they see in your message, what’s in it for me? Why should I spend time my precious time listening to you? Because they want to know what’s in it for me. So if they land on your website, and if somebody has knee pain, they land on your website, and you have a picture of somebody with Botox and fillers on a shockwave machine, they’re gonna bounce, they’re gonna leave.
Because they’re gonna, they’re [00:12:00] not gonna say, hey, I have knee pain, I, Dr. Mike is not doesn’t look like he treats knee pain, so I’m not gonna spend my time here. That’s the reason why your website should be very targeted on your niche and geared towards your customer that you want to achieve.
And we covered that in the last episode. This episode is how to create content that will attract your customer. You create the content that they’re looking for, and you talk in their language, and then you bring them from social media. To a page that specifically talk about what you talk about for instance, what the example I gave is knee pain, right?
You don’t want to bring them to a page that talk about Botox and fillers because they’re like, Oh, what’s this? They’re going to just leave you. So you want to talk about knee pain or, how you attract leads is that you can give them something away for free, like a free guide or free worksheet.
That will help them [00:13:00] to five, five things you can do to get rid of knee pain in a week. So you tell them that and they download that. And when they download that, you have their email. Once you have the email, it is gold. Getting somebody’s email is gold. In fact, I get their email and a cell phone number.
That way, I can text them as well, too, because sometimes email can land and spam. And an email is not 100 percent deliverable. I get their tech number and I converse with them by text. Now that we started getting their cell phone number, we get patient book fairly quickly. We get them engaged very quickly as well.
That is something that we have available in our software that that we use, which is the Dr. Voss software. So having said that, create the content that people are looking for by do reverse engineer by finding out what are they looking for on Google, on YouTube, and going to answer the public.
Those are the main three [00:14:00] area. And then creating a landing creating like a link on your profile that will bring them to that landing page that tell them what you’re doing, give them something for free, and the goal is to get their email. Don’t expect somebody to see you on social media. They will buy from you right away.
No, they won’t. They need to actually studies have shown that they need to have seven different points of intersection with you before they buy from you and 11 hours of consuming your material before they buy from you. That’s a lot of time getting to know and trust you. And I find that so true.
I produce I’ve been on YouTube for the last 3 years and we really took off since May of 2023. And what we find is that what patient come to see us. And would pay us 12, 000 after they consume at least about, a hundred of my videos and [00:15:00] been following me for at least like three to six months.
And so just put out content out there, just put it out, be consistent and put out content because consistency is key and quality. And educate and quality. And then once you lead the material, you can interject in there that you can say, oh, this is what knee pain is. It’s about this is what you do about it.
And then you say, if you wanna find out more information I have a free guide that you can check out. Go to my, the description to get that or go to my profile to get that. So that’s how you get a track, a customer online to into your world by getting their email and hopefully they’ll go to your website and now with the advent of AI and chat box, it’s even more powerful.
So now I actually put a chat box, on my website, on my landing page, [00:16:00] in my funnel, now to interact with the customer when they land on my website and the chat box you see what the chat box that little thing that’s on the bottom right the bottom left of a web page and it looks like a like a dialogue box.
You put your, you ask them for their name and their email and their number, and they ask a question. And then now you can have an AI bot that will answer their question. In our software, Dr. Boss software is just a marketing software that we use. When we work with doctor and it’s part of our coaching program, you have access to that is that it will interact with the customer 24 7. And the goal of that bot is to try to get the the customer’s email as well. It’s a schedule an appointment or whatever you want it to do. And you yeah, and you can do the same thing on social media. For when somebody, you can tell somebody to DM you. Message you on [00:17:00] Instagram or Facebook and the bot can also answer the question as well too.
So with the advent of AI, it’s so much easier to do. We have about between 50 to 75 leads a day from social media. From YouTube, mainly on YouTube that come into our office. When I say lead, these are customers, and I have their cell phone and their email, and that I can talk to them through email and through text about what I do, how I can help them.
So the key I want to stress on here is that they don’t become your customer right away. They just want to know you. They just want to know what you do, what you’re like. And then once they know what you do and what you’re like and they like you and they trust you, then they’ll buy from you. But that takes time.
That takes nurturing. And that takes nurturing and you creating the content and you send it to them through email. And the content that you create the one [00:18:00] that they’re looking for. But once they’re in your world, you want to start talking with them by telling stories of testimony, telling stories about you as well.
That’s another strategy in itself.
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Dr. Mike: I love the idea about finding like what are the most frequently asked questions using answer the public. Another great way to do it is just hear it from your own patients or hear it from your staff.
They like, I’m sure as a clinician you would get the same questions over and over again. Take those 10 or 15 questions. Those can be 10 or 15 videos. Ask your staff. Hey, what kind of questions you got out? Oh, maybe there’s this new medication that’s coming out. We’re getting a lot of inquiries about it.
That is a great source for videos that are gonna be watched and rewatched [00:20:00] too. What do you think about those ways to get new content in?
Dr. Anne Truong: Oh, absolutely. Usually you have the top 10 questions that your patient asks. And you can actually answer it on social media and you can even make it into a worksheet or a PDF or a book.
You can say, the top things you can do to alleviate knee pain. 10 things you can do to alleviate knee pain. You can actually dictate it, have it transcribed. And then I forgot the software that can make it into PDF. I believe it’s Harpa. Have you used that software?
It’s an ai software or even a descript or is a designer?
Dr. Mike: Descript is one way that you can go and chat.gpt has now if you pay for their higher end one they can do something like that as well, but really doesn’t matter what the source is.
We’re, they’re making it easier and easier. And I do want to cover one more thing too, is when we’re talking about, let’s say you’re going to [00:21:00] do YouTube for videos. You don’t have to go crazy in terms of buying equipment or anything like that. Even in our phones, you’ve got, you can get quality videos.
And if really, at the end of the day, just turning on your phone, having maybe your staff or your spouse or even yourself Hey, ask me this question. For me it’s much easier for me to just talk about it and actually sit down and actually go on my computer and write something for that’s whatever the best way for you to get content out the fastest way, more effective way.
That’s the way that you should do it.
Dr. Anne Truong: Absolutely. And now there’s new equipment that’s coming out. Like I’m using a camera. I upgraded, but this is a camera I’ve used for the last three years. And it’s this one, 50 bucks on Amazon, right here, 50 and it’s high quality, high definition camera.
I don’t use it now because I upgraded to another one. This one is a webcam that’s 300, but it’s also [00:22:00] sits in case in a teleprompter. If you are worried about, whether, you need to read off of something. This one sits in a case and there’s a teleprompter and then the word just pop up and I just read right into the camera.
So it’s nowadays, it’s so much easier for doctors to be on social media to educate and don’t overcomplicate it, Mike said, you can get just a 50 bucks a camera like this. The microphone I have is 50. The dynamic microphone is probably much less now. I bought this I bought this four years ago.
And it’s still my the only microphone I use. I have a light that I think I bought for 50 bucks. Like again, three years ago as well. I have one on my left and one to my right here. And that is all you need. Honestly, you don’t even need a lot. You can sit in front of a, window and that will be enough light as well.
The [00:23:00] key is to do it, right? To record. You can even use your phone to record. In fact, the phone is, it has a better camera than most webcams. And just record and make sure that you just have good audio because sound is important because somebody listened to you and they’re static and that sound is not clear.
They get turned off and they leave. So you know $50 microphones, probably even some are even cheaper now than it was before when Mike and I, let me tell you when Mike and I started doing this, no one. Tell us that we have to figure it out ourselves. We had to learn from other marketers.
Does that work with doctors or not familiar with doctors do? And we have to figure it out ourselves. We made a lot of mistake and probably made a lot of, financial mistakes. But we figured it ourselves and now we know what works and we know and we’re giving you the fast track road [00:24:00] to be an influencer and how to attract customer to become your patient online because we have found that out over the years on how to do that. And there is a strategy. I went to a conference recently and that, and I told the doctor that doctor go I’ll just go home and record a bunch of videos and I’ll just put it out there.
And I said there’s a strategy on how to put out the videos and the content you can’t you don’t just sit down in front of a camera and you just blur it out. There’s a, you have to reverse engineer. You have to investigate what patients are looking for, because you can be talking about. Some like something that they’re not looking for.
So they’re not going to listen to you. How many times have you heard from colleagues or other doctors that produce material and online you have a hundred views or, no comment and you get frustrated, right? It’s because you’re not giving them content [00:25:00] information they’re looking for.
You have to know what your customers is looking for and then you produce that content for them to pay attention to. It’s right now we live in a world of attention and attention is currency. You can get their attention and maintain it for a longer amount of time. That is your money. That is your money.
You get their attention to a point where they give you their email, their cell phone number. That is money.
Dr. Mike: Yes, this has been tremendous. Again listen, re listen to this and give you a nugget bottoms of info here. And if you like that, we’ve got something called the Medical Practice Profits Challenge.
How about three days of PowerPack content for you to transform your practice into a cash. Practice machine. You want to talk a little bit about what’s going on,
Dr. Anne Truong: Right? So it’s a three day challenge and it is we challenge you [00:26:00] to up level your practice and to for you to go out of your boundary to make something of your practice to have the practice of your dream.
So the 1st day it starts on April the 30th at 8:30 Eastern Standard Time nighttime and 5:30 PM Pacific Time. But 1st day, we’re going to talk about niching down and how to pick what niche you should do and then we’ll give you some homework to do. The homework probably take you five to ten minutes and then that’s going to be referred to for the second day. We’re going to talk about content.
We’re going to dive deeper into what we talk about today of how to produce content that your customer want and that they want to go deeper with you and then we’ll give you a little worksheet as well, too. And you can share that and then on the third day, on the third day we’ll talk about creating an offer and a [00:27:00] membership and then Mike and I will do Q&A and maybe some hot seat as well. Because the key for this is that we want to over deliver and giving you some actionable item that you can do right now for your practice that may move the needle and Mike and I want to be able to help the doctor be able to build the practice of your dream, be free of insurance, get out the hamster wheel, get out of burnout and leverage your time because in the end, we don’t have a lot of time on this earth.
When I realized that I have 187 a hundred thousand hours on this earth, if I was gonna live up to 80, I realized I’ve got a lot of hours on this earth and I wanna make sure that I live the life that I want and not and make the impact. We hope that you can join us on the three day challenge, and you will definitely get some good information that will make a big difference for your practice.
Dr. Mike: Awesome. [00:28:00] So if you want to register for it, it’s coming up quick starts on april 30th the medical practice profits challenge, go ahead and register. So when it’s fresh on your mind go to practiceprofitschallenge.com. You go ahead and register secure your seat now, look forward to having you there and yeah excited to bring that on. Hey, why don’t we give them a sneak preview on what we’re going to cover on the next topic?
Dr. Anne Truong: Yeah, so the next topic that we’re going to do in the in this series is that we’re gonna talk about how do reoccurring income. Now that exciting because all of us want to make money while we sleep.
And we’re going to talk about that at the next time. We’ll cover that also in the medical profit challenge as well.
Dr. Mike: Right again, thank you. And thanks for everyone for listening as always. You’re going to ups and downs in your business. If you don’t know where to start, we always [00:29:00] recommend getting a mentor, getting a coach, getting someone who’s actually been there and done that.
It’ll keep you closer to your goals and keep moving you forward.
