No, I’m not talking today about B.J. Palmer or issues of mixers and straights.

Here’s what I mean…

There’s a lot talk in chiropractic about “philosophy”, namely the issue over what chiropractor’s believe about their own profession.

Likewise, marketing is always a hot topic because doctors, rightly want to grow their practice, serve more people and increase their incomes.

But one thing you rarely see mentioned is the phrase “philosophy of marketing”.

The word philosophy has many meanings, which can be anything from literal Greek meaning of “the study of wisdom” to the more often used sense of man’s attempt at searching for truth (think Socrates and Plato).

But the meaning I’m after today is neither of these, but simply “a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs.”

So what you need is a system of principles for guidance in marketing! Simple to do, right?

If only it was. If you’ve been around the profession for very long, you’ve heard dozens of different “principles” of marketing.

Here’s a few BAD philosophies of marketing I’ve heard…

• Don’t spend more than $100 per new patient
• Marketing is unethical and is only for snake oil salesmen.
• Just do a ton of spinal screenings and you’ll be fine.
• You’ve gotta just out in the community, pass your card around more.
• Make every patient get their family members check within 10 days, or you “fire the patient”.
• Get a fancy website up and people will flock to your door!

Maybe you think I’m exaggerating? Okay, I only exaggerate a bit on the last one! But the others I have actually heard almost verbatim.

These are not effective philosophies of marketing for your practice. What is a good philosophy?

“I will do any type of ethical marketing as long as it shows a good return on investment.”

This philosophy works because it covers all of the above bad ones and more. To get a good return (ROI), you’ve gotta get qualified new patients, like I recommend with my chiropractic ads.

And it doesn’t matter if you pay $101 per new patient. What matters is the ROI.

Maybe passing out cards is a good idea. Maybe a good website will work. Maybe spinal screenings are effective. But the only way you really know is by measuring their ROI (which in the case of spinal screenings should factor in your time spent.)

That’s my philosophy of marketing. Do you agree or disagree? What’s your philosophy?

The Google image is blacked out. By clicking on the image you’ll end up on their Take Action page which deals with the new SOPA/PIPA legislation before Congress.

Then later today I was reading over at Ryan Healy’s blog and noticed quite a few websites are protesting. Here’s what you’ll see at Wikipedia:

What is SOPA/PIPA and what does it have to do with your website?

Do you market your practice on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube?

Watch this short video to understand why you should fight against this legislation.

What can you do to stop this censorship, which if passed, will eventually effect your business?

Sign Google’s petition here. And contact your representative. If you’re not sure who your rep is, go to Wikipedia today and they have a neat popup that will look up your representative by zipcode.

This is a question that I’ve been asked in our ChiroPatients Online program.

Here’s the short answer, straight from Matt Cutts (of Google). Matt answered this question in response to this article:

I know it’s already 2 weeks into the year, but if your holiday season is anything like mine, it takes the first week or two in 2012 to actually relax and catch up from the end of the previous year.

One of the things you must do is write down all your plans and goals on a yearly calendar.You can not just wait until you need new patients, and then figure out what to do. This is reactive marketing and you want to be proactive this year.

For years, I used a monthly calendar on the wall that my staff and I could write marketing events down and see what was coming up.

But the furthest you can see on these types of calendars is only 30 days at a time. What we need is a “year at a glance” type of calendar.

Well thankfully this year I found the NeuYear Calendar, which is a complete year at a glance. This will hang great on the wall or back of my door.

I recommend you grab one too, and start planning your monthly marketing events, promotions, ads, etc.

Here’s some benefits listed on their site, which led me to buy one immediately:

• It’s big, coming in at 27″ x 39″ this means you can see the whole year at once. “You no longer have to page through a traditional calendar (or on your small computer screen), to see the whole year. You can layout your goals for the year, set future deadlines, and clearly see the passing of time. Also, it has bigger squares so you can write more.”
• No space between months. “The week is the currency we think in, so this calendar focuses on presenting 52 weeks, rather than 12 months.”
• Brilliant aesthetics. In Making Ideas Happen, author Scott Belsky says “the design of your productivity tools will affect how eager you are to use them; attraction often breeds commitment.”
• 2 calendars in 1! It has a horizontal orientation that fits perfectly above your desk, or you can flip it over for a vertical orientation that fits perfectly on your door.

Now that I shown you which calendar I think is best, what do you do with it?

Call a staff meeting one day during lunch. Start by explaining your mission for your practice and the goals you have for this year.

Then begin brainstorming with your staff about the different types of marketing ideas they have. Make sure to give them room and freedom to talk. Even if they have a bunch of bad ideas, just write them down. You never know when they’ll say something you’ve never thought of.

My staff would often come up with many successful in-office marketing procedures from the past that I had totally forgotten about.

Once you have written down, everything you can think of, start prioritizing your list. Put a “1″ by the most effective, “2″ be second most effective, and so on.

Side note: Do not base effectiveness on what feels like it did the best last year. Feelings do not turn into dollars. Measure effectiveness based on your return on investment numbers you recorded for all marketing last year. And if you didn’t keep good records, go back and see if you can figure it up now. Remember, ROI equals the amount you brought in from a given marketing campaign divided by the money spent on it.

You might want to throw in something new for 2012 that you haven’t tried before. A few suggestions would be:

• Neuropathy or decompression newspaper ads
• Google Adwords
• spinal screenings (but with a caveat, see here)

Then begin writing on your calendar all the 1′s, 2′s, etc. spread out somewhat evenly throughout the year. So you don’t want all your ads to come out in March and have the rest of the year empty.

If you wanted to do it according to budget, you should write the amount to spend beside each campaign to. For example, on February 20th you might write “Run Neuropathy Ad for $1000 or less”. (To see how to save money on running your monthly newspaper ads, watch this free webinar.)

If a month get’s too busy, slide things forward into the next month. You should be marketing every month of the year, no exceptions.

Now you have a marketing calendar set up. Try to stick to it as much as possible. You may need to edit and change things throughout the year. That’s fine, but make sure you take a look at the big picture before making rash decisions.

Do you have any other good ideas on planning your marketing calendar? Let us know in the comments below.

Did you learn any lessons along the way?

Because my year started off kind of crazy (see #1 below), I put off setting any specific goals. By the end of the year, I could see that 2011 hadn’t been much of an improvement over my 2010 goals.

That’s the whole point of setting goals, so that you have something to aim at. So by January 2nd of this year, I already had all my goals listed out on paper. No messing around this year.

While on the business side of things my year was about like the one before, 2011 was still a great year! It was very busy, especially on the family side of things. Looking back over the year, I realize that many of these events taught me (or reminded me if I’d already learned them) that running a business is really about something bigger than just the business.
Lesson #1. Children are a blessing.
On January 3, 2011, very early in the morning (3 AM) we were blessed with a new son, Camden Elijah Beck. It’s hard to imagine he was just a tiny little tike, because now he walks around my office hitting things with a toy hammer and trying to unplug all the wires on my computer.

#2. Set a goal for your family and work hard for it.
Autumn and I have been married for 13 years, and we’ve moved 12 times! After moving to the Texas hill country in the beginning of 2009, we had been renting a smaller house in town until we became familiar with the area.

But as our family grew, we knew it was time to look at buying a home, hopefully with some room for the kids to roam. In May we moved into what my wife calls her “dream home”: something large enough for living, homeschooling and me to have a nice home office!

Here’s a view from the front (before the worst drought in Texas history completely wiped out everything green):

#3. Take time to make memories with your family.
A few years ago, I realized my family and I were not taking enough vacations. So we started an annual beach trip to the gulf coast. This year was much nicer without the threat of oil washing up on the beach, as it had been in 2010 with the Gulf oil spill fiasco.

We also decided to try out the Houston Space Center. While the Center was the kid’s favorite, my favorite part was taking a tour of the NASA research facilities. It’s amazing to see the humanoid robots and spider bots that are being built and testing right in front of us.

Here we are on the dunes of Surfside Beach.

These are the lessons and events that marked by 2011 year. (Let me know yours in the comments below).

Also, here’s a neat video showing some major events searched for on Google in 2011. (Notice how fast Google is becoming a major news source? Expect more from me on this blog showing you how to get the most out of Google in 2012!)

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.

Some of my clients are saving thousands on ad prices each year. And
we’ll show you how their doing it.

Last week I interviewed special guest Carol Ann Smith on the subject of “How to Save Thousands On Your Newspaper Ads”.

Carol has years of experience working for chiropractors and saving them thousands in advertising prices. In 2010 alone she
helped bring in over 300 new patients from newspaper ads alone for one chiropractic office.

Here are just a few points we discussed:

To see the recorded video, go here:

http://ultimateadservice.com/start

Yours for greater success,
Michael Beck, D.C.

Math never was my favorite subject in school, but I got by with passing grades at least.

Well, there was that one time I made a D with Mr. Drill Sergent Teacher in college Algebra! But, I retook it later with a different teacher and got an A.

Anyways, enough about my report card. Let’s see if you can do some business math…

Nothing complicated of course. I realize most of my readers are doctors and have other skills sets.

Hang with me here and you’ll see there’s a very important marketing lesson that goes along with this math problem.

The most important number in marketing is ROI (which stands for Return On Investment.) According to Investopedia.com the technical definition is:

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

It’s the money you make back, the return, on what you originally invested. So if you put $1 into marketing and make back $7. That’s a 7:1 ROI, also expressed 700%

This is an excellent return. You made $6 that you did not have when you started. All the big box stores would love to have that kind of return on their merchandise.

Let me make the example a little more complicated.

Let’s say you want to start an egg business. But, you need to invest in getting chickens first, before you can have any eggs to sell. Your first step is to hire a chicken catcher (work with me here, it’s an example!) You find a highly recommended chicken catcher for the nice sum of $100.

You ask Mr. Chickengetter (heretofore known as CG) how many chickens he can catch for you. He says he’s not sure, as those buggers are pretty fast. But he’ll do his best. Tomorrow he comes back with 9 chickens. Now it’s time for the egg laying to begin!

Within the first month these fine chickens produce 300 organic, free-range eggs to sell to Whole Foods, who pays you $700 for them.

Wow, this makes you feel really good about your business.

Let’s throw in a little twist. Let’s say all your chickens burn up in a horrible fire after 30 days (hey, stuff happens)!

You’ve now got to go back to Mr. CG and have him catch you some more chickens. But on your way to meet him, you strike up a conversation with another farmer down the road, Mr. Poach.

He informs you that he never pays more than $5 for a new chicken, never, ever! Even though Mr. Poach’s farm is looking pretty shabby, you thank him for his good advice and go on your way.

You then hire Mr. CG for $200 this time and tell him you need a lot of chickens to restart your business. He brings back 18 chickens. You do a quick calculation in your head, while thinking about your previous conversation you had with Mr. Poach. You just paid a whopping $11.11 per chicken! You feel completely duped.

Doesn’t Mr. CG understand how tight money is after the fire? If he really cared, he would have brought back more chickens. At least 50, or maybe 70 chickens.

After giving Mr. CG a piece of your mind for charging you so much per chicken, you go back home and start producing those wonderful eggs.

After 30 days, you have about 600 eggs, which you sell to Whole Foods for $1400.

How depressing this chicken business is.  Last month you felt good about your business ,but this month you only got 18 chickens from Mr. CG. If only he could have brought you 80 or 90 chickens, you could be feeling good right now. You think to yourself, “maybe the money’s in turkey farming.”

What’s the moral of the story?

It doesn’t matter how you feel about the number of chickens you get, it’s the amount of eggs they produce that matters!

In both scenarios, the return is exactly the same, 7:1 or 700%. In both cases you put in $1 and got $7 back. It doesn’t matter how much the chickens cost, because that’s not part of the ROI formula!

How many investors on Wall Street would be ecstatic about buying stocks for $1 and selling them for $7?

Now for the true test of your arithmetic prowess. Here’s a real life example I got in email form.

“I just ran my first ad. We got 6 calls to schedule and 5 came in. I’ve already done one report and he paid $995 today. If he keeps his treatment recommendations he’ll pay an additional $500 to finish his care. 5 NP’s from a $1000 cost to run the ad is not a very good return, don’t you agree?”

Be one of the first 10 comments to get all of the following questions right and I’ll give you a free video for improving your website ranking on Google.

1. Assuming all 5 patients finish the care plan of $1495 each, what will this doctor’s ROI be?

2. Would you be happy with these results?

3. Multiple choice, choose only one:

Would you:

A. Run the chiropractor’s ad again.

B. Not run the ad again because it only brought in 5 new patients.

C. Not run the ad again because it lost you money.

Long copy is a rather new, untested marketing technique…right?

A few weeks ago I did a webinar for a chiropractic consulting group. Here’s just a short snippet of that webinar where I answered these questions and more.

(Sorry it’s a bit blurry. Even the best webinar recording software still has some improving to do.)