Streamline Your Acupuncture Practice | Jasmine Software: August 2015

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Your Facebook Is Incomplete Without This

So you've ventured into the land of Facebook Ads to create awareness and viral growth for your acupuncture practice, that's great, you're now taking your future into your own hands and being proactive about your marketing.

Many of these Ad systems (Google Adwords and Facebook Ads), if you don't know how to use them, can quickly become a money pit. The trick is to take things slowly and to always be testing. And this is where the Facebook Conversion Pixel comes into play.

The Facebook Conversion Pixel is there to help you save money! How does it do that? The Facebook Conversion Pixel tells Facebook how a new patient, coming from your Facebook Ad or post, is interacting with your website. And this tells Facebook and you, how well your ad is working.

For example, let's say you create a Facebook Ad to encourage people to book an acupuncture appointment with your clinic. The Ad drives the new patient to your website's booking page. The patient completes the appointment booking and embedded in the confirmation page (i.e. the Thank You page) is the Facebook Conversion Pixel.

When the new patient reaches the booking confirmation page, with the Facebook Conversion Pixel, this is called a conversion. Meaning, you've converted a potential patient to an actual patient. The Facebook Conversion Pixel will then send data back to Facebook telling them and you this conversion happened. Why is this important?

This gives you concrete data that your Facebook Ads are working and you're actually making real money. Repeat after me, Facebook "Likes" does not equal money!

So how do we create a Facebook Conversion Pixel?

Click Conversion Tracking



First, go to the Facebook Ads Manager and click Conversion Tracking under the Tools drop down.

Click Create Pixel



Create Pixel



A Create Pixel dialog box appears and in the "Choose the type of action you want to measure" drop down box, select "Checkouts.

And in the "Pixel Name" text box, enter something memorable like "Scheduled an Appointment".

Click View Pixel Code



View Pixel Code



Copy and paste the Pixel Code into your booking confirmation page.

The code is pure JavaScript, so you can add it to most website platforms.

Congratulations, you've just added your first Facebook Conversion Pixel!

Now, when creating Facebook Ads, you'll be able to choose this newly create Facebook Conversion Pixel.

Questions? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear how this blog post helped you.

Minto Tsai
Founder

P.S. If this helped you, please Like, Share, email... all the social network love you can give!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

A Rarely Known Trick To Get More Acupuncture Appointments With Your Facebook Page

We've all heard it before, business gurus always say to go where your customers are. And guess what, Facebook now has more than 1.5 billion users (72% of online adults) and is the place where everyone now hangs out now.

So, by now, I hope you've created a Facebook Page for your acupuncture practice. If not, I want you to stop reading and go do that now!

I'll wait...

Great, now, that you have your Facebook Page, there's a little known button sitting in plain sight which you can use to book more patients. Look at the top of the page, next to the "Like" button and you'll see a "Create Call to Action" button.

Go to your Facebook Page now and take a look!

Wake me up when you're back...

If you've never heard of a "Call to Action", in marketing, it's a request to get your customers to do something. And, in our case, what "something" is that? It's to book an acupuncture appointment!

Now, let's get started and create our Call to Action button!

Click Create Call to Action Button



As an administrator of your Facebook Page, you will see the "Create Call to Action" button, next to the "Like" button. Click on it.

Create Call to Action Button



A dialog box will popup and in the "Choose a Button" drop down, select "Book Now".

Then, in the Website textbox, enter your web address and click the "Create" button. 

And you're done!

How Jasmine Helps


With a Call to Action, you increase the likelihood of patient bookings by reducing the number of steps it takes. For example, if your patients click on the Book Now button and lands on your website and then has to click on another book now button or pick up the phone, you're likely to lose the customer. 

Jasmine helps by providing a dedicated booking site for your acupuncture practice. And, by using this page for the "Call to Action" button, your patients go directly into booking their acupuncture appointment. Easy peasy!

Click on this link to learn more about the Jasmine Booking Sites: 



Questions? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear how this blog post helped you.

Minto Tsai
Founder

P.S. If this helped you, please Like, Share, email... all the social network love you can give!

Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Next Most Important Thing for Your Acupuncture Website


So after several hours of fiddling with images and wording, you finally have your acupuncture website up and running and looking beautiful. Congrats! Your website will be one of your most important marketing efforts.

The next most important thing you can do for your acupuncture website is to install Google Analytics.

Why is installing Google Analytics the next most important thing for an acupuncture website?

  • Track how your visitors find you
  • Determine if visitors like your message
  • Make better business decisions

The ability to understand data about your visitors will make you a better business. You can see the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, Online Ads including Google and Facebook Ads, as well as, Offline marketing activities. Without data, you're just flying blind!

Sold? Good. Let's get started with Google Analytics!

Signup for Google Analytics


The first thing you'll need to do is sign up for a Google Analytics account. And to do that, head over to http://www.google.com/analytics


Fill In Your Website Info


The next step is to fill in your website information. Everything on this page is self explanatory. In the Data Sharing Settings, keep all the recommended options and click Get Tracking ID. 


Install Tracking Code


Finally, you get the tracking code. Don't worry, you don't need to know anything about the code. Simply, copy and paste the bit of javascript code in the box and put before the ending head tag of your website's HTML code. The ending head tag looks like </head>.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you want this script to be on EVERY page of your website. And the best way to do this, is to put it in the template file of your website, if your website uses one. Otherwise, you'll have to copy and paste it into every file of your website (blah).



And that's it! You now have Google Analytics setup on your website and you can start learning more about your visitors.

Questions? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear how this blog post helped you.

Minto Tsai
Founder

Sunday, August 9, 2015

MailChimp for Acupuncturists


Email marketing is one of the best ways to continue and build a relationship with your patients outside of the clinic. The ability to reach your patients at a personal level and to show you care for their well being is very powerful.

Using an email marketing tool helps in many ways:

  • Send emails to multiple people at once
  • Create beautiful emails with templates
  • Track user engagement with emails

The benefits of email marketing is a larger topic deserving of its own blog post and I will save it for another day.

When I talk to acupuncturists, the email marketing tool that most are using is MailChimp. So, in this blog post, I want to give you actionable steps you can use today to start your email marketing journey with MailChimp.

MailChimp is a very affordable (free) email marketing tool that is both intuitive and simple to use.

Signup for MailChimp


So to get started, you'll want to sign up for a MailChimp account, which you can do here: http://mailchimp.com

Create a List



A list is a group of patient email addresses. You can create different lists, for example, you might want to create a list for patients with chronic pain or a list for patients with allergies and then, you can send relevant emails to each group.

The steps to create a list are:
  1. Click on the "List" tab.
  2. Click the "Create List" button.
  3. Fill in the "List details". To keep it simple, let's create a list for general emails called "Authentic Acupuncture Newsletter".

Import Subscribers



Now we'll need to populate our list with subscribers. Subscribers are email addresses of patients that have given you permission to email them. A way to ask your patients for permission is to include a check box on the initial patient intake form.

To import subscribers, on your list:
  1. Click the "Add subscribers" drop down.
  2. Click "Import subscribers".
  3. Select an option for importing, if all your contact are in an Excel spreadsheet, click "Copy/Paste from Excel".

Create a Template



Now the fun part begins, designing the look and feel of the emails. The email template is an extension of your brand, so you might want to follow the color scheme of your logo.

Create your template by:
  1. Click the "Templates" tab.
  2. Click "Create Template".
  3. Click the "Themes" tab.
  4. Select a template that you like.
  5. Use the template designer to make changes.

Create Campaign



A campaign is just a fancy marketing term for the email message being sent to your patients. You'll create a campaign within MailChimp to send your email.

To create a campaign:
  1. Click the "Campaigns" tab.
  2. Click "Create Campaign".
  3. Select a "Regular Campaign".
  4. Select "Send to entire list".
  5. Enter the name of this campaign and the email subject, I like to make them the same.
  6. Design the email with text and images. Here, I like to keep it simple.
  7. Test the email, by clicking on "Preview and Test" -> "Send a Test Email".
  8. When you're satisfied with the email, click the "Send" button.

Congratulations! You've just sent your first

MailChimp email newsletter!


How Jasmine Helps


Jasmine helps in that it is a central location and repository for patient contact information. And since Jasmine is built on the Salesforce platform, a MailChimp for Salesforce plugin exists to sync your patient information from Jasmine into MailChimp.

For more information about MailChimp for Salesforce, visit:




As always, I love hearing from you. Please leave comments below or email me at mintotsai@jasminepm.com.

Minto Tsai
Founder

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Introducing: Booking Sites for Acupuncture Appointments


Booking Sites by Jasmine gives your acupuncture practice a dedicated web page for your patients to book an appointment.

You might ask, "Why Booking Sites when I already have a Book Now button?"

The answer is that Booking Sites:
  • Reduce friction of appointment bookings for patients
  • Allow more flexibility in driving patient engagement


Reducing Friction


Because your patients come from many different channels, for example, mailing lists, business cards, etc, and driving patients to your website with a Book Now button can be confusing for the patient to know what next steps to take.

Booking Sites allow you to reduce a step in the patient booking process by eliminating the Book Now button click. When patients land on your personalized and customized Booking Site, they can immediately book their appointment.

Flexibility for Patient Engagement


Booking Sites give you the flexibility to drive patients to an easy to use site with the click of a link. And as mentioned above, this link can be easily used in your mailing lists, business cards, etc. With this flexibility, you can be more creative in how you drive patients to your practice!

Anatomy of a Booking Site


The Booking Site comes with several cool features that differentiate it from other solutions.

These features include:
  • Customized logo and practice name
  • Appointment Process Indicator
  • Practice Contact Info, Location Info, and Business Hours


Customized Logo and Practice Name


The customized logo and practice name on a Booking Site lets you personalize the page and gives your patients the reassurance that they are booking with your practice.



Appointment Process Indicator


The appointment process indicator tells your patients where in the booking process they're currently at. Knowing the current step and the number of steps left to finish the booking process gives your patients a sense of ease and calm.



Contact Info, Location Info, and Business Hours


Contact Info, Location Info, and Business Hours give your patients context and more details about your practice.

The Contact Info has the practice phone number, website link, and email link. Patients can easily get a hold of you and your practice for questions and answers with the Contact Information. 

The Location Info has the practice address and a Google Maps location for the practice. Patients can easily know and find your practice by looking at the Location Info.

And finally, Business Hours show the practice's hours of operation so patients can determine the best time to book their appointment with the practice.



I'm excited to see Booking Sites schedule more appointments for your practice! And, if you're interested in learning more about Jasmine Practice Management, please contact me at mintotsai@jasminepm.com.

Minto Tsai
Founder