Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

by Michael Beck, DC

The 3 Biggest Things That Stunt Practice Growth

By Leave a Comment

Do you ever find yourself wondering why your practice building efforts aren’t working or the growth isn’t going as fast as you want it to?   Or maybe patients have stopped coming in as often as they used to.  There are three things that I believe to be very detrimental to any chiropractic practice.  Mind if I share?

How about we begin with attitude.

Are you guilty of Stinking Thinking? –  You’ve heard the saying; “you will become what you think”, well it is true.  The path to success isn’t paved in gold if you have a lack luster mindset.

Your team is only as good as their leader.  If the you have low expectations, a negative attitude or choose to bring personal issues into the work space, then you can expect to see your staff do the same. It is your practice, so you are always expected to set the standard.  So eliminate all that negative energy and buck up.  Even if the day is not going as desired, choose to look at the bright side.  Sometimes that little tweak in your attitude can turn things around.

Always be on time.  Sneaking in through the back door even five minutes late sets the bar for your staff.   Because first it’s five minutes and then it becomes ten then fifteen.  Eventually patients get tired of waiting to be seen due to the lack respect for their time.  After all, they made a point to be at their appointment on time.

Hey I get it, traffic can be a bear especially if you live more than 30 minutes away from your office.  We’ve all been held hostage in a traffic jam, but habitual tardiness is annoying for the patients and the staff. It’s true you are the boss, you own the practice and you may think you are entitled to different standards, but your not.  If you want your staff and your patients to adhere to time schedules then so must you.

Ever slipped up and said  something negative about a patient to your staff?  Huge mistake!  Even if it’s an innocent slip of the tongue.  It will forever taint the way your staff sees and interacts with that patient.  And of course never allow any negative comments about patients from your staff.  This leads me to the next topic…

Unprofessional or under trained office staff –  This could be a touchy subject especially if you have family members working in your practice.  Regardless, they should also be held to the same standard as all the other staff, maybe even more since they too have a vested interest in the success of the practice.  Chatting with co-workers, texting, taking personal phone calls in front of patients is unprofessional and uncomfortable for a patient waiting to be seen.

Answering phones properly and being knowledgeable about advertising specials is key, after all the phone call is usually the first impression a patient receives when considering their chiropractic choices.  Questions regarding insurance and patient accounts should be handled away from the front desk if at all possible.

We always want to make our patients feel special, however this too can be an issue if it looks like one is receiving special treatment because he or she has been a patient for years.  In the eyes of a new patient trying to fill out lengthy new patient forms while possibly in a lot of pain, being distracted by the office staff chumming it up with a long time patient can be annoying.

Personal hygiene…need I explain this topic?

On to my last and favorite topic.  Marketing or better yet the decision to stop marketing.  This is the one thing that makes me cringe especially when I hear a doctor say; “I’m just taking a break” or “I just can’t afford to advertise” or “It never works”.

Never stop marketing –  You’ve had to have noticed that the chiropractic profession has become a highly competitive market. So what part of “stepping away” from marketing makes since?  The decision to stop marketing or chiropractic advertising will not only slow the momentum of new patient flow, but it will also give the other chiropractors in your area the opportunity to reach the prospects that might have been yours.

If you believe your marketing has stopped pulling the results it had in the past, perhaps it’s time to try another form of chiropractic marketing.  Maybe is time to tap into some online marketing or even a direct mail patient stream for chiropractic.  I’ve been told that has shown to bring in a lot of new patients and it’s “low cost” compared to other marketing methods. So don’t quit, try different.

Of course these three things are not the only issues that can stunt a practice’s growth, but they are my top three.

Where Do You Look For Chiropractic Marketing Advice?

By Leave a Comment

I’ve heard it said before that if you want to know how to make a lot of money, you wouldn’t ask a broke person.   For plumbing issues you call a plumber, computer problems you call a techie and so on.  My point is that you want to get the person that is right for the task, a person who has been professionally trained and is successful in their field.

The same is true for chiropractic marketing and advertising for your practice.  When you do decide the time is right to try some type of marketing, you first want to do some research as to what works best for the chiropractic profession and for your practice. You want someone who is blazing trails in the chiropractic marketing niche.

Don’t be misled by those who work in an industry that sell marketing or ad space for a specific company, such as newspapers, direct mailer companies or free print publications.  Why would you seek advice about marketing from and guy who sells space in a newspaper, when he doesn’t have a clue about your profession.  He does or should know a lot about the newspaper he works for, the demographics of subscribers and circulation stats, but he can’t tell you what kind of marketing is best for you.

Who do you listen to for chiropractic advertising advice?

Where you seek out for chiropractic advertising advice will determine how successful your advertising campaigns will be. Surely you would not ask your staff if you are caring for your patients correctly.  Of course you wouldn’t, not only are they not trained as a chiropractor, they are there to support your practice in the capacity for which you hired them.  To run the front desk, answer phones and schedule appointments, processing payments, filling insurance, posting insurance…the list is long, but what is not on that list is their thoughts and insights on the care you provide for your patients. That is your expertise.

Same is true for getting others opinions and suggestions with chiropractic advertising.   At the most, one of your staff team members should be proofing your chiropractic ads to make sure all contact information is concise and correct and checking for any errors in the text.  Nothing more, nothing less.

So where do you turn for marketing advice?

Again I stress; do your research.  There are many chiropractic marketing companies that fill up an entire online search results page.  I suggest selecting a few and research each one thoroughly, first making sure the business is still open and how long it been in business. Check for reviews and then visit the website, if there is a blog, read through some of the blog posts. Comb through the website reading what marketing tools they offer.  Check for support for the products and services offered.  Call the support number and see if it is a working number, is there a real person on the other end? Can the help center answer your questions?   Find and visit any social media sites the companies are active in.  Check reviews on those sites too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attracting The Perfect Chiropractic Patient

By Leave a Comment

Finding good patients is not too hard, but the perfect patient is sometimes elusive.  Before you can find the perfect chiropractic patient, you first have to know what qualities he or she should possess then you can go about designing a chiropractic advertising campaign in a way to attract patients with those qualities and in return increase your practice revenue with higher patient visit average (PVA).

Perfect patients regard their health and their family’s health as high priority. They will go to extreme measures to find relief and healing. They will drive as far as needed, find the time to be at their scheduled appointments and they are committed to following the recommended care plan..  They aren’t necessarily wealthy and not always insured, but they understand and trust the recommended care plan based on their exam and your report of findings, they understand their care is important and make it a priority in their life.  They listen and communicate their concerns to the doctor and the staff.  They follow recommended home care and exercises.  Additionally, the perfect chiropractic patient shares their experience with their family and friends, and encourage them to check out their chiropractor.

Also, I think what is considered an ideal patient for one practice might not be perfect for another. While all chiropractors are passionate about helping their patients achieve and maintain good health, not all chiropractors practice the same.  Adjusting techniques and philosophies vary.  It may take a person several tries to find a chiropractor that fits their needs also and in doing so, maybe that eventually makes them a perfect patient for the chiropractor they choose for their care.

When I had my practice, I offered spinal decompression and some physical therapy, therefore I did my share of marketing for patients who would be the best candidates for a care plan that included scheduled time on the decompression table.  For me those were people who suffered with numbness and tingling in arms, hands, legs and feet, neck pain, low back pain, sciatica and herniated discs.   That was my targeted audience and it worked well.

It is also important to note that the prospective patients that came from that type of marketing were not always from a specific area or radius close to my practice.  I had some patients driving over an hour three times a week for their care.

So as I said, in order to find the perfect patients, you need to attract them.  This of course means some form of chiropractic marketing. It could be anything from chiropractic ads in the newspaper to online marketing.  Facebook ads, Google ads, TV or radio spots.  But regardless of where your chiropractic advertising dollars are spent, the best way to attract the perfect patient is to use the perfect marketing tools and that in my opinion is with condition specific chiropractic ads.

What kind of patient do you attract with your current form of chiropractic marketing?  I agree that all patients deserve your time and care, but what type of patients are you getting with your current marketing?

Maybe you prefer to work with more Neuropathy patients and you spent a lot of time and money on building your practice around those types of patients. But are you targeting those patients with chiropractic advertising that focuses on the symptoms and effects of Neuropathy?

Many of my colleagues are working with and seeing spectacular results using laser therapy.  I can tell you that they are most likely targeting their marketing efforts towards those who suffer with knee and shoulder pain.   Other practices are built around children or sports injuries, that doesn’t mean that doc doesn’t see other patients, but he or she might prefer to work in a specific niche and that’s okay.

Bottom line…the perfect patient is the person who wants to be your patient.

 

What IF You Stopped Marketing Altogether?

By Leave a Comment

Do you ever just want to stop? Just take a break from marketing. It’s expensive, time consuming and at times, just really frustrating.

So what if you just stopped? Took a break from all types of marketing, what would that look like?

Well let’s see, first we need to address why you do any type of marketing at all. I would say the most important reason is to bring in new patients. Without new patients, the growth of your practice is stunted.

Basically that would be like damning up a river. No water means no nourishment for the life in and around the river. Fish, plants and other animals that depend on that water source for survival, would die once the river dried up.

So you could say that chiropractic marketing is like a life source to your practice. If deprived of this source, would your practice survive?

Another reason you would actively market your practice is to share a need. This is why condition specific chiropractic ads work better that the ads that focus on the doctor or the practice. People don’t really need to know that there is another chiropractor in town, but they do need to know where to go to get help for their migraine headaches or numbness and tingling in their arms and hands.

There is a need for people to have knowledge about the conditions they live with so they can make informed choices for their healthcare. Giving people information about alternative treatments, a wellness program, non surgical and drug free options is a very legitimate reason to actively market your chiropractic business.

What about staying in front of your competitors?  Well, I guess there are no competitors if your’re not in the marketing race.  All of the other chiropractors in your area will likely continue their own form of marketing and gladly accept that there is one less chiropractor to worry about.

After looking at why you do any kind of chiropractic marketing, it’s pretty obvious why you shouldn’t take a break from marketing.

But there are more reasons, like loss of momentum.   A moving object can increase momentum faster than one that is standing still.  This is the same for your practice.  Staying on course in your marketing plan, regardless of the dips in ROI, keeps the marketing momentum at a steady pace.

Every business goes through these slow seasons.  Your practice is not exempt from this either.

So instead of taking a break, maybe switch gears.  If one form of marketing isn’t pulling results like it has in the past, maybe try another form of marketing for a time.

Other form of marketing for chiropractic would include online marketing.  Some of you are doing this with Goggle adWords already, but there have many docs getting great results from Facebook ads.

But one form of marketing that should never take a break or slow down is referrals.  Networking with your patients for referrals of family members and friends is the best practice building marketing around.

Encourage your patients to share their chiropractic experience through testimonials, friends and family incentives, and quarterly wellness presentations.

There are so many forms of marketing to use.  Not all forms need to be done continually.  If running chiropractic ads in the newspaper is not bringing it the best ROI at this time, don’t stop everything. Look into direct mail marketing, email marketing and online marketing.  You can even use the chiropractic ads you’ve used for print advertising.

We’ve all been there.  Marketing is not always fun, not always profitable, it’s not even what you are trained to do.  But to stop marketing completely?

“Without promotion, something TERRIBLE happens…NOTHING!” ~ PT Barnum

 

Revisiting Your Marketing Goals, Practice Housekeeping and Reviews

By Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, you probably jot down goals from time, but what happens after you write them down. Are they abandoned on your desk only to be buries under stacks of papers?  Maybe you are organized and write your goals down in a place where you can reference them from time to time, there are those that write their goals in a place where they can see them every day, like the bathroom mirror.

Traditionally, January is  the time for resolutions and goals, but as we approach the quarter mark of this newish year it might kind of interesting to take a minute and review those goals instead of waiting until the end of the year, just to see if you’re staying the course. I figure this way if there has been a loss in momentum towards reaching your goals, maybe this will give you a push to get back on track

As we all know, when you own a chiropractic business, between running your practice and maintaining a life outside of the office,  there are only so many hours in the day and marketing can slide off the agenda. If that’s the case,  then good intentions, such as well meaning resolutions and goals are usually forgotten about.

There are other tasks that probably get overlooked too. Below are a few common housekeeping items every chiropractic business should review and refresh every year

  • Update your chiropractic website yearly to keep it fresh and relevant
  • Update business cards, patient and practice brochures each year
  • Spruce up chiropractic ads with fresh photos and testimonials
  • Replace or rotate patient testimonials used in any direct mail marketing or chiropractic advertising
  • Rotate and refresh any products you sell in your office
  • Clean out old patient files, send out reactivation letters then archive those that do not respond

Outside of housekeeping, there are three other areas that should be addressed this year mainly because of the abundance of people who will use their computer or smartphones to find any and all types of services, including their healthcare needs.

Your Online Presence.  Are You Online Anywhere?

You really should have an online presence, somewhere.  One way to do this is with a website.  I am blown away when I talk to doctors who tell me they don’t have a website for their practice.

If you already have a website, then have you added a blog?  Readers want you to share your expertise. Make sure your chiropractic website has plenty of useful content, this will play a role in generating traffic and increasing the trustworthiness of your site and business overall. This in turn should help your rankings.  Here’s another point to consider,  Pew Internet shows that an impressive 72 per cent of internet users looked online for healthcare information last year.

Give Serious Consideration to Video Content

 I covered the topic of video marketing last week. If you missed it, you can find that HERE.  It was one of my most viewed post so far this year.

Some things are better explained in person – whether it’s an exercise guide or a brief presentation busting the myths about chiropractic care. Think about what will work best with video and don’t be afraid to experiment. Just take a look at YouTube’s own statistics if you need any more convincing about just how big video is.

People Want to Read Reviews, Write Reviews,Share and Talk About Reviews

You should already know the importance of positive reviews – and it seems this is going to become even more of a hot topic this year. This is because of a couple of changes Google brought in at the end of last year.

The first will apply if you’re signed up to Google AdWords. The new Review Extensions feature enables you to feature a small review (67 characters or less) directly under your ad. See what Google has to say about it here.

You also need to know about Shared Endorsements. Google will focus on on getting as much information as it can about your chiropractic business  – including photographs, +1s and reviews and show that on a SERP (search engine results page) if someone had searched for something connected to your service prior to the search. You can learn more from Google here.

In practical terms, you need to do as much as you can to make it easy for patients to leave reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask your regular patients for their comments – and make sure your chiropractic website has a visible box for review posting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Marketing Attracts More Traffic for Chiropractic Businesses

By Leave a Comment

Have you ever watched a video on YouTube? I would imagine you answered yes.

Would you believe people actually go to YouTube and search for other people? Did you know that if you have videos on YouTube or another video sharing sites, when people go to the web to search for a condition they have or the words chiropractor or chiropractic in their area, a link to your video will show up on the results page. That is to say, if you have put the right information in the title and tags using the right key words.

Think of videos as a way to boost your marketing prowess, broaden your reach and zero in on your targeted audience.

If you have a website then you should be also be using videos as part of your marketing package, even if you don’t have a website, you should still create a few videos and get them loaded on a video sharing site, complete with key words.   From there you can share your video spot on your website, Facebook, Twitter, Google and more.

Isn’t it about time you started talking directly to your existing and potential patient base?  It’s one thing to use chiropractic ads in the newspaper on a regular basis, but video marketing is also important and easy too.  What is even better is you can actually create these videos yourself.   If you have a good video recorder or a digital camera with video capabilities, a tripod and good lighting you can make the videos.  Why not get your staff involved in a few of them, make it a team work day.

Don’t doubt yourself or your ability to do this, great communication skills played a part in helping you get your chiropractic business off the ground. If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to think about putting those skills to good use once again. Think about it, you talk to people all day long, everyday. It’s just like discussing a health and wellness one to one with a patient, this time you’ll be speaking to a whole audience of people, only through a lens.

I know, you’re wondering why should you bother with video marketing?

It might seem  like a big commitment of time and money or you may think you’ve got this marketing thing going good with other streams.   You may, but if you weren’t already aware that video content is huge then you probably haven’t been to any marketing seminars in the last couple of years.

Let’s just focus on YouTube, it gets 1 billion unique users each month. Also, useful video content that people want to view and that performs a specific function is more likely to be shared via social media – and is positive in terms of your search engine rankings. Even putting Google aside for a second, useful content demonstrates to your website visitors that you’re a name to trust.

So what should you consider when planning what to put in your videos? Here are a few pointers…

It’s not about you…It’s about what you do
It’s natural to assume that your first video should be an introductory one telling everyone who you are and the services you have to offer. There’s nothing wrong with a short bio video; just don’t expect it to set the world on fire in terms of views. Remember; no-one’s searching the Internet to watch your sales pitch.

Make a list of topics people want to hear about
What are the questions people ask you day to day? If you have a chiropractic website with a blog, which of your posts or pages get the most views on your site. Another reason to watch those site analytics, this could help you find a good starting point and some great conversation starters.

Rehearse…in front of real people
Work out a script and time it, then rehearse in front of people, like your spouse or kids, over repeated times, it will feel natural to say the script. You don’t want to look like you’re reading from a page but for your own benefit, it’s good to have something close by to refer to. If you’ve got a complicated topic you think people might want to hear about, consider breaking it down into bite-sized chunks of single broadcasts of about five minutes.  Oh, and before posting it live, ask someone to take a look at it.

Set the tone…be professional yet compassionate
One thing about the chiropractic profession is that we know how to talk to people. As a general rule, adopt the same tone as you would use with patient during their exam of report of findings. That’s not to say that you’ll necessarily be using an identical tone in each video. For example, think about the different way in which you might speak to a guy with a chronic condition brought about through a sports injury compared to the way in which you’d speak to a woman with fibromyalgia. Consider who will be watching this particular video? Speak directly to those people.

If you’ve got only limited time and resources to spend on your video, you might be far better off going straight into a short series of presentations on topics people are actually interested in such as Neuropathy or Sciatica.  People will get to know you through these presentations.  Just like with print advertising, you can create videos based on several conditions.

Last tip… keep it short, stay on topic and review your surroundings, remove clutter from the background.  You want viewers to focus on you, not the clutter in your office.

 

 

Current Events and Some Marketing Q & A

By Leave a Comment

Now that Super Bowl XLVIII is over and all the commercials have been aired, did any of them inspire you to run out and purchase their products or services?

What would you do with a 4 million dollar marketing budget?

Did anyone make it to the end and see the commercial that remarked about how much the company saved by airing the commercial right after the game?  That sounds like a piece of advice I’ve shared with my chiropractic ads clients.   If the advertiser was being real about the huge savings, then they were pretty smart.  I mean after all, even though the game was pretty much in the bag for the winning team, I suspect most people continued to watch all the way to the end just to see the commercials.  It paid off big too, people were asked to go to twitter and tweet using the hashtag suggestion, yeah…it went viral.  They saved money and still hit pay dirt with the social media.

Punxsutawney Phil, the infamous groundhog, did see his shadow and that means 6 more weeks of winter…6 more weeks of the coldest weather most of our nation has seen in awhile.  With one month into the New Year we now have a new catch phrase for this bitter cold weather, or rather something to blame it on; the polar vortex.  In fact,some places here in the US it’s so cold and there is so much snow, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi might seem tropical.

You might be wondering what current events have to do with chiropractic marketing.   What’s happening in our day to day life, in the world we live in, has a lot to do with your marketing.  Marketing is more to hocking your products and services to people, it needs to be relevant to their needs.  You can bet that this winter’s snow fall will be playing havoc on a person’s lower back, arms and legs.  Shoveling snow, slipping and falling on ice, an increase in auto accidents.  Need I say more.  Docs…get your chiropractic ads ready.

Current events are also relevant to those who are into social networking.  At a loss for what to say in a tweet or post on your facebook wall?  Check out what’s trending and get some conversations going, there needs to be a person behind your marketing, invest some time in conversation with people and they will want to know more about you and your profession.  That’s why it’s called “social” networking.

From time to time I like to share comments and questions from the readers here on this blog and from people who are using one or more of the chiropractic marketing products from DC Practice Tools, this one seemed like a good one to share;

Q: I recently hired a company to help me with my website. They worked with me in building a few landing pages and I am doing a pay per click program with the website/landing pages. Its costing me about $1200 a month and so far, people are hitting the site, but they are not really converting and we have no follow up system with emailing the ones that hit it…can you help me do that?

A: Sounds like he’s done his homework and he’s got a good system set up.  He mentions what it costs per month, but he doesn’t say where that amount is spent, I’m assuming that is what he’s paying for the pay per click (PPC) advertising, which is a pretty decent marketing budget for a PPC campaign.  He knows visitors are coming to his chiropractic website because he can see how many clicks he paying for but if he’s smart he’s also watching his site analytics which will also show him how long they are staying on his site and if his visitors are looking at other pages.

What advice would you give this doc if  you were having lunch with him and he shared this little bit of information with you?

Based on what you’ve read here on this blog, would you know how to answer his question?

He doesn’t say whether he has an opt in form on his site or his landing pages, but that would be my first question for him simply because he says this in his comment; “people are hitting the site, but they are not really converting and we have no follow up system with emailing the ones that hit it”

So doc, what I want to know is have you provided a way for your visitors to share their email address with you?   This can only be done with an opt in form on your website.  When visitors click over from your ad are they offered a chance to leave their information in order to receive follow up emails from you?  This will also help you build a data base with email addresses for the visitors who have come to your site and would like to receive follow up emails  from you in the future.

I covered this specific topic in my last post on building your practice with email marketing.  If you’re struggling with the same problem this doctor has written about, then you can find more information HERE.

By the way, what was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?

 

Marketing Decisions to Consider with Chiropractic Print Ads

By Leave a Comment

Are you serious about management success and developing a thriving chiropractic practice? If you answered yes, then I will assume that by now you have a functional marketing strategy in place.

The whole point of a strategy is to help keep you from throwing away money on something that’s not really going to help your business grow. What do you want to achieve and how much money are you willing to commit in order to achieve it? This is what marketing strategy will enable you to determine – and achieve.

Where will you spend your hard earned money?

Optimization of your chiropractic website is no doubt pretty close to the top of your list. Newspaper advertising should be near the top too. Setting a budget is one thing. It’s also important to work out a plan to spend that money wisely.

I’ve put together a few pointers to help you on your way when deciding how to spend your allocated newspaper-advertising budget – to put your chiropractic office on the map.

Research is a must

Newspaper advertising is only effective if people actually read the publication in question. A little local knowledge comes in useful here. You should have a pretty good idea as to what newspapers and magazines are popular in your local area – and which ones aren’t. You need cold, hard figures though – so ask for a circulation breakdown from the newspaper itself. It’s also worth doing a little research. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly The Audit Bureau of Circulations) is able to provide not just circulation figures but also detailed social metrics for newspapers with a circulation above 25,000.

 One bad result isn’t the end all

Be realistic, it’s perfectly normal to expect results just don’t base the rest of your marketing on the first ad you run.  It could be a huge success, if so run it again, but at a later date, don’t risk wearing it out. If it’s not successful, try another ad.

Don’t give up if you don’t see instant results; give your marketing some time to grow. Newspaper advertising for a small business is all about raising your profile over time. If your chiropractic practice was recently established, you’re going to have to give it time for people to get to recognize your name. Recognition will come – but you’re going to have to stick with it.

Stay consistent and resist the urge to dip in and out of the market

It might be tempting to decide to splash out on the largest ad you can afford if you have a particular good month – but then not spend anything at all in those months when cash flow is tight. You need to resist this approach. If you simply ‘dip in and out’ of newspaper advertising then quite simply, people are going to forget who you are. Making a solid commitment to placing ads on a regular basis – rather than a big glossy ad once in a blue moon – will prove to be the best strategy.

Don’t be talked into buying advertising space you can’t afford

I cover this topic in the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads kit.  A newspaper advertising sales team can be a pretty persuasive bunch.  Hold off on package deals until you have a few runs under your belt.

But you might receive phone calls sometimes, offering great deals on unused advertising space. This can often be a great value, but not always a great location in the paper.  It’s fine to take the paper up on these offers from time to time, but ask questions and weigh your options, it might not be such a great deal if your ad is tucked away on in an obscure section and not seen. Also consider, unplanned advertising could eat into other parts of your marketing budget. The same goes for seemingly great value advertising space in neighborhood newsletters and start-up magazines. These publications can be great for building up a friendly, community-based profile – just don’t let the spending spiral out of control.

A willingness to commit and the ability to keep a tight rein on your budget: if you get this right then you’ll soon see that newspaper advertising becomes a highly successful part of your chiropractic marketing plan.