Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

As a doctor, should you let your patients in on your personal life?

My answer to this question is “Absolutely yes!” There are two big reasons you’ll want to reveal personal aspects of your life to your patients…

#1. It connect your patients to you, building a much stronger bond. The reason social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, cell phones and blogs are so popular today is because people want to feel connected. We live in a very connected world where patients want to know about your good times and even be there for you during your hard times. Also, patients feel really put off by many doctors out they have seen in the past. They feel rushed, neglected and completely fed up with “the system.” If they can just see that you’re a real human with a life, then they are going to appreciate you and your office that much more. (I don’t recommend you let patients know about all your personal “problems”, but if they can “be there for you” or “pray for you” during hard times,  this would be acceptable.)

#2. Events in your life make for great marketing opportunities. One of the greatest marketers of all time, John E. Kennedy, wrote a book in the early 1900′s entitled “Reason-Why Advertising”. He stated that when you write and run an ad, you must give a believable reason why you are making an incredible offer. By sending a letter or email to your patients on special dates in your life or practice, you’ll be giving a great “reason why” you’re offering a discount, sale on certain products, or free food and refreshments.

Here’s a few examples of certain dates you could use…

-Practice anniversary
-Your marriage anniversary
-Birth of your child
-One of your children’s birthday
-Your birthday
-Getting a new pet
-Your pet’s birthday
-Your family’s summer vacation
-Your spring break plans

There’s really no end to the list of events you could come up with and use in your marketing. For example, after my daughter was born 2 years ago, I wrote and sent out a reactivation letter to my patients written in her voice. After it went out, patients started coming in to get adjusted that we hadn’t seen in years. And based on what some of them said, I think they wanted to hear more about my daughter than to get adjusted. But either way, they did re-activate and a few stayed on for good this time. If you would like to download this letter for free, click here. (Feel free to change the offer so that it fits your practice.)

This is just one of many marketing letters included as a bonus in my Ultimate Chiropractic Ads.

Speaking of special announcements, I have one to make of my own…

After a long and stressful Sunday night, my 4th child was born into the world. What started out as a home birth — which should have been easy and uncomplicated because our previous 3 were born at home with midwives assistance — became a hospital vacuum extraction. And while the kid is going to need some chiropractic care and cranial work, he’s doing extremely well considering. His name is Sterling Marshall Beck and he was born Monday at 8:41am at 8lbs 9oz and 22 inches long.

Here’s a few pictures of him with brother and sisters.

Just half a day old and ready to learn about marketing!

with new big sister.

The whole gang

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The study of marketing and advertising is one of my life’s passions. I’ve read and studied the greatest sales letters and ads of today, as well as successful ads of the past 100 years. (I’ve even handwritten a replica of a Master Copywriter’s 50 page sales letter, a marketing autopsy if you will .)

While the words, strategies, and offers in these ads may have changed over time, the 5 “secrets” to making them successful never change.

I call them secrets, because if they were well known, more practices would be using them in their chiropractic ads. But I’m going to reveal them here, so you’ll forever know them.

1. Have A Compelling headline. Famous ad man John Caples, author of Tested Advertising Methods and writer of what may be the greatest ad in history, accurately stated the headline is responsible for 80% of the ad’s results. Your headline is the “ad for the ad”. If the headline isn’t noticed, you’re ad is surely doomed.

2. Use an advertorial style ad. If you’re a well-known company making billions of dollars, you can run an ad with only your name, picture and some pretty colors. For those of us that have not yet acquired that level of success, it’s been proven that an educational style ad called an “advertorial” works much better. An advertorial looks like an article, or an editorial, so hence the name. They are typically bigger than a display ad and are written by an expert copywriter. And who in the world would actually read all those words in your ad? Your ideal patient who wants to refer all their friends and family  members in, that’s who!

3. Make an offer. While it’s not a requirement in chiropractic to give a discount on the first visit, it will certainly bring in more new patients when offered in your ads. If you’re going to spend the money to run an ad, then you should give an incentive to the reader to pick up the phone and call now. You don’t need to make a special offer because you have to, (as if chiropractic is some second-rate type of healthcare) but because you want to do it so more people will respond to the ad. This allows you to help more people, build a bigger practice, and live a better lifestyle.

4. Use a photo with a caption. A caption on a well placed photo can be the second most read part of your ad, after the headline. You must be careful to use this one right though. We aren’t going to make the focus of the ad the photo. On the other end of the spectrum, even a lot of average copywriters get this one wrong. They think using any kind of of picture is bad marketing. And the photo doesn’t necessarily have to be a picture of you. It depends on what the ad is written for.

5. Give proof. Your ad should have as much proof as can be squeezed in it. Two powerful forms of proof are testimonials and scientific studies. Testimonials work because they back up the fact you really can and do help people. Studies prove you aren’t just making stuff up. For example, if your ad focuses on headaches, it should mention the Duke University Study or the study in the Journal of Neuromusculoskeletal System 2002.

Does your advertising follow these 5 guidelines?

While everyone has heard that they should implement systems in their practice, actually doing it is another story. I know it was for me. But I also realized the immense power systems had, mostly because it would put things on autopilot for me.

Here’s just a few systems you can have to make your practice more profitable, more successful, and much less stressful.

• New Patient Marketing
• Employee Hiring And Training
• New Patient Conversion
• Reactivations
• Referrals
• Internal Marketing
• Office Flow
• Patient Financials

Also realize many of these bigger systems should be broken into small systems. For example, new patient marketing should include different channels like chiropractic internet marketing, newspaper marketing, direct mail, etc.

Who has the time to create all these systems anyway?

Finding and putting in the time to write out (or even make videos) of these systems is quite time consuming. This is why you should buy systems that are already done-for-you, so all you have to do is implement them in your practice with very little hassle. Here are a few systems (all of which I have used or created myself) put into place with very little effort…

*   Insurance Compliance System
*   Chiropractic Internet Marketing System
*   Patient Home Care Rehab System
*   Insurance Appeal Process
*   Office Software System
*   Email Newsletter And Autoresponder System

Not all the systems you would need are available (yet!) for chiropractors to purchase and quickly implement in their practices.

So you will have to bear down and create a few systems on your own.The easiest way I have found to do this is to write an outline of the main points you want to cover. Then explain each section in as few words as possible, creating an instruction manual you can have employees (yourself) refer back to on a regular basis.

In 2009 I’m going to be bringing you some very good systems you can apply to your practice. Especially done-for-you systems that help with the biggest problem in chiropractic: your marketing!

In my last post we covered the first 4 of seven internal marketing strategies you can put into your practice. In today’s post I cover the next 3, plus an extra bonus strategy. While all 7 of these chiropractic marketing strategies should eventually be implemented for maximum results, you can use any one of them and still have great results.

5. Use blogs and email to stay in touch with patients. With today’s internet technology, you can stay in touch with your patient base very easily. E-newsletters and event promotions can be sent within minutes if you have a good email system. Blogs are also a great way to stay in contact and educate your patients about why they should stay under care. While print newsletters go out once a month, blog articles and emails can be sent 3-6 times per month. You can tie blogs to an email service and update all of your patient list whenever you post a new article on your blog. Chiropractic internet marketing is only getting easier and less expensive, so get started with this one as soon as you can.

6. Make Recalls. Every 6-8 weeks, go through your patient database and make a list of those you haven’t seen in awhile. Give your front desk person an easy recall script to follow. When she’s calling someone who’s been inactive for some time, have her say that “Dr. _____ want me to give you a call and see how you were doing?” If they say they aren’t doing well, then your staff schedules them for an appointment. Many times they will say “You know, I was just about to call you and schedule an appointment.” If they have slipped off of their current care plan, your staff just needs to get them scheduled without any questions asked. Expect about a 5-10% schedule rate from these calls. I always got better results when I gave my front desk $1 Starbucks credit for each person that shows.

7. Have a VIP list. 80% of your referrals come from 20% of your patients. What are you doing for them to make them feel special and give them more opportunities to refer? Go through your patient list and pick those patients that have referred the most patients into your office. Make sure you are sending them a gift each month “for being a great patient.” Let them know you are thankful for their referrals and give them 1-2 gift certificates to refer friends and family. I always sent small gifts with a letter each month, and a big basket of goodies in the $80-$100 range for Christmas. Don’t be cheap and think it’s not worth it to send out gifts (or that you can’t afford it). When you do the list, you’ll see how valuable those 20% really are.

8. Market other events, products and services. (I know, I said 7 but I couldn’t resist giving this 8th one.) Do you sell supplements, pillows, orthotics, etc in your practice? You should be sending letters out for special events regarding these products. For example, we did a weight loss seminar to promote our supplements once. A letter went out to all the female patients in my practice. About 10% called in to reserve a seat (seating was limited to 20). I had two speakers come in (one lady had lost 140 lbs) and talk about the products. Of the 20, 15 showed and 4 ended up spending around $800 each on supplements over the next 2 months.

Want to increase your new patients each month?

It’s easy. Simply give each new patient the opportunity to refer a friend or family member.

How is this done? Not through pressuring or hounding new patients until they refer. But through gentle persuasion and social proof.

You have probably seen in your practice where a new patient says on their first or second visit “I need to bring my wife in here.” This is great when it happens, but many times patients are so concerned about their own problems that they aren’t thinking of referring someone else.

So here is how you get them to refer:

For every new patient that starts care in your practice, send them a special welcome letter in the mail. This letter should be worded properly so you are educating, congratulating, future pacing, and setting up the referrals. Now, in the P.S. of the letter, write a few sentences about how “many patients tell me that they wished they would have found me sooner. So I’ve included with this letter two gift certificates for a free spinal evaluation. As you can see, they have an expiration of two weeks, so make sure a friend or family member gets them as soon as possible”.

Now print and cut out 2 gift certificates with your offer on them and an expiration of 2 weeks. I recommend making them look nice and using a card stock paper.

Insert a few pages of patient success stories (testimonials) in with your letter to show social proof. You never know which testimonial is going to resonate with that particular patient. Also include a gift, like a $5 Starbucks card to thank them for being a patient.

Not everyone will take you up on this offer. But many patients will. And how much did you spend on this type of marketing? Maybe $1 with stamp, paper and my CA’s time. In 2006 I traced almost half of my referrals to this one little technique. By far the best return on investment of any marketing piece I did that year.