Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

It is very likely that everything you’ve been taught about what motivates people is wrong. In this video you’ll see why giving a bonus to your staff based on money alone is not motivating them. In addition I recommend you ask how these concepts can be used to motivate yourself to achieve your goals this year.

I can attest that the 2 motivations Pink gives at the end of the video have worked tremendously well for my productivity.

To learn more, check out Danial Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

The end of the calendar year, what many Americans call the Holiday Season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years), is quickly approaching. For many chiropractors, this is a bustling time of new patients and high profits to finish out the year strong. For others it represents some of the hardest and leanest months on record.

Why the difference?

It comes down to your view of marketing. There is a myth that’s been perpetuated in our profession for many years. The myth that says you shouldn’t market in certain months because of holidays and vacations. Have you ever heard such nonsense?

I actually had a consultant when I first started out in practice that went through all the ‘bad marketing’ months. January is insurance deductible rollover month. Feb. was probably okay. March was spring break, so not good there. April was tax month, so that was out. The summer was out because everyone went on vacation. December was bad because of all that Christmas spending, no one had money to come in. Plus insurance plans were maxed! And on and on. I think he ended up listing at most 2-3 months out of the whole year that I should use paid marketing!

You may remember the Dynamic Chiropractic poll which was taken awhile back on this issue, finding there was no difference between summer, fall and winter when it comes to marketing. The interesting thing was that 22%, a fourth of doctors polled, said it the season didn’t make any difference in their marketing.

Now that’s the attitude you should have. If anything the Holidays are an excuse to ramp up your marketing because your marketing will stand out even better as your competitors will have believed the myth and pulled back on their spending. Many doctors have realize this little secret and done very well.

Sidenote: In case your not familiar with this blog, when I say “marketing” I mean effective, proven marketing strategies, methods and techniques. I’m not speaking of getting more brochures printed up or drop a few business cards off at the local restuarant.

I’ll never forget the year I put an ad in the newspaper the week before Thanksgiving. It was later in the month I would have liked, considering I believed at the time I shouldn’t be marketing at all near the end of the month. And my ads usually have a 2 week deadline to take action on the offer. But things just didn’t work out for me to get it in earlier. “Oh well”, I figured, “at least they’ll have 1 week to come in.” The results surprised me. A few came in that first week, but we actually got swamped the three days before Thanksgiving Day. I think we had 7 or 8 new patients the day right before, meaning when came back the following week I was going to be doing multiple report of findings. What better thought to have on a 4 day holiday?

Let’s look at the reasons why you should market heavily during the next two months.

• Bad weather means more accidents, whether slips, falls or auto accidents. People will need your services.
• Holidays can be a great time of year to hold a special new patient event like a Food Drive, Toys for Tots drive, Angel Tree program, and more.
• Winter sports are in full swing, causing many athletic injuries that need your care.
• Competitors marketing is usually lessened, which makes yours stand out.
• Discounts can be had from many media, especially newspapers and magazines.
• People are home more often, which means it may be time to try some telemarketing programs.
• More people are online shopping, which means they may come across your website.
• Many are looking to use up there Health Savings Accounts by years end (especially considering people are concerned these benefits will disappear under Obamacare.)

Now I’m not saying you should ignore certain aspects of the Holidays when you do your marketing plan. I would not put an ad in the paper on Christmas Day or New Years day for example, or even the day before. Also, you shouldn’t run ads when you’ll be closed unless you have a good answering service.

Here’s where my focus would be on marketing in the next two months.

Newspaper Adveritising: Run a chiropractic ad or decompression ad at least once in November and once in December. Twice each month would be even better, but in December run your second ad before the 20th. I would also have an ad coming out the very first week of the new year. (Look for a special New Years ad I’ll be mentioning in a few weeks.)

Internet Marketing: I would keep it running right along smoothly with article marketing, email marketing, SEO backlinks and Google Adwords. Now there is a trend at the end of the year on Google (see chart below) where people do search less for the term “chiropractic”. But we need to consider a couple of things here. First, since you only get charged when your ad gets clicked, if no one is searching for this term your ad won’t show and you won’t get charged. Secondly, even if someone does click your Adwords ad, they are interested and have just as much chance of coming in as someone who clicked your ad in April, or June, or any other month. Thirdly, you definitely should be marketing to other keywords than just chiropractic. In fact all keywords take a dip in mid December on Google (except for toys, gifts, etc.), but they also spike quite a bit right after Christmas.

For example, take a look at the chart above which is a Google Trends graph for the search term “sciatica”. See that spike right at the end of the year. You want to be running your ads then for sure. And lastly, it’s been confirmed from Google Adwords experts that one of the worse things you can do is to turn off your ads. This messes up your past history of success with Google, jacking with your bid rates, quality scores and more.

Referral Marketing: Continue with an effective internal marketing plan, but adding to it at least one special event near Thanksgiving food drive, Christmas toy drive, or New Years “get back to health.” As Dan Kennedy says, these are great times to create a special marketing event. Don’t waste it. Also, these events allow your patients to give to those in need helping others to enjoy the holidays.

We’ll look at more ideas in the coming weeks. Have you laid all this out on the calendar yet and put things into action? If not, what are you waiting for, Christmas or something?

Are you happy with your income so far this year?

The June 3, 2010 issue of Chiropractic Economics magazine is entitled “DCs: Are You Back in Black?” The feature article in this issue is a their “13th Annual Salary & Expense Survey”.

This survey was taken from a good number of practicing chiropractors spread evenly throughout the U.S. Here are some major points that I got out of the 3-year comparison chart on pg. 33.

1. Franchises are declining. According to the percent of franchises in our profession from 2008 to 2010, the number is dropping significantly. The chart shows 3.9% of chiropractors surveyed in 2008 had a franchise, 1.4% in 2009, and only 1% in 2010.

Why are franchises declining? I’m uncertain. I have heard a few past franchisees say they didn’t get what they expected out of the deal. Perhaps the marketing didn’t live up to the franchisees expectations.

2. Associates are up, almost double from what they were in 2008 and 2009. 9.4% of those surveyed had an associate. This could be due to the recent recession, as more graduates are looking for a job, since they are unable to get a loan to start their own practice. Yet, this number is also telling of the owners who hire the associates. Are practices growing in 2010 to the point where they can hire more associates so quickly?

3. Salaries and DC compensations are still low. While definitely up from last year’s depressing numbers, the 2010 average salary of $87,538 has not returned to the level observed in 2008. The lower salary could be explained by the increase in associate doctors, but the overall DC total compensation is still low as well at $112,368.

4. The average chiropractor’s advertising expense is embarrassing. A general rule in business, one I heard even in chiropractic school, was that you should spend at least 10% of your monthly gross collections on marketing. I realize this will not always be the case. Some times you spend more, like when you open a new practice for example. Other times you spend a bit less.

According to the study, the average gross collections for chiropractors in 2010 will be $323,421. Yet the average spent on marketing is projected to be only $10,660. This isn’t anywhere close to 10%! The amount spent on marketing by the average chiropractor is only 3% of their collections. This is actually down from last year’s average of 4.6% spent on marketing and 2008′s 3.7% spent on marketing. This means chiropractors on average are cutting back this year on their marketing spend. It doesn’t make any sense to cut back now, as the economy is showing signs of recovery and many business are hitting a growth spurt right now.

What lessons can you learn from this?

If you don’t want to have just an average practice, increase your marketing spend immediately. What better time for your marketing to stand out than now, when everyone else is still cutting back.

Of course, you shouldn’t waste your money on useless marketing that doesn’t work. It’s best to use direct response marketing to bring in new patients every week of the year.

If you’re spend increases on productive marketing, your practice can only grow. And then you’ll be far ahead the “averages” mentioned above.

Here’s a list of tools & products I recommend for helping you get more new patients in over the summer. Some are mine and others are excellent products from friends of mine who’ve proven themselves in the field of chiropractic marketing.

Use these tools now to bring in more new patients. Don’t waste the whole summer, thinking “everyone is on vacation, no one will come in.” Cut the excuses and grow your practice to the level you always wanted it to be!

The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads

Decompression Marketing Elite

Internet Marketing for Chiropractors

Chiropractic Marketing Academy

PI Marketing

Internal Referral Marketing System

Neuropathy Doctor Marketing

When is the best time to spend money marketing your practice? What season brings in the best return on your investment?

Ask most chiropractors this question, and you will get a variety of answers.

Some will say you should never advertise in the summer, as everyone is gone on vacation. Other chiropractors, especially the more northern ones, will say do not advertise in the winter due to holidays and bad weather.

I actually had a consultant years ago who went through all the months that were bad for marketing. January is insurance deductible rollover month. Feb. was ok to market in. March was spring break, so not good there. April was tax month, so that was out. And on and on. I think he said 2-3 months out of the year which were good to advertise in!

So what are the best and worst months?

In the June 3rd issue of Dynamic Chiropractic, a poll was taken of 144 chiropractors, asking them “Do more patients seem to come in during a particular time of year?” Here were the results:

Spring – 29%
Summer – 15%
Winter – 17%
Fall – 17%
No real change – 22%

From these results you might be lead to think that Spring is best for new patients. But this poll shows that almost a quarter (22%)of those polled said it didn’t matter which month, there wasn’t a big difference!

Not to mention there were still quite a few doctors who said Fall, Summer and even Winter was their best season for new patients.

Here’s the truth…

There is not magic month for marketing your practice! You should be marketing you’re practice every single month of the year. The month you take a break from marketing your office, it will suffer. Maybe not right away, but it surely will suffer during the following months.

Some doctors take a month or two off from marketing, and this puts them into a tailspin that becomes difficult to recover from. A month off causes less revenue. Less revenue usually less to spent on marketing. Less spent on marketing means less new patients. And on and on down the spiral it goes.

But with that said, there are going to be months that are better for you than others. I tracked my office’s pattern for years, and found a general pattern of months that could really produce.

For me, they were March or April (usually 1 of the 2), July, and the block of Sept. through November as a whole. But you shouldn’t assume mine best months will be the same as yours. Look at your own stats to determine which months work best. (You are keeping good monthly stats, right?)

Some months I even had some huge swings, like the year December was my best new patient month.

So during these “super months”, I will double or triple up on my marketing. If I was running one of my Ultimate Chiropractic Ads a month, I might run 2 or 3 in those months. Or add telemarketing to those months only.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking these “super months” are the only time you should market your practice. If you find a great month, that’s proven itself (at least two years in a row) to be good for new patients, then it would be prudent to spend even more on marketing during that month in the future.

Now it’s your turn. Comment below and tell us what months you’ve found to be the best.

As we finish out 2009, I want to look forward at some possible trends in 2010. Today’s post looks at the last 2 predictions (out of 5 total) I see for next year. To view part 1, click here.

#4. Better Internet Marketing For New Patients

While chiropractors have been using websites for over a decade now, I predict an increase use of the internet to get new patients. This reasons for this are many — increasing use of the internet in general, rising popularity of Facebook and Twitter, Google’s affinity for blogs, and more.

In 2010, it’s likely that the majority of chiropractors will realize that internet marketing is about effectiveness, not the flashy graphics and “pretty websites”. Even in 2009 I noticed many of the website developers were removing their ‘rotating spine’ charts and adding more content instead.

Content really is king with search engines like Google. I have found that we are able to get professional websites with direct response copy up quickly using blog software. Then we ad a few blog posts written from the doctor-to-patient view point, and within days Google is ranking our brand new website in the top 5 spots. We can then keep this doctor there by adding new blog posts over time.

While many chiropractors realize the usefulness of organic or free search engine optimization, most do not yet grasp the potential of pay-per-click marketing (PPC).

Based on this, I also predict that more chiropractors will discover how well Google Adwords can work for new patient marketing. It surprises me that more chiropractors are not taking advantage of this great marketing tool. Many tell me it’s because they’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. However, the problem occurs when doctors send Adword’s “visitors” directly to their homepage on their website. By using condition-specific landing pages, with direct response copy, plus email marketing follow-up, my internet marketing clients are finding this method very successful and will continue to do so into next year.

Admittedly there is a learning curve to Adwords, along with the reward and punishment system Google has built into it.

But in my opinion its well worth the time spent for the return on investment, especially in the long run. Of course for those who don’t want to learn it or don’t have the time, we created ChiroPatients Online specifically for this reason.

#5. Deeper Patient Relationships

Because of what many are calling the New Economy, patients are more careful with their money. Even though we are moving out of the recession and the overall economy will improve in 2010, people are not ready to be back in the 2008-2009 feeling where money was tight.

If you’ve been in practice for long, this really is no surprise. Patients, being human beings like the rest of us, tend to drop out of things over time. Yet I expect this to rise in 2010 as more healthcare opportunites will come into the market combined with more careful spending mentioned above.

Both of these, the careful spending and more competition, means that chiropractors will have to work harder to keep their current patients.

It still surprises me that doctors are willing to spend so much to get a new patient, but scrimp on spending anything to keep them over the long term. Something as simple as mailing a chiropractic newsletter once a month is a bare essential. Holding true patient appreciation events and creating V.I.P. lists will take your practice to an even higher level.

Other great strategies for keeping your patients longer include dinner workshops, patient of the month programs, referral contests, and stick letters.

You can also expect more online patient communication to grow in 2010. The most powerful of these is email marketing, but many chiropractors will also get their facebook and twitter pages up and running.

This concludes my 5 big predictions for 2010. I recommend planning for them sooner rather than later.

Did I miss one you thought was important? Do you have a prediction I didn’t mention? Leave your comments below.

When I first started out in practice, I had no experience in running a business. In chiropractic school I assumed I would learn how to run a business. But that didn’t happen.

So I hired a consultant, who I felt certain would be able to use his years of experience to direct me on the right path.

Then my grand opening came. We ran a full page, long-copy newspaper ad. We did a huge telemarketing campaign to the area. And it worked, bringing in over 50 new patients the first month and $22,000 in cash collected!

Who can complain about that?

Actually it really messed me up.  So bad it would take 2 years to recover. Let me explain…

You see, I thought since this was my first month, every month after this would only get better. After all, if this wasn’t the case, surely I would have heard about it in school, or my $1000 per month consultant would tell me. Time to go get a $700 a month car payment. Time to start looking at new houses. (Do you see where this story is headed?)

Since my first month was so good, I’ll just lay off marketing the next month. Guess what happened?

Yep, only collected $10,000 and had a handful of new patients. But I thought “No problem, it’s December, everyone knows chiropractors are ‘cursed’ in December. Next month will be better. I won’t do any more more marketing and I’ll just wait and see what happens.”

I waited. And I waited. Five months later, we were stilling only seeing about 10 new patients per month and collecting between $10-15k.

So I did some proven marketing again. I bet you can guess what happened next.

We had an awesome month! So I thought, “I’m so busy seeing new patients and getting them well, I don’t really need to market much next month. After all, school is letting out and everyone knows new patients avoid a chiropractor during the summer.”

The next month dropped again. “We’ll of course, it’s summer time”, I thought. “I’ll just wait and see what happens next month.”

I’ll spare you the long sad story, and tell you this pattern continued for the next 2 years. It was a vicious  downward spiral. One good month, then ‘wait and see’ whats going to happen, then 3 bad months. Rinse and repeat.

Every quarter, I had less and less money to spend on marketing, since I was relying on 1 month to cover 3 months of expenses.

Why didn’t I learn my lesson, you ask?

There are many reasons, but the biggest one was that having one good month always made me think everything was okay. All I had to do was keep holding on and things would get better.

And while it’s true you must “hold on” during rough times in life, holding on doesn’t mean you just sit around doing nothing. You “hold on” to your faith, your family, and your sanity. But you don’t hold on to the business stuff that’s not working, namely a messed up marketing plan. I was simply holding on, praying for Someone else to do the work of bringing in the new patients.

I did eventually learn my lesson and turn things around.

Wait-and-see chiropractic marketing does not work. And the sad part is, if you do this too often, you’ll get into a spiral that’s very difficult to get out of.

Don’t wait and see what’s going to happen next month. Don’t count on spinal screenings to build your practice.  Don’t sit around thinking patients are just going to walk in the door.

Instead, use proven marketing systems. Run a chiropractic newspaper ad next month. Implement a new referral strategy with your patients. Set up an automatic online marketing system.

You don’t have to do it all in one month. But for your practice’s sake, do something!

Sometimes it’s prudent to wait and see. But when it comes to solid proven marketing, you’re always better off doing it now instead of later.

What strategies do you really need to focus on to build a bigger and more profitable practice this year?

Most chiropractic coaches and consultants have a specific “thing” they want you to work on. Many want you to work on your “report of findings” procedures. (In fact, most chiro coaches I had spent 90% of their time on ROF’s.) Others focus on retention and patient education.

But when you look at the big picture, there are really only 5 ways to make your practice more profitable in 2009. Small changes in even one of these 5 can make a huge difference in your practice. Change all 5 just 10% and you will see a doubling or even tripling of your practice this year.

1. More New Patients. Sounds simple right. Everyone knows you need more new patients to grow. Yet as simple as it sounds, it’s much more difficult to actually do. Old, rehashed marketing from the Mercedes 80′s is no longer working and many competitive areas make it difficult to market in. However, with laser targeted marketing you can still see huge return on investments. I gave you my 7 major new patient strategies in the last blog post, which you can see by clicking here.

If getting new patients is so important, why aren’t more consultants and coaches giving you tools to make this easier? (Read my recent rant about this entitled “Chiropractic Coaches: Where’s the beef?“)

#2. Better conversions. Once the new patients are in the door, now you have to convert them to some type of recommended care plan. The conversion process in chiropractic starts from the moment they call your office until the day they agree to a care plan and start paying you. Of the “5 Ways to Grow Your Practice” listed, this is the one that gets 90% of the attention in chiropractic circles. Go to any seminar and you’ll see days spent on how to do consultations, exams and reports.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s very important to have a good conversion process, but it is just 1/5 of the equation. Plus, I believe many of the larger “coaching groups” make the conversion process way more complicated than need be (and thereby less effective and more stressful than is necessary.)

#3. Increase the average $/visit. My first two years in practice, I felt like I was collecting good money per visit by converting patients to long term care plans. But one day I woke up and found out I was only collecting $17 per visit on average. No wonder I was about to go out of business. I was infuriated! After 2 years and $20,000 spent on coaching, plus pages of statistics compiled every month, why had I not been taught to look at this number before. Of course the fault was mine, but I never made that mistake again. Within 3 months I was collecting $57 average per visit. Eventually it got up to and stayed around $85-95 per visit.

**Here’s how you figure it. Take all your monthly collections and divide by the number of total visits you see (yes, even those “scholarships”). Ask yourself if you’re happy with that. Ask yourself if it truly values chiropractic. And if you have a coach and he hasn’t made you figure this, you really need to ask yourself why he would ignore such an important number from you.**

#4. Increase the number of visits per patient. You might call this retention or PVA (patient visit average). Many doctors will read this one and think it’s taken care of in step #2. “More conversions” above. However, we both know what you recommend a patient do and what they really do are two different things. That’s not being negative, that’s reality. And the sooner we face reality, the sooner we can do something about it. So, what can you do to ensure that patients follow through with their care plans and maintenance. Patient education? Sure, that’s important. But if you’ve read this blog for very long, you know I like specific action steps…Not broad generalizations like “You need to do more patient education!” or “You have to have more passion, energy and drive!” To increase the number of visits a patient has, you must have a good internal marketing plan where you communicate and build relationships with your patients.

Here are two articles where I gave 8 internal marketing strategies…

7 Internal Marketing Strategies Part 1

7 Internal Marketing Strategies Part 2

#5. Lower expenses. It’s not how much you collect in practice but what you take home that counts. This often overlooked strategy is rarely mentioned at any of the chiropractic seminars I’ve attended. However, it can make a huge difference in your bottom line. Other than taking home more money, by lowering your unnecessary expenses you can have more to spend on marketing. Are you carrying too much debt in your practice? (I recommend the Dave Ramsey plan for wiping out debt.) Spending too much on employees that don’t work? Blowing money on useless marketing that doesn’t produce? Paying too much (aren’t we all) in taxes?

Yes, this is a touchy subject, after all “No one has a right to tell me what to do with my money!”  Maybe that’s why it’s not discussed at seminars. But, by cutting out the “fat”, your practice will be a lean, mean profitable machine.
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