What does marketing ACTUALLY mean for health practitioners?

I don't like marketing...

It's so salesy...

It's all about showing off and that's not me...

But deep down you know marketing is important because when you look at your calendar...

There are empty gaps everywhere. 

Everywhere you look, marketing 'experts' are saying you should post daily on Instargam, TikTok, YouTube, and every other social media channel there is.

'Hustle till you make it,' they say.

But surely... there's a better way? 

Surely... it's not just about posting random bullshit everyday for the sake of 'visibility?' 

Fundamentally, I didn't have a good understanding of marketing (and maybe I still don't), until the last 12 months. The reason why I say I've improved on my marketing efforts is because right now, you are reading this...

And for the last 12 months, I've had the most amount of qualified, converting leads than I have ever in my career doing less than half of what I used to.

I used to post everyday, spending a whole Monday creating content to 'win' the algorithm. But right now? I spend MAYBE 1 day a MONTH creating content. And like I said... the most leads, I've ever had. 

But how did I achieve this?

It happened like this.

First, I redefined what marketing meant for me.

Two, I laid out what I wanted my marketing to achieve.

Three, I created time-leveraged, HIGH IMPACT, content to reach the people I want to help.

That is all. If you want to watch the video version of this - click below! If not, keep reading.

What Marketing Means To Me

Ask 10 different marketing experts what 'marketing' means and you'll get 10 different answers... because marketing is quite a vague term. Some say marketing is:

• A way for you to show off your products or services
• Branding
• The way you want to make customers feel
• The message you stand for
• Being front of mind for your customers
• Building relationships

And they'd all be right - because marketing DOES encompass all of that.

But what ISN'T marketing? What DOES NOT classify itself as marketing? There's only one.

• Making sure no one, absolutely NO ONE, ZERO people ever know about what you do.

Yep, as long as it's not 'absolutely nothing', you're probably doing some form of marketing according to someone's definition. 

So all the definitions aren't really useful on a specific level. What's useful is how you want to define it for yourself. 

As long as it shows, or tells people what you do, it's a form of marketing. It just depends on how you want to show people what you do.

Personally, I attended a free webinar last year that talked about what marketing is and he defined it as 'marketing is a way to meet your potential customer'. I quite liked this idea, so I took it for myself. Except I adapted it for the sake of my own health consulting business.

Marketing is how I'm going to meet and GIVE value to my customer, at scale. 

Interestingly, this is also how to best market to ME as a customer. I'm a fan of good advertising, and the best adverts that convert ME as a customer give me value - enough value that I might learn about their products and services.

As the recipient of goods and services yourself, what kind of marketing worked on you? This will give you a.

This brings me over to step 2. What is it that you want your marketing to achieve?

 2. What is it that I want my marketing to achieve?

Like step 1, you can choose whatever you want here. There's no right or wrong, but I will give you some guidelines that are important.

The whole point of marketing is to remind people you exist and to reach new people. So if your marketing is dependent on only reaching your existing followers, it's probably leaving a lot on the table ( this is why an organic marketing strategy is not a great use of your time, imo).

Let me give you an example - back when television was our only method of entertainment, rich companies would pay thousands to millions for 30-45s of ad space during a popular program. Take the soccer World Cup - it's the most TUNED IN program in the entire world... so 30-45s of ad time during the FINALS would be absolutely monstrous in investment.

But that investment is made regardless because the return on investment (eyeballs) is HUGE. Imagine you pay the television company $1 million for 30s of advertising...

And at that moment, there are 2 million people watching. If only 1% of those people convert into $200 worth of sales in the next 2-3 years, that's $900000 in profit, AFTER ad spend. And I'm just being conservative here. I'm sure the numbers are much, much higher.

In fact, the whole point of creating a great television series for free-to-air television was to keep bum on seats so that advertisers could pay television channels to market their products and services. That's how powerful marketing is.

Now let's circle back to the original point - marketing should follow some guides. Do you market to those you know or try to reach new people (or both?)

If you had to pick one, I'd definitely suggest reaching new people. The more people know of your existence, the better. There are many ways to do this, but I personally prefer paid advertising. For $50/day, you can reach up to 2000 people. That's a lot of people that have seen you. Much good.

Now once your ad reaches a completely new person, what is it that you want your ad to achieve?

There's a few options here:

-Show them your products and services
-Show them your promotions
-Help them with a particular problem
-Show them you exist
-Make them laugh
-Build trust and awareness

All of these are correct. But only some of it will be right for you at any given time.

This is why different 'campaigns' exist. Some marketing campaigns are purely focused on spreading your name. Some are focused on advertising a promotional offer. Some just want to build trust. 

You have to decide what it is you want.

For my business, my recent marketing efforts have focused on one thing only.

Does it solve a problem? Or rephrased as - does this advertisement leave my customer in a better place?

This is why you have seen so many adverts of my book. It is a marketing tool that ALSO acts as a valuable product. For anyone whose read my book, I pull no punches. I deliver HUGE value in the book. It is not a shitty AI crafted book that just focuses on getting you to 'sign on' to a more expensive program. There's about 2 pages of selling, and the rest is genuine material. 

Secondly, I also market my free webinars in exchange for email addresses. Like my book, it is value focused and it helps my potential customers with a particular problem. For example, I have two free webinars at the moment - 'how to raise prices without losing patients' and 'how to triple your team's rebookings'. I ask for their email because it is still a transaction - I will help you for the chance to contact you in the future about my offers. 

So to summarise my marketing intent - I want to reach new people and leave them in a better place. I do this via free webinars, books and paid advertising.

3. I create time-leveraged, HIGH IMPACT marketing Content

The first point here is time-leveraged. Now what is 'time-leverage?' Put simply, I just don't want to do something that repeats itself. 

I don't want to DM 100 people a day (although this is a viable strategy). I know it is effective, and I have done it, but ultimately it is not a great use of my time if I'm happy to spend $50/day in paid advertising. 

I want it to work even when I'm not there. This means I'd rather have a YouTube channel, Instagram page, blog (like the one you're reading right now) or whatever means for people to find and use for themselves. In this sense, it is time leveraged because I don't have to 'be' there. The only downside to this strategy is you never know when or who is reading or watching what you've created. 

Whenever I create marketing efforts, I go by this simple rule.

If I can do it just once, and it can last forever... it's worth it. 

Like this blog. I write it once in 2 hours. I shoot the accompanying video. And it is here forever. At the time of writing, it is 4:33pm, 28/7/2025. Maybe you, are reading this one year from now. But it doesn't cost me any more time to do this - I'm speaking from the past, present and future. 

Next, once it is heavily time-leveraged, I want it to be high impact. This is by far the most important change in my marketing efforts that has led to the highest return on investment (time). I created marketing gifts/products/tools that are going to help my potential solve a problem for a very, VERY generous fee. 

For example, $25 is all it costs to buy my book, which has already helped 170+ clinicians rebook 1-2 more consults per week INSTANTLY. Based off most average physio rates, that's an extra $260 in revenue forever, off a $25 investment. 

In terms of ROI, you won't get much better than that. But that's not all. Because it's so good, people will share and talk about it, leading to more marketing on its own. It genuinely helps clinicians solve a problem, and that's why as a marketing tool, it works so well. 

My webinars work the same way - it gives frameworks and general strategies that clinicians can apply right away to improve their business. This is all high impact that takes me weeks to create (or a month for the book). 

But now it'll last me forever (and help my customers forever too). So putting it all together, my marketing looks like this.

1. Create high value, high impact, highly time-leveraged product/solution that I'm willing to give away for free or at a very generous fee

2. Consistently reach new potential customers through the use of paid advertising

3. Rinse and repeat

By leaving my customers in a much better place because of viewing my ad, I achieve something very important.

I build a trustworthy relationship with them. 

When someone buys my book, they get immediate value. They read it and think 'oh shit, this guy isn't just selling me bs.' 

And for me, that's the goal of my marketing. To deliver impact, at scale. 

Marketing doesn't work if someone isn't interested in your Solution 

Besides the approach to your marketing, something I've had to remind myself, and I'll remind you of too, is that no marketing is effective if someone isn't already looking for a solution to their problem. If you're afraid of 'showing off' and being 'showy', then let me direct your attention to McDonalds. 

They are routinely marketing their 'hot deals', but if you're someone who refuses to eat junk food... it's never, ever going to work on you. You might see it, and that's about it.

However, if you're looking to satisfy a McDonald's craving - suddenly the advertisement becomes quite useful.

In the same way, if your expertise is in chronic lower back pain and you create an advertisement that shows your 3-step process to helping these people - there is someone looking for help with their back pain. Your advertisement is just showing them how YOU do it, and giving them the opportunity to contact you. And if you follow the advertising principle of leaving them in a better place for consuming your content, then it's likely they will have ONE action point that'll benefit their condition. 

Someone who doesn't have back pain won't click on your advertisement (but one day, they might, but that's a story for another time).

In Conclusion

 As long as you're NOT doing absolutely nothing - you're marketing. Everything else is about how you do it. If you are focused on;

1. Being clear on what marketing means to you
2. Clear on what your marketing will achieve
3. Strategic with your time and impact

Then you really can't go wrong. And if you're ever feeling self-conscious about your efforts, just remember that someone out there is searching for a solution. Your marketing gives them an opportunity to learn about it.

Wishing you success,
Phil