My last post on the new health care reform (entitled “Congress Has Done It, Now What?“), caused quite a few comments. Mostly the feedback was good. One lady called me a right wing nut and we gladly accommodated her request to be removed from the email list. I guess in today’s politically correct world, stating the obvious (that our taxes will go up and it will be more work on our practices) makes you a right wing nut.

A few concerned doctors emailed me trying to persuade me to see the “bright side of things”.  They argued things were not so bad, after all the ACA or ICA (depending on which one you ask) was responsible for getting anti-discriminatory language in the bill. While I commend both organizations for fighting hard for chiropractic, I’m not so sure the gain of anti-discrimination language will justify the huge stack of problems the bill will cause.

Of course if your patients are mostly Muslim, Amish, American Indian or a Christian Scientist you will likely continue on as if nothing has changed.

As for everyone else, this type of government action brings up the age old chiropractic question, “cash or insurance?”

First off, I must state I do not agree with the mentality that has been perpetuated for years by many chiropractic coaches: “we must do cash because all insurance is evil” . There are good reasons not to take insurance, some of which are philosophical, but this type of rhetoric mentioned above is usually just a cop-out for those are are scared and don’t know how to bill insurance. Trust me, I know because this was me for the first 2 years in practice!

So with that said, let’s look at a the biggest reasons some doctors abandon insurance for an all-cash practice.

What the Proponents of an All-Cash Practice Say:

1. Insurance is too restrictive of the services you provide.

Many chiros do away with insurance hassles because of the burden it puts on their practice. They do not like to be told what they can and can not do with their patients. If most of their insurance patients are carrying these types of restrictive plans, they will choose to convert to an all-cash practice. Do you think Obamacare will make insurance more restrictive or less for chiropractic? (Leave your comments below.)

One medical doctor sent a letter to her patients stating she will not comply to the new laws Obama has enacted.

Of course the doctor who takes insurance will rebut this argument when applied broadly to the whole United States. His reply would be that “just because there are some bad insurance pockets, or even whole states, does not justify saying all insurance is bad and only pays for 12 visits anyway, so we might as well go all-cash.”

2. Insurance is too much work.

Other doctors choose not to bill insurance because they say it is too much work. They have to submit reams and reams of paperwork just to make $30 on a visit. Exams and x-rays require even more notes and paperwork. They’ll have to hire another staff person just to figure out all the billing codes and how to do chiropractic insurance appeals.

What does the non-cash chiropractor say to this? He would likely reply that “while some insurance plans and contracts require an insane amount of work, this does not mean that all insurance plans do. I simply do not participate in the ones that are bad.” He would also argue that whether cash or insurance, we all must have documentation. He would likely also add that many cash practices give the patient a superbill, which is essentially doing everything an insurance practice would do, except fight denials.

3. They do not pay special services.

A few doctors choose not to bill insurance because their practice is very specialized and insurance in their area does not pay chiropractors for these services. These include spinal decompression, weight loss, nutrition, cold laser, deep tissue laser, etc.

On the other side, many chiropractors will still implement these uncovered services, but also continue to offer chiropractic adjustments and therapy. So they will bill insurance for those services that are covered and do cash for those services not covered like decompression treatments, etc.

So which side of the fence do I stand on?

Neither. At the current time (and this may change in the future), I do not paint with a broad brush when it comes to this subject. Some states and areas are great with insurance, with plans giving 80-100 visits per year. I’ve even seen a few that allow unlimited visits to chiropractors per year. Other areas are so bad you’d have to be crazy to bill insurance there.

In my Decompression Marketing Elite program, there is one client grossing a million per year as an all cash practice. Another client has a mostly insurance practice and is doing nearly the same amount. Other clients have more of a 50/50 mixture, doing cash for decompression plans and insurance for other services.

You see, whether you choose cash or insurance, you should choose wisely. And once you make that choice, it all comes down to one thing — marketing. Insurance companies won’t bring you many new patients, if they bring any at all. Simply switching your practice to all cash won’t make people flock to you either.

I think too many people sit around thinking the grass is greener on the other side, when in reality they are not reaching their potential because of poor marketing choices.

What do you think about all this? Leave your comments below.

Whether the American people wanted it or not, the U.S. Congress has passed President Obama’s long awaited healthcare bill. But what does it mean for us chiropractors? How will it affect our lives?

Many of these questions will take time to answer, since the bill is massive and it’s doubtful the word “chiropractor” is mentioned too often. But for those who take insurance, your office will have to spend more time and money to figure out the changes you’ll need to make.

Let’s look at 2 certainties that will come of this…

#1. If you are successful in your business, you’re taxes will go up.
To pay for this new plan, the payroll taxes of “the rich” will be raised. Guess who the rich are? Any bum who wants to make more than $200k per year.

Does your dream of a successful practice entail you making more than $200k per year? It should. Most of us did not go to chiropractic school and go into mountains of debt to make $50k or $60k per year.

#2. You’re going to spend a lot more time and money trying to figure out these new laws.
Do you think it’s going to be easier or more difficult to bill insurance after this plan takes affect? Is Medicare currently more or less trouble than other insurance billings?

Your staff is going to have to go through training seminars to get updated. You may even need to hire more staff to keep everything compliant. SOAP notes will have to be top notch (after all we got big brother watching over everything now.) And guess who is going to pay for all these “upgrades” your practice will have to make? The government? Congress? No, you are!

So let’s summarize what we are going to get out of this “historic” bill. Higher taxes and more work. Oh joy, everyone loves those two things, right?

Lest you think I’m all doom and gloom, let me say there is hope. In other countries chiropractic has survived fine without health insurance coverage. Our Australian brothers have been doing it for years. So chiropractic will not end as we know it.

But many chiropractors will suffer. Mainly because they waited too long to counteract the negative effects of this legislation.

“So going to an “all cash” practice is the way to go, right?”

No, an all cash practice is not going to work for everyone. If you’ve been around awhile and have some established marketing strategies that are working, you could make the switch. But there’s a little secret to running a cash practice none of the gurus ever mention. A cash practice requires a lot more new patient flow than an insurance practice.  And since most chiropractors are terrible at marketing…well, they are just not in a place to risk it all. (Of course being terrible at marketing is not an excuse to stay that way. Learn how to do it right, or pay others to do it right for you.)

Plus insurance is still good in some states and not much of a hassle to work with. So if you’re practice heavily relies on insurance, wait and see what’s going to happen. But it’s likely things will get worse in the future as the government gets their hands on more and more private industries.

So how do you overcome the government takeover of health insurance?

First you’ve got to make more than you did previously (and get a really good CPA). To make more money in your practice, you’ll need to grow it by getting more new patients. And doing so now, not in 2014 when this plan fully kicks in. If you wait until then, you’ll be completely behind the curve ball. And the “chiropractic recession of 2014″ will be much worse than the one you’ve been through these past 3 years.

Second, you’ll need to trim the fat. That means getting rid of old marketing tactics, like blindly spending money on “brand” marketing. You don’t need to “get your name out there”. You need to get more new patients. Now. Next month. The month after that, and so on.

Also, you’ve got to get rid of equipment that’s taking up space and isn’t making you money. Get more patients on your spinal decompression table now (see Decompression Marketing Elite) and stop letting it collect dust. If you aren’t going to market it properly, sell it and use the space for something else. Throw out the passive therapies and get some active rehab going.

Plus you should add other non-healthcare based services. Get a cash-only weight loss program going. Add massage therapy. Build up your PI practice. (Look for our new PI marketing course in the next few weeks.) Sell supplements and do nutritional consulting.

“Is there anything good about Obamacare?”

What, you don’t think the added expenses, higher taxes, more stress, more paperwork, more government control, and having to hire more employees is a good thing?

Well, I guess you could look on the bright side. At least more people will have health insurance since we are all now forced by law to carry it. But that may be like getting excited that Medicare covers x-rays, except not for chiropractors. Or getting excited about more high deductible insurance patients, except most of them don’t have the money saved to cover the high deductible.

But I digress. Let’s focus on what you need to do now.

Your 2010 Game Plan

In summary, here’s what you need to do:

Get more new patients now. Through newspaper ads, the internet, referrals, TV, radio, MD referrals, attorney referrals. Get one stream up and running now. Then start another. Then another.

Cut the fat. Run your practice lean and mean. Use the equipment or loose it. Have your staff do the work or cut them. Add more cash services to your practice.

Go now. What are you waiting for? Choose one of the above and do it now.

We get quite a few questions about my Ultimate Chiropractic Ads, both from those interested in buying and from doctors who are using them. Today, I wanted to let you in on the 5 biggest questions (and the answers) we get from doctors using the system.

What’s the best ad to start with?

We recently conducted a survey of all the doctors using the chiropractic ads. One question in the survey asked “Which ad has brought you the most new patients?”

The winner by a long shot was my neuropathy ad. This is not surprising since neuropathy is such a hot niche right now with one else really marketing to these patients. While not everyone will get these kinds of numbers, some chiropractors have reported 20-30 and up to 50 new patients from one single run of this neuropathy ad.

A three-way tie for second occurred between my fibromyalgia, sciatica, and numbness/tingling ads. If you haven’t tried these ads yet, I would recommend you do so soon. Also, the winning decompression ad was my “Decompression Sciatica” ad, which has been a proven winner for over 2 years now.

What about making an offer when I’m in an insurance contract, my patient have deductibles and copays, etc?

We get this question a lot from doctors who’ve never run special offers before. And as much as I wished I could answer this one directly, it’s just impossible. Every insurance company is different. Every contract with an insurance company is different. What I can say here is that if you’re in the U.S.,  Medicare and Federal BCBS do not allow offers to be made to their insureds.

Many doctors want us to give free billing, coding and legal advice in addition to the great marketing tools we provide in our kit. While I did put together some great chiropractic appeal letters a few years back, billing and coding is just not my expertise. Marketing is, and those who use my ads are happy that it is.

But I’ve seen doctors so scared of 1 insurance company that they won’t even run an ad with an offer period! Even though there are thousands of new patients out there with other insurance plans or no insurance at all. Do what is right and legal, but don’t let insurance companies cripple you’re marketing. If you’re going to let that happen, you’d be better off going all cash.

I don’t have an x-ray machine, what do I do?

This is probably the most common question we get. Since none of my chiropractic ads are built around “x-rays” or even spend much time talking about them, the answer is fairly simple: take that bullet point out.

Now its best if you can offer some type of objective test that gives your offer some value, like surface EMG, thermal scan, computerized ROM, etc. But it’s not necessary, and the ads will be ok without any mention of x-rays. This is especially the case if you are marketing to a specific niche, like neuropathy or decompression. These people just want help and they see any qualified doctor’s exam as a step in the right direction. But the more perceived value you can put in the offer, the better.

What size ad should I run?

The answer to this question will depend on the size of your marketing budget and the newspaper you run in. The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads includes large and small ads, but doctors using the large ads are getting the best results by far. The “large ads” are ready to go as an insert and can easily be printed as such once you change your name and contact information. Half page or full page is also recommended. In a large paper, sometimes a quarter page will work. Any smaller than a quarter page and you’re results are going to be slim.

What I strongly discourage is cutting out sections of my ads to make them fit into a tiny ad that saves you a few bucks. Better to spend a few extra dollars and run the full ad to bring in 15 or 20 new patients, than to chop the ad up and get nothing for your money.

I can not tell you how frustrating it is to see an ad I spent weeks writing — and proven to work by doctors for years — to have someone say “it doesn’t work” when they have completely butchered it. I’ve seen newspapers change up the ad, replace my photos, and even had doctors put their contact info in huge letters that are bigger than the ad headline itself. For example, someone just sent me a copy of my ad where they paid thousands of dollars for a full page numbness ad, then put something like this at the bottom:

Dr. Messup DisAd DC CCSMP, PSST, BS, BA
201 Anywhere St., Anytown, PA, 12345
815-999-1234
MOST INSURANCE ACCEPTED

Actually this is about to 50% scale, but you get the point. Now he still got some new patients, since the rest of my ad was still intact above this monstrosity. But he was not pleased with his response. Hmm, can anyone determine why his response was low?

Hmm, I wonder where the reader is going to look first? The headline, the copy, nope…the reader is going to look right down at the bottom of the ad, say “this looks like another stinking advertisement”, and turn the page. Nowhere in my kit, nor on my blog, nor anywhere have I ever recommended, implied or suggested doctors do this. It’s like the doctor thought to himself “well, I know Dr. Beck is the copywriter and his ads brought in over $20 million for chiros last year, but what does he know, I want to get my name out there so everyone doesn’t miss it.” Come on! My ads aren’t designed to get your name out there, these ads are designed to bring in new patients! If you want to get your name out there, take a full page ad with just your name, address and phone number.

Ok, I’ll get down off my soap box now.

There’s one question left, and it’s a big one. But since I spent so many words on the last question, this post has already exceeded it’s intended length. We’ll continue next time with the #5 question that’s most commonly asked.

If you haven’t grabbed the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads yet, click here to do so.

Google has released their attempt at social media. Many internet marketing gurus suspected that with the rise in popularity of sites like Twitter and Facebook, it was just a matter of time before Google launched something of their own.

While I don’t think Google Buzz has huge new patient generating compatibility, it certainly is a place to build valuable “back links” to your website. The more links you have, the higher your SEO ranking will be on Google, which means you’ll come up higher when people search. And of course coming up high on Google certainly means getting more new patients!

To participate in Google buzz, you’ll need to have a Gmail account. And frankly you should already have a gmail account. No free email account is easier to use, filters spam, and delivers the correct email message:

Sidenote on Email Delivery: It’s will known in internet marketing that certain email carriers have a really bad delivery rate. Yahoo, Hotmail, and the worst, AOL all have a terrible delivery rate, which means they either don’t deliver your messages sent out to patients or they wrongly put your messages in the spam folder. I cannot tell you how many times doctors using an AOL email account have become upset with us, thinking we were refusing to reply to their support questions. However, we had sent them numerous emails, but since they an an aol account, it’s pointless to expect they even received those replies. My point is, if you are using these email providers, especially aol, you’re missing a lot of important emails that people are sending out to you.

Now, back to Google Buzz. Check out this short video with summarizes what Buzz is all about:

http://dcincome.com/blog/how-to-use-google-buzz-strategically/

Am I the only one that didn’t get a business education in chiropractic college?

Chiropractic college did teach me how to adjust, how to pass the boards, and enabled me to get a D.C. degree.

But my first two years in practice I felt like I was in completely foreign territory. Even though I had spent the last 7 years in undergraduate and chiropractic school, not to mention spending a grand total of $138, 000, I still had no clue how to run a business. I think we had one class on it late in the program, but I always felt like the teacher was holding back, as if the school was preventing him from telling us what the real world was really like.

Since that time, I’ve had to educate myself on how to run a successful business, and specifically how to market that business. During this time, I’ve read literally hundreds of books.

In addition to the chiropractic marketing tools I have put together (linked in the top menu on this page), the 7 books I mention below will give you more knowledge and wisdom on running a business than you’ll get in any college, chiropractic or otherwise.

Guerrilla Marketing by Levinson
This book gives you quick, low cost marketing methods for a your business. I don’t like every single one he mentions, but there are many free and low cost  ideas that are good.  You can’t go wrong with this book. Great if your just starting out or going through a tough time with the current economy.

No B.S. Business Success by Dan Kennedy
This book is a straight forward look at what makes a small business successful. If you’re familiar with Dan Kennedy, you know he shoots straight on what it takes to succeed. And he doesn’t mess around when it comes to making money.

Influence: The Pyschology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Another great book that will show you many free and low cost changes you can make to your practice. Dr. Cialdini shows you how people think when making decisions. Based on pyschological studies over the past 50 years. Address how people react to what you wear, what you say, how your office looks, and so much more.

The One Page Business Plan by Jim Horan
I got this book last year and it is by far the best book on business plans. Don’t think you only need a business plan when you start up a new practice. This book helps you lay out a real vision, mission, and attainable goals. It’s a step-by-step easy to follow workbook and CD-Rom. (After being misled by past chiropractic coaches about the terms “vision” and “mission”, this book helped to finally clear this up.)

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller
You should make every new and current employee read this book, especially if you find them blaming others for mistakes. Also, you should read this and apply it to your life and practice. It’s a quick read, but has the potential to change the way you and your staff interact.

E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
This book can be applied to 95% of your practice. It totally changed the way I look at my business. This is probably one of the most popular small business books ever written.

Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
One of the biggest problems with chiropractors is that because we lived off of student loans for so long in school, we are terrible at managing money. But if you want to succeed in business, you have to follow proven, time tested money principles. This book will help you fix your money problems in your business and personal life. This book will change so much more than just your financial life!

I was in a rather extremist coaching group years ago. This coach did all he could to keep you under his sphere of influence. Advice from outside experts was strictly prohibited. This made his clients think there was only one place to find all great knowledge in the world…him of course!

Since I preferred to learn from a “multitude of counselors”, we didn’t get along too well at times. One day I woke up and left the group, later realizing this group was more like a cult than a coaching group.

Today, there are still many consulting groups that try to keep their clients in a secluded world.

But with the invention of the internet, it’s getting harder and harder to do.

On top of that, a new generation of chiropractic coaches and consultants have arisen that enjoy sharing ideas and products with their clients. This new “breed” of consultants realize something very important…

By recommending other products, their clients will do even better with their coaching and products as well.

(In fact, many of your reading this now may have been referred here by another chiropractic coach or consultant.)

With that said, here are 5 websites I recommend you check out…

Chiropractic Secret Society
Chris Burfield has created a Facebook-type site for chiropractors. It also includes a chiropractors-only forum, where already some great discussions are going on. And here’s the best thing…this site is it’s 100% free! Simply create a username and password and you’ll have access to a community of chiropractors discussing ideas on marketing, conversion, patient education, and more.

DC Income
Here Dr. Matthew Loop lays out how to effectively use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites for marketing your chiropractic office. He even includes videos on his site showing you what he’s currently doing with social media.

Mover Trends New Homeowner Lists
This site allows you to quickly and easily zoom in on your zipcodes and compile a new homeowners list. Great for sending out “Welcome to the Community” letters. (Use this link and save 30% on the lists.)

Instant Influencer
Great place to learn how you can quickly become an “instant influencer” in your community for chiropractic. Learn how my friend Billy Sticker wrote, designed and published his book for under $200.00! Now he’s showing chiropractors how to do the same.

Next Generation Chiropractor
In this informative article, Dr. MacNamara shows you 5 ways to reach your local community through chiropractic marketing. I’ve met Dr. Mac in person and heard him speak. He’s a great communicator.

Which months are the best to advertise in? Is December or January really a waste of money?

Everyone has an opinion about when to market and when to be a scrooge with your marketing dollars. But there are certain months I have discovered are great to advertise in.

Let’s look at a few conditions…

For auto accident ads, you want to advertise during the times of the year when the weather has an effect. It’s been shown that during icy periods, rain, or fog, more people will get into accidents. This doesn’t mean you can’t run a PI ad during good weather, but after bad weather is best.

If you live in warmer climates, then you would want to run ads that affect people who are more active like golf, etc. Contrary to popular belief, patients do see chiropractors in the summer and you should be marketing then.

It’s much smarter to run ads and keep your marketing up during the summer, than it is to listen to consultants telling you to take the summer off from advertising.

Does the consultant to take off all summer from his marketing to chiropractors?

There is a period of time where you should curtail your marketing, but it’s a short period of time at the end of the year. That’s means the last two weeks of December you should not have a new ad coming out.

Not because people are spending more money at this time, the money is low, and all that fluff.

It’s simply because people are less likely to be considering their health during this time, based on their travel schedule and the things that they have going on. Readership in most newspapers drop during this time too.

No matter what any consultant or colleague says, that’s the only two weeks you should not consider having a live ad in the paper. (That right, all other Holiday weeks are great.)

I would definitely recommend having an ad the first week of December though!

January is typically a decent month only because a lot of people will be considering their health and their new year?s resolutions then. I don?t find January to be the best month, in my experience, but it certainly is a good month for marketing.

Funny story on January.

One consultant I had said that I should market hard in January, because that’s when everyone is “thinking about their health”.  Another consultant I had later said “no, absolutely don’t spend any money on advertising in January, because that’s when everyone’s deductibles start over!”

Who’s right?

Who cares! What month do you not want new patients to come in?

Really, every month is a good month for marketing, even December.

Don’t get the idea because I said don’t advertise in the last two weeks of December you should take the whole month off.

A lot of chiropractors make the mistake of saying…

“I’m going to take December off from marketing. And nope, can’t market in June and July because kids are out of school. November? Well shucks, there’s Thanksgiving, so I better not spend money there. April has Easter weekend, May memorial day weekend, and September has labor day weekend so I can’t market in those months either…..”

You get the picture. Don’t be like this fool who always has an excuse why they aren’t marketing their practice. That mentality is going to hurt your practice.

I’ve known doctors who’ve done these stupid things and have struggled just to keep the doors open. All because they put their marketing on halt for awhile. They thought their referrals would keep them going through these “non-advertising months”.

But where do most referrals come from? They mostly come from new patients or newer patient who’ve started care in the last month.

With all that said, there are some months that have proven to work better for me and my coaching clients.

The best months I’ve found to market were in the middle of the spring and fall (March and April, October and November). I can’t say for certain why that is. I have certain theories, but it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that’s when I’ve found my ads have the best response.

This does not mean that you should only run your chiropractic ads during these months!

It only means you should have more ads running than the normal during these times. November has always been a very good month for me, even with the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

But this is not a hard and fast rule. I only mention it to you so you can test it. One year July was my biggest ever months when it comes to collections and new patients.

One of the best ways to “wow” new patients and get patient compliance in your treatment plans is to be recognized as an expert in your field. Getting more letters in the form of degrees after your name can help some. But there is a better way.

Do you know the fastest way to become an expert?

The answer is to become a published author of a book. As soon as you write a book on any health problem and how to solve it, you will be seen as an expert.

Imagine every new patient who comes into your office receiving, as a free gift, a nice copy of your newest book. By the time you get to your report of findings, this patient is going to feel very comfortable trusting you with their health.

Also, realize that people will quickly loose or throw a business card away. But how many will throw away your professionally published book?

Having your own book will set you apart from all the other chiropractors in your town.

The Easiest, Most Affordable And Fastest Way To Write A Book

My friend Billy Sticker has put together a quick and easy blueprint to get your first book written in just 3 short weeks. For my subscribers he’s offering 50% of this blueprint this week…

http://www.The3WeekAuthor.com

Learn how Billy wrote, designed and published his book for under $200.00… and he even sells it on Amazon! Also, with his blueprint you’ll discover…

• The absolute, hands-down, easiest way to write a book.
• The cheapest, most cost-effective way (without cutting corners on quality)… and believe me, you could easily spend THOUSANDS, but Billy shows you how to save $2000-5000 on planning, writing, and publishing your book!
• You will also learn the fastest way to get your book finished – even if you haven’t even started yet.  Billy wrote one of his books in only 3 weeks (that’s including the publishing too!)
• A secret tip for designing a top-notch, professional book cover!
• Plus a lot of other boring things you’ll need to know (bar codes, ISBN’s…10 and 13, copyright, etc.)

One of my next big goals is to write a book. Will you join me in this venture and write one for yourself?

Grab the blueprint now and save 50%…

http://www.The3WeekAuthor.com

Also, Billy is giving away 5 bonuses to those who buy this week.

If these five bonus gifts were sold separately,they’d go for over $990.00 …but when you grab his blueprint now, you can have them for free!

You’ll get instant access to…

Bonus 1: 10 Tips for Getting Local Media Attention With Your Book!
This special report shares the *insider-secrets* for getting thousands of dollars worth of FREE publicity from the local media in your market. ($47 value)

Bonus 2: Book Cover Critique!
As you learn in the training, people do judge a book by it’s cover.  This bonus entitles you to a FREE book cover critique from Billy Sticker himself. ($150 value)

Bonus 3: One-on-One Email Access!
During the training, you will be able to email Billy one question a day regarding anything about the program or marketing in general. (30 Days- $197 value)

Bonus 4: Two 20-Minute Anything-Goes Coaching Calls!
The two calls can be about anything you need to grow your practice… questions about your book, publishing, printing, patient education, or even the price of eggs in China.  It’s all up to you.. anything goes! ($500 value)

Bonus 5: Complete Audio Interview With $28 Million Saving Tax Attorney, Drew Miles!
One of the most popular podcasts Billy ever recorded. Now you’ll get the entire interview that lasted 1 hour and 7 minutes! You’ll definitely learn tips that could save you $$ THOUSANDS $$ on your taxes this year! ($97 value).

Write a book and become an expert in your community. Find out more here…

http://www.The3WeekAuthor.com

(This post is part two of a two part series. To see the first 3 strategies, click here.)

#4. Use Good Telemarketing

Many chiropractors think telemarketing is some kind of sleazy type of marketing that only ambulance chasers would do. Unfortunately if you think this way, you could be missing out on a great method of getting new patients.

Using telemarketing services with a reputable company is such an easy way to get new patients.
One thing to realize with telemarketing is that the conversions are probably going to be lower than new patients from the other strategies I mention.

The lower conversions can lead some chiropractors to believe telemarketing patients are not worth the trouble and too much work on the doctor and staff. But it’s really return on investment that you should look at.

I ran telemarketing campaigns for almost 6 years straight and always made a considerable return on my investment. One client of mine is getting 10-15 new patients A WEEK from telemarketing, and converting a 50% of them to care.

#5. Use Effective Direct Mail

Direct mail is one of the oldest forms of marketing. Even with the rise of internet, radio and TV direct mail marketing still grows each year.

There are many different forms of direct mail — postcards, letters, magalogs, magazines, tear sheets — but postcards and letters are the most often used by chiropractors.

If your marketing budget is tight, you should start with postcards then move into letters at a later point. It’s also important to note that you should not start direct mail until you have other less risky marketing strategies in place — namely newspaper ads and internet marketing. This is because direct mail requires more patience and testing to be profitable. But don’t let this deter you, because when used properly, direct mail can be very profitable.

When it comes to postcards, you can choose between the small regular size, a half page size and an oversized postcard. Most direct mail testing shows that the bigger the postcard, the better the response. Of course much of the response will come from the words, or the “copy”, on the postcard.

The list you buy is going to determine about 50% of the response you get from direct mail. Make sure that you find a decent list broker so you’re getting good addresses.

For a new homeowners list in your zip code,  click here.

#6. Use PPC Marketing And Social Media To Get New Patients

PPC stands for “pay per click marketing”, and you should be using it to bring new patients into your practice. The three big PPC companies currently are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. When someone searches on Google for the term “chiropractor” your ad would show up. If the person clicks on your ad, they go to the website you designate and you get charged a small fee.

The best thing about PPC is that you only get charged for people who click on your ad. You aren’t getting charged for everyone to see your ad, just for those who click on it. Also, you can customize and tweak the ads, so that you’re only getting certain types of patients. For example, you might want to set up a PPC campaign just for spinal decompression and focus on speaking to that patient about his disc problems. (For more info on setting up a PPC account, see my previous post here.)

Another great tool to get people to your website — and then call you to schedule an appoint –  is by using social media. Social media is a catch phrase for all the popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and many of the blogs out there. To use this method, you basically create accounts on these sites and link them back to your website. If you’d like to learn more about this method, I recommend you grab Dr. Loop’s course here.

#7. Do The Report of Findings Right

You may be wondering why I would mention the ROF in an article about marketing. I do this because how you handle the report with a patient will likely decide if they will refer their friends or family in.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of mistakes in this part of a chiropractor’s office.

You want to give the patient a short, no-fluff report with certainty. Some chiropractic coaches will tell you to give a long winded speech here to hard sell the patient on care. If the patient really wants help with their problem, and you have some objective findings to show them, you won’t need to hard sell them on care.

A report should not take longer than 10 minutes. Tell them what you found. Tell them if you can fix it and a BRIEF summary of how you’ll do that. Layout their care plan and explain why it takes time. Go over the cost (this is best if your staff does the financial part). If insurance is involved, have that prepared and covered by your staff at this time.

Have a simple, easy to follow payment plan for your patients. At least 2 options of payment, 3 at most. Remember, very simple. I have seen so many complex systems that almost force the patient to “go home and think about it.”

Also, you’ll want to begin mentioning how your office sees families (if you do). If done in a non-forceful way, it’s likely the patient will begin to ask questions about their spouse or children. This is a great opportunity to educate them on sending a referral in.

Google can send you very qualified prospects if you pay them a small fee to do it. They call it Google Adwords, but I call it the greatest marketing idea of the decade. Where else do you only pay if someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website? That’s right. You only pay google if someone actually goes to your website.

Chiropractic Marketing on Google: How to Get Started

To setup a campaign, go to www.adwords.google.com. When asked between a starter and standard edition, choose standard. After choosing your language, you will be asked to choose how you will target customers by location. This is very important. Be sure to choose the “customized” selection. This allows you to select a radius around your practice that your ads will show up on. This ensures someone from 500 miles away isn’t clicking your ad and running up your bill with Google. You can decide how far to go from your practice, but I recommend 15-30 mile radius depending on if you practice in the city or a small town.

You’ll then be asked to setup your first ad. You only get 25-35 characters for four lines of text, two of which are your headline and website address. Here’s the proven formula for your ads:

• First line should contain your keyword in a headline type phrase

• Second line should be a benefit you offer, for example “Get Rid Of Migraines”

• Line three should describe a feature offer, like “Without Drugs Or Surgery”

• Line four is your URL, with each word capitalized and using a keyword in your landing page address if possible

The next step is choosing your keywords. These are the words that your ad will show for when people type them into the search engine. For now just choose the keyword “chiropractor yourtown” (replace yourtown with your actually town you practice in, like “chiropractor Dallas, TX). We’ll cover more on keywords later.

Choose your daily budget. Be sure to set a daily budget that you are comfortable with, like $10-20 per day for now. Once your daily budget is reached, your ad stops running. If set to low, your ad might stop running in the most important part of the day.

In the last step, you will be asked to set your maximum cost-per-click. This is the most you will bid on your keywords. This will apply to all the keywords you chose earlier. I can’t tell you exactly what to bid on your keywords, as it will be different depending on where you practice and the keywords you choose. But I will show you how to determine what you should bid and how to get lower bids

Now your campaign is ready to go.

What keywords should you use?

Start with the keywords “chiropractic” and “chiropractor” for now. Keyword selection is so important, we’ll be going into detail about it in next week’s lesson.

Keyword Matching

One thing about keywords that may interest you is the different types of matching you can use with Adwords. The three types of keyword matching are broad, phrase and exact. You should also use negative matching to exclude those search terms that don’t apply to your Adwords campaign. Here is how Google describes their keyword matching…
• Broader matching options tend to give you more impressions but accrue higher costs. Therefore, include other matching options (like phrase- or exact-match) along with broad-matched keywords in an ad group.
• Broad-matched keywords should be at least two-word phrases (gourmet coffee or organic coffee beans).
• Narrower matching options tend to give you fewer clicks and lower your costs. It’s still important to use descriptive words for these matching options.
• Negative keywords work well in most cases when you know a term doesn’t apply to your business. (”free”, “medications”,etc.)
To use broad matching, you simply enter in the term by itself. Let’s use the word chiropractic for example. Here’s how the broad, phrase and exact match would work for the search term chiropractic

Broad match = chiropractic (any search typing which includes chiropractic will show your ad, including searches like chiropractic marketing, chiropractic tables, etc)

Phrase Match = “chiropractic Dallas, TX” (Enter this with quotes around it into your Adwords account. Any search that includes this phrase exactly will show your ad, including for example “chiropractic Dallas, TX clinics”, “advanced chiropractic Dallas, TX”, etc

Exact Match = [chiropractic Dallas, TX] (This match is entered into your Adwords account with brackets around it. This means for your ad to show up, someone will have to type this phrase in exactly like you input it, so your ad will only show for the search chiropractic Dallas, TX.)

Which of the above match types should you use? All of them have their place. If you have a lot of competition for Adwords bid prices in your area, then the phrase and exact matches will allow you to beat out your competition and you will pay less for bids on keywords.

Negative keywords = a word with a negative sign in the front of it, like “–tables”, without the quotes. When combined with the above broad and phrase match this will prevent your ad showing when someone types in “chiropractic tables”.

Here’s a list of important negative keywords to use in your account for the keywords chiropractic.

-tables
-table
-marketing
-college
-websites
-seminars
-colleges
-schools
-seminar
-fraud

Do you see what those above have in common? They would be search terms that chiropractors themselves would be searching for, not patients. If you did not have these negative keywords in your account, your ad would pop up when a chiropractor searched for “chiropractic tables” in your area, and he might click your ad to see what you are up to. This wastes your money (since you are charged per click) and reveals your marketing to the guy down the street. Be sure to watch this week’s video to get more clarity on negative keywords.

Google’s Quality Score

When you mouse over the spyglass icon next to your keywords in your Adwords account, you will notice a quality score. Google has three levels of quality score — Ok, Poor and Great. The better your quality score is, the less you will pay per click. The worse your quality score, the more you will pay for keyword bid prices. Have a low quality score for too long, combined with a low CTR and you will be “slapped” by Google with ridiculously high bid prices (like 10X your current bid prices).

Google won’t tell you exactly how to improve your score, but they do reveal a few keys to help you. The score is based on your keyword relevance, your landing page relevance, and your landing page load time. Therefore, here is a checklist you can use to raise your quality score, thereby lowering your bid prices.

- Make sure your keyword is in your ad headline
- Use ad groups in your account (explained below)
- Use your keyword in your headline on your landing page
-Make sure your landing page or main website loads fast
- Use items on your landing page that makes the visitor stay longer (video, audio, etc)
- Make sure your landing page has a privacy policy link on it
- Put a link on your landing page that links to another website with a lot of content (your blog!)

How To Use Ad Groups

Ad groups are different groupings of keywords in your account. Ad groups are primarily setup for two reasons. First they allow you to use different ads to target different keywords. Also, they allow you to get a better quality score for your keywords.

Using the above “Top 10” keywords, you should group the “back pain” keywords together in an ad group. Then put the terms “chiropractic” and “chiropractor” in a separate ad group.

This concept is much easier to explain on the video, where I’ll show you how easy it is to create and manage ad groups in your campaign.

Other PPC Search Engines

Once you have mastered using Google Adwords for your practice marketing, you should branch out into Yahoo and MSN. To setup your accounts there, you should visit the following websites…

http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/index.php
https://adcenter.microsoft.com/

These PPC search engines are not as advanced Google, therefore it’s important to note a few differences in the campaign setup. For Yahoo and MSN, I do not recommend using ad groups or keyword matching. Because traffic is so much smaller it’s not worth wasting your time with these settings. Just start with 1-2 ads, and throw all your keywords into one ad group. Since quality score isn’t as important here, and bid prices are lower, this won’t hurt you at all.

(The above article is part of a ChiroMarketing Academy lesson. To see the 25 minute training video, where you can look over my shoulder see exactly how I set it up, and sign up at www.chiromarketingacademy.com.)