Chiropractic Marketing

Recently David, a friend of mine discussed a lesson that he got on a recent flight aboard Virgin Blue, Richard Branson's Australian airline. David runs a finance company in Melbourne, in an office with eight staff on his team.

As he settled into his seat on a Virgin Blue flight from Melbourne to Brisbane, David turned to his companion and commented, "Wouldn't it be funny if Richard Branson was our pilot today?"

His friend replied, "Richard Branson doesn't fly his own planes; he hires pilots for that."

As simple as that comment was, it led to David having an epiphany.  "Of course Richard Branson doesn't fly his own planes!  He hires pilots for that! He may have a pilot's license, and he may even fly better than his best pilots. But he outsources the flying to other pilots.”

On further reflection, David realised that he reason why is because by outsourcing the flying of planes, Richard Branson leverages his time. If he was working as a pilot, there's only one plane he could fly at a time. But by outsourcing, he can have hundreds of pilots flying his planes, which gives him time to focus on the more important roles of growing his business.

The same obviously goes for loading luggage and manning the help desk, as well as for similar roles in his mobile phone, broadband finance, credit card and other businesses. The more he outsources, the more he can focus on growing and expanding his empire.

So how does this relate to chiropractic?

My observation is that too many chiropractors spend time “flying the planes;” in other words, on "lower skill" or "lower return" activities. And as important as those tasks are, they take energy away from activities that would have the biggest effect on a practice’s success and fulfilment.

In many practices, the owner/manager or CA is doing a large chunk of the administrative tasks , report writing, account monitoring, banking, adjusting, follow-up…(deep breath)…spinal screening, meeting holding…and in some cases, book keeping! Where does that leave time for strategic thinking, networking or value adding?

Branson spends more of his time at the strategic and marketing/PR areas of his businesses, and leaves the “doing stuff” to his competent and passionate employees. To do that effectively, his businesses have comprehensive systems and procedures, and have hired the right staff.

How could you do the same in your practice?

So you might not have several billion dollars in your bank account; or thousands of employees to delegate to. But what can you do?
What areas of your practice would create the biggest return on your investment of time? And what would you need to do before you could delegate the “other stuff?”

In a future article we’ll discuss outsourcing in a bit more detail including some suggestions to make practice easier and more profitable. But if you think about these points for while, you’ll begin to notice the areas you should spend more time on and the areas you should consider outsourcing.

As a footnote, David returned home with renewed vigour and set about developing a functional organisation chart and a more concise procedures manual for his team. More about those in a future article also…

Chiropractic Marketing

Every chiropractor knows what it feel like to lose a patient. It doesn't matter if it's a patient that doesn't convert from a report of findings or a patient that drops out of care, it can be frustrating. And probably the biggest mistake I see chiropractors make is to take the loss personally.

Although it's more common in chiropractors who are new to practice, questioning your ability or chiropractic's ability to make a difference to people's lives can be unnerving. If that train of thought is allowed to continue to the extent that it becomes your dominant thought, you can quickly spiral into feelings of helplessness ansd inadequacy, if not depression.

But all isn't as it seems! When you're in a down state, it can be difficult to see or believe other obvious causes for the loss.

What do I mean? Well let's look at a few other reasons for patient drop out:

Timing is Everything

Sometimes your practice hours and your patients' available free hours clash. Maybe their work hours changed. Maybe their partner's work hours changed. Maybe they've got children and their school or extra curricular activities hours changed. Or maybe they were overly optimistic about being able to make it in. Patients are often quite motivated during a report of findings, when their pain or the reality of their condition is at the forfront of their mind. And in that state, they can sometimes make some unrealistic commitments (kind of like New Year's resloutions, or decisions to stop smoking or to lose weight). Later keeping their appointments might prove harder than they had anticipated.

They prefer a different style of chiropractic

Perhaps your patient has had experience with another style of chiropractic. Maybe you're low force and they prefer a more manual style. Maybe they don't like the sound of a drop table. Maybe they get scared by the sound of a manual adjustment. It's not you, it's the style of chiropractic you use!

Personality clash with your staff members

Sometimes a member of your staff can clash with your patients. Your CA's can have a big effect here, especially given that your patients have to interact with them on the telephone and in person on each of their visits. A curt voice or an uncaring response can be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Poor follow up

But by far the biggest reason for patient drop out is poor follow up. Perhaps your staff's follow up is too aggressive; maybe they're calling too often or too late in the evening, or too early in the morning. This can be off-putting to some people, especially in the age of unrelenting tele-marketers who don't respect people's time and privacy. And importantly, your follow up can't just be to get your patients to keep their schedule. A significant portion needs to be about adding value or showing caring and compassion for what they're experiencing.

No follow up

Just as bad, if not worse than poor follow up is no follow up. In today's information and attentiona ge, it's harder and harder to get hold of and keep people's attention. There are just so many things going on! And so many gadgets to keep up with. And so many events to attend. It's easy for your patients to miss an appointment and fall out of schedule…and then disappear. The distractions of life can make them forget your recommendations, your schedule and eventually…you.

I recently read that this accounts for up to 79% of all lost business, and it's not just affecting chiropractic practices. So a regular, non-threatening value-added follow up is what works best.

Sometimes chiropractic marketing is about re-affirming your strengths to yourself and your team. Remember these points when you next experience a patient drop out. It might make the difference and keep your spirits up and focus in the right direction.

Chiropractic Marketing

A chiropractor friend of mine was complaining about how hard it was managing his staff. He was “sick of having to explain things over and over,” and he “was sick of having to think for them.” I was recently reading about a sociologist named Amitai Etzioni and his description of organisational control. In summary, he described that despite the size of your business, there are essentially three methods of controlling your staff members: coercive, utilitarian, and normative control.

Coercive control is where you point a gun at someone and tell him or her to do what you want. The method is the least effective method because it only works for long as you keep pointing the gun at them.

Utilitarian control is the method where you pay people to do what you want. This is the method on which most practices still rely.  The weakness of the utilitarian system is that your money buys labour but it doesn’t buy loyalty or goodwill.

Normative control is the method where you and your employees have a system of shared values to direct behaviour.  This is what induces people to devote themselves to a cause. No practice can expect to rely exclusively on normative control.  But it is possible. Outside of chiropractic, businesses like GE, The Body Shop and Virgin are examples of companies that have developed shared values that employees feel passionate about.

If your goal is to have a practice that runs smoothly, with as few headaches and stresses as possible, normative control is the way to go.

The reason why is because a large chunk of your practice growth depends on your “soft skills,” your ability to relate with and connect with your patients. But this extends beyond just you the chiropractor. It includes your CA’s, your massage therapists etc. So practices need staff members who can instinctively act the right way, without instructions from you, and who feel inspired to share their best ideas with you.  That calls for emotional commitment.  You can’t get it by pointing a gun.  You can’t buy it no matter how much you pay.

Without doubt, the most effective leaders in chiropractic in the twenty-first century will be the ones that learn how to use shared values to harness the emotional energy of their employees, patients and communities at large. 

So how do you establish normative control?

• Get clear on your practice vision
• Define your values
• Hire people on their energy, enthusiasm and how much they match your values.

These terms have become cliche and are thrown around without understanding the impact a mismatch can have on an oragnisation, and in particular in a profession like chiropractic. But hiring the wrong staff can cause conflict, low morale and lost productivity, ultimately leading to a considerable drop in practice profit. Hudson Highland group, the global recruitment company, reports that  one wrong hire can easily lead to losses in the tens of thousands of dollars. Hence, the old adage, "hire slow, fire fast…"

Chiropractic marketing extends beyond your advertising, your sales training and your procedures and beyond you. It includes your people; their unspoken passion, spirit and vision speak clearer than any sales message.

Chiropractic Marketing

Most chiropractors agree that (within reason) the more adjustments a patient has the more benefit they’ll receive. Whether these adjustments are given in a short time in the case of wellness practice or over a lifetime in the case of crisis-care practice, more can be done for a patient having 20 or 50 adjustments than just one or two adjustments. And from a business perspective 20 or 50 adjustments are clearly better than two!

Here are four ways that can help you to effectively increase the visits that each patient makes to your office, regardless of your practice philosophy.

 #1 – Make Each Patient Feel Special – 

The most important things you can do to increase your number of visits per patient is to make your patients feel special. The most common complaint patients make is they feel like they’re on “the assembly line.” Instead of just treating them as a number, be sure that you treat them like a person as well. Take time to make eye contact, listen to them and let them know that you’re concerned about their needs. When a patient truly feels cared for, they trust you and value your opinion, and are more likely to stick to your recommendations.

#2 – Keep in Contact with Patients – 

The number one reason patients drop out of care is because they forget about you. And that happens when they don’t see the value of your care. Keeping in touch with your patients keeps you at the fore-front of their mind, and gives you an opportunity to market the benefits of chiropractic. Don’t make every contact a sales pitch for your practice; give your patients some useful tips and information. The more the information is specific to their needs and interests, the better it will be received and the more your relationship will benefit.
 
#3 – Send Out a Newsletter –

Following on from the previous tip, a newsletter is a great way to increase the number of visits per patient. Newsletters are a great forum for latest chiropractic research (tic), diet advice as well as general information they might find useful. You can also include special offers or promote workshops and screenings they might like to attend or bring a friend to.

#4 –Pre-Book Patient Appointments – 

Whether your practice is wellness based or crisis care based, pre-booking a series of appointments will help both you and your patients. Scheduling a series of appointments reinforces the fact that care is a process not an event. Also, it makes it more likely that your patient will follow through with care; people are more inclined to remember their schedule when they have a structured program than when they make appointments on a visit-by visit basis.

Chiropractic Marketing isn't just about what you do outside your practice. Start incorporating these four tactics into your practice and no doubt you’ll begin to notice that your patients are returning more regularly. Couple that with using regular new patient campaigns and you will quickly see your practice build and become more profitable and stress-free.

Chiropractic Marketing

While maintaining a strong base of existing patients is important, if you want to grow your chiropractic practice, it's also important to work on attracting new patients as well. While it is not always easy to find new patients, there are a variety of excellent strategies that can help to bring new patients to your door.

The following are five great strategies that can help you get the new patients you’ve been looking for. You've probably heard or considered these strategies before, but sometimes just thinking about them gives you the inspiration to try them for the first time or re-visit them again:

Strategy #1 – Advertise in Local Newspapers and School Newsletters –

Local newspapers can be an affordable option to get new leads.  But if your budget is low, school newsletters are an ultra affordable advertising strategy. Primary schools have monthly newsletters for parents and students; most of these allow you to advertise your practice in them for as low as $20. And if you offer to donate some money to them they may give you an extra endorsement.  With both newspapers and newsletters, try to get in the front third of the publication and make sure to include a benefit oriented headline and an offer “they can’t refuse”.

Strategy #2 – Have Free Spinal Screenings – 

Spinal screenings are looked at with contempt by some members of our profession, but they’re a great way to attract new patients. They’re also a way to help promote the profession in general and raise funds for local charities. You can run these in your practice (just have a banner or an A-frame outside to let passing traffic know) or at other locations like shopping malls, school fetes, paid exhibits, gyms, health food shops…almost anywhere! What’s worked for our practice is offering free mini-assessments up front and then offering paid examinations for people who genuinely need and want a follow up. Statistically, anywhere from 1 in every 5-10 people take up your offer!

Strategy #3 – Letter Box Drops –

Letter box drops are regularly used by all types of businesses, from small take away places to the big retail chains. As a result, your ad can sometimes get lost in the pile. Statistically, less than 3% of people respond to the ads, but benefit oriented ads with a strong headline can sometimes perform better. If you use this method, you’ll do best if you repeat the ads a number of times, testing your headlines and offers to see which gets the best response.

Strategy #4 – Use Attractive Street Signage – 

The signage that you use on the street is very important. It serves as both a symbol of your professionalism and as a marketing vehicle. You want to be sure that your signage is clearly visible from the road (especially your phone number) and is professional looking. Importantly, make sure you some benefits of your care rather than just the services you offer.

Strategy #5 –Hold Workshops – 

Workshops are another excellent way to bring in new patients. Whether you hold in house workshops at your practice or you hold external workshops somewhere else, make sure to give useful content, rather than just a sales-pitch for your practice. Get your audience involved and engaged and end with a great offer (if it’s an appropriate venue) and you’ve got a good chance of converting a number of your attendees to patients.

You should always be marketing for new patients, and you should use a range of strategies, not just one. This will help offset your drop-outs and keep you busy and effective.

In later articles we’ll discuss other effective strategies for getting new patients, as well as for improving your retention.

Combine traditional business marketing and Internet marketing strategies and increase your business revenues.

Business Marketing Works.

Without marketing your business has no revenues. This marketing may be from word of mouth of clients you’ve served already. Or it may be intentional marketing you create your self. Either way business marketing works. Marketing is the only way to your business success.

Traditional Business Marketing Techniques that Work

Traditionally, we know that ads in magazines, direct-mail postcards, direct-mail sales letters, business networking, telephone calls, and building business relationships all work. In fact, if you're business marketing strategies are not working, take a look at the copy. What does each ads say? Are you tracking the results of the ad? Did the ad generate revenues for you? If not, you may have had an expense as a result of applying the traditional business marketing techniques. It could be costly to run the ad again using different copy until you find the copy that gets the result you want.

Combine Tradition Business Marketing with Internet Marketing Strategies that Work

Putting internet marketing strategies to work in your business can give you an opportunity to test your ads in a cost effective way. Using internet marketing strategies you can discover what works and doesn't work with your ad for little or no cost.

Once an ad is getting results using internet marketing strategies, you can put the successful ad in magazines, postcards and even use it on your business card. With an ad that you know gets results the expense of the more traditional marketing techniques is viable.

Powerfully Effective Business Marketing

The combination of internet marketing strategies with traditional business marketing techniques is a powerful way to move your business forward and increase your revenues. It can take as little as three weeks to 90 days to begin seeing new results in your business.

It's a Magical Combination.

Combining internet marketing strategies with traditional marketing techniques gives you a freedom for expressing yourself uniquely, unlike ever before. Your unique selling point can be easier to create. Your purpose becomes more defined. You are able to attract your ideal clients to your business more easily as a result

Just as business marketing is systematized and repeatable using traditional methods, internet marketing is repeatable and predictable as a clear system to follow. Learn these systems and surge your business revenues forward using the “magical combination” of traditional business marketing and internet marketing.

Are you tired of struggling to build your List for online marketing? Article Marketing creates an opportunity to develop Dynamic Targeted Traffic for your List Building Endeavors. Get on board for more Article Marketing Power!

In these days of information overload, Article Marketing fills a new and identifiable Marketing Niche. Your information can be found online using keyword searches. With those searches, people find your articles and you lead them back to your website with information they are actually looking to find online.

The best part of Article Marketing is that once you write the article, someone else does all the work of promoting it and getting it listed on the Search Engines, optimizing your Website and your Article for better readership.

Article Marketing includes the strong foundation of Niche Marketing - which creates a solid basis for building your online business. By conforming to your niche, you have the added advantage of building a business with dynamic growth potential.

Title your Article with KEYWORD Flash & Originality.

BE original. Every other article online tells someone “how to” so give the reader something more punchy and original. Simply state the purpose of your article. Leave out the wishy-washy junk and give your reader KEYWORD Power.

Your Article must present FRESH Information.

To get the attention you desire, your article must present something NEW and INTERESTING to your readers. Tips and Strategies that have been given over and over, won’t grab much attention. Give your reader some fresh meat to chew on.

Know what your Readers wants to Learn.

When you have some idea what your reader wants to learn, you can offer that information. Give them what they want, every time they want it, your business will grow.

You can make a really good living with internet marketing and here are a few of the best ways to do it.

#1 - Sell your own product.
It goes without saying, that you will make most the money with internet marketing if you have your own product to sell. This way, you get to keep all profits and set yourself up as a real expert in your field. The best type of product to sell with internet marketing is information products. Information products can be in the form of an ebook, report, cd, audio etc. Having your own product will make you the most money with internet marketing hands down.

#2 - Sell affiliate products.
You can also make good money with internet marketing by becoming an affiliate for products that you do not own. You get paid a percentage on each sale you make as an affiliate and you can find hundreds of affiliate products by going to click bank at http://clickbank.com You can sign up for free and you are paid every two weeks on all sales. This form of internet marketing is easy because you do not need your own product or website.

#3 - Start a newsletter.
Without a doubt the very best way you can make money with internet marketing is by starting your own newsletter. Having your own newsletter is a must if you intend on making any real from internet marketing. You need to have a newsletter to keep in constant contact with people who are interested in what you are selling.

The easiest way to do this is to start a newsletter and send out useful content in the form of short articles. Then mix in product promotions. You will eventually build trust with your newsletter readers and begin making sales. Remember, internet marketing will take patience but the results will be well worth your time.