In today’s episode of the Marketing your Private Practice podcast we’re going to talk about the 3 biggest struggles folks have when it comes to marketing and how a content planner can help you overcome those issues. Believe it or not, a planner can help you get more organized, save time with your marketing and the best part – it helps you get more results which means… more clients!
Let’s get to it!
Hey Private Practice Heroes! Thanks for tuning in to the podcast, where you’ll learn easy-to-implement tips and strategies to build and grow a Thriving Practice, without spending all day on social media.
I’m your host, Kathy Colaiacovo, a marketing strategist who’s spent over 14 years helping practitioners with their marketing so that their businesses grow to 5, 6 and even 7 figures!
In a recent episode, we talked about planning your ideal week and working your business and life events that need to be addressed during your days into your calendar.
You’ve probably realized by now that I teach a lot about needing to block time to plan your business, your life and yes, your marketing.
In case you haven’t figured this out from listening to my advice – Planning is the KEY to saving time with your marketing AND seeing results. Planning helps you achieve your goals.
Random acts of marketing do not do this. Spending hours a day online does not do this.
A content marketing plan is a specific plan for the marketing you are doing for your practice or business. That does this!
An effective content plan is one that guides you so you can plan the content you need to create, how often and then know when and where it is going to get used in your marketing.
Using a content planner is one of the best ways to organize the marketing for your private practice.
This is something I’ve used from day one in my business, especially as my initial business as a social media specialist grew and I hired team members to help with the client work.
Once you get to a place where you have 14 team members and are supporting over 35 clients at any given time… systems will be critical to your success.
Every business needs systems especially if you want to scale. They can make or break not only your success and your sanity.
I know for me, if I didn’t have a system for taking on new clients, for managing their work, and the team, for hiring team members and yes, even firing team members… and the most important ones were the systems and processes we used for managing all the clients’ work.
With that many people involved – clients and team members, well, honestly, I wouldn’t have survived without those systems.
Back then almost every client I worked with was for either marketing strategy and planning or we did their online marketing support. We managed all of their online marketing – emails/newsletters, social media and blogs and even websites.
The most important system and tool we used for this work was the content planner I developed. Now, this started out as a simple planner and it has definitely evolved over the years.
It’s developed over the years into an entire system, one that helps me and all my clients as well. It has turned into more than just a content planner. It’s part of our content storage system, the team guidelines for the work, the schedule for the when, where and how often the content is posted and where we save and store lists of keywords to use with the content too.
But what most people never realize about a tool and system like this is that it can solve a lot of the struggles you may be having with your practice and your marketing.
And especially some of the biggest issues practitioners struggle with when it comes to marketing.
There are 3 struggles with marketing that always come to light when I survey or talk to clients.
Time. That’s always one of the biggest issues – marketing takes too much time and marketing is a waste of time. And I get this… when you don’t get results or leads or clients from all that time you put into your marketing – it is beyond annoying it is downright frustrating. And it can be a waste of time – there are so many ways and methods to doing marketing, that getting it to work can be a challenge.
When you follow a plan and strategy for your marketing and use a content planning system too – that is when the time bandits will disperse and you’ll find yourself using your time a lot more wisely and seeing results like more consults booked and even clients from the time you do spend on your marketing. But without that plan and system, this is why time is an issue.
Focus. This is the next place people get stuck when it comes to marketing. Focus – where to spend my time and focus on marketing. The problem with having a focus issue is that a lot of folks deal with this by doing one of two things – neither of which help.
- They either freeze and don’t do anything because it’s too overwhelming, or
- They do the opposite – doing more and more trying to make it all work. And doing more of what’s not working is not a strategic way to spend your time.
Following a system to plan, create and schedule your marketing content will help you know where to focus your time and energy when it comes to marketing your practice or business. And knowing this will guide you with what kind of content to create, how much, how often you need new content as well as where and when to publish that content too.
The third struggle is always the one that scares them the most…
Content. So many people get stuck wondering about what to create and use for content. And some of this stems from thinking – and believing – that they don’t have anything worthwhile to say when it comes to marketing.
Now if this is you – let me tell you right now – this is not true!
I’ve helped hundreds of business and practice owners learn to create content even though they never thought of themselves as someone who could write content. The way you do this is by learning how to write for marketing. That is very different from writing a book or writing a thesis or essay…
Writing for marketing is really all about learning to take the brilliance out of your head and put it into words people can easily understand and learn from.
The content problem can also be solved by taking the time to plan your marketing content and activities.
These are the three most common roadblocks folks run into when it comes to marketing your private practice or business… but there are always going to be others too.
- How to do marketing and not sound salesy.
- Or Putting myself “out there” but still wanting a private life.
- How to tell if it’s working because it just never seems to work.
The list goes on and on… marketing can seem so complicated but it doesn’t have to be…
Using a content planner will help you with many of these roadblocks and most importantly, will cut down on the time you spend on your marketing. Helping stop that struggle and get more efficient with your marketing and your time.
Because we both know you have way better things to be doing with your time than marketing.
I’m not saying do no marketing, but do it in a way that you also have time to devote to working with clients, to connect with referral partners in person (Yes, some real life marketing helps too) and doing work that grows your business.
Better yet, what about spending time NOT working! Living your life. We all need downtime – ALL of us. And when you have a more efficient marketing plan then you are often saving time so that you can clock out and be with family or friends, to have time to spend on your favourite hobby.
The more you can be efficient with your time in your business, the more time you have to live your life.
Using a content planner will help with these struggles and roadblocks. This is also how we get folks to a place where they can spend just 15 minutes a day online – if that is even something you want to do. Because marketing doesn’t have to be all about social media and only social media.
The biggest benefit to you from taking the time to plan and use a content planner like this is that by having a system to plan the marketing and activities and content but also it keeps everything in one place. It’s easy to find, follow and use!
Now, something you should know about me… I am also very big on saving all your content – your genius and brilliance that gets written down to use in your marketing. This makes it easier to repurpose your content!
Folks that post content on social media and don’t save it anywhere else – well if that’s you, you are wasting even more time with your marketing if you ask me. There are so many ways you can repurpose your content to reuse it but if you just post content and let it live for a moment and then die on the internet… well, stopping this habit will save you a ton of time too.
There are many ways you can repurpose your marketing content – you can create eBooks, special reports, turn them into mini courses or programs, paid digital products, bonuses for clients, the list goes on… But, it’s hard to reuse and repurpose if it’s lost on the internet because it was not saved before you published it online. That is one of the TOP reasons to use a planner or have a system like this –> to save your content to reuse it.
That’s just one way a content planner can help you, and what I wanted to share today was more ideas of what you can store in your own Marketing Content Planner.
The Content Planner I use – which is the basis for the Ultimate Marketing Content Planner and training that I sell on my website too – well this houses the critical elements and content needed for my online marketing.
This is the same planner we have used with almost all of the clients I’ve ever worked with and it is set up so that you can use it alone if you do your marketing on your own or as a collaboration tool when you use it with the help of a Virtual Assistant or Admin. For me this was a critical piece of the system – being able to use it with others because when we do the work for clients there are often 2 or 3 VAs on the team managing the world that is guided by the planner.
To give you an idea of how a content planner can help and what it can do for you… I wanted to share 12 main items included in the Ultimate Marketing Content Planner so you can understand what we store in it and how this helps you plan and organize your marketing.
Here are the 12 elements we include in the Ultimate Marketing Content Planner:
- Content Bucket of Topic Ideas – this helps you plan out your main ideas so you are not stuck with what to write and talk about in your content.
- Anchor Content Plan for the year – This is a list of your content or topic ideas for your newsletter, blog or podcast in a scheduled format – meaning knowing when you want to publish them.
- Social Media Content Types and Schedule – list of what content gets posted when & where.
- Calls to Action focus – what is being promoted in the newsletter & blogs so that you have a list of ways to add a CTA to your content.
- Blog or Podcast Promotional Posts content – add in new ones each time you publish a blog or podcast.
- Lead Magnet promotional content – make a batch to save and reuse over time.
- Brilliance Business Tips content – tips that teach your community new things, valuable lessons to help them.
- Engagement posts content – tips to encourage folks to engage and comment on social media.
- Quotes of Role Models and Mentors – This is added non salesy content that can inspire people to engage too. Ideas for creating images that have the quotes to inspire some engagement.
- Program Launch content – content used when you have a special event happening such as a webinar, workshop or new programs.
- List of Holidays and special days – to add extra informative and non-salesy content.
- List of Keywords and hashtags to use in content – this makes it easy to access, copy and paste when posting Instagram stories or other content on the fly.
… and the list goes on. Having a planner like this that houses all aspects of planning your content is one of the top secrets to spending less time with your marketing.
The trouble is, it is boring, and people think it can’t really make a difference. But, it is often the simple things in life that can cause the biggest shifts!
This is why clients and folks who register in the Thrive Marketing Academy get access to this planner as part of their work with me.
Because it is the basis for the Thrive Marketing Method I teach and when members in my program – or clients – begin to use the planner that’s when they get more organized with their content plan and have a tool and system to help them get the marketing done and effectively!
Now, if you are not using a tool like this I do encourage you to start. Whatever type of planner you use, be sure to add and include in it whatever is specific to your business or practice. The content and plans you have will change over time; as your business changes so will your marketing needs. Keep your planner updated. Keep your systems updated.
If you want to get time back in your day and be more efficient with your marketing, then get organized and use a planner so that actually happens!
Whether it is the Ultimate Marketing Content Planner I have and sell on my website, or another one you use, you want to use something that will help you be more organized, planned and save time in your day for some of the business activities you have been avoiding or unable to do, OR just get out and LIVE your LIFE!
If you’re wondering about the Ultimate Marketing Content Planner and Training I offer, you can purchase a copy at ultimatemarketingcontentplanner.com and I will link to it in the shownotes. Use the coupon code PLAN to save $50 off the fee.
It is more than a planner too – it comes with training videos to help you learn the best way to use the planner and help with your marketing plans, but it also offers an entire training on goal setting and creating your priority list of action steps too.
The bonus is that it also comes with 500+ pieces of content that you can copy, paste and use as your own. Now, I’ll tell you in the training why you should not do this and should instead edit them a little and make them your own, but you can use them as is if you want! I will link to it in the shownotes too.
Most importantly, this planner in particular was created to help you get better organized with your time and your marketing and know what kind of content will help you with your marketing.
Those lessons will help you manage those top struggles of Time, Focus and Content.
Now your action step for all this knowledge today?
If your marketing is not working then make a change with what you are doing now when it comes to planning your marketing.
Get organized and start using a content planner to help you plan, organize and save time (and your content to reuse it) when it comes to your marketing plus, when you plan things in this way – you will find that your results change!
You can use your own or purchase my content planner and training from the link on the shownotes page at marketingyourprivatepractice.com/24 and remember, planning is not effective unless you block time to implement those plans too!
If you have any questions you want to ask about this lesson or even a topic to consider for the podcast, send me a quick voice message at https://www.speakpipe.com/kathyc or DM me on Instagram.
This is Kathy Colaiacovo and thanks for listening and have a fabulous day… and remember to Thrive in Practice … starts by planning your marketing and time invested now will always pay off later on with more leads and more clients!
I’ll see you next time!
Have a fabulous day everyone… and remember to Thrive in Practice … It starts by planning your marketing and being strategic with your plans and activities. And it is possible, I promise you.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- The Ultimate Marketing Content Planner (Use the coupon code PLAN50 to save $50)
- Article on Anchor Content Planning
- The Thrive Marketing Academy
- Book a 20 minute Quick Call with Kathy
- Any questions, send me a voice message
- Connect with Kathy on Instagram