Transcript
[INTERVIEW]
Ronda Nelson: Well, hello, friends. Welcome to Episode 29 of The Clinical Entrepreneur Podcast. My name is Ronda Nelson, and I’m so glad you’re here today because we’ve got something serious to talk about. I want to talk to you about practice growth, which I’m all about these days, especially given what’s happened in the last few weeks, but I want to talk to you about something really specific that I heard through the grapevine from the practitioners that I serve.
Recently, I sent out a survey on my private, Mighty Networks group asking what the number one thing they struggle with the most in their business is. What’s the thing that’s keeping them from practice growth? Over 70% of them said that they didn’t even know where to start.
I thought, “Oh, well, that’s good information because you must know what you need to do or how you’re going to grow.” But what I found out after running this survey is that most practitioners felt like they didn’t really know what to do next. So, I thought I would dive in today and talk about a tool called Google My Business that will help you get the phone ringing very, very quickly.
Not only with Google My Business are you able to promote yourself in a local environment, but it gives you the ability to attract the perfect patient. You’ve heard me talk before about the importance of identifying a niche and having that specialty or that certain type of patient that you love to serve. I want to talk to you about how do we leverage Google My Business to attract that right patient and get your phone ringing.
One of the most searched phrases when people are looking for a specialist, a business, or an answer, is “blank” near me. For example, “chiropractor near me.” Did you know that “near me” is one of the most used terms across all search engines? When you use the term “near me,” Google has to search, “Here’s where I see you on the planet. You’re at x-coordinate, you’re at the x, y point. We know exactly where you are, now who’s around you that I can refer you to?”
If your business is not set up correctly on Google My Business, then your business isn’t going to show up when the dude down the street just wrenched his back out and he’s looking for a chiropractor close by. So, what we want to do is get that Google My Business set up correctly and utilize it correctly, so that when someone types in whatever your specialty is, people can find you.
Now, here’s how we’re going to utilize the power of Google My Business. When you look on a search engine, you’ll see the little section that comes up when you type in a search and there’s usually a map, and then underneath there will be three businesses listed. You’ll see the map will have some little pinpoints on it that’ll tell you where those businesses are located. That little section right there is where Google My Business businesses are found.
At the bottom of that, you can click on more places, and you’re going to get a long list of businesses around the area to fit the criteria of the person searching. If they’re looking for a chiropractor near me, then anyone who is tagged as a chiropractor in somewhat of a close proximity is going to show up. If you are on your Google My Business correctly, Google’s going to say, “Oh, hey, there’s a guy over there, a chiropractor and acupuncturist who knows their stuff, I can tell.” So today, I am going to give you hacks about how to do this.
What we want to do is really get your business tightened up on Google My Business, which is a free resource, so that you can show up in a powerful way. I will tell you this, my friend, every single practitioner that I have coached or worked with over the last five, seven years and has utilized the power of Google My Business, has seen an exponential increase in the number of new patients or people looking for a chiropractor, acupuncturist, whatever your specialty is.
My friend, you’re probably sitting on a gold mine and don’t even realize it. I’m going to give you the specifics. First thing, if you don’t have your Google My Business set up, I’ll drop you a link in the show notes that will tell you exactly where to go and how to get it set up. Now, Google My Business works for local brick and mortar businesses, but you might be saying, “Yeah, but I’ve got a virtual practice.” That would be me, too.
If you’ve got a virtual practice, as long as your business is at a location, you can’t use a PO Box because Google says, “Yeah, well, that mailbox place has nine other people doing business at that same location because they’ve all got boxes, right?” So, you can’t use a PO Box or mail collection station address. You have to make sure that you’re using a physical address.
I work out of my home. So, on Google My Business, I’m going to put my home address. When Google has an address to attach to a business, that allows them to send you a code in the mail to verify that that’s where you actually live.
Once you get that code, you’re going to go back in, enter the code, and then you can start creating your Google My Business listing. There’s some lag time in there while you’re waiting to do this little dance with Google, but it’s worth it and it’s okay. Once you get that little code, you’re going to have your ability to log in. Here’s what you have to know.
First of all, you need to make sure that your name, your address, and your phone number are listed correctly across all the directory listings. I know that’s a little techie, but let me help you understand. If you think of what all the search engines look like, YouTube is a search engine, Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing, Yelp, there are a hundred of them. They’re all search engines.
If you’ve ever had an address, let’s say you lived at 123 Anytown Street, USA, but you moved three years ago into your new building, chances are you’ve still got that 123 Anywhere Street address somewhere else and it’s got your name tied to it. So, it might be Ronda’s Poodle Parlor, and I used to be at 123 Anytown, but now Ronda’s Poodle Parlor is over here on Smith Street. Google says, “Wait a minute, which address is correct? Is Ronda’s Poodle Parlor over here on Anytown Road or is it over here on Smith Street? I don’t know.”
What you need to do is make sure that the name, address, and phone number are correct and accurate across all the directories. There are some tools that you can use online which will allow you to do that. The better ones you want to pay for, rather than the other ones that are free because they don’t check all of the listings. If you drop me a DM on Instagram, I’ll help you decide what would be the best way for you to go do that.
Once you have your name, address, phone number, short term for that is your NAP, like you’re going to take a NAP, name, address, phone number, NAP. Once you have your NAP all set up, we want Google to know that you’re legit and you are actually at that physical place of business. The next thing we’re going to do is think about the types of images to upload.
Now, Google My Business is kind of its own little search engine, but for your business. Here are the things that Google My Business wants to know and see from you: They want to see that you’re posting images regularly, that you’ve got content, that you’re adjusting your hours. That you’re respecting COVID guidelines in your area, that you’ve got events going on, and they want to see that you’ve got some specials going on. The more you’re able to interact with Google My Business, the more credibility Google My Business gives you. And guess what? When someone comes in and they type, “chiropractor near me,” or, “poodle parlor near me,” then they’re going to find you or me much quicker.
I think probably all of us have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Google, and I’m not a fan of all the ways they capture information and track us, but here’s the truth. They’ve been tracking you and me for years, this is no new thing. If you want to attract your ideal patients by the type of images and content you upload, or the types of specials or events that you have, that’s how you’re going to attract that ideal patient. They’ve already been watching you.
When you put that information on Google My Business, it’s not the secret of the century. You’re already exposed, they have all your browsing history, they have all of it. I know, it’s a catch-22 because we don’t want to interact, but we need to interact. I’m just telling you, this tool is amazing.
The types of content that you’re going to need to upload are images in the content, which I mentioned. You’re going to need events, specials, and you need to update your hours and then the COVID-type information. If there are any changes, Google My Business wants to know that you’re abiding by the rules.
So, if you’d like, you can do this on your own and you’re good to go. I’ve given you the tools and information you need to do it, but if you’d like a little help and you want to dive a bit deeper, I’m going to be doing a five-day Google My Business challenge, starting next week. That five-day challenge is where you’re going to want to be because I’m going to walk you through every single day, step by step by step, how to get your content on, what type of images you’re going to need, some ideas about specials, and how to language your Google My Business Page so that you’re attracting your perfect person.
I’ll have more information for you inside the show notes, but for now, your homework right now is to get that name and address and phone number, get that all synced up, make sure that you’re not showing up anywhere with an old address or you had street spelled out versus street abbreviated with a period. I’ll drop a link in the show notes on how to check your name, address, phone number, or NAP.
The second thing you want to do is get on the signup list and get signed up for the challenge. I can help and give you all the shortcuts on how to get your Google My Business set up so your phone can start ringing. Remember what I said, “70-plus percent of the practitioners that I surveyed said they didn’t know where to start.” I’m here to tell you, my friend, this is where you start, right here, get that Google My Business optimized so we can start driving those patients in the door, and then you can start to work on your new patient experience, your emails, or your systems or your fees. There are lots of other things to do, but you can’t do any of that if you don’t have the people, right?
[CLOSING]
Ronda Nelson: So, there you have it. That’s a wrap on how to get your Google My Business set up. So, again, if you’d love to know more about how to do Google My Business and how to get that really rockin’ and rollin’ for your practice, I’d love it if you join me in the challenge. You’re going to go to rondanelson.com/5daygmb.
When you go to that URL, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for the challenge and we’ll get you started right away. I’ll be going live every single day during the challenge to teach you what to do, and you’ll have a worksheet that you’ll be able to work through in order for you to do it for your own business.
Everything is in the show notes below, my friend. I can’t wait to have you join me on the 5-day Google My Business challenge. Thank you so much for hanging out with me for this quick podcast this week. Again, my name is Ronda Nelson and this is The Clinical Entrepreneur podcast episode 29. If you have any questions or you need some help, you can DM me on Instagram @drrondanelson. All right, my friend. Take care and I’ll see you next week.
[END]
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