Mara Glazer Interview on Practice Promotion and E-Commerce

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In this episode, Barbara and Mara discuss:
1)If having a side gig helps professionals earn additional streams of income
2)Companies doing Print on Demand
3)What Copywriting is
4)What to look out for when considering copywriting outsourcing

Key Takeaways:

“I personally review every single project that goes out the door to a client, which is a little bit different than a larger agency, where there might not be what in our industry is called a copy chief overseeing the work to make sure it’s of the quality that you want.” – Mara Glazer

Connect with Mara Glazer:

Website: https://www.maraglazer.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maraglazer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohheymara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaraGlazer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maraglazer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maraglazerfan/

Connect with Barbara Hales:

Twitter:   @DrBarbaraHales
Facebook:   facebook.com/theMedicalStrategist
Business website: www.TheMedicalStrategist.com
Show website:   www.MarketingTipsForDoctors.com
Email:   Barbara@TheMedicalStrategist.com
Books:
Content Copy Made Easy
14 Tactics to Triple Sales
Power to the Patient: The Medical Strategist
YouTube: TheMedicalStrategist
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/barbarahales

TRANSCRIPTION(107)

Dr. Barbara Hales 00:03
Welcome to another episode of marketing tips for doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara house. Today we have with us our great guest, and her name is Mara Glaser.

Dr. Barbara Hales 00:19
Mara is one of the most skilled and well-known copywriters in the female gender, not only in the United States, but probably in the whole world. She is a great direct response marketer, and whatever it is that you need to promote, she successfully can do it for you. So, welcome to the show Mara.

Mara Glazer 00:50
Hi, Barbara. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here and to share and add value to your audience today.

Dr. Barbara Hales 00:56
How long have you been in this field? And how did it all get started for you?

Mara Glazer 01:02
Yeah. Oh my gosh. So, I’ve been writing copy since 2009. I used to actually be miserably employed to a corporate job in the New York City Fashion Industry. Prior to getting into this world. I say miserable because making $35,000 a year in the Big Apple, as you know because used to live there is like pretty much impossible to have a great life. So, I had no money, I lived in a strange city with no friends. And to top it off, I was working in the fashion industry. And if you’ve ever seen the show, The Devil Wears Prada, rather the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. That was my life.

Mara Glazer 01:41
So around that time, while I was there, I actually ended up tearing my spine. And from all the pressure and stress that I carried in my back from my job, I had also had a spine surgery prior. So, you mix those two things together, it was a recipe for disaster. And that’s when I knew that I couldn’t have a nine-to-five job anymore. And I couldn’t work for someone else anymore because I needed the freedom to take care of myself when I needed to.

Mara Glazer 02:06
So long story short, I convinced my father his name’s Bill Glazer, he’s a world-famous copywriter, I convinced him to hire me, and to teach me how to do this. And the first couple times I asked him, he said no, he said, No, yeah. And he said no, a couple of times. And finally, he put me to the test. And he made me work for him for free for six months before he would even pay me so I could earn my chops. And it was there that he taught me how to write a direct response, copy and copy that leads to sell and that was in 2009. So here we are, over 10 years later, and I still do this to this day.

Dr. Barbara Hales 02:44
Well, I understand he cornered the market on red markers.

Mara Glazer 02:49
He did, he used to take off my copy and take a red marker and mark it all up and tell me what I did right and why and what I did wrong and why. And that’s how I learned and so I kind of finally call it now the red pen copywriting critique. And I think it’s the best way to learn how to write copy is to actually learn by doing and have someone critique your work.

Dr. Barbara Hales 03:15
In addition to doing copywriting, you are also one of the queens of E-commerce. And I recommend for most professionals now is that it would be helpful to have a side gig. So, do you feel that E-commerce would work out? Well, for health professionals?

Mara Glazer 03:38
Oh, wow. Okay, so um, so I actually started an e-commerce Store, right in the middle of COVID. When COVID first started and was able to grow it very, very quickly, we sold over 20,000, beach towels while the beaches were close to the public, at the beginning of COVID. And then just as fast as that business went up, it went down because we had problems with shipping, right. And so, when COVID happened, there were a lot of shipping problems. And so, I’m actually entering that industry again here this year, I just partnered with two people that I’m really excited about to create a t-shirt line. I’m super stoked about it.

Mara Glazer 04:16
And to answer your question, you know, I’m always a fan for myself of having multiple streams of income. And so, I think that it’s important though, to make sure that those multiple streams of income that you have or something that you’re excited about or feel that you can resonate with, or feel some sort of connection to. So, for me, that’s e-commerce because I get to use a lot of my copywriting and marketing skills to sell physical products, which I think is super cool. And so, if one of the doctors listening to this feels that way, too. It might be something that they’d be interested in you know, seeking out.

Dr. Barbara Hales 04:57
Well as a doctor You know, and for all of your listeners out there, depending upon your specialty, there is so much that you could promote, whether it is as an internist for various vitamin supplements, or dermatologist for various skin creams, or even as alternative care for, you know, various aromatherapies and paths with scented candles. I mean, the list is really endless.

Mara Glazer 05:28
Yeah, and now it’s actually interesting. I’ve seen, I don’t, I’m not in this business myself. But I’ve seen that there are companies just like the ones that you mentioned, supplements, beauty, skin creams, dermatology-type products, that you can actually white label with your own brand. So, you don’t have to create the formulations on your own. But also, I’ve seen companies do them as what’s called Print on demand.

Mara Glazer 05:56
So, what that means is that you sell them in your office, or you sell them online. And these companies actually create and fulfill them with your own branding on them, so that you don’t actually have to buy any inventory. You’re just paying for it as you sell it. So that is a really great compatible offer, probably for some of the doctors in your sphere, I would imagine

Dr. Barbara Hales 06:21
whether it is promoting products, or whether it is simply promoting your medical or health practice itself. copywriting is really crucial for promotion. Could you tell people what copywriting actually is?

Mara Glazer 06:42
Yeah, that’s a great question. So, copywriting is the well, we’re going to talk about direct response copywriting, which is a little bit more specific, which I’ll get to in a moment. So, what I write is a direct response copy. So, what that means is every piece of writing that we create, that leads to a call to action, or typically it’s a sale for the most part, where we’re getting the person that the prospect that is reading, whatever we write, we inspire them to take that call to action, it’s a little bit different than content copy, a content copy is more so sharing stories, sharing tidbits and value, where there’s not necessarily a then lead on for that person reading it to take a call to action.

Mara Glazer 07:29
So, we write a direct response copy here. And it’s really, really important for every single business because it’s the words that you use to sell your service. It’s the words that you use to sell your products if you also sell those in your office as well. It’s the written word. And so, it’s, you know, kind of impossible to sell your products and your services, if you’re not able to write about them. Like so think, for example, in a doctor’s office, right.

Mara Glazer 07:59
So, there’s probably signage up in the doctor’s office or thing, for example, about probably some of the marketing strategies that you teach the doctors in your world, right. They might be writing articles and blog posts, they might be doing direct mail, they might be creating video scripts for Facebook ads. And so, all of that is copy it’s the words that you use to sell your products, your service your program. And that’s exactly what it is.

Dr. Barbara Hales 08:27
I do not mean to suggest that doctors should become experts at copywriting or direct response copywriting, you know, the thing is for you the position to do what you do best. And to use the word magic word that I use liberally all the time. And that word is to like outsourcing. So, if a doctor is looking for an expert, shared the doctor outsource to an individual or to a large agency, what is it that a doctor should look for in finding the copywriter? Best for him or her?

Mara Glazer 09:14
Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, so there are probably a couple of things to pay attention to. So, one thing is, um, what kind of results does the copywriter whether it’s a solo, solo, freelance type writer, or part of an agency or an agency, what kind of results have they been proven to achieve for their clients? That’s one thing I would what I would pay attention to. Another thing I’d pay attention to is, does the writer or the agency has experience in your specific niche talking about your types of products and services and things like that.

Mara Glazer 09:51
Now, really good writers will do the research and will be able to figure out how to write about different niches that Maybe they haven’t had experience in before. But it’s helpful to know that they do have experience on that subject matter because it just makes it easy for everybody. And then the third thing I pay attention to is if you just feel that you resonate with the, with the writer, right, because that writer is going to be writing as you, they’re going to kind of be you. And so, you want to make sure that you feel a connection with them. And that, you know, you feel like you just really like them.

Mara Glazer 10:29
And when it comes to whether working, you should work with a freelancer or an agency, you know, that really depends upon what you feel most comfortable with. There are really great freelancers, and there are really great agencies, and there are also different types of agencies. So, I own a copywriting agency, and we’re a pretty small agency, and, and we’re all connected, I personally review every single project that goes out the door to a client, which is a little bit different than a larger agency, where there might not be what in our industry is called a copy chief overseeing the work to make sure it’s of the quality that you want. So um, so it’s really, it really is up to you, you can get great work from either end of the spectrum. And those are a couple of things to pay attention to.

Dr. Barbara Hales 11:19
I agree with you completely. For me, I always felt most comfortable dealing with a small agency such as yourself, because having oversight to me is really crucial. And if you’re in a large company, it’s so much easier to fall through the cracks until you know until the deadline is either met or passed. But you pointed out something which I think also should be highlighted. And that is the copywriter is writing as if they were you know, you know, you definitely want to feel that there’s some mutual connection between the two of you because that person is going to be the man to you when they talk to the public.

Mara Glazer 12:10
That’s exactly right. So that means that the copywriter also needs to be able to do their research to make sure that they can sound like you, you that you’re the doctor watching this. So, what I mean by that, or what we do is we actually send over a list of questions to our clients when we first start working with them. And we ask them to audio or video record the answers.

Mara Glazer 12:35
And the reason that we do that is not just to get the information that we need to write. But it’s also so that we can analyze our client’s language patterns, and make sure that everything that we do, right sounds like them. And then of course, if they have a social media presence, we will scour their social media, watch all their videos, and all that type of stuff as well. But that’s important to make sure that the writer that you do hire, does their due diligence, and makes sure that they do their research to be able to sound like you the doctor watching this right now.

Dr. Barbara Hales 13:08
Great. So, if a person wanted to reach you know, let’s say they were listening to this and thinking, well, you know, she is just what I need. I’m thinking about getting into E-commerce and a side gig. And, you know, she really sounds like she knows her stuff. So how would they meet you?

Mara Glazer 13:32
Yeah, thanks for asking. So, my website is maraglaser.com, ma ra GLA Zhi, er, calm. And that’s kind of my hub for all the things. So, you can find out about how you could hire us to write your sales copy for you there. You can also find some free gifts there. I’ve got some really great email templates that aren’t specific for doctors. They do help book appointments, but they could be altered to use for doctors. Actually, there is a doctor’s office here in Tampa, I’m friends with the owner, and they have used my templates and adjusted my templates to use in their practice. And then I actually don’t teach e-commerce. It’s just something that I did. Um, but um, you know, I’m a big fan of it. I think it’s super, super fun. And like I said, I’m getting back into that this year as well.

Dr. Barbara Hales 14:24
That’s great. Well, do you have two tips that you could give the listening audience about promoting themselves or, you know, in terms of how they can proceed with marketing, what should they do?

Mara Glazer 14:39
Okay, yeah. All right, cool. I’m going to quote my dad. I’m going to make two of the tips both of the types of meat quotes from my dad. So, the first one is going to be don’t ask, don’t get don’t ask don’t get. So, what that means when it comes to marketing is that I know that sometimes it can be really challenging. I’m going to want to put ourselves out there or really challenging to want to create that marketing promotion and mail it out. Because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. Or, you know, it could take a lot of time, or it could cost money or whatever that is. But if you don’t ask you don’t get it.

Mara Glazer 15:15
And so, my encouragement for you is to whatever that marketing promotion is that you’ve been thinking about doing. Probably the one that Barbara told you to do on one of these podcasts or in her coaching programs, that you should go ahead and do it. Because if you don’t ask your prospects to come into your office and to become a patient, you’re not going to get it. The second thing that I want to share, as my dad also taught me, the best and easiest way to ask your customer or tech too, make money is to ask your customers what they want, and then give it to them.

Mara Glazer 15:45
So, the best and easiest way to make money is to ask your customers what they want, and then give it to them. So, you as a doctor have this really valuable asset, which is you have your patient list. And so, you have the opportunity to survey your patient list and find out exactly what they want from you to find out what other services they would want from you what kinds of care they would want from you, what kinds of you know, with what they want their experience to look like from you, and then you can take that opportunity to provide that for them and give them exactly what you want.

Mara Glazer 16:19
That could look like creating a concierge program for your patients. That could look like bringing in another doctor that specializes in anti-aging and then you have a whole other revenue stream from that. It could look like maybe your patients want a doctor-approved line of skincare if you’re a dermatologist, right? You wouldn’t know unless you ask them. So, the best and easiest way to make money is to ask a prospect what they want and then give it to them.

Dr. Barbara Hales 16:45
That is such valuable advice. And you know, you can’t go wrong there. I think that that’s really great to take to heart. Wow. Thank you so much for being with us today. This has been another episode of marketing tips for doctors with your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Till next time.

Mara Glazer 17:07
Thanks for having me, Barbara.

Mara Glazer, the #1 Female Direct Response copywriter shares with us tips on promotion as well as e-commerce in the YouTube Video-  https://youtu.be/3Gsm5o_zS5k

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