Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

Do long copy ad really work? I mean do people really read all those words?

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.)

This is part 2 of a two part series. You can read the first part by clicking here.

In my last post, we covered the first 2 mistakes chiropractors make when running their newspaper ads. Today, let’s look at the final 3 mistakes…

Mistake #3. Changing the Picture.

When it comes to a successful chiropractic ad, the picture really is ‘worth a thousand words.’ By using a well placed photo and a caption, much can be said in a very small space. When I write an ad, each photo is selected carefully to portray a certain meaning to the reader. Usually this is a photo that depicts the lifestyle or activity the patient wants to accomplish when they are well.

Also where the picture is placed can make a big difference. A picture placed awkwardly can make the ad seem out of place to the reader, causing him to quickly identify it as an advertisement and skip over reading it. This is why the large Ultimate Chiropractic Ads each have a photo and caption specifically placed in the ad. In some cases that is to the right of the headline. In other ads it’s embedded in the body copy text.

The point here is this: by making changes to the picture in the ad, you could be making a big mistake and hurt your results.

Mistake #4. Taking Out Sections to Make the Ad Smaller

To save some money I’ve seen doctors squish an ad down into a tiny space in the newspaper. Part of what makes an ad work is that it gets noticed. Yet, by taking an ad that was meant to be smaller than a 1/4 page ad and making into a 1/8 (or even 1/16) page ad, you’ve ruined it. It would have been better if you’d saved your money for a bit and ran it as a larger ad size.

Another mistake is thinking that by removing the picture from the ads, you can save a bit on ad space. The biggest reason this is a bad idea is because the caption on a photo is the second read thing in the ad, after the headline. Each of my ads has a photo and caption for this purpose. I want the reader to feel an irresistible urge to read the ad after seeing the headline and photo.

Mistake #5. Writing in Your Own Copy

Unless you have special training in advertising and copywriting, it’s a bad idea to write your own copy into the ad. Even if it’s a small paragraph, this can ruin the flow of the ad and cause it to fail. You’d be better off changing any number of variables — including running a different ad, changing the size of the ad, trying a different paper, running inserts instead of space ads, and more — before trying to write in your own parts.

This was a common mistake made with older ads that have been around in chiropractic. We were told to “write in our own chiropractic story” in to the ad. The problem was that “our own story” made up the first 40%-50% of the ad. And this was the first part the prospect began reading! This meant that if you weren’t trained in copywriting, the success of the ad was almost completely dependent on how well you wrote. Not on the skill of the consultant who wrote the rest of the ad.

It’s better to use ads that require only minimal changes in your contact information (name, number, and address)

When I first started out in practice, newspaper ads were all very popular. A well known ad “kit” was being sold that contained a handful of advertorial style full page chiropractic ads.

These were reported to bring in 60, 80 and even 100 new patients upon running them in a local newspaper. While I never received 60 patients from just one ad, I did get 20 or more the first time I ran it. Friends of mine in smaller towns got 40-60 every time they used the ad.

The reason these newspaper ads worked well was because of the way the ad looked. The ads were developed in the 1920-30′s by marketers selling books and “home study courses.” They were designed to look like editorial in the newspaper, but written to persuade the customer to take action and buy. Since the ad is a combination of an advertisement and editorial, it is now referred to as an “advertorial”.

But over the years, two things have made these ads less effective.

1. Everyone else bought the ad kits and started running them in the papers. So the ads weren’t as believable and personalized because every chiropractor in town was running the same exact ad.

2. Newspapers became less and less effective in certain markets due to the increase of internet news.

So do they still work?

My clients and I have not noticed a huge decline in newspaper ads over the years, unless everyone is running the same type ad in our area. Granted, we aren’t running the same chiropractic advertorials that came out 10 years ago either.

I’ve written my own advertorials to more closely match recent trends like decompression and fibromyalgia. I also created my own so that no one in my area would run the same ad, therefore the ad looked personalized for my practice.

And remember, the most important number to look at is your return on investment. If you spend a $1, does it come back and make you $1 or more. If newspaper ads do that, then it’s obvious you should still invest in them as part of your marketing plan.

This is me and internet copywriter Ray Edwards at the recent World Internet Summit. Ray has written copy for some of the biggest selling websites and made his clients millions of dollars in just the last few months.

During the summit, Ray Taught on his “4 Part Selling Formula” that he uses to write web copy. I’ve listed them with my notes on how they translate into your chiropractic marketing plan.

1. “Here’s What I’m Selling” — This is what you say in your advertising or even when describing your services to a new patient. These are the features of your offer. Maybe you offer a special type of adjusting, or you have a decompression table, or have a special plan for fibromyalgia patients.
2. “Here’s How it helps you” – Many DC’s fall short on this one. We assume that the prospect understand the benefit, but many do not. You have to explain to your prospective patients how what you do will help them. These are the benefits of  your offer. And specifically how it will allow them to do the things they enjoy in life. ie golf, playing with the kids, dancing, etc. Remember, the patient is saying “what’s in it for me”.
3. “Some questions you may have” — This one is huge in our profession! We need to handle their objections before they even ask them. Common objections are cost, skepticism of chiropractic (does it work?), fear of chiropractors, “Do I have to go forever?”, “will it come back”, etc
4. “Here’s exactly what to do next” — In your marketing, you have to tell the prospective patient exactly what to do next. You can’t just assume they will know what to do. “call now” or “click here to schedule an appointment” are examples of this.

Ray Edwards also mentioned the following that I thought applied well to our practices:

“They wouldn’t be on your website, unless they weren’t silently begging you for help with their problem.” This applies to when a new patient calls you too.

How can you apply the above marketing strategies to your chiropractic marketing plan?