Orthodontic Marketer Knows the Drill

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Welcome, today's featured case study. This guy is doing very, very well. He runs Facebook ads and handles appointment booking for orthodontists all over the US and Canada. Now, this is a big business market with a lot of money. He really picked a good focus or a good industry, a good niche, as some people might say.

The business now brings in more than $60,000 a month. You might say he puts his money where his mouth is. Sorry, it's just too easy. You do a story about orthodontists. You're like, this guy is struck gold.

He's fighting tooth and nail. Brace yourself, everyone. There's just a lot we could do with it. But we're gonna try to remain focused on the details of the story because it is a good one. And I think it could help somebody out there who's trying to figure out, okay, what is my market?

How do I take a skill that I have or that I'm learning? And then how do I apply it to the right market? How do I choose the right market in the first place? So this story is called "Orthodontic Marketer Knows the Drill." I mean, what else would you call it? All right, stay tuned for that story.

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Keaton Walker's family business was a niche in its own right. They taught babies how to swim in Utah. When business expanded to a second location, Keaton was tasked with executing the marketing. He tried everything he could think of, including billboards, flyers, even door-to-door knocking. This local effort was slow to produce results.

But Keaton noticed that the online ads he was trying worked much better. He also enjoyed the process of creating those ads, launching them, testing to see which variables yielded results. And even though they worked well overall, Keaton estimated that more than 90% of each individual ad wasn't doing so well. So if only there was a way to increase his effectiveness. Well, after many months of trial and error, the time to launch the second location was getting too close for comfort.

So Keaton looked around for some outside help. He decided to hire a 17-year-old who was a friend of a friend's. And it's a good thing he did because what he witnessed that 17-year-old do that night changed his life. In just one session, the young apprentice, his name was Justin, systematically tested multiple ad campaigns, campaigns that Keaton never thought of. Not only that, but the ads Justin created were different in every possible way, from the marketing copy to the targeting demographics all the way to the text message follow-ups.

Keaton saw that each aspect of the campaign worked in perfect harmony, and that's why it was so compelling. Not only was it inspirational to watch, but it also worked. Wonder Teen Justin yielded the family business a ton of leads. Keaton learned a lot that night, and hindsight has helped him to explain it. He learned what would become the marketing funnel for his future business, how to craft great ad copy, target those right demographics, flood an area with ads, and finally create those text message follow-ups to prevent leads from falling through the cracks.

Although he was still working for his family's business, he wanted to see if he could start his own business on the side. But what would that be? He knew it would be something to do with marketing. He wanted to do lead generation, but he wasn't sure of the topic or industry. He posted on his Facebook profile.

He said something like, "Hey, I'm finally following my dream of starting a marketing agency. So, hey, just reach out if you need any marketing help." And that didn't go so well. He got a few friendly responses, but no clients. So Keaton began to shoot in the dark. He reached out to every type of business imaginable, a sushi restaurant, food trucks, house cleaning companies, chiropractors, landscapers, yoga studios, a kid's play place, and even an event planner who specialized in reptile birthday parties.

A lot going on there, but none of it worked. But one day he happened to be speaking to a friend who ran a dental practice. And his pal tipped him off that orthodontists charge even more than dentists and they tend to have more patients. Interesting. A week after that conversation, he reached out to his first orthodontist's office through their Facebook messenger and asked if they needed help with marketing.

He made a connection on that first try and a week and a half later collected $600. This was the momentum he needed. From there, business snowballed. He signed up client after client, took a couple of years, but starting in 2020, it began bringing in upwards of $60,000 a month. At this point, Keaton's side hustle is no longer a side hustle.

He was marketing for orthodontists full time. How did he get to mid five figures a month? By creating a model that spoke to the pain points of orthodontists everywhere. And he also partnered with somebody who had spent some time learning the domain. Together, they started a business called OrthoPatients.

After honing in on those pain points, OrthoPatients developed a conversational marketing strategy that connected with potential clients. As a result, their services saved orthodontists the hassle of doing it themselves and overburdening their front desk. OrthoPatients finds customers entirely through Facebook and Instagram. Their target demographic is women ages 30 to 55 who feel comfortable communicating through those platforms. All Keaton needed to start was a laptop and a skill.

Looking back, he says some of the best times were the small achievements that kept him going, including that first $600 he made. What's next? Well, Keaton says he hopes to focus on higher level operations and do more consulting. An aspect of the business he's excited to develop. [Music]

All right, that's pretty exciting.

Getting up to $60,000 a month. And of course you can see the economics of choosing the right niche, you know, Orthodontics. It's, you know, a business that brings in a lot of money. As you heard, orthodontists have more patients than dentists, I didn't know that. But they're also doing something specialized.

So they're, you know, just kind of seeing people and turning it around and then charging them a lot of money, which, you know, it was also interesting, but a great field to go into, a great way to help them with lead generation those leads are very valuable, of course. Keaton, in fact, says, you know, the average client value of an orthodontist gave me a lot of confidence because if we get them one patient per month, they've broken even. If we get them two, they've doubled their money. What other industries are like that? Think about that as you're trying to decide where to focus.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes, including links to Keaton's website, anything else mentioned in the episode, just go to side hustle squad. Just go to sidehustleschool.com/1935. 1-9-3-5. Thanks for tuning in today.

I've got another episode coming out tomorrow. I hope you will subscribe or follow wherever you like to listen. And I hope you'll join me again soon. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."