Marketing

Some of you may remember from posts in the members section of CAN that I became acquainted with acupuncture after sustaining immobilizing skateboard injuries when I was in my teens. Acupuncture was the only consistent and effective source of relief and healing that I found for my joint pains. The only frustrating thing for me was not having the funds to pay for the number of acupuncture sessions I required to keep myself healthy back then.

I came from a working class family that could not afford to consistently pay the high cost of acupuncture. It was from this experience that I formed the idea of becoming an acupuncturist who would make acupuncture and oriental medicine available to people with backgrounds like my own. However, in acupuncture school, I bumped up against the standard price of acupuncture treatments. I was taught that high prices were necessary in practice if I was to make a living in this business. Acupuncture was expensive, I was told, because the therapy was worth its cost, and lowering prices would devalue the quality of health care provided. Other acupuncture practitioners I would meet subsequent to graduating from my program felt the same. No one was really discussing creating more access to acupuncture in terms that I could relate to until I discovered Working Class Acupuncture. When I met Lisa at WCA my dream of making acupuncture accessible to working class people finally came full circle.

I am delighted to be at WCA full time, treating working class people like myself on a consistent enough basis that they see significant results. I am always learning new things about the community acupuncture process and I would like to use this forum to share what I learn with all of you.

One of my main concerns when I began working as an acupuncturist was how to market acupuncture effectively. I wanted to connect with individuals who shared my same interests and so my first thought was to market to skateboarders (who I know deal regularly with the type of pain and injuries that acupuncture and oriental medicine are particularly good at treating). Having no idea what I was doing initially, I approached my marketing effort like a door-to-door salesman, combing local skate shops and skate parks, introducing myself, and handing out business cards. This method was as awkward and uncomfortable as it probably sounds and succeeded at bringing in absolutely no one!

After making a decent effort with my marketing method and seeing no results, I gave up. Then, an amazing thing happened. When I no longer was the pursuer, I became the pursued, slowly—it just happened naturally. Someone would sustain a minor injury at the park and if I knew them or was close by I would casually mention using Zheng Gu Shui to help with my own similar injuries. When they would ask where to get some, I would give them the name of the clinic and relate that it is available in most Chinese markets. Other times in casual conversation someone would ask about what I do and I would tell them that I am an acupuncturist and they would ask questions about whether acupuncture would help with their pain and injuries. In other words it just happened the way that it should through real conversations and genuine connections—and this felt much better. Slowly but surely one group of people that I really connect with, skateboarders, are starting to find acupuncture and it feels great to be a part of introducing this effective healing method to such an unlikely crowd. Skateboarders can certainly benefit from acupuncture, I know because I needle myself for minor skateboard injuries all the time. It is also a great feeling when skateboarders ask me about the cost of acupuncture as though expecting that it will be out of their range, and noticeably relax into a look of interest when they learn how affordable it is.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. I’m learning that acupuncture really is for everyone from all walks of life and that if I quietly share with others as the opportunities present themselves naturally, these people will begin to find acupuncture’s healing benefits for themselves at a price they can afford.

Good luck to all of you out there marketing what we do—we really do have something wonderful to rave about!