Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

Do you have internal marketing systems in your practice? There are two reasons to do internal marketing: to get more new patients and to keep the ones you have.  I’m not a fan of the “force” your patients to refer kind of marketing. You know, the consultants want you to say “every member of your family must be checked in my office if you’re going to be a patient.” Unless you think your practice should be run like the military, you should implement these 7 internal marketing strategies I list below.

1. Mail a stick letter campaign. Every patient that starts care in your office should get a letter and gift from you. It’s called a “stick” letter because it helps them stick around longer. But there is another purpose to this letter – getting referrals. There’s no better time for them to refer than when they first make the decision to get care in your office. I did this for years and got tons of referrals (and never verbally asked for one!) I mentioned how to get a copy of my stick letter a few weeks ago in this chiropractic marketing post.

2. Use health certificates. You should keep some nicely printed health passes or health certificates near your adjusting area and at the front desk. Every time a patient mentions they have a friend who has _______ or asks “does chiropractic help ____?”, you or your front desk person who give them one of these referral passes. I would recommend a type of discounted exam to be printed on these with a deadline.

3. Mail a newsletter. This is the most important internal marketing you can do. It’s easy, it’s inexspensive and it works. Not only do you stay in contact with your patient base on a regular basis, but it also can be used as an opportunity for your patients to refer their friends and family. Simply have a section of the newsletter that makes an offer to for an exam (+x-rays) to family and friends.

4. Have a patient appreciation day. Pick 1 day or 1 week a year to appreciate your patients. Make the event about your current patients, but give an opportunity for friends and family to get a checkup or exam as well. These PAD’s take some work to set up, but if you get 5, 10 or 20 new patients it’s worth it. And don’t feel bad if you don’t get 87 new patients (like the guru’s claim you should). It really is about appreciating your patients you already have. If they really feel appreciated, they will refer over the coming months. It’s the law of reciprocity.

In my next post we’ll cover the next 3 internal marketing strategies. Your assignment is to pick 3 above and start implementing them into your practice ASAP. If you are already using them, how can you make it better?

Comment below and tell us your favorite internal marketing systems.

You can either spend money to market your practice, do all your marketing for free (not recommended) or do a combination of both (highly recommended). Here are 7 marketing strategies that that work well and cost little to no money:

1. Send a “stick” letter

In the marketing world, campaigns that help people stay with you and reduce ‘buyers remorse’ are called “stick campaigns”. You can use this strategy in your practice by simply mailing a series of customized letters that reinforce the patient’s decision to start care and continue to educate them on why they are coming in. This is also a great time to offer referral cards or gift certificates. Simply state in the P.S. of the letter that they can give these certificates to any friends and family for the next 14 days for a free (or $25, 35, etc) spinal exam and x-rays.

2. Condition of the Week board

Get a small to medium sized dry erase board with a small easel. Each week have your staff write a different condition of the week on the board. Also write “Ask for details” or even “Ask Dr. Smith for details”. When patients see this, many of them will say “I didn’t know chiropractic helped with migraines?” What are they really saying? They know someone with migraines and just realized you may be able to help them. This is when you (or your front desk) asks them if they know someone with migraines, then promptly hands a gift certificate to this person for their friend/family member to use.

3. Use Testimonials

You should be collecting and using testimonials in your marketing. Include a copy of your best testimonials in your stick letter. Put them in your newspaper ads. Some doctors frame them and have a wall of testimonials in the adjusting room. You can also have them in a binder in your new patient area. Do testimonials really work? Are they worth the trouble? Ask anyone that uses them and they’ll certainly assure you that 1 key testimonial is what made the person call their office. Even if you can’t use testimonials in your state (rare), you can use them inside your office!

4. Send a monthly printed newsletter.

I’m all for saving time and money. In fact, my internet marketing course for chiropractors teaches doctors how to use technology to communicate with and attract new patients. But nothing beats a printed newsletter sent by snail mail. A newsletter keeps you in touch with your patients on a regularly basis, educates them further on chiropractic, and reduces the likelihood of competitors ‘stealing’ them. Marketing research has shown that if you haven’t communicated with your customer in at least 6 months, they have likely forgotten totally about you. Newsletters also help with generating referrals because you can make a special offer for friends and family to receive an exam and x-rays.

5. Patient Appreciation Days

You’ve probably heard this one mentioned before in the chiropractic guru circles. Maybe you’ve even tried a few and never had great results (like those guys who claim to see 100 new patients). Well, don’t beat yourself up. P.A.D.’s are a great way to generate referrals. Simply get a few sponsors in your town to donate door prizes. Then get a few finger foods and handout/mail out announcement flyers. Make it about appreciating your patients. If they get adjusted that day/week, then they can enter for a prize. If your patients refer someone they get more tickets or you can even put them in a special grand prize drawing. Depending on the size of your current patient base, you should be able to get 5-20 new patients from a properly done P.A.D. For a few hours of work you had a great return on your time, even if you didn’t get the 100 mythical new patients all those others guys get.

Running a chiropractic practice, you may have said or done something in the past that actually hurt your marketing message. We all have at some point. The lesson is to not continue to make these mistakes over and over.

In an effort to create a tagline or jingle for their practice, many chiropractors come up with some really bad marketing material.

Here are few that I have heard…

“I can’t wait to get my hands on you!”

“We got your backside.”

“We get on your NERVES!”

“We’ll break our back fixing yours!”

“I do my best work behind your back”

While these may sound cute or funny, they only hurt your marketing message. People already are a bit hesitant to see chiropractors. We don’t need to give them other reasons to question their decision to see us.

Can you imagine a dentist, attorney or M.D. saying these lines? Ok, maybe an attorney

If my dentist said “I can’t wait to shove my hands in your mouth”, that would be my last appointment to his practice.

And I won’t even go there with the M.D.

Do you think the guy saying “We got your backside” has many married female new patients?

What are some terrible taglines you have heard or seen? Post your comments below.

Newspaper advertising is still a very good marketing tool for your practice. But there are two major problems with chiropractic newspaper advertisements.

1) The ad looks like an ad. This may sound silly, but if your ad looks like an ad (like everyone elses), it’s not going to get much attention. But if it looks like an article (advertorial), it will look different than an ad, and people will read it more often. Advertorial’s have been proven to pull in new patients faster and have a higher ROI than standard display ads.

2) Even if you run an advertorial, all the other chiropractors have the same one and run it like crazy. This quickly decreases your response and within months it’s not worth running the ad. You know the one. Everyone bought that kit a few years ago. “A Doctor’s Confession To The Town of…”

To solve this problem in my practice, I studied copywriting for years, so I could write my own copy and ads. Ads that aren’t hypey and fake.

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.