Chiropractic Marketing – Market Your Practice as a Resource

Patients have many treatment choices available to them today. The types of treatments that are available among chiropractors are similar: adjustments, muscle testing, cold lasers and decompression therapy are just a few.

Some doctors are extremely talented and caring practitioners, while others are, well shall we say, “adjustmentally challenged”. You provide excellent care for your patients and as a result your patients get better. So how do you stand out from other doctors in your area? How can you communicate your level of care to the patient? What is the best way to get new patients? How can you recover old patients? All of these are questions you probably have been asking for years.

The answer to all of the above questions is one word – marketing. If you and your patient successes are not known, there is no perceived difference between you and your competition to the prospective patient.  A note here, your real competition is not other Chiropractors but is the guys who are peddling pills, potions and surgery, the MD’s.

While patients can likely find treatment options, products and services anywhere, it’s the relationship you form with them and your level of care that will keep them coming back to you. It is their belief in your ability to possibly make them well that gets them in your door.

Here are a few tips on how to become a “health” resource for your patients:

• Publish a newsletter to educate patients about the successes your patients are having. Newsletters should be light, entertaining reading with the right amount of sales material. You can introduce new products, upcoming product releases, promotions and workshops. You can also offer health and nutritional tips. The only caution is to not use medical terminology that is not commonly known by your readers. The quickest way for you to put your reader into a mental coma is to start throwing around medical terms.
• Offer hands-on health seminars, clinics, webinars, and podcasts to help educate patients so they look to you and your practice as a health solution provider.
• Create a resource section on your website that includes a variety of articles, website links, white papers and other sources of information relevant to your patients needs.
• Show pride in your community by becoming involved in local events and organizations. Not only does this allow you to form friendships with others, but it also increases your availability should someone have questions.
• Become a guest writer or speaker for industry publications, events, radio shows and educational classes. Provide insightful information on not only your business, but also your industry as a whole.
• Inquiring minds want to know more. Post a Q&A section on your website and use patient feedback via conversations, surveys, comment cards, etc. as inspiration for topics reviewed.
• Use patient success stories and testimonials as mailers. You have to get the word out about your successes. The purpose of Public Relations is making good works well known. If the PR aspect of your practice is not applied, you will find it difficult to get results with your advertising.

Most Chiropractic practices have three areas to generate income from:

New patients – You have to be consistent and regular with your promotion. If you are out of sight, you are out of mind and will not get the patients when they need care. 65% – 70% of your marketing money should be to get new patients.

Existing patients – These are the people you are seeing regularly. You need to stay in front of them. Newsletters usually work best for this. Happy patients are your single biggest source of potential patient referrals. They are usually happy and more than willing to tell their friends and family about you. Do you have a program in place where you are asking for patient referrals? We offer turnkey referral programs complete with tools and scripts to help you get this in, in your practice.

Old patients – These are patients who have, for one reason or another, stopped coming to you for care. Maybe they moved, died, something changed in their lives and they stopped coming or they got better from your care. There are ways for you to re-activate old patients, which include personal letters and phone calls. If you employ a PR or marketing person in your practice, part of their time should be spent calling and writing patients. This would include calling old, inactive patients. Direct mail can be very effective in reactivating patients. I’m not talking about just a postcard, but a special kind of mailer. We developed such a program to help you reactivate patients.

If you would like more information on the above program, please give us a call or send me an email with the best time to get in touch with you.

Mark Hale

CEO