1. Monthly print newsletters will be more valuable.

I know, you’re probably thinking print newsletters have gone the way of the dinosaur, and that email, Facebook, etc. are “da bomb!” But the fact is people are starting to demand a more personal relationship with their businesses. All you have to do is look at the Occupy Wall Street movement to sense how people now see a big gap between the products they buy and the companies who provide them. (Also, for more on this, watch the second video here on Dr. Loop’s blog.)

What about email newsletters you ask? You should be sending those too, at least 2 per month. But does it mean more to you to receive a birthday card by snail mail or an e-card? Sending a print newsletter with a real postage stamp is still a very effective way to communicate with current patients and get more referrals.

2. Videos will be more effective on your website.

Video has been around for a number of years on the internet, but it really hasn’t become the norm yet. However I think in 2012 that will start to shift. A few reasons for this are: almost everyone has some type of broadband internet access now, Youtube is more popular than ever, and sites like Facebook are using more video. At the least you should test a video of yourself on the landing page of our website to see if it increases conversions. Using tools like Google website Optimizer will let you easily figure out if videos are more or less effective for your site.

3. Neuropathy, Decompression and other niche specific newspaper ads will continue to get high returns.

Like the print newsletters mentioned above, you may have bought into the lie that newspapers are now extinct. However, in most markets, this is not the case. Many of my clients got their best returns ever on newspaper ads in 2011, especially when using neuropathy and decompression ads. I know there are plenty of other people out there telling you how a jillion internet things will bring in hundreds of patients. And some of it will bring in patients. But don’t neglect the trusted source of patients like the newspaper. The key is using very good copywriting to reach specific niches that are really responsive.

4. Facebook, Google + and other Social Marketing sites will become more important in your chiropractic marketing plan.

Many chiropractors have heard of Facebook. Less have heard of Google+. Unfortunately, doctors treat these sites like everyone else, a place to post all your personal happenings. The problem is most patients aren’t interested in the fact you just “checked in” at the local burger barn. Sure, some personal interaction is necessary to maintain a following. But, you also need good copywriting and intentional posts to cause new patients to act and pick up the phone to call. Another important and often overlooked aspect of these sites is that they help with your search engine rankings. Having Facebook likes and Google+’s on your website will help it come up higher in Google Search, which will translate into more new patients. Just remember, Facebook and Google+ are effective tools, but they are not the only game in town. So, don’t spend 100% of your time and money fiddling with them.

5. Developing a mobile site will become a necessity.

As my friend Terry Dean recently pointed to, more and more people are using iphones to access websites like Facebook. Look at the stats from the link below, which state that “more than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices “:

https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Also, realize that one of the most common uses for a smart phone is to check email. That means every time you send an email with a link back to your website that person is going to your website on their phone. Even though I prefer to use the internet on my PC, I have an iPhone and iPad that I use often and realize it is just more convenient to click a link now rather than wait until later when I can access the website on my home desktop.

I’ll be working hard to implement these changes in 2012. I recommend you do the same. Also, I’ll keep you updated on any new tools and strategies I’m working on next year. Happy New Year’s.

A big mistake in practice is that chiropractors do not nurture the relationship with their current patients. We take it for granted that if the patient starts care, they will always do what we tell them to do.

This is not reality. Look at your stats. How many patients have quit care and never been seen again. We may never know why they quit. But there are certain things we can do to help them complete their treatment plan.

I’ve never been a fan of strong arm tactics to get people to do things. Why?

Because it’s rude and it does not work. Sure you can convince someone with hype and “rah-rah” to stay on wellness or maintenance care. But the truth is a few weeks later, the “pep talk” has wore off and the patient will begin asking themselves…

“Do I really need to keep going to see that chiropractor?”

So what’s the solution to this mistake?

Consistent, monthly contact through direct mail (and email). The best and proven way to maintain a relationship with your patients is by sending them a monthly newsletter. This will keep your active patients connected to you and feel like they have a better relationship with you. After all, no other doctor or chiropractor sends them something in the mail each month.

I can not tell you how many patients I have had over the years “return” for care in my office, simply because they got a newsletter from me. Some of these patients we had ‘written off’ because we thought they were never coming back .

This works so well, we even had a few patients that we thought would never come back because they actually left the office upset about something.

And, we got new patient referrals from the newsletter as well. This is because every month there is a personalized letter from me with an offer on the back page.

Marketing guru Dan Kennedy talks about “putting a fence around your herd.” He says if you don’t put a fence around you’re herd, they will get out and go into other people’s pasture (you’re competition!)

And the #1 method Dan Kennedy recommends for keeping your customers is a monthly newsletter.

What should your newsletter be about?

It should include relevant topics to the care you give. Healthy living tips, studies, and seasonal articles are great content.

The slam-dunk thing about newsletters is that they are very inexpensive to produce and mail. For about $10-15 per patient, you can stay in contact with your patient list monthly for a year.

If you have the time and skill, you can write your own newsletter. Another option is to let a service do it for you. There are quite a few newsletter services out there, but not one that I specifically recommend at the moment.

Just make sure you get few samples of their newsletter before you sign up with the service.

If you stay in contact with your patients, they will stay with you longer. And if you give them an opportunity to refer other new patients, they will. Try it for a year and see if it isn’t an excellent low cost marketing strategy.

There aren’t too many books published specifically for chiropractic marketing, so I was very interested in seeing what Dr. Reizer has to say in his new book CHIROPRACTIC MARKETING TOOLS THAT WILL ABSOLUTELY GROW YOUR PRACTICE. According to his site, Dr. Reizer “is a former associate professor of Sherman College and has taught numerous graduate level courses in chiropractic technique, x-ray analysis, diagnostic interpretation, chiropractic philosophical applications, and chiropractic communications.”

Dr. Reizer has published numerous other books on chiropractic (which I have listed at the end of this post), as well as three science fiction novels.

The subject matter of Chiropractic Marketing Tools ranges from simple business cards and newspapers to more advanced strategies like writing your own newspaper ads, developing a weight loss campaign, and marketing to health clubs. The book is only 133 pages, but packed full of ideas. I counted at least 24 different marketing tools mentioned. Dr. Reizer spends about 3-6 pages on each of the marketing tools mentioned. In most of the chapters he briefly explains the tool and how to use it, and sometimes gives an sample piece that you can easily use in your office.

One Amazon reviewer said,”Every morning our staff reads a few pages to get everyone thinking about how to promote the office.” This is actually a pretty good idea, as these are mostly marketing tools that your staff could do for you (or setup for you.) So to have them thinking about marketing each day is vital to your practice. Also, many of these strategies your staff has never heard of before, so you can provide a quick and easy manual of marketing ideas for them to use.

I do have two critiques of the book.

The biggest critique is that while the tools mentioned are useful and will “absolutely grow your practice” if done correctly, one of the most effective marketing tools available to chiropractors is only mentioned in passing: direct response marketing. These exact words are not found in the book, but Dr. Reizer does spend a few pages talking about lead generation marketing, which is a form of direct response marketing. He then provides a sample free report, which well written. But no mention of long copy newspaper ads or direct mail pieces. Seeing as one of my Decompression Marketing Elite clients just notified me that they got over 300 new patients this year from my ads, I think newspaper ads are pretty important!

The other critique is related to the first. Overall the book is a great summary of marketing ideas for every chiropractor to use. But the book is going to be used most by those who are new to practice or operating on a low marketing budget. For example, all of the strategies in the book could be done each month for less than $500 (there is no mention of radio or TV marketing). While this is a great place to start, and even marketing veterans should be doing some of the things Dr. Reizer mentions, there is much more that can be done in the way of effective marketing strategies.

Overall I think it’s a book every chiropractor should have in their arsenal. For those in practice less than 2 years, or for doctors struggling, it is a must read ASAP. For others, this book will be very useful for your staff and as a reference guide for ideas.

Dr. Reizer’s other chiropractic books include:

• 15 Secrets to Becoming a Successful Chiropractor
• Up and Running – Opening A Chiropractic Office
• Teaching Your Patients Chiropractic
• Depression – Proofing Your Chiropractic Career

As we finish out 2009, I want to look forward at some possible trends in 2010. Today’s post looks at the last 2 predictions (out of 5 total) I see for next year. To view part 1, click here.

#4. Better Internet Marketing For New Patients

While chiropractors have been using websites for over a decade now, I predict an increase use of the internet to get new patients. This reasons for this are many — increasing use of the internet in general, rising popularity of Facebook and Twitter, Google’s affinity for blogs, and more.

In 2010, it’s likely that the majority of chiropractors will realize that internet marketing is about effectiveness, not the flashy graphics and “pretty websites”. Even in 2009 I noticed many of the website developers were removing their ‘rotating spine’ charts and adding more content instead.

Content really is king with search engines like Google. I have found that we are able to get professional websites with direct response copy up quickly using blog software. Then we ad a few blog posts written from the doctor-to-patient view point, and within days Google is ranking our brand new website in the top 5 spots. We can then keep this doctor there by adding new blog posts over time.

While many chiropractors realize the usefulness of organic or free search engine optimization, most do not yet grasp the potential of pay-per-click marketing (PPC).

Based on this, I also predict that more chiropractors will discover how well Google Adwords can work for new patient marketing. It surprises me that more chiropractors are not taking advantage of this great marketing tool. Many tell me it’s because they’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. However, the problem occurs when doctors send Adword’s “visitors” directly to their homepage on their website. By using condition-specific landing pages, with direct response copy, plus email marketing follow-up, my internet marketing clients are finding this method very successful and will continue to do so into next year.

Admittedly there is a learning curve to Adwords, along with the reward and punishment system Google has built into it.

But in my opinion its well worth the time spent for the return on investment, especially in the long run. Of course for those who don’t want to learn it or don’t have the time, we created ChiroPatients Online specifically for this reason.

#5. Deeper Patient Relationships

Because of what many are calling the New Economy, patients are more careful with their money. Even though we are moving out of the recession and the overall economy will improve in 2010, people are not ready to be back in the 2008-2009 feeling where money was tight.

If you’ve been in practice for long, this really is no surprise. Patients, being human beings like the rest of us, tend to drop out of things over time. Yet I expect this to rise in 2010 as more healthcare opportunites will come into the market combined with more careful spending mentioned above.

Both of these, the careful spending and more competition, means that chiropractors will have to work harder to keep their current patients.

It still surprises me that doctors are willing to spend so much to get a new patient, but scrimp on spending anything to keep them over the long term. Something as simple as mailing a chiropractic newsletter once a month is a bare essential. Holding true patient appreciation events and creating V.I.P. lists will take your practice to an even higher level.

Other great strategies for keeping your patients longer include dinner workshops, patient of the month programs, referral contests, and stick letters.

You can also expect more online patient communication to grow in 2010. The most powerful of these is email marketing, but many chiropractors will also get their facebook and twitter pages up and running.

This concludes my 5 big predictions for 2010. I recommend planning for them sooner rather than later.

Did I miss one you thought was important? Do you have a prediction I didn’t mention? Leave your comments below.

The average chiropractic newsletter is a waste of paper and postage. It doesn’t look good and is terrible at getting referrals in the office.

But monthly patient newsletters do work, if done right!

Find out how to produce a professional newsletter that improves patient retention and boosts referrals by joining me on December  17th at 2:00 PM EST, 1:00PM CST, for a special free webinar entitled ” Internal Marketing With Newsletters in 2010″.

On this webinar you’ll be able to see exactly how I recommend you do a professional newsletter. We’ll be joined by the guys at Avalanche newsletters, the company I recommend for inexpensive, professional chiropractic newsletters.

On this call they’ll show you real life examples of what they’ll be doing for their clients in 2010. You’ll get an insider’s view of unique and proven strategies for getting more referrals and increased retention from your patients.

Watch the webinar replay here:
http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com

Here’s just a few of the valuable nuggets of wisdom you’ll hear on this breakthrough call…

-Finally discover how to really get more new patients with a professional print newsletter. (Some doctors have been told to only use black and white with no graphics. Find out the truth!

-3 unique strategies to make sure you’re getting referrals from your monthly mailings to patients.

-The single most important strategy to get your newsletters read. Most chiropractors are wasting their money sending out material that ends up in the trash.

Watch new referrals flood in month after month with these simple newsletter secrets.

In addition, we’ll be asking direct questions to one of the top chiropractic newsletter companies in the U.S. That’s right, you’ll get a chance to ask your question during a 20 minute Q&A session.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com

Listen to what these doctors said about the quality of Avalanche’s newsletters…

“I see that there is a great benefit to my patients. They are being educated about chiropractic, nutrition, and exercise programs. I think it is important to keep your patients up do date on these issues. It helps me to keep them informed of what I’m doing. It keeps me in their minds as we provide the best care we can for them.

I think there is a great value in not having my staff take their time to put this together. It’s really a turn-key type of operation where Avalanche can just take over this and it gives me peace of mind and the ability to focus in on patient care.”

Dr. Ira Crawford
Smithfield Chiropractic

“Working with Avalanche is kind of a no-brainer. The price – You can’t beat it. To try to do something like this on your own would be way too much work, and I’m just too busy to get out there and try to do it on my own. Avalanche does it all for you.”

Dr. Justin Traveller
Chiro Active

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how a patient newsletter should look and feel. Sign up now for the free webinar.

It’s much less expensive to market to your current patients than it is to go out and acquire new patients. Not only should you be marketing for new patients, but compounding on top of that with referral based marketing.

Newsletters easily make this happen. Watch the replay here…

http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com

I was recently thumbing through Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Direct Marketing book, looking for a quote I had seen about chiropractic newsletters. While I did find the quote, I was reminded of something even more important when it comes to marketing.

In the first section of the book, Dan lists 10 rules to follow on marketing in your business. What he said in rule #9 can be directly applied to your chiropractic marketing. Here’s what he said…

Rule #9: Results Rule, Period.

Results are what matters when it comes to measuring the success of your marketing.

While there are certain caveats to this rule (which I discuss below), let’s look at what this really means for your practice.

“Results rule, period” means it doesn’t matter what your friends, colleagues, family, front desk CA, or even your spouse thinks about your advertising. When it comes down to it your own feelings about a certain marketing piece aren’t the determining factor of it’s success.

It doesn’t matter what your newspaper representative thinks about your chiropractic ads either. You would be surprised at how many times an ad rep wants to make changes to my ads.  They’ll tell my customer “I can make that ad look much better. Let me have our art department put a better picture in there. And I think you should cut this out and we’ll put you a pretty coupon right there.”

Then I get an email from the doctor asking me if he should let them do this. I tell him “Sure, if THEY GIVE YOU THE AD PLACEMENT FOR FREE! Otherwise, tell them it’s your money and you’ll spend it on the type of marketing you want.”

I once had a front desk CA proof read an ad I was about to run in the small community newspaper. She told me “the ad wasn’t going to do well, because she wouldn’t respond to it herself.” Then I asked if she had a herniated disc like the patients the ad was geared towards. Of course her answer was no. But she still insisted the ad likely wouldn’t do well. I then told her that we could run her rewrite of the ad, if she wanted to pay for it out of her next paycheck. That ended the discussion. (This ad brought in 13 new decompression patients for an ROI of 2062%.)

So who’s vote does count?

The only vote that counts is your patient’s vote, since they are the ones giving you the money. You then total the income from their case fees, and see if it’s more than you paid to run the ad. This is your ROI and it is the determining factor if the ad was successful or not.

So what’s more important when measuring ad results, the number of new patients you get from an ad or the actual ROI?

Well, if you ask most chiropractors, they would tell you it’s the number of new patients. But the ROI is much more telling. The biggest reason is because the ROI figures in the quality of the patient, how long they stay, and how much they spend.

For example, you could get 81 new patients in for a free exam and have only 4 of them actually ever give you money. Or you could have 15 sciatica patients pay $47 for an exam, 13 of which accept a care plan, spend $2000 each and get an ROI of 2500%. Which one would you rather have?

Figuring the ROI will also factor in the “caveat” I mentioned above to Dan’s rule. Here’s what I mean…

If you are measuring purely the number of new patients you got in, you could change the above rule to “Number of New Patients Rule, Period.” But this is not true, as it doesn’t account for the unethical, hyped up, immoral, and in some cases illegal advertising that goes on.

After all, if all that matters is getting the most new patients you can get from an ad, why not “promise a cure” and tell them the first visit is free? Hey, if you’re just measuring new patients, you did great, you got 101 new people in the door! Do whatever it takes, right?

But let’s look at your ROI. After 99 of them waste your time and never pay you a dime, 1 files a lawsuit against you for unethical advertising, and the state board fines you and yanks your license to practice, I’d say your ROI is about a negative 1 million percent.

With that said, I think we should modify Dan’s rule to make it a bit more speficic. “Return on investment rules, period.”

Do you agree or disagree? Post your comments below.

Do your patients have an easy way to refer others to you month after month? Do they know about all the services and products you offer? Are they educated each month about the health problems you can help with?

Don’t assume they know…because they don’t unless you’ve made it a regular practice to teach them each and every way you can help them, their friends, and their family.

On Tuesday, October 27 at 1:00PM CST, I’m holding a power packed 50 minute LIVE Teleseminar entitled “How to Generate More Referrals, Boost New Patients, and Increase Retention with Chiropractic Newsletters”. On this call I’ll share unique and proven strategies for getting more referrals and increase retention from your patient newsletter. Watch new referrals flood in month after month with these simple newsletter secrets.

Register here:

http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com

Here’s just a few of the valuable, proven nuggets of wisdom you’ll hear on this breakthrough call are…

-Finally discover how to really get more new patients with a professional print newsletter. (Some doctors have been told to only use black and white with no graphics. Find out the truth!)

-Why email newsletters only go so far and how to use email and print newsletters together. (This is where quite a few chiropractors are ‘missing the boat’.)

-3 unique strategies to make sure you’re getting referrals from your monthly mailings to patients.

-The single most important strategy to get your newsletters read. Most chiropractors are wasting their money sending out material that ends up in the trash.

-The most common mistake chiropractors make with patient mailings. Correct this and you’ll see patient retention improve drastically.

In addition, we’ll be asking direct questions to one of the top chiropractic newsletter companies in the U.S. That’s right, you’ll get a chance to ask your question during a 20 minute Q&A session, but you must be one of the first 96 to get on the call.

This event will likely FILL UP fast because the teleconference line only allows for 96 callers. A replay will be available for a short time, but only to those that register. Register immediately by registering here…

http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com

It’s much less expensive to market to your current patients then it is to go out and acquire new patients. Not only should you be marketing for new patients, but compounding on top of that with referral based marketing.

Newsletters easily make this happen. Make sure you’re on the call to learn how…

http://www.thechiropracticnewsletter.com