Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising | Chiropractic Ads

How do you know if you’re marketing is working?

Many would say the answer is “by the number of new patients” or “by the number of phone calls.”

While these are both good signs that help you to determine if an ad is successful or not, they are not the right way to measure success in marketing.

Let me show you how measuring your return on the number of new patients only can mislead you. Here’s an example of a conversation I once had:

Doc: Dr. Beck, I only got 5 new patients from the ad I ran. I consider this a failure!

Me: How much did the ad cost you to run?

Doc: $500

Me: Did all 5 patients start care? And how much is your average case fee (or lifetime value)?

Doc: $1,800

Me: So you made $9,000 from an ad that cost you only $500 and you consider that a failure?

I know as chiropractors we get all wrapped up in talking about the number of new patients we get from certain marketing campaigns. It is an important stat to keep. But successful business know that it’s your return on investment (ROI) that really matters.

That’s ROI for the whole practice and specifically for each ad we run.

So how do you figure the ROI? Let me show you by using some real numbers. Here’s an email I just received from one of my Decompression Marketing Elite clients:

Hello doc,

Stats update from first EM ad ran as insert; collections in my hand. Ready for this? lol!

I ran in as 21,500 inserts in a free paper; printing cost $515.41 Distribution for inserts cost me $376.25 = total of $891.25 combined
15 day only offer of $35 expired 9-6-11;

Grand total= $17,490.00 collected with residual collections for multipal payment program option uncollected yet. Table is now filled for next 6.5 weeks!

27 new SD patients were scheduled
7 still remaining to be seen.
8 signed and paid in full

Now let’s do some math. I calculate marketing return on investment the quick and easy way. Take the total amount collection and divide it by the cost to run the ad. 20:1 ROI (19.6 rounded up) as of right now, just 2 days after the expiration date of the ad!

$17,940/$891 = 1962% ROI
or 20:1 Return

It goes without saying that not everyone will get these kinds of results. Some will do even better. Many will get a great return although it may not be this high.

But the point is this doctor has kept excellent records of his ad and is quickly able to figure ROI. He’ll need to re-figure the results later after ALL the money has come in. So in the end, it should be even higher than a a 20:1 ROI since 7 new patients have not yet come in and the residual payments have not all been collected.

What kind of returns are you getting from your chiropractic marketing? And if you aren’t measuring ROI, how do you know if your campaigns are successful or not?

Are you sub-niching your marketing prospects?

Watch this segment of a decompression webinar I gave. Whether you do decompression or not, you need to understand what sub-niching is. (If you do have a decompression table, watch the complete webinar here.)

Axiom Worldwide, LLC, the maker of the DRX and DRX9000 decompression tables appears to be in liquidation.

What does this say about the current decompression market in the United States?

Not much in my opinion. There are too many questions left unanswered to determine what the cause of their bankruptcy was.

Was it caused by the recession, meaning less sales on their part? Was it due to bad management, hubris born of success, or their recent troubles in Canada? Did it have something to do with the FBI raids on their office back in 2007?

We simply do not know.

What I can tell you is that if you own a decompression table, many people will be trying to use this as a marketing ploy to scare you. One company sent out an email to some chiropractors, trying to scare them into “buying” publicity websites so as to drown out the negative publicity for DRX tables on Google. I’m sure others will soon follow, using fear to motivate you to waste money on useless marketing.

So if you own a DRX table (or any kind of decompression table), what are you supposed to do in light of all this negative news?

As far as marketing your practices goes (which is my specialty, not law), I’m recommending my clients focus on growing their practices and getting more new patients. Decompression offices are still overflowing with new patients, as the need for such treatment has not dropped off and likely will not as the population ages.

Here’s one thing I would NOT do if I was your shoes…

I wouldn’t be using old outdated advertising that talks about “NASA claims”, “FDA Approved” or even mentions the name DRX or DRX9000. You see, that’s the problem with promoting the name of a piece of equipment instead of your practice. If the name of the equipment gets a bad rap, you’re up a creek without a paddle. But if you market your practice as designed to help people who are suffering with herniated discs, sciatica, etc., and a company goes bankrupt or gets bad publicity, it doesn’t affect you.

When I first started looking at decompression tables, I was told the DRX table was the only “true spinal decompression table”. That they would be patenting the term “spinal decompression” soon and no one else could use it. One prominent marketer (at the time) even had ads written for his clients. I personally would not be making this claim any more either, as it is likely not going to go over well with the current news about DRX tables.

Keep marketing the results of your table in an ethical and professional way. This is why testimonials are so important. You’ve seen patients get better. You’ve seen them get well, preventing back surgery or a lifetime of dangerous medications. So you know decompression works. The problem is not if it works or not, but how we market it. Do we make hyped up claims or simply use educational advertising with condition-centered copy?

Decompression is about results for the patients…not about any specific table.

Over the past few years I’ve proven educational ads focused on patient results provides the best results. This is why I write non-hyped up ads. NASA and walking on the moon has nothing to do with decompression tables, and it never has, therefore I don’t put those claims in my ads.

In the end, I’m sure all of this will blow over and be a thing of the past. But what about your practice? Will your practice be thriving or barely surviving at that time?

If you are thinking about getting a decompression table, but have not yet, I urge you to read my previous article on this entitled “Decompression Marketing Solutions“.

According to Google Analytics, my blog has had near 100,000 pageviews. Today I looked at the most popular articles since the blog started in 2008. You might be interested in seeing the most popular articles by category. Feel free to comment at the bottom of those articles or below this post below.

General Marketing

The Best Months for Chiropractic Marketing

Most Controversial Post

Chiropractic Coaching Lie #3: The High Volume Lie

Spinal Decompression

Decompression Practice Solutions

Referral Marketing

Internal Marketing Strategies, Part1
Internal Marketing Strategies, Part 2

Practice Growth

The Only 5 Ways to Grow Your Practice

Newspaper Ads

Are Chiropractic Ads in the Newspaper Dead?

Internet Marketing

My Top 3 Internet Marketing Strategies

Obamacare and Chiropractic (2nd Most Controversial Post?)

Congress Has Done It, Now What?

In my last post, we looked at the “5 Biggest Questions About Chiropractic Ads“. But due to length, we only got through 4 questions and answers. So today’s post is the 5th and final question we get asked most from buyers of my ads kit. And it’s probably the most important question to get the answer for.

The question comes in various forms, but it goes something like this, “I ran your ad and want to know why we didn’t get more new patients?”

Now, as you might realize, this is a hard question for me to answer. Mainly because I don’t know how many new patients he did actually get. And how many did he expect to get from the ad?

What’s a good number, 10, 15, 20? I know expectations have been elevated to unrealistic numbers in chiropractic. What else can we expect after years of hyped up marketing strategies that said they would give us 100 new patients every time we ran them, or make us $1 million a month the first month!

Don’t get me wrong, my ads work well to bring in new patients and I don’t think they’re overhyped. We even give a guarantee for those who aren’t happy. But I can say right now it’s unlikely you’ll get 80 new patients every time you run them. Maybe if you’re in a small town with no other chiros, but as for the rest of us we’ll gladly take 10-30 new patients each run.

But what’s strange is when we get an email of a doctor who’s actually doing very well, ‘making a killin’ actually, but he didn’t get “as many as he expected”.

For example, once I was told by a doctor they had received 5 decompression patients from one of my ads. This doctor knows that other doctors are getting 15-25 decompression patients per ad, so his question would have been a good one if he was asking “how do I get as many as those other guys do”. But alas, we rarely get that question asked of us. Instead, this doc was saying that 5 new patients just wasn’t enough. After all, he had paid $1000 to run the ad.

But hold on a second. We’re looking at this scenario completely backwards! Let me explain…

I asked him if all of the 5 started care. He said yes. I asked how much his care plans were priced at. He said $3000. Quick math lead me to determine he got $15,000 back on his investment. What was his investment? Cost of $1000 to run the ad.

That’s a 15-to-1 return on investment! Who wouldn’t like a 15:1 ROI?

There are very few businesses anywhere that get that kind of return. But this doctor was bummed that he only got 5 new patients in for $1000 spent. Do you see where the premises are wrong with this kind of thinking?

You cannot measure an ads success solely by the number of new patients it brought in. And you certainly can’t measure it’s success by how much money you spent. It’s your return on investment that matters. The money spent (ad cost) is only used to figure out the ROI.

Think about it this way…

What if a new patient come into your office with an 11 out of 10 (!) on the pain scale. They got their first treatment, looked at you angrily and said “I’m not happy doctor. I paid you all that money and only got a 60% reduction in my pain today!” After picking your jaw up off the floor, you’d kindly remind the patient of how they are were doing when that crawled into your office on their hands and knees. Therefore, you’re telling them to compare the “before” to the “after”, which is essentially their return on investment. How much they spent doesn’t directly have anything to do with how much better they got.

Are you measuring your ROI?

It’s simple to do really. Take all the new patients who come in from the ad and record their name in a spreadsheet. Then keep track of how much money each one spends in your office. Your patient accounting software should make this number easily accessible.

So your spreadsheet might look something like the one to the left here.

If I hadn’t kept this spreadsheet and tracked every patient, I might try and rely on my memory of how the ad performed. And think, “man, that ad really sucked because Antonio never started care, and Maria she didn’t even come back after the exam. Bah, advertising doesn’t work!”

But the truth is I got a 2061% ROI, or a 20-to-1 return! You can bet I’m running this ad again after seeing how well it really did. (And this ad is actually in the Ultimate Chiropractic Ads.)

So start tracking your ads. Not using “memory” tracking, where you just try and remember how well it did. But actually record the numbers and see what the real story is.

No matter where you are at in life or your practice, there is hope. While we can’t sit on our haunches and “believe” success into our practice, we can be inspired by others, which should cause us to then take action.

This guy is making the best of what he has. Are you?

This week, I read Jim Collins’ new book How The Mighty Fall: And How Some Companies Never Give In. I knew this book would have application to chiropractic offices as soon as I read the back cover in Barnes and Noble.

“Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” – Jim Collins

How true this statement is. Not in a mystical, ‘think and it will happen’ kind of way. Not in a flippant statement some consultants throw at their clients for a ‘pump-me-up’.

But simply a statement of truth.

The success of your practice depends on you! Not the economy. Not the size of your town. Not where you practice. Not the government’s attempts at screwing up healthcare. Not Obama’s spending that you’ll never see a dime of.

Sure, these things make practice a bit more difficult. No one would say they don’t have an affect. But they are not the determining factor in your success.

You would be amazed at the doctors who’ve simply given up marketing their practice the last couple of years. And paid dearly for it. Some haven’t done any outside marketing in 10 or 20 years, but now find themselves forced to due to a declining practice.

Granted, most marketing out there sucks at bringing in new patients. Yet there are proven methods and strategies that work.

And the simple fact is that if you’re not marketing your services to the public, it’s just a matter of time before you’re practice will decline.

Back to the book. Collins has taken various failed companies and studied them to determine what caused their decline. Based on this he has uncovered 5 stages of decline.

Below I list the 5 stages and show how they apply to a chiropractic office. I’ve chosen to give our imaginary chiropractor a name, Dr. Decline, so as not to insinuate that all chiropractors are declining. But it’s very likely many of my readers will be in one of these 5 stages, whether they know it or not.

Hey, I admit I went through stages 1-4 in my early days of practice. Most of us do at some point. But hopefully reading this will help you to recognize it better next time.

Are you in one of this 5 stages?

1. Hubris Born of Success

Hubris is a word from ancient Greece that means overbearing pride or presumption. It’s the thing in Greek mythology that always brought down the hero. It’s what Proverbs 16:18 says well “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. ”

This is what Dr. Decline says at some point, “Things are going great right now. I’ve done well. Money is coming in. Why should I even pay for that ad in the newspaper anymore? I can cut back and just rely on referrals. After all, my patients refer because I’m the best doctor in town, not because of some words they read in my newspaper ad or website.”

2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More

Collins thought his data would show declining companies had become complacent and lazy, watching the world go by. But his data showed quite the opposite. He found “overreaching much better explains how the once-invincible self-destruct”

Here our doctor says to himself, “Maybe I’ll buy that new decompression table or new rehab equipment. What’s a big fat lease payment when I’m doing this well. We better hire some new staff too, to get ready for big growth. Things have been busy lately, after all. And I’ll have money because I’ve cut back on my marketing expenses too.”

3. Denial of Risk or Peril

This is when the effects of stage 1 and 2 are starting to set in. Money is still coming in, but signs of danger are starting to appear. There aren’t a lot of new patients on the books next month. The bills are starting to pile up. But the leaders deny the risk.

But our good doctor says, “Ah, it’s probably just the economy or the summer slump or insurance companies. Things will be fine. After all, I’ve been in practice over 10 years, and I’m still here, right?”

4. Grasping for Salvation

The risks of stage 3 have now become a reality, throwing the company into a sharp decline. Collins says this is a pivotal time and brings up the critical question of “how does its leadership respond?”

Does Dr. Decline grasp for a savior in the form of a charismatic chiropractic coach, a “bold but untested strategy” or any other number of magic pill solutions? What he does here is pivotal because once in stage 5 below, there is no coming back.

5. Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

“The longer a company remains in stage 4, repeatedly grasping for silver bullets, the more likely it will spiral downward”, says Collins. The leaders abandon all hope and either sell out or liquidate assets.

This is a sad state for chiropractors when this happens. Let’s hope Dr. Decline never gets here. But the truth is some chiros do.

So how do you prevent the 5 stages of decline listed above?

It’s hard to say for your particular case. But a couple of general guidelines are “don’t ever stop using marketing that works” and cut, cut, cut your expenses.

Oh, and kill that awful sin we all struggle with: pride!

Why isn’t your decompression table packed with patients all day long?

This really is the ‘Million Dollar’ question for your practice. So the answer must be more marketing, right?

Well, yes and No. Join me for a Free webinar, where I’ll explain “How to Fill Your Practice With High Quality Decompression Patients”

To watch the replay, go here:
http://www.decompressionmarketingelite.com

You see, almost all chiropractors with decompression tables are using outdated, rehashed advertising and marketing techniques — those that worked in the golden days when decompression first came out.

But we both know these techniques don’t work anymore.

The world has changed. Potential patients you’re trying to persuade to come in have grown increasingly resistant to these obsolete marketing strategies

This year, I’m going to help one doctor per area have their best year ever by using my new Decompression Marketing Elite program.
Life’s too short to sit around waiting for the next patient to come in, while the table you paid thousands of dollars for collects dust.
No secrets held back.

Find out everything you need to know about this decompression marketing program now…without closing your office and spending thousands of dollars to travel to a high-pressure “Discovery Day”.

On this free webinar, here’s what you’ll discover…

• How to receive a new decompression marketing tool each month, bringing in quality new patients who stay, pay and refer.
• The only one-on-one personal decompression coaching, tailored to your practice to personalize the proven system to your own unique practice and city.
• How to get monthly decompression marketing webinars, where you’ll see exactly what other successful doctors are doing in their practice and discover how to increase your conversion rate to high-fee care plans.
• How to guarantee you’re the only doctor using this decompression marketing system in your area.
• How to finally stop living on the threshold of financial freedom and take your practice to a new level.

If you have a decompression table in your practice, you do not want to miss this call. Come and watch me reveal exactly how I’ll be doing it.

Because this program will be area exclusive, if you’re in a competitive area you should at least attend to make sure you’re not giving up a golden opportunity.

There was even a Q & A session after the webinar. Join me from the comfort of your office or home computer.

http://www.decompressionmarketingelite.com

P.S. Do you think there will be more or less patients with herniated discs this year? How about in 5 years from now?
Decompression is not a fad, because disc problems are not a fad. It’s time you really tapped into this booming market.

Do you have a decompression table in your practice? If not, are you thinking about getting one?

For years there has been quite a bit of hoopla in chiropractic around spinal decompression machines. Trying to get to the bottom of things is sometimes a difficult task.

First, let’s address a few issues some chiropractors have with decompression.

It’s not uncommon for people to say “that’s not chiropractic, therefore I’m not getting one of those.” Well, this person is correct, spinal decompression is not chiropractic. If you’re goal is to have an adjustment only practice without any instrumentation or electronic device, then you should not get a decompression table.

But for doctors who want an excellent way to help their patients, a spinal decompression machine is the #1 therapy device I recommend. Why do I recommend it so much?

Two reasons…

#1.) It helps herniated/bulging/degenerative disc patients get better in ways that no adjustment can. Some people will argue that their technique can do the same thing. I’ve not researched every chiropractic technique available, but I’ve yet to come across one that can pull on the pelvis of a patient with 80lbs of pressure, alternating between relaxing and pulling every 30-45 seconds for a total of 15 minutes.

#2.) The marketing for this is so much easier to do. No, not because it’s a fancy piece of equipment. Not because it’s a gimmick. But because the people who are suffering from disc problems are desperate for a solution. If you’re faced with a lifetime of shots, dangerous pain pills and/or surgical fusion of your spine, how quickly are you going to try something non-invasive like spinal decompression?

Realize, #2 would be insignificant if decompression didn’t work. Ethically it has to work before you can market that it does.

The Bad News

Unfortunately, some hyped up marketing a few years back really altered what chiropractors thought of spinal decompression. Many doctors thought “true spinal decompression” could only be found in spending $100k on a table. If you thought this, then the only 2 choices were to either send a house payment every month for this table or not pursue decompression in your practice because it was out of your price range.

Then, more hyped up marketing (in the form of patient advertising) entered the picture and state boards got involved in banning certain types of marketing. Some states even looked for ways to prevent chiropractors from using spinal decompression, saying it wasn’t in their scope of practice.

I realized that there had to be another way to do this whole decompression thing. One marketing guru couldn’t have cornered the market on spinal decompression in chiropractic.

After a bit of research, I found quite a few manufacturers that make good decompression tables. Of course, then I had to prove to myself that these tables did actually do decompression, since I had been brainwashed as well into thinking only one table was “TRUE DECOMPRESSION.” ( Turns out there all classified by the FDA as traction tables anyway

I won’t go into the details, but most tables that claim decompression actually do decompression. It’s just a matter of how easy it is to use and how nice it looks. Arguments against this are just an old marketing technique (which is sometimes valid, but not here), where you try to get everyone to think your product is the only “real” table that does decompression, and the rest just do traction. You probably heard of this, often times called the unique selling proposition.

The funny thing is, years later, very few people who bought a DRX table will argue that Chattanooga, Saunders, Lordex, (and all the hundreds of other manufacturers) are not doing decompression. Five years ago, ‘them was fightin words’. I even remember threats of lawsuits being thrown around and patenting the words “spinal decompression.”

For $8-10k I could get a table and start helping patients get better. Combined with chiropractic adjustments and other strength building therapies, I saw some amazing results. Not to mention my average case values went up considerably.

Was decompression just a fad, one that has died out?

Well, the $100k tables probably don’t sell like they used to. But spinal decompression is alive and well.

Do you think there will be more or less patients with herniated discs in 2010? How about in 5 years from now? Decompression is not a fad because spinal disc problems are not a fad.

Important: Marketing Is Key

Don’t do like many chiropractors I speak with have done. Don’t spend a ton on a table, and forget to market the thing. You’ve got to market it for what it does, otherwise it’s just an overpriced traction table sitting in your office collecting dust.

This is why I wrote the decompression ads in The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads. It was difficult to find ethical marketing that wasn’t hyped up, so I learned to write my own. And they have done extremely well.

If you don’t have a table yet, don’t wait. Start getting quotes now as the new year is right around the corner. Be ready to hit your decompression marketing strong in January.

If you already have a table, make sure you’re planning the first quarter of 2010 with some strong marketing.

Watch a free webinar where I cover my Area Exclusive decompression marketing program here:

http://www.decompressionmarketingelite.com