Treat Your Business

131 Visibility is Currency: How to Stay Top of Mind in Your Clinic

• Katie Bell • Season 1 • Episode 131

Share episode

I'd love to hear from you 'text the show'

Welcome 👋

Hello, it’s Katie Bell here, and I’m thrilled to welcome you back to another episode of The Treat Your Business Podcast. Today, I’m diving into a topic that could completely transform your clinic’s growth: Visibility. In this noisy world, it’s not enough to be seen just seven times. It could take 20 or even 30 touch points before a client takes action. Let’s explore how to stay top of mind and top of the market.

Episode Summary 📈

In this episode, I share real-world examples, powerful strategies, and the essential mindset shifts you’ll need to ensure your clinic stands out. I talk about why being consistently visible is the secret to generating a steady flow of leads, and I reveal the pitfalls of relying on random acts of marketing or just word of mouth. I also open up about my own experiences, including a website crisis and how a multilayered visibility strategy saved the day. Plus, I give you a sneak peek into our live strategy days and explain why tracking what works is key. Visibility really is currency.

Key Takeaways 🗝️

  • Consistency is everything. Random acts of marketing waste time and money.
  • It now takes far more than seven touch points for clients to take action. Aim for 20 or 30.
  • Know exactly where your ideal clients spend time and how to reach them.
  • Offline marketing matters just as much as digital. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
  • Track every lead and measure what’s actually working for your clinic.
  • Your messaging must connect with what your clients are thinking. Focus on their problems, not just your solutions.
  • Visibility comes in many forms: events, talks, joint ventures, referrals, and more.
  • Protect your time so you can focus on being visible, not just busy.
  • Don’t be afraid to fail or try new things. The key is to keep showing up.

Resources & Links 🔗

  • Register for my exclusive live webinar with HR specialists from Peninsula, “Employed vs Self-Employed: What Clinic Owners Must Know” on Wednesday 26th June, 12:00–13:30. This is a live-only event, so make sure you secure your spot now.

Sponsored by Nookal
This episode is proudly sponsored by Nookal, the leading practice management software designed to streamline operations and empower Allied Health clinics. Visit Nookal.com to discover how their innovative features can revolutionise your cl

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Katie Bell here, welcoming you back to another episode of The Treat Your Business podcast. Today we're going to dive into a topic that could completely transform your clinic's growth, Visibility. It's no longer enough guys to just be seen the seven times in today's noisy world, it could take 20 or even 30 touch points before a client takes action. So I'm going to share some real world examples.

[00:00:27] Katie Bell: I'm going to share powerful strategies, [00:00:30] and importantly, the mindset shifts that you need to ensure your business stays top of mind and top of the market. So let's get visible and let's grow your business in the right way.

[00:00:41] Katie Bell: Welcome to the Treat Your Business Podcast with Katie Bell. I'm Katie, and this is the place where clinic owners like you learn the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts needed to transform your clinic into a thriving business. One that gives you more time, more money, and more freedom. [00:01:00] Born from a passion to challenge the idea that average is normal.

[00:01:04] Katie Bell: We empower clinic owners to create extraordinary businesses, incomes, and lives through our world class coaching programs. We help you step out of overwhelm and into confidence, turning your clinic into a business that fuels your lifestyle, not drain it. So are you ready? Let's dive in. I'm delighted to tell you this episode of The Treat Your Business podcast is proudly brought to you by New, the leading practice management [00:01:30] software designed to streamline operations and empower every Allied Health clinic.

[00:01:34] Katie Bell: Their platform seamlessly handles every aspect of your clinic. From scheduling and clinical note taking to invoicing and reporting, their innovative solution will help streamline your clinic and free up your valuable time, allowing you to focus on delivering better patient care and growing your business.

[00:01:53] Katie Bell: So if you are tired of juggling multiple systems and wasting precious hours on administrative tasks, then [00:02:00] experience the innovation of CLE and discover how it can improve the efficiency and profitability of your practice. Visit cle.com today to learn more about how their automated features and user friendly interface can revolutionize the way you manage your practice.

[00:02:17] Katie Bell: Unlock the full potential of your clinic with new the practice management software that puts you in control of your time. Now, let's get back to [00:02:30] business.

[00:02:31] Katie Bell: Number seven is your new lucky number. It was my gram's lucky number two. And I have to say he was an incredibly fabulous person depending on what school of thought you come from depending on what books you read. Some say that you need to be visible seven times before someone will finally make that brain connection, that they have been meaning to call you or book in with you.

[00:02:56] Katie Bell: Or maybe that realisation that perhaps you [00:03:00] are the person that can help solve their problem. But in fact, because of the volume and because of the noise out there now, I think it's more like 20 or 30 times that you need to, be seen for people to know that you are there. We have had this so many times in our clinic where people have come in and we will say, where have you heard about us from?

[00:03:25] Katie Bell: Or, how did you get to know about us? And they say, do you know what Katie, I've been [00:03:30] driving past your studio every day for, to work for like literally the last seven years. And it was only when I saw you in my son's scout. I was sponsoring something for the scouts that I suddenly went, oh my gosh, that's not studio that I've been driving past.

[00:03:47] Katie Bell: I've been meaning to go into and it blows my mind. 'cause I think we're really visible and I think we're everywhere, but it can take somebody so long to make that connection. So in today's episode, we are gonna dive [00:04:00] into this in more detail and find out how you can be visible seven x seven times over, or even 20 x to ensure that you are getting a constant flow of leads into your business.

[00:04:13] Katie Bell: So let's do this.

[00:04:15] Katie Bell: So my first question is, how visible really are you? Like really, if you tell me you put some flyers into a random coffee shop a few months ago, that does not count guys. Or maybe [00:04:30] you once run a session for the wi, you gave no call to action, you just gave loads of value and you've never been back. This also does not count.

[00:04:38] Katie Bell: Being visible is about being consistent. And you'll have heard me talk about consistency before in business. When people say to me, how have you grown such a successful clinic? And how are you running another successful business? Alongside of that, there isn't a magic pill, sorry to say that guys, there [00:05:00] isn't a quick route to success.

[00:05:03] Katie Bell: It's about being consistent. It's about showing up every day and doing what I need to do, and that's the same for being visible. Those business owners who are visible one minute and they post on social media for a week because they just they've listened to somebody who said that's what they need to be doing then they start doing it, and then they just stop.

[00:05:26] Katie Bell: That's inconsistency. If they decide to [00:05:30] do Google ads for a month and then they go, oh, I'm not getting a return on my investment, so I'm just gonna stop doing it, then that's not consistent. If they put some flyers into this random coffee shop and then don't. Track, don't do anything with them. Don't make sure that the joint venture or the collaboration you've got with this coffee shop owner means that they win, you win, and the client wins, then that's not consistent.

[00:05:57] Katie Bell: So it's not just doing something [00:06:00] randomly once and then never again, or forgetting about it. I speak to so many clinic owners every week and one of the biggest mistakes I hear clinic owners say to me is this Katie, I don't really do any marketing. I just rely on word of mouth, or I'm just doing Google ads, or what I see is they're just doing random acts of marketing, which wastes so much time and so much money, and it's often these clinic [00:06:30] owners and business owners that need more clients, they need more money.

[00:06:35] Katie Bell: And they're wasting so much money and time on these random acts of marketing. So which one are you? Are you not really doing any? Are you just doing your glass? Excuse my friendship. There's children listening to this on in the car while you are driving on your way. I know everybody listens to me on a Wednesday morning in the car.

[00:06:54] Katie Bell: Or are you randomly pissing in the wind? Because if you are one of [00:07:00]those three things, let me. Tell you, you are gonna have inconsistent lead flow. You're gonna be that person that feels like they're on this rollercoaster, where sometimes the income is up and then it drops off and then sometimes it's up and then it drops off again.

[00:07:14] Katie Bell: Lemme tell you about something that happened a few weeks ago whilst we were on holiday in Greece, in Corfu Greece Fu. Hotel. Fabulous. Corfu, shithole. Never going back. Wow. It was a dive. [00:07:30] I think Corfu is still stuck in the do you remember when we were 18. God, I feel so old. And you used to go, was it Cavos? that everybody used to go to Cavos on holiday?

[00:07:43] Katie Bell: I'm totally digressing here. Anyway, the Icos on Corfu. The Adicia. Wow. It was fabulous. Never going back to Corfu. Anyway, I've got an email whilst we're away from our website providers. The guys that host our website, who builds our [00:08:00] website, they are fabulous people.

[00:08:01] Katie Bell: They they email me to say, Katie, it's Monday morning and we are back in at work and we're looking at your Google ads and they're doing the SEO and all the stuff that they do every day. And they send you what your website's gone down. We don't know why. Now it was GoDaddy.

[00:08:18] Katie Bell: Okay. Long story, why who had really chuffed something up. Now what, how, what actually has happened? Does this happen on the Saturday night? And it was the Monday morning. I [00:08:30] got alerted to it. It then took all day Monday to sort GoDaddy were a of shit.

[00:08:36] Katie Bell: But anyway, they finally sorted it for me. There's a lesson in here. I was in a rage all of that Monday. My husband didn't know what to do with me. I was in a rage all day because I was having to speak to somebody that was very far away and they were not understanding what my problem was. It also, for me, the biggest like I could feel [00:09:00] this anxiety was that, a lot of our bookings come from online bookings.

[00:09:04] Katie Bell: A lot of our bookings come through Google ads 'cause they work so successfully for our business. Now, had we not worked tirelessly and consistently on our marketing strategy over the last 10 years, this would've left us completely screwed. No online bookings for nearly three days, but in the whole big picture.

[00:09:27] Katie Bell: We are now depending on when you're listening to this, [00:09:30] we're now at the beginning of June, and so I get to we obviously look back at our sales and our revenue every middle of the month so we can see if we're on track or off track. And at then the beginning of the following month, we look back at the previous month for the, like the month end.

[00:09:44] Katie Bell: We, we basically exactly where we need to be, those three days. Although at the time I was anxious annie it actually. Didn't make a big impact on our business. Why? Because, [00:10:00] A, we're not just relying on Google ads. B, we have a consistent marketing strategy, and I've forgotten what C was. But anyway, so the first thing to get really clear is where do your ideal clients hang out?

[00:10:15] Katie Bell: As I was in Corfu having my meltdown. I was actually prepping for our two big live strategy days that we had in Coventry. Very celubrious places we take our clients to. Anyway, we went to the Hilton. [00:10:30] Coventry, it fine. It's great. For what we need it for, and it was getting everybody into a room and delivering two days.

[00:10:39] Katie Bell: The first day was activate your offline marketing and the second day was elevate your marketing. So that's for our Activate members and our Elevate members. So for the activate, I was teaching them how to activate their online marketing. I was getting them really clear on where do your ideal clients hang out?

[00:10:56] Katie Bell: How well do you really know them? How can we get in front [00:11:00] of those people? What type of marketing? What's the wording that we need to use to resonate with the conversation in the client's head so that we stand out and people then see us? We are visible. And I thought, this is a really timely thing for this to happen to me because I'm not only teaching people on the Thursday and the Friday and the summer on the Monday about their offline marketing, but it made me really see the importance of why we can't just rely on digital marketing [00:11:30] because a few months ago.

[00:11:33] Katie Bell: We got, people got hit by what they call the Google Slap, which is where the algorithm changed almost what appeared to be overnight. And so the cost of getting our leads jumped and it was called the Google Slap. We had the whole iOS 14 update with Facebook a few years ago that made getting leads on Facebook even harder.

[00:11:53] Katie Bell: And the thing is with Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. And [00:12:00]LinkedIn. You don't own that database. That database is not yours. So we have to find other ways of being visible. So we've not got all of our eggs in one basket. We have got a multilayered visibility strategy. So as I said, I want you to get really clear on where do your ideal clients hang out.

[00:12:23] Katie Bell: How well do you really know them? I could tell you specifically where my clients in my clinic shop, what schools their kids [00:12:30] are at, what sports clubs they're involved in, et cetera, et cetera. If you don't know this level of detail, then how do you know how to reach them? The first thing we always recommend you do is to survey your clients.

[00:12:42] Katie Bell: If you do not know this, do some market research so you can see what possibilities you have for marketing. What collaborations can you form? What joint ventures can you form? Where could you be a resident expert? [00:13:00] Where are you gonna stick your flyers? So it's not just on a wing and a prayer that the person behind the letterbox is your ideal client.

[00:13:08] Katie Bell: That is macro targeting, that is very costly, very expensive, and none of you have got that sort of budget to just chuck at a mass marketing. Flyer option, where can you give personal invitations out to?

[00:13:25] Katie Bell: Remember, the lucky number is seven gromp's [00:13:30] favourite number. This is the aim for your clinic to be visible in seven different ways. I shared on a our recent live strategy days with our clients, all the different layers of visibility we have in our clinic and within Thrive, and why this has allowed us to grow and scale consistently, year on year.

[00:13:53] Katie Bell: And we did some really high level masterminding. Guess what we did? We went speed dating. It's wild. [00:14:00] We speed. Dated on marketing ideas. I know. Hold your horses. It was so exciting. I thought it was great. The clients thought it was great. We had a lovely time, but this was what we did. We shared with each other our very best offline marketing strategy or online, but not Google ads 'cause.

[00:14:21] Katie Bell: That's not, that's nothing new or different. That's just everybody really in our industry right now. The one of the cheapest ways of getting [00:14:30] leads is Google Ads. However, we did some high level masterminding where we we speed dated around the room and we shared our very best marketing ideas.

[00:14:39] Katie Bell: And this is key because what we were explaining is that you don't need to keep reinventing the wheel here. It's about doing what works and doing more of it. So I want you to think about in your clinic, how many layers of visibility do I have? [00:15:00] What is working and what is not working? Because so many, I had a call with a fabulous lady yesterday who is a women's health physio and she does mommy mots, and she she works she does home visits as well, and.

[00:15:19] Katie Bell: One of the things that she said on the call when I asked her about her marketing strategy was that she's paying 150 pounds a month to somebody to do her social media posting. And [00:15:30] I said, okay, great. How many clients is that bringing you in a month? And she didn't know. And her words were, yeah, but I think I probably should be visible in that way.

[00:15:42] Katie Bell: And I said, okay I'm not saying that you don't have to be, but there are better ways to spend 150 pounds right now than randomly just getting posts on Facebook and Instagram, because how many followers do you have? What is your visibility there? Because there'll be a lot of, [00:16:00] noise in Facebook and Instagram, which means people don't assume people have seen your post.

[00:16:06] Katie Bell: I had another call yesterday with somebody who told me that they were struggling to recruit, and I said, what have you done? I've posted it on Facebook and Instagram. I said, how many times? Maybe once or twice. Okay. Nobody's gonna seen that because there's so much noise. So whatever you do, you have to do things consistently.

[00:16:22] Katie Bell: But looking at what is working. How do we get clients? If you tell me word of mouth works [00:16:30] great, how do we do more of that? How do we bring in a referral scheme? If you tell me that going to the WI and having talks in front of your ideal client, because the people that go to W are your ideal clients and that you've gone, you've given a, an amazing high value.

[00:16:47] Katie Bell: Talk presentation where you've agitated their problems, you've given them an indication or little bit of solution, but you've not just given them all, everything so that they don't need to work with you, and then you give them a really strong call to [00:17:00] action. And from that, you bring them into your programs or your packages, or even just pay as you go.

[00:17:05] Katie Bell: Whatever. If you tell me that works great, how do we do more of that? How do we secure you more WI talks? You've gotta be tracking every lead that comes into your business. You want to know what's working and what's not working, because I can guarantee there's gonna be loads of you listening to this morning.

[00:17:27] Katie Bell: If you're listening to it on a Wednesday morning, like I know everybody just in their car, [00:17:30] people are spending a load, either a load of time doing stuff that isn't working, but you don't know it's not working 'cause you're not tracking it or. You are not doing anything. You're just hoping that your business is gonna grow without you having to be really visible.

[00:17:48] Katie Bell: Your messaging is your second thing. This needs to be super on point. When we have a great, when we have a impactful message [00:18:00] and we get the right media source. So for example, if I have a specific messaging and I'm gonna use a I'm gonna use a personal invitation. To members of a Pilates studio where my ideal clients are.

[00:18:17] Katie Bell: That's my audience. I want that audience. 'cause those people are often rehabbing from injury. They're in pain, they wanna be more flexible. They're investing in their health. Those are the clients that I wanna get in front [00:18:30] of. And I create some personal invitations that invites all of them to a, get out of pain and move better.

[00:18:37] Katie Bell: In your Pilates class, I. Consultation. Then I have got messaging and media on point, and that's gonna work effectively. What often happens is we fail on a few parts. We fail on the messaging. So we talk loads about the fact that you are a physio or an osteopath and that you do K taping and cupping and acupuncture and [00:19:00] mobilizations and manipulations.

[00:19:01] Katie Bell: No body cares because they just need to know. Are you the person to get me out of this problem? I'm not bothered about the solution at this point. They are buying themselves out of the pain, so we have to get clear with our messaging. We have to stop talking about solutions. We have to stop selling them what we think they need.

[00:19:24] Katie Bell: We have to sell 'em what they think they need and then deliver what they actually need. [00:19:30] So your messaging has to be on point. It has to connect with the conversation in your ideal client's head, and there's a very powerful technique called AIDA, A IDA, and this is how we structure our marketing and your media needs to be on point for your marketing to work effectively, we need to select the right media depending on who our ideal clients are and where they are.

[00:19:57] Katie Bell: And not many business owners will get these things [00:20:00] right, first thing off, but that's okay. You've gotta be happy and prepared to fail. So many of us are too scared to fail. We put barriers up at every opportunity. You've just got to get yourself out there. So what are you doing to create visibility in your clinic?

[00:20:19] Katie Bell: I shared with our members a few weeks ago our live event that. The things that we have done in the last 10 years. Wow. We've sponsored a GB athlete. We've made and created [00:20:30] and ran our own race in the city. We had our pink branding all over the park. We had volunteers of our clients that were marshals of the race.

[00:20:43] Katie Bell: We had 250 people attend the race, all raise money for charity, but we were super visible and we had loads and loads of things that we gave to the runners that bought loads of work into our clinic. I've been at events, so many events in the city. We've either [00:21:00] sponsored or attended or ran post event massages out or whatever it is, or physio sessions.

[00:21:06] Katie Bell: We've linked with the golf clubs 'cause that's where our ideal clients are. I run a workshop which was called How to Play Golf Until You're a hundred. 'cause that's all what golfers wanna do. They just wanna play golf. And it was a very clear call to action that they could take from this workshop that then brought them into the clinic.

[00:21:24] Katie Bell: And 10 years later, I still have those clients. We had a car wrapped in bright [00:21:30] pink. I've been on the radio, I've been in magazines. We have one of those, I told our clients this a few weeks ago. Do you remember the cartoon the old school cartoon that when something exploded or something, it went wow.

[00:21:43] Katie Bell: And it had that kind of bright lettering and like a star kind of explosion behind the wording. Pow we took that and we took the P off to make ow. We've created a big banner that sits right opposite our clinic on the traffic lights that says in pain. [00:22:00] Call this number. We have joint ventures with people who share our audience.

[00:22:07] Katie Bell: I have been the resident expert in other people's magazine enes like monthly newsletters that they send online to their clients. To create a difference, you have to be visible. For me in Thrive and in my clinic, for us to have the impact that we want to have, [00:22:30] I have to be visible.

[00:22:32] Katie Bell: Protecting our visibility and or protecting our ability to be visible in Thrive is what our QBR is. If you dunno what the QBR is going back into the podcast episode that tells you that, I can't remember the number, but search it. But what we have to do at all costs is enable me to be visible.

[00:22:57] Katie Bell: So if I am sat here, spent time [00:23:00] doing loads of stuff that is not about driving visibility, then we are not protecting that. So if I'm gonna be spending loads of time answering emails and not being able to create these podcasts or run live events or be visible within our community and link when partner with physio first and run webinars, which I've got an invitation for you, do not go anywhere.

[00:23:25] Katie Bell: 'Cause you're gonna be very excited about this webinar coming this month.

[00:23:28] Katie Bell: If we are not visible, [00:23:30] we cannot help people. So visibility is currency.

[00:23:33] Katie Bell: Visibility is currency.

[00:23:36] Katie Bell: I have an urgent message. Urgent. Is your team employed or are they self-employed? The rules have changed. I want to make sure that you are gonna get super clear. Or you could just not un risk getting caught out. Wednesday the 26th of June, 12 o'clock to one 30, I am running a live webinar with some HR specialists [00:24:00] from Peninsula who are going to be helping us get really clear on, things that who even knew 23 new employment reforms that have recently been introduced and being introduced with the new employment rights bill? And the line between employed and self-employed has shifted, and if you get it wrong, we could owe thousands in back pay, face legal actions or fines.

[00:24:22] Katie Bell: Find yourself in. Neck deep HR hell that you didn't see coming. And I know this feels really [00:24:30] scary, and this is why I am hosting this free webinar for you guys on the podcast who listen to this. So the webinar's gonna help you understand whether your team or your future hires should be classed as employed.

[00:24:42] Katie Bell: Are they self-employed or are they workers? You may have seen the recent big news in the in the news. About Uber. Uber, and they lost the they they lost the case because they actually knew that their employee they, the people were being classed as workers, they were not self-employed.

[00:24:58] Katie Bell: Even big firms like [00:25:00] that are getting it wrong. We need to know exactly what the law says, not what you make down the road told you. And I want you to stay compliant. I want you to be protected. I want you to run a stress-free company, so no matter how your team is set up or is going to be set up in the future, make sure you are on this webinar, I promise you it will deliver high value and it will encourage you all to sign up to the live webinar on June the 26th.

[00:25:25] Katie Bell: Link will be in the show notes below this podcast to get get your place registered now. [00:25:30] And it's a live only event. It's not gonna be recorded. So cancel clients like. Cancel your wedding. Whatever you need to be at this event, I you to be there because it's gonna be packed of high value.

[00:25:44] Katie Bell: Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining me, and I can't wait to be back next week for the next episode.

[00:25:51]

People on this episode

Head Shot

Katie Bell

Host