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ChiroCandy: THE Chiropractic Marketing Podcast
181: How To Use TikTok To Generate New Patients (ft. Liz Wright)
00:28:05
Schedule a call or find out more: https://chirocandy.com/tribe In this episode, Matt Keenan interviews Liz, the TikTok director at ChiroCandy, about her experience with TikTok advertising. They discuss the challenges they faced in the early days of...
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- [00:00]
Liz
TikTok is for fun and for authenticity. That is the biggest feedback that I can give. You know, if. If you think that those qualities define you, then I think it's a good platform for you to reach new patients. You are listening to Pyro, the podcast of sweet chiropractic success. Here's your host, Billy Sticker.
- [00:27]
Billy Sticker
Welcome to another episode of the Chiro Candy Podcast. My name is Billy Sticker, founder and CEO of Chiro Candy, and this is going to be one of our Success series episodes. And on the Success series episodes, what it is, is going to be different leaders and directors from our Cairo Candy team doing different interviews, talking about what's working best for different clients and on different platforms. So, without further ado, let's get on over into the episode. Enjoy. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Kyra Candy Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Keenan, and today I have another guest.
- [01:08]
Liz
Hi, I'm Liz. I am the TikTok director, Kyra Gandy.
- [01:11]
Billy Sticker
Yeah, we like to refer to Liz as the TikTok queen because she is all things TikTok. She's been with us since the beginning. So I guess a good place to start here. You know, obviously we're going to be, we're going to be talking about TikTok. That's what this episode is about. We're going to be talking about. I mean, we've been doing it since 2021, right. So there's a lot, there's a lot of things that have been changing and you, you've been at the forefront of it. So just to start, you know, tell me, tell me what it was like in 2021 to just dive into being the TikTok director for Kyra Candy.
- [01:47]
Liz
Well, whenever I was first given the job in 2021, I wasn't even a user of TikTok, so offered the position and I immediately downloaded the app. Wow. Created my own account and then kind of started from scratch and figuring it all out, just 0 to 100.
- [02:08]
Billy Sticker
Oh, tell me about it. That's crazy because I know, I know that part of that is like in. I know that at that point very few people were actually using the platform. Like, I remember Billy or Brady, one of them was talking about how there was a survey done among marketing agencies in America and they were asked, like, you know, who. How many of these people are going to. How many of you guys are going to use TikTok and add it to your services? And like, 90. A staggering number. I don't, I'm not. I don't want to quote it, but a staggering number was like, no, we're not going to touch it. And then that's when we jumped in and we were like, okay, well, we're Kyra Candy and we're going to do it and Liz is going to be our leader, our fearless leader doing that. So that was, that had to be a daunting task, a completely new platform, new to most people. Because even though, like in 2021 it was, it was still, I mean, 2020 is when it blew up. Right. But 2021 people were still, you know, learning about it more and like reaching the older crowds, I guess. But how, I guess how have things, how have things evolved and changed starting from 2021 to now? Like, tell me about, like, what that's looked like for you.
- [03:24]
Liz
Well, it started out and, you know, we had no idea what we were doing. We knew that our clients wanted to be on TikTok. They wanted to see what it was all about. They wanted to. Their clients were on the platform and that's what, you know, we do. We serve them in the way that they, you know, in the way that they wanted. So we jumped right in. Starting out, we. All we really had was our training that we had from other marketing companies and they, you know, told us things about it like. But we still just kind of jumped in. The first thing I would think is that we realized that the targeting was a big issue in the beginning. We could only target by dma, which is like a marketing designated market area. Yeah, yes, yes. I think maybe some of our viewers might know what that is even better than I did. But it's a very large population and when you're doing local advertising, it was a big challenge for us. The way that we resolved it was we called out the area at the beginning of the video and then we called out the very. The area again in the lead form to make sure that the viewer knew what they were signing up for and where it was.
- [04:46]
Billy Sticker
They're in the right spot.
- [04:48]
Liz
Right. And then the second obstacle I think that we ran into was the fact that because we were in the chiropractic niche, we were what TikTok considered a medical. A medical product area. Yeah, a medical advertiser. So we needed a special account, but all of my efforts to get one were, you know, kind of ignored and. Yeah, thwarted. That's a good word, I think, for it. But, you know, we, I, we kept pushing on. We kept making it work until they shut down all of our accounts. It was such a. I forgot about.
- [05:29]
Billy Sticker
That at one point they shut down all of our ad accounts.
- [05:34]
Liz
They shut them all down. And then I guess that's where they finally started to pay attention because we were like, hey, we're spending all this money with you guys and we've been asking for help. And they finally swooped in and provided us a wrapper. I mean it was, it was, I think a longer drawn out process than swooped in. But yeah, we finally were managed and it was. And I would say that is, that was, that was the big hurdle for us. Once we were over that hurdle, things got a lot easier.
- [06:09]
Billy Sticker
I mean, I remember it was, it was rough at the beginning, I think. How many people signed up in the first couple months? Like over a hundred, right?
- [06:16]
Liz
Over a hundred, yes.
- [06:18]
Billy Sticker
In the first couple months.
- [06:21]
Liz
Yep, yep. That was quite the experience for like someone who's never been in a director's position before, you know, just kind of thrown into it. But I think that's where I earned my crown, you know.
- [06:33]
Billy Sticker
Yes, she was crowned the tick Tock Queen because she went, she was in the trenches with us figuring things out that nobody knew the answers to.
- [06:42]
Liz
There was no training. No, there's no training.
- [06:45]
Billy Sticker
Nothing.
- [06:47]
Liz
No help. You could Google it and Google was like, what, what are you talking about?
- [06:51]
Billy Sticker
We're not sure what you're talking about.
- [06:54]
Liz
Does that compute? But once we got over that hump, then the next hump was zip code targeting, which took another, which took a long time and you know, that was.
- [07:08]
Billy Sticker
That was quite the journey for people who aren't unfamiliar. Like talk, talk about it. Like what do you mean, what do you mean by zip code targeting? Like what, what was the issue there and how do we address it?
- [07:21]
Liz
It's kind of complicated and some, I don't even know the answer to why, but they were very like, they're very selective about who they would give this, give this permissions to that you can only get given to you from the back end by having a manager approve you. And I think for them it has to be approved too. So. And I thought, I thought at this point, because we've been doing this since 2021 as you said. I thought that this was a thing in the past and now everybody got zip code targeting. But I talked to another marketing company the other day who said that they were turned down from, from zip code targeting when they reached out to support, you know, and so I, I did the best I could to help them. I sent them our reps name or her email, but I don't even know for sure. She got back to them. You know, it's.
- [08:12]
Billy Sticker
Right. Yeah.
- [08:14]
Liz
But I was very surprised to hear that. I thought that that was over. But no, it's still a difficult thing for marketers to even get their hands on.
- [08:22]
Billy Sticker
Right. That was, that was the. One of the big, difficult hurdles that we had to jump through at the beginning is because at the beginning, you know, nobody was able to target in like, specific areas because it wasn't just, you know, on Facebook, obviously you can just do radius targeting, you can do zip codes, you can do whatever you want. But on TikTok, like you said, it was just DMAs. You just had to target this huge region that was, that was usually multiple states even and like dipped in, I don't know, like a big, a big group of people. And then we couldn't figure out, like, why they wouldn't let us be more specific. But then, because I remember when we were, when we started, I had some clients that were spending $20 a day and they were getting like 80 something leads a week. Insane numbers like that. Now granted, they were not all from the their state, but I, I remember, I remember we were getting insane numbers the first few months.
- [09:21]
Liz
Yes.
- [09:22]
Billy Sticker
And then things, I think tick tock can just kind of, I don't know, adjusted, I guess. Like there were some positive changes, some negative changes. They were just very new to it, I feel like. What are your thoughts on it?
- [09:32]
Liz
I think we all were very new to it. And I think after 2020, you know, during the pandemic, the, the, the app just itself kind of exploded. The, the amount of users, like, tripled. And I think a lot of people were hearing like, hey, I'm on TikTok. You know, a lot of people who wanted to connect with those people, and everyone was really excited about the platform. And it's not like the excitement's not there, it's just, it's gotten more competitive and requires more from the other the people who are actually on the platform.
- [10:11]
Billy Sticker
Yeah, like the honeymoon phase of their marketing platform is over. So now it's like, okay, now we really got to solidify who we are. We have to actually compete with the competition other than relying on our newness. And that's definitely shown. But on that subject, how comparing to like, competitors and like the competition there with the platform, how different is TikTok in comparison to Facebook advertising?
- [10:42]
Liz
So I think the biggest difference is, kind of just goes back to what we just said, is that it really requires a lot more from the advertiser. Like you have to be more of A participant and a user to really be successful. You know, the ads that do best blend well into the platform. And it's hard to blend if you don't know what you're doing, you know, and it's, you know, it's got. It's. It's simpler in a way in that it's, you know, pretty straightforward on how to advertise than Facebook is. And then I would also say just there's a whole different population of people on that platform than there are on Facebook. And this is a feedback I've heard a lot. You know, the leads are more responsive. Maybe there's a little less than sometimes we see on Facebook, but more of them seem to answer and to be, you know, and their names and their numbers seem to be more updated.
- [11:47]
Billy Sticker
Yeah. They're more chronically online than Facebook users.
- [11:51]
Liz
Yes. I think that's one of the main characteristic of a user on TikTok and.
- [11:54]
Billy Sticker
Guilty. I know I had to step away from that after. After running ads on TikTok, I kind of stopped being such an active user because it was just too much for me. But it is a wild platform, a wild ride.
- [12:11]
Liz
It is a wild ride.
- [12:12]
Billy Sticker
I have nothing but respect for you for being in this position, because it was. Because it's one thing to learn Facebook ads and join a company and be taught everything that you need to know, and it's another thing entirely to be brand new to a platform, like, not even been a user before, and not only learn the platform from a user's perspective, but also learn how to translate those skills and translate how the language of TikTok into ads. Like, that was. Yeah, that was. That's a. That was a lot.
- [12:52]
Liz
I have to say, that really plays on my strengths, and I give the props to. To Brady and Billy for seeing that and knowing that I was the right person to put in a seat, because I was definitely ready for the opportunity to take on a more serious role in the company. And I just. I'm really good at pattern recognition, and I think that that was a big, like, help for me in figuring out how to overcome some of the obstacles that we ran into, you know, running out of nowhere.
- [13:28]
Billy Sticker
Yeah, I couldn't imagine anybody else being. Being, you know, charged with that task. Like, that was. That was you. But so I've been seeing a lot more recently. I hadn't. I. Like I said, I hadn't been as active on TikTok until, like, the past couple weeks. I just kind of, you know, started playing with it again, you know, like, dipping My toes back in because it scared me for a while, but now. But I've been seeing a lot of people on their videos using Cap Cut. Can you tell us, like, what. What is Cap Cut? What. What does that look like?
- [14:03]
Liz
I would say Cap Cuts, like Tick Tock's cousin. Like, they are related. They directly integrate. They, you know, they're in cahoots, I would say. So as a user of Tick Tock, I think it's very important to. Well, I say very important because there is an editor inside of TikTok. Technically, you could edit all your videos from inside of TikTok, but the. I. I'd say the only plus to that is being able to choose your music when you're editing because, you know, like, a lot of those trending sounds will be on there, but sometimes you'll have to move it over to TikTok to be able to add some of the sounds. But the great thing about. About it is that it. You know, it. You can even find a template that you like, and then inside TikTok, click on it, and then it'll automatically open up Capcut. Yeah. So that kind of gives you an idea of how closely they're, you know, intertwined.
- [15:10]
Billy Sticker
People are using it so much because it's. It's so much easier. So then I guess how. Tell us, tell us how regular everyday people or chiropractors, people listening to this podcast. How. How can they use Cap Cut in hand. In hand with TikTok to advertise? Like, how can it. How can they use it as a tool?
- [15:32]
Liz
Yes. So I would say the best. Some of the best, you know, tools on capcut is like these meme templates that they use. They actually have kind of like similar TikTok a for you page of meme templates. So you can just scroll through and then you'll find them. They're like the little cutouts of funny scenes from movies or commercials sometimes. I mean, it could really be from anywhere. I think after the Olympics, it was the. The break dancing lady. Yes, yes. She's. She's one that. And I saw one of my clients, you know, create a. You know, how we feel after we get adjusted at so and so.
- [16:14]
Billy Sticker
And she's like, you know, if you're listening to this and you. And you don't know what we're talking about, look up Ray Gun. It's R A Y G U N. Ray Gunn. It's Rachel Gunn. She's a Australian break dancer at the Olympics. And that's all I'm going to Say just watch it and you won't be disappointed. Or maybe you will be disappointed, but you might smile.
- [16:37]
Liz
Yes, yes, yes. It's. It. I'm not. Not meant to poke fun, just a nice cultural relevant conversation. So I would say if you're trying to post regularly, which, I mean, I think that this rule fits for like every situation, is that consistency beats quantity every time. And so if we're trying to consistently two videos a week, you know, that's to me a great goal to, to shoot for one that has like, dents. Like, it has like value to provide your viewers. It's interesting, it's engaging. I mean, value needs to be. Especially on the, the, you know, the business forefront.
- [17:18]
Billy Sticker
You want to provide value, especially paired with authenticity, right?
- [17:23]
Liz
Value paired with authenticity. Yeah, you. And, and some people that comes naturally, and some people it doesn't. So you want to try to like, be flexible in finding out what works, what goes across well to people. But if you're trying to do that. But you, you know, you don't, you don't always want to have to put a lot into all your videos. You pull up cat cut, you pick a meme template and you throw it over an image of the front of your. Your office, you know, and then you write a little funny caption to make people giggle. And then what they're seeing is not only are they good at what they do, but they got a sense of humor too. Which human makes you fun? I mean, I, I'd love to go to a business with a good sense of humor. You know, like, that's me.
- [18:09]
Billy Sticker
That's something that. One of. One of my clients, Dr. Michael Shulman, I actually previously interviewed him for this podcast, he's in Georgia. And he really got serious about doing video content, not just on TikTok, but on Facebook. When I was, I was his account rep for, for, I think a year and a half, two years before that. And then I was like, listen, you really gotta buy into this. Like, if you, if you want, if you, if you want to have that, this kind of success, you really gotta buy into it and drink the Kool Aid, which means video content. So he goes, and he doesn't just start doing content, he hires a videographer to help him with his TikTok content, which is a huge. It's like a cheat code for TikTok. Because it's so hard as a. If you're new to TikTok and you don't. You're not familiar with the platform or anything, you don't know what you need to do on TikTok. But if you hire a videographer that can make for videographers, it can be very simple to edit these kind of videos. And that's not. That's not to downplay videographers by any means. They. It takes a lot of skill and effort just to know how to make like something might be simple, but it's very nuanced. And a lot of videographers know and understand the nuance of TikTok. Like we have. We have an amazing videographer on our team. We have. She's an amazing. Kayla does a great job with our. Our edits for all of our clients. And she knows and understands the platform so well. She can just take our clients video content, the little clips, and she puts them together. She puts a relevant song, she adds ad text and voiceover and everything so that our clients are not having to edit these videos themselves and do something that they are completely unfamiliar with. But with that. My. My client, Dr. Shulman, he hired this videographer and he was doing a lot of. He was doing some videos about, you know, the kind of treatments he had knee treatments. He, you know, we had a decompression table, talking about semaglutide, things like that. But then he also had like 50% those. And then 50% of them were like personality videos of the office. And they would do these TikTok trends with their employees. And those were the videos that got the most views and what got people into their ecosystem. And that's what. That's what generated people in their area actually paying attention to them. And the best part is, like, with those. I know, like I view with the videos that he did that went viral, I can use those and use the engagement from those videos and get even better results. So.
- [20:58]
Liz
Right. Yeah. Because if it. If it connects to people organically, then it's guaranteed to connect to them in an ad setting. Especially on tick tock because they have. We have different display cards. So even though there's not a typical call to action on the video, it'll pull up the video and like they're just scrolling and they see it's a funny video. And then a card will pop up and say, hey, we have an offer. So they see that often they're like, oh, and they click on it. Maybe they don't commit to that offer, but now they know you're funny, that you're an office in their area and that you have an off. An offer that they can get if they want to be a new client and maybe they wouldn't, they wouldn't even take two seconds to look at it on Facebook. That same person maybe, right.
- [21:46]
Billy Sticker
It's just different. But with that, like what I know at this point you've worked with hundreds of our clients on TikTok and their platforms and you've seen the ones that have been successful, you've seen the ones that have failed. And I would. So my question is what is the common denominator of all of the clients who have been getting the best results?
- [22:12]
Liz
So I would say the common denominator is they use capcut regularly to post. They give out a level of authenticity which we discussed prior. It's very important they, they post consistently and they respond to comments. Sometimes they respond to comments with videos. That's a really great way to get engagement. People like to know that you're a real person behind the video. So. And then I was. And then another thing that I think is really important is. And you were just talk, talked on incentivizing the person who's making the content, like paying them, seeing it as a position that's worth paying. I think across the board, like if, if we're, if we're cutting, you know, the social media person is cut first. And I think it's mostly because we don't, I mean things are, times are changing, but the, that we, we have trouble like justifying the cost. But as someone who's done it, right, someone who's done it, it's, it's quite, it's quite, quite an engaging job and position to edit video, to post, to think, to be creative. You know, it does take a lot of mental, mental space. So I do think that it's important to pay someone to do it, especially if you can't do it yourself. I have had clients who are logged into their own tick tock who post. You know, he'll have a client come in, the client will ask a question, he'll go, that's a great question. And then he will record a video and he just is a natural at videos. And then he can respond to comments and respond to the comments. That's great. But some people can't do that themselves. So I would say in an other way would be to have, if you had someone who is your social media person, they were logged into it and you were logged into it as well. So that if there was something that they needed you to respond to, you could just pull out your phone and respond to that. You don't have to be the one always engaged.
- [24:23]
Billy Sticker
Right?
- [24:24]
Liz
That is not like if you don't have the mental space for that. Right. But to be able to respond if necessary, I think is a really great way to be successful on the platform.
- [24:37]
Billy Sticker
Absolutely. So, like. So ultimately, the common denominator is they are active.
- [24:42]
Liz
Yes.
- [24:43]
Billy Sticker
They. They're an active participant in the platform, Right?
- [24:47]
Liz
Yep. They are using it, or they at least are logged into it. Like, you don't have to scroll. You don't have to scroll. But. Or, or pay someone to, to. To be the one who's on there, you need someone who's familiar with the platform helping you on that. Right there. It's like being in on a joke. Right. If you're not a user on TikTok, there's something about the joke that you're not in on it. And we can see it.
- [25:14]
Billy Sticker
Yes.
- [25:14]
Liz
I can't. That's. As best way as I can describe it, is that.
- [25:18]
Billy Sticker
No, I think that's perfect. That's a perfect way to describe it because it's similar to that, too. Because it's not just. Because most of the time, it's just an inherent thing about the culture that you don't realize until you show someone a TikTok and they just stare at you.
- [25:33]
Liz
Right.
- [25:34]
Billy Sticker
And they're like, I don't get it. And you're like, you're not in on the joke, right?
- [25:37]
Liz
Yeah. I'm like, yeah, no, sorry, we can't talk. You're, you're, you don't, you don't. You don't have the. You're not as chronically online as I am by. Just kidding. Just kidding. I love, I love people on and off of social media. But, yes, that is. The idea is that we are all laughing at this joke and, and you don't get it. And now you're trying to come on here and sell us stuff like. And that it does have kind of a collective. We as users feel like we're on. We're. We're in on something. I don't know. That's. I can describe it.
- [26:09]
Billy Sticker
No, that's the best way to describe it. Thank you for that. I. I think I, I feel like I've learned a lot myself with this. Thank you so much for all that information. I guess. Do you have any, like, final, final thoughts or one thing that you want our listeners to walk away from or walk away with?
- [26:28]
Liz
Yeah. TikTok is for fun and for authenticity. That is the biggest feedback that I can give. You know, if. If you think that those qualities define you, then I think it's a good platform for you to reach new patients.
- [26:42]
Billy Sticker
Yeah. Well, awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. Again, if you're listening to this and you have more questions, you can just go to Kyracandy.com, schedule a call with us. We'd love to talk to you about what we have to offer and what we've been seeing and doing with our clients. We can talk to you more about specific specifics of, like, what it entails us us making videos for you guys and how much we would actually need from you. But even if you're not going to be a client of one of ours, we hope that you got value from this podcast and that you learned something. I know that I learned something, so if I did, I'm sure that y'all did because I've been using TikTok with Liz for. For the past few years as well. So on that note, thank you so much, Liz. You're awesome.
- [27:23]
Liz
You.
- [27:23]
Billy Sticker
And thank you to everybody who listened and I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for watching.
- [27:49]
Liz
Sarah.