Once upon a time I thought there was a magic pill to fix my practice. A secret to success. I bought into coaching program after coaching program, thinking they had the answer. I purchased marketing products by the dozens. Jumped at every “opportunity” presented to me by advertising salesmen who came into my office. All for the sake eventually finding that “one” thing that would make my practice successful.

You know what I mean. The magic pill that you can take and all your problems go away. The secret box you open that contains all the strategies for running a successful practice.

One day I woke up and realize that contrary to what certain new age books tell us, there is no “secret” to success. There is no magic pill to fix your marketing worries. You see, I was desperate for solutions. So I would buy one thing after another, thinking it had the complete answer to my practice problems.

Do most marketing products have good content and tools? Sure. But here’s where I went wrong…

I thought 1 product or piece of coaching advice should fix my practice. If it didn’t, I threw it out and went after another one. If you want to truly succeed in chiropractic practice, you’ve got to get rid of this mindset! Packaged one-size-fits-all marketing products aren’t a magic pill.

You’re a unique doctor.  You have unique skills.  You have a very specific background. You have specific needs at this moment.

For many of you, that need is more new patients. So when you get a new product or service, you’re looking to fulfill that need. The purpose of marketing products and services is just that…they’re tools to bring you more new patients.

Notice I said tools. Not THE tool. Anyone who tells you their product or service is the only thing you’ll ever need to bring in new patients is lying. There is not one be-all-end-all method of marketing. There are good and bad ways to market, higher ROI’s, lower ROI’s and complete wastes of time and money.

Why would I say these things when I offer tools like The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads, Decompression Marketing Elite, and ChiroMarketing Academy…even claiming that these are effective, proven and professional (which is all true by the way)?

Simply because I never once claim that these products are the only thing you’ll ever need. They are awesome at bringing in new patients for your practice. Some doctors are getting awesome results (like Dr. Merrit who scheduled 94 patients, 82 of which started care or Dr. Fenn who got 109 scheduled appointments), many others more normal results (around 10-20 new patients per ad.)

But they aren’t the only tool you should use. If one of my ads brings in 10 new patients this month, and your practice needs 20, you don’t throw away the ad and convince yourself it didn’t work. It still brought in 10 new patients for pennies on the dollar! What you do is use 2 or 3 or 4 other marketing strategies to bring in the other 10 new patients. Never just do one marketing method per month. (Yes, that includes just doing referral marketing!)

And if you want the latest, greatest tax strategy or the best way to adjust a fixated calcaneus, the three products listed above aren’t going to do that for you. They are mainly for marketing solutions , with the occasional bonus that helps in other areas.

These days when I buy a product or service, I’m not looking for a totally packaged solution which will solve all my business problems anymore.  I’m just searching for a tip, a step, a checklist, or a tool that can improve my current results. These things are still worth lots of money to me, and I’ll gladly pay for a small increase in success. But I’m no longer running from one thing to the next, throwing away what didn’t fit my idea of a magic pill.

So don’t think you have to use one product, throw it away, use another, throw it away, and so on. That’s not how success works. To be successful you have to add 1 good strategy, plus another good tool, plus another, etc, etc. The days of using 100% of chiropractic coach A’s methods, while trashing on chiropractic coach B’s methods is over. The chiropractic profession is no longer ruled by cults!

Every chiropractor wants to get new patients from the internet. As they should. It’s easy, inexpensive (compared to other marketing) and relatively easy when you know what you’re doing.

After getting a website, the first question to ask yourself is “where does my website rank on Google?”

I speak to many chiropractors who have had a website for years, but they still do not know where they rank on Google’s “organic” search results. The term “organic” simply means natural, as opposed to paid ads.

In this picture to the left, the area marked in red is the section for paid advertising. The middle section of the page that is not marked in red is the organic search results. These results are based on Google’s complex algorithm for determining which website is most relevant to the searcher.

If you pay someone to run your website, the first thing you should measure is how many new patients you are getting from it. The second thing you should be tracking is where it ranks in the organic Google search results.

To do this, go to google.com and search for the term “chiropractor”.  As long as you’re in the area you practice in, your practice should come up. You really need to be in the top 3 search results to get new patients from your website. If you’re in the top 5 results you’re doing well. Below #5 and your website is not effective at all (except for a yellow page type listing for existing patients to look up your phone number.)

If your website is not in the top 3 listing, let’s look at the top 5 reasons why?

1.) Your website is new (under 6 months old).

Google is not simply about first come, first serve. But they are a wary of new websites. I’ve worked on sites that rank highly within 2-3 months, but this took a focused effort of giving Google exactly what it wants to see. So it might take a few months for a new website to rank highly. But you should still be doing everything right that in 3-6 months it will rank. It’s easier to set things up right from day 1 than it is to go back later and fix it.

2.) You are in a very large city (1 million+). Not a suburb, which in this case is considered a small town, but your practice is physically in a city like New York, Dallas, etc.

You can still rank in the top 3 in a larger city, but everything has to be done right. The competition is obviously much bigger. Sometimes you can choose a specific neighborhood and rank well for that, like” North End Boston” or “North Dallas”.  If your prospective patients are typing in these terms when they go online, you would be better off setting up your site for that neighborhood. Also, many patients are not going to drive across miles of traffic to see you, so it may be a better use of your time and money to focus on your local neighborhood.

3.) Your site is not optimized for certain keywords.

Keywords are what people type in when searching for help. The most obvious ones are chiropractor, chiropractic, etc. But there is a long list of keywords you want to rank for. Some others would be back pain, sciatica, decompression, and so on. Many chiropractors will pay thousands to Joe Computerguy to “optimize” their websites. Problem is that Joe Computerguy is optimizing the site for 1999 standards, messing with meta-tags and met-keywords. This is website basics. To rank high on Google you’ve got to play in the big leagues and optimize using the newest technology.

4.) You’re still using an old website layout

Moore’s law says that the amount of computer technology out there doubles every 24 months. But you wouldn’t know it looking at some chiropractor’s websites. Many doctors have websites for their office that look exactly like websites we all ad in the late 90′s. Technology has drastically changed with regards to websites, making it not only easier to build a webpage but much more inexpensive. Google loves a dynamic interactive website with regularly updated information. In areas where all the other chiropractors have outdated sites, you can just straight to the top of Google simply by updating yours.

5.) You don’t have enough backlinks

Google keeps a count of the number of websites linking back to yours. The site with the most backlinks, taking into account #4 above, will usually rank first on Google. To see how many websites you have linking to you, use a free checker like Backlink Watch. Run a few of your top competitors through there too. Do they have more backlinks than you do? If so you need to start building some more.

By constantly working on these, you’ll have a website at the top of Google in no time. Then you’ll be ready for some heavy duty chiropractic Adwords campaigns.

Often doctors will ask a spouse or front desk CA to look over their ad before it goes to print. A common response these parties give when looking at a long copy ad, like the ones picture on the left, is “who’s going to read all that?” Sometimes these answers will influence the doctor’s decision to run the ad or not.

A professional marketer might ask the same question, but in a slightly different manner saying “is long or short copy more effective?”

Let’s take a look at what some of the best marketers over the past 100 years have said.

David Ogilvy, famous ad marketer, in his book Ogilvy on Advertising said:

“Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money. Only amateurs use short copy.”

Victor Schwab, How to Write a Good Advertisement –

Mr. Schwab tells the story of Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner & Marx) and his advertising manager, George L. Dyer, arguing about long copy. Dyer said, “I’ll bet you $10 I can write a newspaper page of solid type and you’d read every word of it.”

Hart scoffed at the idea. “I don’t have to write a line of it to prove my point,” Dyer replied. “I’ll only tell you the headline: ‘This Page is All About Max Hart’.”

Jay Abraham, marketing expert says:

Should your letter or E-mail be long or short? Make it long enough to tell a complete, informative, and interesting story.

Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerilla Marketing Handbook with Seth Godin writes:

Don’t be afraid to use lengthy copy. It’s been statistically proven time and time again that ads with more copy draw better than those with less.

Claude Hopkins, author of the classic book Scientific Advertising writes:

Some say, “Be very brief. People will read but little.” Would you say that to a salesman? With the prospect standing before him, would you confine him to any certain number of words? That would be an unthinkable handicap.”

As you can see, all of these marketing giants recommend a longer copy ad over a shorter one. Why? Because it works. More specifically, because long copy allows you to have all the effective components in the ad (like the important ones I mentioned in “5 Secrets to Powerful Chiropractic Ads“).

So who’s going to read all that copy?

A patient who’s looking for a doctor that finally understands them, that finally can relate to their problem, someone that has expertise with their condition that they’ve been suffering from. Put these elements in your long copy, niche-specific ad, and I guarantee patients will read it.

Here are a few cases where patients did respond to the ads. (This does not mean you’ll get exactly the same results as they did, as it’s likely yours would be within the range mentioned here.)

So the point is save your short copy ads for the yellow pages, but use long copy in the newspaper, in direct mail and online.

Do you have a weight loss program in your office?

It’s no secret the “weight loss” market is a huge industry. Wikipedia reports that “between $33 billion and $55 billion is spent annually on weight loss products and services.” And this is not just a U.S. trend, but one seen in Western Europe ($1.4 billion in sales for 2009), Canada, and Australia. Weight loss has even gone prime time with the popular TV show “The Biggest Loser” where individuals and families compete for the greatest % body fat loss.

IBISworld, a market research company, made an interesting statement in their 2009 report on the weight loss industry. They said:

IBISWorld estimates that about 70 percent of American's dieting attempts
are of a self-help nature.  Although often short-lived, these diet fads are a
positive trend for this sector as Americans ultimately turn to professionals
to help them meet their weight loss goals.

Notice what they are saying. Most people try a weight loss program or diet on their own at home, but because these are “short-lived” the person seeks professional help. As professionals we must be asking ourselves if we should be in the weight loss industry as well.

Another fact to consider is that obesity (defined as BMI over 30) has become an epidemic in America. Obesity is the #1 cause of Type 2 diabetes and 55% of those who are obese will end up with diabetes according to the CDC. Heart disease and cancer are closely linked to obesity as well.

Done right, it can certainly help patients live a healthier life. In addition, your office can be seen as a holistic health clinic, not to mention bringing in a potential revenue increase. Also, it would not take much in to convince an overweight person they need a weight loss program because the media and their MDs have already done quite a bit of the work.

Taking everything into consideration, adding a weight loss program to your practice by year’s end could be a smart move.

I’ve kept this post short because I want it to be more of a discussion. Let’s here what you think.

If you’re already using a weight loss program in your office, comment below and tell us what you think are the pros and cons? If you’re not using a weight loss program in your office, what concerns are keeping you from doing it?

**UPDATE: We’ve had many comments that are simply advertisements for a weight loss product or service. These will be edited or deleted. No phone numbers, links, etc. will be allowed in the comments. This a discussion for chiropractors, not an opportunity to advertise products.**

According to Google Analytics, my blog has had near 100,000 pageviews. Today I looked at the most popular articles since the blog started in 2008. You might be interested in seeing the most popular articles by category. Feel free to comment at the bottom of those articles or below this post below.

General Marketing

The Best Months for Chiropractic Marketing

Most Controversial Post

Chiropractic Coaching Lie #3: The High Volume Lie

Spinal Decompression

Decompression Practice Solutions

Referral Marketing

Internal Marketing Strategies, Part1
Internal Marketing Strategies, Part 2

Practice Growth

The Only 5 Ways to Grow Your Practice

Newspaper Ads

Are Chiropractic Ads in the Newspaper Dead?

Internet Marketing

My Top 3 Internet Marketing Strategies

Obamacare and Chiropractic (2nd Most Controversial Post?)

Congress Has Done It, Now What?

What business books will you be reading this summer to improve your practice?

Reading is one of the best ways to learn. For your practice growth, you should be consuming a steady stream of new ideas and strategies that can help you excel. I’ve had numerous breakthroughs in my life. Many of those breakthroughs began with a small sentence or thought on the printed page.

Reading is an acquired skill. Few of us are born with the desire to read a book a week. I hardly ever read non-fiction books until my practice began to struggle. Then I started reading every good marketing and business book I could find.

Each month I read 4-6 books on a wide range of topics like: history, biography, theology, marketing, business, philosophy and good classical fiction (read aloud to the kids). Here are the top 4 books in the business/marketing category that I look forward to reading this summer. Grab one or two to read while you’re sitting on the beach or enjoying a break from the summer heat.

What books are you reading this summer? Let us know in the comment section below. (If you’d rather read books digitally, Amazon just recently dropped the price of their Kindle to $189.)

Dr. John Reizer, CHIROPRACTIC MARKETING TOOLS THAT WILL ABSOLUTELY GROW YOUR PRACTICE. This book has been on my to read list for awhile now. But it has finally made it to the top of my stack and should be a fast read at only 130 pages. There aren’t too many books published specifically for chiropractic marketing, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Dr. Reizer has to ad to the discussion. The bio says Dr. Reizer currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Sherman College of Chiropractic. The subject matter of the book ranges from the simply business cards and newspapers to more advanced strategies like writing your own newspaper ads, developing a weight loss campaign, and marketing to health clubs.

William Poundstone, Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It). The name and concept of this book fascinated me, especially when we consider that many chiropractors may soon be flocking to the cash practice model in light of recent health care reforms. In Priceless, Poundstone looks at how prices are set and how we don’t really know how much anything is worth. The inside flap reads:

“People used to download music for free; then Steve Jobs convinced them to pay for it. How? By charging 99 cents. Prada and other luxury stores stock a few obscenely expensive items — just to make the rest of their inventory seem like a bargain. Why do text messages cost money, while e-mails are free? Why do jars of peanut butter keep getting smaller in order to keep the price the ‘same’? The answer is simple: prices are a collective hallucination.”

Arthur C. Brooks, The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future. Being entrepreneurs like we are, and realizing the government already affects our business in many ways (and will do so even more in the future), this book should be on every chiropractors ‘to read list’. I added this book to my Amazon wish list when I read that WORLD magazine ranked it as their book of the year.

“Honoring a book on current political and economic questions is unusual for WORLD. Our books of the year in 2008 and 2009 were The Reason for God and The ESV Study Bible. We generally rate timeless higher than timely—but sometimes we have to pay attention to the immediate. Samuel Johnson said, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” As the United States careens toward a crucial fall election, The Battle is concentrating minds.”

Robert V. Levine, A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently. I’ve always heard that other cultures live at a slower pace than western cultures do. But I’ve never given much thought to how that affects business and society. Dr. Levine is a psychologist who’s spent much of his life studying time. The book description says, “Levine raises some fascinating questions. How do we use our time? Are we being ruled by the clock? What is this doing to our cities? To our relationships? To our own bodies and psyches? Are there decisions we have made without conscious choice?”

I first heard of this book, which is about 12 years old, from the following video.

In the last post (Chiropractic Marketing Is A Changing) I began revealing the answers to a recent blog survey I conducted. I left the answer to the final question to be discussed in full today.

The question I asked my readers was:

5. What is the biggest challenge you see facing you as a chiropractor over the next year?

The answers I received were very surprising. Let me explain…

First, a bit of history. I asked a very similar question in a survey about a year and half ago. The most common answer at the time had to deal with getting new patients. This was no surprise, as that has always been the biggest struggle in running a chiropractic practice.

Chiropractors struggle with the problem of getting new patients for a couple of reasons.

Reason #1: The common misconception of chiropractic by the public.

Reason #2: Most chiropractors complete disregard for using effective marketing and measuring ROI.

Number 1 above we can do little about individually, other than keep making our practices successful so we can reach more people. But the second reason above is totally within your control.

Why do most chiropractors have a complete disregard for using effective marketing? There are various reasons I’ve heard from doctors over the years, ranging from the “marketing is not professional” to the “it just doesn’t work in my area”.

So it wasn’t a big surprise to me that this was the most common answer with my survey last week. 36% of people mentioned new patients or marketing as their biggest problem. It’s definitely still a problem chiropractors face, and will be until we all become better educated on real chiropractic marketing.

What was a surprise was the second place answer, coming in at 35% of respondents mentioning it in their write-in answers. This new category of answers had to deal with health care reform (Obamacare) and the issue of cash practice or cash patients!

Now you may think this has been around for awhile, so it’s not big deal to see that answer. But think about it for a minute. Almost as many people are concerned about how the insurance industry changes will affect their practice as are concerned about actually getting new patients. This is a big change in our profession.

Especially when you consider only 4-5% of people mentioned anything about insurance or cash patients 1.5 yrs ago in my survey.

Also, what I’m noticing is that chiropractors are looking at the cash practice as a better, less stressful business model because of these new health care laws. This is much different from 5-10 years ago, when most chiropractors were switching to cash practices for more philosophical reasons.

I’m curious as to what you think about all this?

Leave a comment below telling us what type of practice you have now (cash or insurance), and if you plan to change it in the future (and if so, why.) If you didn’t participate in the survey last week and you leave a comment below discussing this, I’ll send you the link to the bonus marketing audios I gave away. (I can see your email address when you leave a comment, so you don’t need to put it in the comment itself.)

As Bob Dylan once sang, ‘times they are are a changing’, and this is especially true in the profession of chiropractic. (Listen to Dylan’s song here when reading this post )

Most of you can feel it, knowing that there is a wind of change blowing through our industry. Currently it may feel like a small breeze. But soon I fear it will be a strong, gale force wind.

But while some things are changing, still others remain the same. Which is good if it’s a rock solid marketing method, as I’ll soon show you below with the results of my recent survey.

Why are things changing? Two big reasons.

#1. A recent recession and still weak economy. This has caused some chiropractors to withdraw all marketing ( very dumb move if your marketing was previously working). Others had thought their low return-on-investment marketing would get them through the recession, but it didn’t. And still others sought after the magic pill that would save their practice, expecting a new marketing product would undo years of bad business management.

#2. Health care reform. (Also called Obamacare by some.) This is the biggest reason for change occurring in chiropractic. While there are still a lot of questions over this recent congressional bill, many chiropractors get the sense this bill is bad news for their practice. The ACA and ICA both seem to be convinced this is an “historic pro-chiropractic” bill, mostly because it will not allow insurers to discriminate against us. Of course some chiropractors have said to me they’d gladly take a little discrimination as opposed to an across-the-board-medicare-like system that has low payouts and excludes payment for exams, x-rays, therapies, etc.

Other chiropractors have taken a “wait-and-see” approach to this bill. After all, we have 4 years to figure things out, right? Well, if you are anything like me, being reactive is not something I like. Being proactive in growing my businesses has always been extremely successful, whereas being reactive to problems others throw at me ends in mediocrity at best.

Last week, I ran a quick survey to my list of blog readers. I limited the survey to 100 respondents and offered a package of marketing audios to those who answered every question of the survey. (Links to the audios will go out Wednesday to those who completed the survey. Thank you!)

Let’s look at some results of the survey. The first question I asked was:

Question 1. What area of marketing do you want the most help with right now

Now I expected a wide range of answers, which I certainly got. But I did not expect the answers to be strongly skewed toward what’s referred to today as “offline advertising”. Over 67% of the responders chose an answer in the offline group of marketing which contained newspaper advertising, internal referrals, MD referrals, attorney referrals and public lectures. Very few wanted help with their websites, pay per click, blogs, Facebook & Twitter. Is this because D.C.’s don’t fully understand these online methods yet? Or is it that the offline methods are continuing to outperform newer, online marketing strategies? (What do you think? Please leave a comment below.)

Question 2. What area do you currently spend most of your marketing budget on?

Big surprise here! A whopping 38% of respondents chose newspaper advertising compared to the second most popular answer (websites) being only 17%. This result was very telling of our profession for 2 reasons. First, there are many ‘salesmen’ shouting that newspaper ads are dead. If this was the case, why are so many chiropractors in June, 2010 still spending a large amount on them? And secondly, most businesses don’t continue to spend money where there is no return. Therefore, newspaper ads must be bringing in a decent ROI at least, compared to other advertising.

You may think this answer is not surprising, because after all I developed the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads, so of course the answers would be biased. But the interesting thing is, most of the people filling out the survey have never bought my newspaper ads.

So here is an example of one thing that hasn’t changed much, which is good because its working and continues to work well. Marketing that works well doesn’t need to change.

Question 3. Which form of marketing/advertising is currently most effective for you?

Here I gave the same choices as I had given in the previous 2 questions. No surprise here that the answer “internal referrals” won by a large margin. Everyone knows referrals are the easiest to convert to care and cost almost nothing to bring in. Taking 2nd place was public lectures and 3rd was newspaper advertising (which confirms the assumption I made about ROI above.)

Question 4. Which of these products, if any, would most interest you?

The answers to choose from were  weight loss, associate hiring /training, massage therapy and write in your own. This question brought a pretty broad range of answers. Write-in answers varied with 16 different answers typed in. Weight loss won, (but just barely) and all the other answers pretty much tied for 2nd place.

5. What is the biggest challenge you see facing you as a chiropractor over the next year?

This was a completely open ended question, with the ability to type in what you wanted here. This is where I saw the biggest change in our profession. Huge actually! But you’ll have to wait until Friday because I’m going to do a whole blog post just on this topic. I know, it’s annoying to wait, but sometimes it’s well worth the wait, right?

See ya Friday.

The neuropathy niche is becoming bigger and bigger. Millions of people suffer from this debilitating condition. But questions remain about who will provide the most effective treatment for these suffering patients.

Even the U.S.government realizes neuropathy is becoming a difficult problem to solve. The Neuropathy Association, Inc. states “The National Institutes of Health spent $35 million in 2004 and $29 million in 2005 on peripheral neuropathy research.”

People are looking for answers. And drug companies are not providing a solution.

This is why it’s an opportune time for chiropractors to teach neuropathy patients how they can help.

When I first starting writing neuropathy ads, I wanted to get across to the reader that chiropractors had a solution. One that has been proven to work in many cases. This educational aspect is still a part of the neuro ads I write each month for the NeuropathyDr program.

As the doctors who’ve ran my ads can attest to, the neuropathy market is a wide open niche. There is just so little competition out there right now. Which means you’re message can get through faster, easier and with very little expense compared to other niches (like decompression, fibromyalgia, etc.)

Here are just a couple of success stories doctors are getting with my neuropathy ads:

“Wow!  My first Neuropathy Ad brought in 12 new patients… about $5,000 and only cost $700 to run.  My practice is recovering and so is our cash-flow.” -  Julian Chipley, DC

“We have 37 new pt. scheduled from the ad.” -Dr. Chad Keeney, D.C.

“With Dr Beck`s ad I had 21 NPs and many of them have since referred other patients to us. The ROI thus far exceeds 20-1, and the tab is still running. The difference in my opinion is his copywriting skill…If I had his program 10 years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this, I`d be fishing off my tropical island someplace! – Dr Ren Halverson

Just like spinal decompression was all the rage 5 years ago, the neuropathy niche is only going to get bigger and bigger. Don’t be the last chiropractor in your town who taps into this market of patients.

No doubt there are neuropathy patients in your town right now looking for help. They’re tired of being pumped full of drugs to stop the pain. They want a natural solution.

The only question is how are you going to reach them and what treatment protocol will you be using?   While you don’t need to spend $100k (like you did on chiropractic school) or get some fancy equipment to help neuropathy patients, you should know something about what’s been shown to be effective.

Many chiropractors are including other modalities like the Rebuilder, nutritional supplements and rehab into their neuropathy treatment plans.

But which of these really work and which don’t? And how do you build a care plan around it?

Join Dr. John Hayes, Jr. and myself on a free webinar Thursday, June 17th, at 1:30 PM EST as we discuss a “Mid-Year Update” on the neuropathy niche and what you need to be doing right now to get more neuropathy patients.

Register for the free webinar here:

http://www.dcpracticetools.com/neurowebinar.htm

Are you happy with your income so far this year?

The June 3, 2010 issue of Chiropractic Economics magazine is entitled “DCs: Are You Back in Black?” The feature article in this issue is a their “13th Annual Salary & Expense Survey”.

This survey was taken from a good number of practicing chiropractors spread evenly throughout the U.S. Here are some major points that I got out of the 3-year comparison chart on pg. 33.

1. Franchises are declining. According to the percent of franchises in our profession from 2008 to 2010, the number is dropping significantly. The chart shows 3.9% of chiropractors surveyed in 2008 had a franchise, 1.4% in 2009, and only 1% in 2010.

Why are franchises declining? I’m uncertain. I have heard a few past franchisees say they didn’t get what they expected out of the deal. Perhaps the marketing didn’t live up to the franchisees expectations.

2. Associates are up, almost double from what they were in 2008 and 2009. 9.4% of those surveyed had an associate. This could be due to the recent recession, as more graduates are looking for a job, since they are unable to get a loan to start their own practice. Yet, this number is also telling of the owners who hire the associates. Are practices growing in 2010 to the point where they can hire more associates so quickly?

3. Salaries and DC compensations are still low. While definitely up from last year’s depressing numbers, the 2010 average salary of $87,538 has not returned to the level observed in 2008. The lower salary could be explained by the increase in associate doctors, but the overall DC total compensation is still low as well at $112,368.

4. The average chiropractor’s advertising expense is embarrassing. A general rule in business, one I heard even in chiropractic school, was that you should spend at least 10% of your monthly gross collections on marketing. I realize this will not always be the case. Some times you spend more, like when you open a new practice for example. Other times you spend a bit less.

According to the study, the average gross collections for chiropractors in 2010 will be $323,421. Yet the average spent on marketing is projected to be only $10,660. This isn’t anywhere close to 10%! The amount spent on marketing by the average chiropractor is only 3% of their collections. This is actually down from last year’s average of 4.6% spent on marketing and 2008′s 3.7% spent on marketing. This means chiropractors on average are cutting back this year on their marketing spend. It doesn’t make any sense to cut back now, as the economy is showing signs of recovery and many business are hitting a growth spurt right now.

What lessons can you learn from this?

If you don’t want to have just an average practice, increase your marketing spend immediately. What better time for your marketing to stand out than now, when everyone else is still cutting back.

Of course, you shouldn’t waste your money on useless marketing that doesn’t work. It’s best to use direct response marketing to bring in new patients every week of the year.

If you’re spend increases on productive marketing, your practice can only grow. And then you’ll be far ahead the “averages” mentioned above.

Here’s a list of tools & products I recommend for helping you get more new patients in over the summer. Some are mine and others are excellent products from friends of mine who’ve proven themselves in the field of chiropractic marketing.

Use these tools now to bring in more new patients. Don’t waste the whole summer, thinking “everyone is on vacation, no one will come in.” Cut the excuses and grow your practice to the level you always wanted it to be!

The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads

Decompression Marketing Elite

Internet Marketing for Chiropractors

Chiropractic Marketing Academy

PI Marketing Mastery

Internal Referral Marketing System

Neuropathy Doctor Marketing