045 John Vuong: How to Optimize Your Practice

07/09/20 • 24 min

Marketing Tips for Doctors

In this episode, Barbara and John discuss:

What SEO stands for and how it can help grow your business.
Pushing versus pulling to get users to find you.
Claiming your Google My Business.

Key Takeaways:

There is more to SEO than just building a website.
You have to understand the user intent. It’s a journey. Nobody is going to buy something right off the bat.
Consider your worth – leave SEO to the professionals and stick with what you do best and are trained for.

“If you really want to grow your business and scale and position yourself as the expert, pay someone to [do the SEO for you].” — John Vuong

Transcription

Barbara: Welcome to another episode of Marketing Tips for Doctors. This is your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Today, we have with us John Vuong. He is the owner and founder of Local SEO Search. He helps small- and medium-sized businesses rank on Google and dominate their local market. John puts a strong emphasis on relationships and treats his clients like family wanting to not only help them rank but to help their business grow and succeed. Welcome to the show, John.

John: Well, thank you for having me, Barbara. I’m excited and hopefully I can share some great insights on SEO with your audience members.

Barbara: I’m sure so. A lot of our listeners may not know exactly what SEO stands for. Could you fill them in?

John: Oh, definitely. SEO is short-form acronym for search engine optimization and what that really means is organically or naturally appearing on Google search results without paying per click. So usually, it’s not the ad portion of the search result but the natural. So, anything below the ads which is the map and below the map. So how do you become more visible for people who are looking for you to generate more traffic to your website.

Barbara: Well, that’s so important. Let’s face it. If you are listed on page 25 of a search, you might as well not exist. People are not going to really go beyond page one or maybe the first half of page two. So it’s like you’re not listed. They’re trying to find you and they don’t even know you.

John: Exactly.

Barbara: Could you let them know how it can help their practice by boosting their rankings?

John: Definitely. The most important thing a lot of business owners have to understand is it just doesn’t happen as easily as building a website, right? It’s not like Google realizes because there are billions of websites that are now in operation. And therefore, Google has to somehow sort them and give preference to people that they deem would satisfy that user’s search query.

What you have to do is position yourself as that expert or that thought leader or authoritative figure in your local domain, those specific keywords that you want to dominate. What we advise clients is run a good business and we help them elevate the offline business to a digital footprint where then you would then appear more, become more visible and become that expert. But really, you have to understand some of the signals that Google is looking for to attract and position yourself as that leader, right? So, what are some of the things? Like content, links, references or reputation. There’s a lot of components to building a really strong foundation online so that you will then appear more naturally and organic on that first page.

Barbara: Okay. They may have heard of inbound marketing or getting links. How is that done?

John: Yeah. Inbound marketing is really the purpose of not pushing ads at people but hopefully people finding you inbound, right? There’s a two-different thing in terms of, you know, pushing versus pulling in terms of getting users to find you. And content marketing is a great inbound source of lead gen, same as creating a great website that positions you very well organically by providing the best laid out images or infographs or videos, how-to’s, guides, you know, well-researched information or block content which then gets amplified by a lot of shares and links from other people, right?

The whole purpose of doing this is positioning your website as the most authoritative website for that specific keyword that you want to rank. And it’s not an easy task to do because there are hundreds if not thousands of other businesses doing the exact same thing that you want to do at any given time, right? And it’s always a moving part because everyone’s competing for that real estate.

But what you have to understand is it’s more of a long-term play. And if you’re in business and you’ve been studying and you’ve been doing what you’ve been passionately doi...

In this episode, Barbara and John discuss:

What SEO stands for and how it can help grow your business.
Pushing versus pulling to get users to find you.
Claiming your Google My Business.

Key Takeaways:

There is more to SEO than just building a website.
You have to understand the user intent. It’s a journey. Nobody is going to buy something right off the bat.
Consider your worth – leave SEO to the professionals and stick with what you do best and are trained for.

“If you really want to grow your business and scale and position yourself as the expert, pay someone to [do the SEO for you].” — John Vuong

Transcription

John: Well, thank you for having me, Barbara. I’m excited and hopefully I can share some great insights on SEO with your audience members.

Barbara: I’m sure so. A lot of our listeners may not know exactly what SEO stands for. Could you fill them in?

John: Exactly.

Barbara: Could you let them know how it can help their practice by boosting their rankings?

Barbara: Okay. They may have heard of inbound marketing or getting links. How is that done?

But what you have to understand is it’s more of a long-term play. And if you’re in business and you’ve been studying and you’ve been doing what you’ve been passionately doi...

Previous Episode

044 Lori Hibma: From the Kitchen to a Bicoastal Business Success

In this episode, Barbara and Lori discuss:

How Lori struck out on her own and grew her business from a one-woman show at the kitchen table to her current 2 agencies.
The myth of work-life balance.
Lori’s work and activism with suicide prevention and awareness.

Key Takeaways:

When you are stepping away from work, like on vacation, completely disconnect and give yourself the time away.
Be proactive with your customers, don’t just set it and forget it.
COVID is going to change the landscape of telemedicine completely, even after the current crisis has passed.

“People can follow a video far better than they can follow written instruction.” — Lori Hibma

TRANSCRIPTION

Barbara: Welcome to another episode of Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales.

Today, we have with us Lori Hibma. She is an entrepreneur and has had the experience of going from a one-woman operation at the kitchen table to running two marketing agencies that serve clients from coast to coast. As a beloved CEO and leader, she shares a wealth of wisdom and knowledge acquired while building her business and leading a dedicated team of marketing professionals.

One of Lori’s many strengths as a businesswoman, presenter and speaker is that she is not afraid to tell it like it is. She’s open and candid about other subjects that are near and dear to her heart such as family, adoption, PTSD and suicide prevention. As a podcast guest and host, Lori recognizes that one of the biggest challenges facing podcasters is finding guests who are sharp, witty and know how to keep an audience interested. Lori’s insights and both professional and personal stories from her experiences keep audiences and listeners simply captivated. So you’re in for a treat today. Welcome, Lori.

Lori: Thank you, Barbara. It’s great to be here. I appreciate you having me on.

Barbara: How did you get started as a business owner? I think that for many people hearing that you got started out of your house and then progressed to where you are now has piqued the curiosity of a lot of people. A lot of ears are perking up.

Lori: Yeah. I mean, it’s a fun story. I worked in a medical office as a practice administrator. And while I was there, I finished my degree in IT, IT with an emphasis in multimedia. So, marketing has always been in my blood prior to that. I was in hospitality and tourism. I’ve done a lot of different types of jobs. Prior to that, I had my own photography business. I’ve always had a little bit of a bend towards being an entrepreneur and being on my own. So, while I was working there, somebody put a little bug in my ear. They even asked me the question. Why are you working for somebody else? And so, it was a fun journey to start. The idea was I was going to — I lived in Michigan at the time and we were coming up on winter and I just kept thinking about the fact that I really didn’t want to go out in the snow.

Barbara: It’s cold there.

Lori: Yeah, it’s cold.

Barbara: That’s why I live in Florida.

Lori: That is — I mean, really honestly, my idea was, you know, I’m going to work from home. I’m going to be here for my daughter more than I was for my older kids. And I’m going to work in my fuzzy slippers and I’m going to drink my hot cocoa and wave at my neighbors as they try to go through the Michigan blizzards during winter. It was get started and started just doing some freelance work here and there and started working with different doctors doing some of their digital marketing which at the time — I mean, it was 11 years ago so it was a totally different landscape than it is now. But yeah, it was just a lot of fun. And I don’t know, within probably four months, I ended up having to hire an assistant. And within, oh my gosh, I think within a year, I had six employees and we were all still at my kitchen table. So yeah, big difference now.

Barbara: Yes. It certainly is. How did you get into the digital marketing field exactly?

Lori: Well, like I said, I had been going to school for IT and I went with an emphasis in multimedia, meaning I was most interested in using technology for communication. So going into it, learning — At the time, I was basically designing websites. I was doing so from, you’re going to laugh, Dreamweaver. This is back when you actually had to know code in order to do a website. So yeah, I was back then doing it the hard way and just wanted to branch out. And then of course, I got into graphics and video. And I already had a natural bend towards photography. I had done it with film. So going to the digital world wasn’t ...

Next Episode

046 Sarah Tugender: Save Time with Medical Processes and Systems

In this episode, Barbara and Sarah discuss:

Freeing up time without it costing a fortune in operating expenses.
Cleaning up your emails and social media accounts and repurposing created material.
Having a social media platform as a medical professional.
Staying connected and investing in yourself.

Key Takeaways:

Match your marketing to your ideal client (pediatricians will have a different marketing strategy than an orthopedic surgeon).
Ask people for help. Ask for what your patients want to know more about and things that matter to you and to them.
When you communicate with patients from your heart, it is going to show.
Measure by metrics, don’t measure by emotions.

“Your practice your business can have that same big brand feel when you get really, really clear and really dialed in to what you want it to look like.” — Sarah Tugender

Transcription

Dr. Barbara Hales: Welcome to another episode of Marketing Tips for Doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Today, we have with us Sarah Tugender. Welcome to the show, Sarah.

Sarah Tugender: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Barbara Hales: Sarah has used her passion for health with her drive to free up space in practitioners’ schedules for 15 years. She creates processes and systems for healthcare practices to free up space in their schedule. The benefit is that they don’t have to burn the candle at both ends, avoiding the burnout that is prevalent in the industry. She travels up to a dozen times a year to speak on stages across the country. Sarah’s messages include living according to your priorities, incorporating business strategies that work for your network, and leveraging the power of social media. It’s a pleasure to have you here today, Sarah.

Sarah Tugender: I am so thrilled to be here. I’ve been bingeing on your podcast, taking notes, and this is such a cool place to be right now in helping practitioners grow their businesses. I think this is a nice time for people to not just work in their businesses, but actually work on their businesses.

Dr. Barbara Hales: Absolutely, and you have such an interesting niche yourself that our listeners are going to want to hear about. How can practitioners free up time without it costing a fortune in operating expenses?

Sarah Tugender: Yeah, that’s a really great question. I find that what ends up happening is... and I can only really speak from experiences, what I’ve seen not just from my clients, but what I’ve seen firsthand. I like to say that I grew up in medicine. I was born the same year that my dad started medical school, Barbara. I think you can appreciate just how absolutely crazy that must have been, right? So, he went to go take his first exam, and went up to the blackboard and wrote, “Sarah. Born October 16th. Seven pounds, six ounces,” right before he sat down at Tufts University right outside of Boston.

Dr. Barbara Hales: Well, that’s remarkable because I can tell you the stress for medical students is really off the charts. I would say that about 95% of the medical students that were married at the time we entered school were divorced at the end of medical school graduation. So, kudos to your parents for keeping it all together.

Sarah Tugender: They did go on to have five more children after me too. So not only did they keep it together, but... and then that was... So they had a...

Dr. Barbara Hales: But they kept it together.

Sarah Tugender: They kept it together. Yes, they did, and I remember my dad. So, my dad had a private practice for over 25 years, and I watched mom and dad. Then, they actually opened up a separate lifestyle medicine practice. At the time, I was studying marketing, and communications, and social media or what it was at that time at Boston University. They’d often ask me what I thought about things and what I was learning in school. They always then went, and they would buy the most expensive, flashiest marketing package that came their way. So a five-figure website, or the person that said that they were going to get them PR, and really all they did was 30 posts on Facebook that honestly any college intern could do.

I find that when you can take your marketing and you can bring it in-house, it’s going to be a lot less money than outsourcing it. The other thing is that you’re also going to be able to have a lot more control over it. So my best advice to practitioners is if you are going to go ahead and invest in someone outside of your own business, outside of your own entity that works and consults for you, make sure that at the end of that, they give you something that you can then have forever. How many providers that I say, “This is a really great YouTube channel you have. So if we were going to make more videos for ...