Welcome to the Dietitian Boss Podcast. I'm Libby Rothschild, creator of Dietitian Boss. After almost four years of sitting in my dimly lit windowless clinical office, I had enough. I wanted to feel like my work mattered, so I did something about it. I created a program that empowers Dietitians and nutritionist to create their own private practice from scratch following my proprietary.
Before I did this, I had a private practice of my own while working a full-time job, and I learned a lot about building relationships, marketing and sales, and I'm so excited to be able to share my proprietary framework with you.
I wanna talk to you today about marketing strategies for Dietitians in 2023. So we all know that being a Dietitian is rewarding and exciting, and if you're in clinical, sometimes it can be exhausting. But one thing is for sure, and that's said as a Dietitian, we can really have the room to make more money and help more people.
In order to do that, we're gonna have to learn how to market in the 21st century. Now, marketing is not what it used to be, and marketing has expanded. In-person marketing. Incorporating digital marketing strategies means meaning using the internet and learning how to do so effectively is a great way. A system that you can incorporate and skills that you can build to help serve more people.
And it can feel really rewarding and impactful to use your degree more to a greater extent than you might at your nine to five job, or even if you're working for somebody else. So you can really tap into that level of creativity. When you're able to leverage how to market. So I wanna share with you a few tips.
First tip you will not be surprised about is to create a strong online presence. Now, this can take time, and I don't wanna misguide you. Creating an online presence for some people is natural and it's intuitive, and they can figure it out. They can navigate their way. They have thick skin. They can tolerate the bullies on the.
And they can figure out a way to still represent their philosophy where others of you take a little bit more time, you might be more sensitive, things might not feel right, and you might take breaks. And when I say online, I don't just mean social media. Online covers a whole game between the email marketing.
Your website if you have one, or when you have one, a blog. It could mean that you're utilizing affiliate marketing, which is how I got started, or you are actually tapping into ads, which I don't particularly teach, although I can ask some guests come on and talk about it. I'm all about building organic.
That being said, you know, there's a lot of ways to approach and to start online marketing before you dive into social. Although diving into social is a great way to help you reach more people at some point. But if your first touchpoint is building your email list, that's totally okay. Or maybe starting or joining a webinar.
But just keep in mind that in today's digital age, having a strong online presence, it's not just essential for Dietitians. It's truly essential for any business, including your services should be listed and should be incorporated with your online marketing strategy. So I see a lot of Dietitians that will go online and build a presence.
But they're not linking back to what they're selling. So what's important is to make sure that you have something you can sell. Maybe it's an ebook, or maybe you're one off coaching, or maybe you are an affiliate for somebody else, but you do wanna make sure that you have something that you can promote, because if people don't know that you have an offer or something that you're selling, they're not gonna know what to do.
So you wanna guide people and direct them towards something that they can purchase. And that is a process to learn, well, what do you wanna sell? When do you wanna progress your offer and sell something else? And how do you wanna represent yourself? And I just wanna remind you that it's a journey and you can learn it through practice and patience and learning new skills.
And just keep in mind that there's a lot of competing businesses and other Dietitians who are using social media. Now we don't have the statistics. Yet on how many Dietitians are using social, I've checked, and if you do know any, please let me know. Reach out to me on Instagram, a Dietitian boss.
But what we do know is that in general, many businesses are not using social, they're not actively posting. They don't have a system or a promotion schedule, and so it's an opportunity for you to really get ahead of the curve. By figuring out how you can start to use social media, email marketing, et cetera, and start leveraging those systems to work for you.
So developing a solid marketing strategy in 2023 is an important way for you to stand out and for you to build a foundation as you are maybe launching or growing, or even scaling your business. And I've seen, I've worked with Dietitians that are growing their business and they haven't yet touched on digital marketing.
They've only been able to, or not only it's impressive, they've been able to build their business through referrals or through insurance panels. And they come to me and they say, help teach me the marketing skills that I need to know to expand my reach. And that's why I say, great. Let's talk about your online presence, right?
This conversation I have almost every day teaching online marketing and sales. And I want you to know that there are effective strategies to build an online presence, and I wanna share some of those with you today. So you want to network with other healthcare professionals, and I don't think I mentioned or highlight this enough, how important it is.
I talk about, you know, being collaboration over competition and being supportive, even if. In your niche, in, in your space. And they might not want to, not everybody's gonna be friendly and that's okay. I've got a lot of clients that get torn up about their people that are competitors in the same space, but they're not friendly and you can't control other people's behaviors.
Their head space might not be in the place yet, and that's okay. You know, giving, having, I always like to approach with compassion if there are other Dietitian, business coaches. Or Dietitian agencies and they don't wanna communicate with me, that's okay. It's just not the right time. And maybe they will later and maybe they won't.
But I try to come from a place of compassion. So for the folks that are willing to communicate with you and who do wanna collaborate, those are the people that you wanna focus on. And even outside of your, your space or your industry, if you're, let's say in the pregnancy space or in the sports performance space, or the health at every size space, I think it's also great to collaborate.
Other professionals. It could be therapists, speech language pathologists, physicians assistants, physicians, naturopathic doctors, or within nutrition, you might find other Dietitians that are, they happen to specialize in corporate wellness or something different than you, but they are still your.
Accountability partner. They're still there by your side, and it's really fun and inspiring to be able to meet people who are also building their online presence alongside of you if they're willing. So make sure to take some time and energy and either go to industry events or join professional organizations like the Academy or Reach Out.
Just send. Emails or Instagram messages or personal messages or ask people, I go on my social media channels and I say, does anybody know anybody who fits X, Y, and Z criteria? And all the time, the peers that I do know and connect with, they refer to me and I try to refer out to them too, to try to help people build their network as I'm building mine.
It's taken time, it's taken work, and I've consciously made an effort to put myself in positions to build my network. Most recently I've been thinking about and looking into volunteering with the academy and for the. Three years I've been volunteering with Entrepreneur's Organization. I'm also a member of Entrepreneur's Organization.
So even though that's not dietetics related, that's business related, I've still been finding ways to build my network, both inside nutrition and outside of the nutrition field. And I wanna role model that for you too. Another thing is to build your online presence. And this is something I did when I first started, is offering workshops and classes.
This is actually what helped launch this business as I ran eight week workshops about nutrition sorry about social media for Dietitians. And before that I led workshops to help pediatric. I helped with obesity and pediatrics. I worked with a physician on that. And I also led workshops. I did a lot of workshops with the interdisciplinary team about.
Nutrition and counseling about nutrition in interdisciplinary team. I taught about chronic disease states and pediatrics, taught about chronic disease states and dentist dentistry and oral health and systemic health. So I did a lot of teaching and speaking for four years before I started this business.
So I had a private practice doing consulting and workshops and teaching, so that helps me build. In person practice, but I didn't start building my online practice until I started teaching classes and workshops to Dietitians about social media, and then that expanded to helping them with business skills and private practice skills.
Think about how you can offer workshops and classes, even if it's in person that's still getting your feet wet and getting you comfortable. And then see if you can find opportunities to do it online. Maybe pitch a webinar w with the academy, or maybe pitch a webinar with a local organization, maybe at a church that you are, you know, a member of, or that you know of or something in your community.
You might find an opportunity where you can be a guest or you can actually be a speaker, and that would be a great way to build your brand. And then think about word of mouth, although that's not my favorite because you can't really scale it. And I think that people depend on word of mouth and it's a way for people to think it's always worked.
So I'll keep doing it and in one way I get it like that's how most businesses start, which is word of mouth. But you cannot scale and your impact, you can't scale a business from word of mouth because there's a point where you're going to ex, you're gonna, you know you're gonna dry up your resource. And that's why you have to have other ways to get clients.
You have to have multiple avenues of how people are gonna learn about you. And so word of mouth can be one of them, but that you also want to build an email list, which is again, an online presence. You wanna build a social media channel, that's an online presence. You wanna have a blog and SEO strategy, online presence.
You wanna do webinars, whether they're joint webinars or solo webinars. That would be an example of online presence. So it's not enough to do word of. You just can't survive off of word of mouth anymore. And it will work, but you can't scale and it's not dependable. And if you're looking for reaching more people in reoccurring profits to make more of an impact as a Dietitian, you're gonna have to go beyond friends and family or people that recommend or refer you.
Although it's a great start and it can be really nice when people continue to work with you or refer to you that can't be the only way that you're getting clients. Think about collaborating with other businesses. Now, I mentioned networking with them, which can be a prerequisite to collaborating. I think collaborating is an really awesome opportunity for you to build your skills, for you to build your confidence because you're working with somebody you're not yet going solo and it can really help you get your name out there.
So that could mean that you're going into gyms, you could go into grocery stores, health clinics reach a wider audience in various different ways. I've told one of our clients recently who is running, she works with running sports performance and I told her to go to one of the sports, I can't remember, like associations and see if she can reach out to any of them and do any talks with any.
Particular associations that would be related to marathons or triathlons or anything like that. So that's a good example. And then think about anything that you can create, any marketing assets that you can create when you're collaborating so that you can go back to promoting who you are and what you do.
And again, those services I mentioned earlier, you wanna make sure that you always have something with your online presence that you can promote. So it doesn't matter what it is, really it to start, you can an ebook, a course coaching, whatever. I mean, obviously you wanna optimize your offer. The first thing is make sure you have something that you can sell, and then later with feedback you can improve that.
So I'm wondering, as you listening to me chat about these different opportunities. I as a recap, networking workshops. Word of mouth, collaborating with other businesses, what stands out to you? And I didn't even go too deep into social media. I wanted to, but I didn't. I mentioned it because it has to do with an online presence, but I know I always talk about social media and I wanted you to see some options.
That are more comprehensive because social media is one tool in the toolbox of many tools to help you be seen and heard, to help you become visible and to help you be a resource that people can depend on. So in conclusion, these strategies are gonna help Dietitians. They're gonna help you in 2023 when it comes to marketing.
Maybe you're scared and you haven't started, or maybe you've started but you haven't launched, or maybe you've launched, meaning you have your offer and you have it ready for people to buy. Right, but you're not getting any clients or you're not getting reoccurring clients, and those signs I just mentioned, any one of those scenarios would be an opportunity for you.
If you're not making reoccurring revenues, that's an opportunity for you to look at your marketing and see what can you do to develop a strategy, a written strategy, to then take action so that you can be seen and heard and visible as a d. If you're looking for support to start, grow, and scale your Dietitian private practice, I wanna invite you to work with me and my team.
We have a few different options. Head over to Dietitianboss.com and apply to have a conversation with somebody from our sales team. To discuss your options for your budget and stage of business, head over to Dietitianboss.com and we look forward to connect.
