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Marketing
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Marketing
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Written by Tom Owen III
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Monday, 25 April 2011 20:57 |
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 Chiropractors are constantly looking for good marketing. Most of them are willing to pay large amounts of money for marketing that promises to get patients in the door (keeping them is another article for another issue.) It may surprise you to know that the best type of marketing with the greatest result costs the least!
Social Media incorporates the four most common types of marketing that chiropractors are currently using. Those four major types of marketing are direct response market saturation, education, and personal interactive.
You must have an understanding of those four types of marketing if you are going to incorporate them into Social Media marketing. Direct response marketing consists of promotions that request consumers to directly respond to the advertiser, by mail, telephone, e-mail, or some other means of communication. Some practitioners also call this direct marketing.
Market saturation is literally flooding our market with our product (or service) for the purpose of name recognition. The goal is to increase the market share of your product (or your practice) in the community. This type of marketing cannot be expected to give any type of direct return on the money spent; however, over time, it can be effective in taking a particular market.
The purpose of education marketing is to educate our patients and communities on the power of what our services offer. Do not make the mistake of thinking that this only covers the education given inside the walls of your practice. There is an art to educating your city and making you the expert (which is best achieved through incorporating social media into your marketing).
Personal interactive marketing is found in numerous styles of marketing and is the hub of social media marketing. It can be defined as marketing that engages the user to “interact” with the marketing in a personal, emotional, or tactile experience. This type of marketing is mostly digital. Some popular examples are iPhone, iPod, or iPad apps. The goal with this strategy is to engage the user, which produces higher rates of retention among the consumer.
The main thing to understand under this new inbound marketing model is that whatever information you distribute needs to be incessantly bent toward meeting the wants, needs, and desires of your prospective patient. In other words, it’s not about you and how great you are as a chiropractor but, rather, more about them in terms of how your services can benefit their lifestyle, occupation, hobbies, general health, et cetera.
And the nice thing about it is that it takes minimal investment dollars. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are free to join. But, once they’re linked to your chiropractic website, more specifically a blog, then you’ve got significantly more leverage toward distributing your content. Remember, according to Alexa.com, Facebook is the #2 visited site in the world. By leveraging their size and traffic, you can get your message in front of more eyeballs than have ever been available for the small business owner.
It is important to understand that there must be a certain return of investment for every dollar spent in business. Your business strategy must include the amount of money you are willing to spend in attracting each prospective patient. This one factor is crucial in the successful longevity of one’s marketing plan.
You need to have a working knowledge of the different types of marketing to understand how to use them effectively. The days of trial and error are gone forever. The cost of doing business is too expensive for applied ignorance.
Social media is here to stay and we think it is one of the most powerful types of media of all time. The fact that all areas of marketing can be utilized through social media alone is powerful enough. However, if one adds the fact that social media has an almost nonexistent cost factor for potential business, then anyone should be able to recognize that social media is necessary in today’s chiropractic practice. The other four arenas are still crucial factors that must not be ignored, but social media certainly deserves its place.
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Marketing
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Written by Ed Sharp
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Thursday, 30 September 2010 11:42 |
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Marketing in This Economy
by Ed Sharp
Everyone knows that things have gotten tighter financially in today’s economy.
What I have seen a lot of doctors doing right now is to cut back on expenses and the easiest area to cut back on is the marketing budget. This is not advised!
What happens when one sits back and waits for the economy to change and just “holds” on is that, after the storm has passed, they will find they have a smaller practice. Nothing stays the same and, if you are not expanding, then you are contracting. Expansion in these ti mes is the only option.
Marketing is the key to expansion. But what is marketing? It is creating a desire, an interest, a want for what you do. It is getting the word out to others about what you do. There are many avenues to do this.
There are two areas to market. One is internal, and the other is external.
What I have found from many years of working with clinics is that, if they have a more active internal marketing program, the external marketing programs work better. This is just a hard fact.
Internal marketing is asking for referrals, referral games, newsletters, open houses, patient appreciation events, etc. These are activities that can be generated internally by the doctor and the staff. They usually don’t cost much and are the least expensive ways to get new patients.
There must also be external marketing. These are limitless in number but I have found the best ways have been the old AT&T method of “reach out and touch someone.” This means personal contact such as health talks, safety lectures, screenings, etc. They may take a bit more research and time to put together. Newspaper, radio and cable are much more expensive and, in some cases, warrant the cost, but not always.
What I instruct my clients to do first is a marketing analysis.
Go back over the past six months and see how your new patients came to you. List them out, and how they found out about you. Was it from a referral, a talk you did, a newsletter you sent out, a direct mailing? See if there is a better and more cost effective way to get them in. You will probably find your best, and least expensive avenue was from referrals.
Next, look to see how you can increase that area.
Just asking for more referrals will help. Get the word out on what you can do. How about creating a referral contest? Back up any areas you find that are working with more of the same type of activity, whether it was from internal or external areas.
How about putting out a better image?
Clean the place up. Put flowers out in the reception area. Have the staff dress more professionally. Give fast effective service. These are internal promotional actions.
Sometimes it does not matter what is put out there to get a better inflow. I have seen doctors advertise in newspapers and then say they did not get anything from it. However, the new patients magically increased. None of these new patients came directly from the ad, yet they came for no other reason found.
There is a basic concept in marketing that must be realized. It is yin and yang of the universe. It’s how it works. Have you ever heard of the saying, “reap what you sow”? This is what this concept is all about. You get back what you put out, whether this is good or bad. But you must have an outflow before you have an inflow. If you want more money you have to put out more production and help more people. You have to send out more billings for the money to come in from insurance companies. If you want more new patients to come in you must put something out there to get them to flow in to you—things like communication (asking for a referral), giving a patient a brochure to hand out to someone else, doing a talk to a group outside the office. You are getting something out there, putting a motion outward.
Watch your new patient statistics on a weekly basis.
Note what activities were done that week to get new patients. Track these two areas closely. Write it down. It is easy to forget and guess what you did. Sometimes it may take weeks before you see the results of the activity you did. Statistical management is far superior to guessing. Know what is working and do more of that. New ways that are untried can be costly and ineffective. Always keep doing what is working and do more of that before you add some other activity. When you do add other activities, make sure you track whether there is an increase in new patients. I advise not to get contracted for a long period of time for any marketing activity before you see what the results are. I had a client that I advised not to do long term cable ads before he tested it. He did not listen. He contracted for a year. He got less than one new patient per month from the ads. It cost him $1500 per month. What a waste of money! That money could have been spent on areas that did work.
So do what does work, do more of it and, if you do other activities, test them out before you commit long term (even if it is cheaper).
I hope this helps in looking at your marketing, but remember—do not stop marketing because your economy is tight. Keep expanding and you will pull through this economy with flying colors and you will be able to help more people.
Ed Sharp has been a business consultant for over twenty years, helping and giving advice to chiropractors from around the world. He is the president of Sharp Management & Consulting which manages clinics or delivers consulting. He can be contacted at
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or via the company website, www.thesharpmanagement.com.
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Marketing
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Written by Michael Failla, D.C.
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Thursday, 16 September 2010 15:34 |
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Net Your Patients
by Michael Failla, D.C.
Nowadays it's much easier to reach out to people than in previous times. We no longer have to rely on snail mail or advertisements in newspapers to alert potential customers of our services. The internet has opened up the door to millions of marketing opportunities that can help us better represent what our offices can provide to our patients. And with the abundance of websites that provide reviews, suggestions, and offers, an online presence is becoming vital to the survival of any business.
Social media sites and blogs have opened up a new approach to marketing. We can move our efforts from a one-sided sales pitch to a conversation with our current and potential patients. This helps ease hesitations, gets questions answered, and stands as an evolving and expanding history of our patient communication.
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Marketing
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Written by Kara Hirsch
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Thursday, 16 September 2010 14:57 |
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Marketing Your Website
by Kara Hirsch
Having a website and making sure it is laid out cor-rectly is an extremely important part of online marketing, but the big question is, who’s going to see it? Make sure you follow these tips to ensure your patients and potential new patients know you’re on the Web.
Avoid trying to sell with your postings; use this as a way to connect with your patients and provide useful information.
Promote Your Domain Name
Print your domain name on receipts, billing statements, business cards and in any ads you place. This will let all your current patients know that you have a website and will make it easier for them to refer a friend.
Say your domain name on your answering machine. “Our office is now closed and we invite you to visit our website at www.my-practice-name.com. If it’s an existing patient, they will go to your site and perhaps send an e-mail. If it’s a new patient, you will spark their interest.
Put your domain name on the outside of your business door or window. This will display your website for everyone who passes by or enters your business.
Optimize Your Website in the Search Engines
Have you ever done a search for a chiropractor in your area and found about 10 other chiropractors come up on the top of the search in “Local Business Results”? How did these chiropractors get up there? It’s part of a solid search engine strategy put in place by companies marketing them.
Search Engine Optimization or the process of being ranked on a higher page in the search engines is broken down into 3 main categories. These categories are Pay per click (PCC) or Google Adwords, Google Maps, and Organic or Left hand side Placement. The majority of clicks by users fall on Google Maps and Organic Listings with PPC picking up the remaining few clicks. Make sure you’re coming up in the “Local Business Results” too.
Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool
So many internet users are using social media sites to obtain information or just reconnect with friends and family on the Web. So, it can help your Web site a great deal to publish information and participate in conversations on social media sites. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogger, to name a few, are great avenues to create links to your Web site. The more links you have connecting to your Web site, the higher your organic rankings will be. Avoid trying to sell with your postings; use this as a way to connect with your patients and provide useful information. This is a great way to get your name out there in a positive and informative way.
Using E-mail Marketing
E-Mail Marketing is a powerful marketing tool. Communicating with your patients electronically will increase loyalty, help them refer your site to friends and family and create great word of mouth! Staying in touch with your patients is the key. With a well planned out e-mail marketing campaign, you can educate your patients, establish long lasting relationships and find new patients. When engaging in e-mail marketing, it is imperative that you follow all of the protocols and government regulations, but if done properly, you will discover hidden sales opportunities that you may be overlooking.
Get Listed in Local & National Directories
Registering your company on local and national directories is a great way to create links to your website. Not only will this increase traffic to your website from those directories, but these links will help your SEO Rankings. You can find directories that are specific to your area by searching for “Your Area”, “Chiropractor” and the word “directory” in any of the search engines. In addition, you can register on the larger national directories or on general directories such as Yahoo! Directory Listings, which charges a fee for your listing.
Referrals
Patient referrals are hands down the best potential new patients you can receive. Think about it, if you were looking for a chiropractor, typically the first thing you will do is ask a friend or family member if they know a good one. And, even better, referrals do not cost you anything unless you implement a patient referral reward system, which we highly recommend.
Now, if one of your satisfied patients does share your information with their friend or family member, the next thing that potential new patient will do is search for you on the web. So in essence, your satisfied patients are marketing your website for you! Not only is this a great form of marketing, but this will probably yield the highest return on investment you will see of all your marketing efforts.
So what is the moral of the story? Don’t forget to ask your satisfied patients to remember to refer you to their friends and family. They will be happy to send business your way specially if they know you are looking for new patients.
Kara Hirsch is Marketing Manager at Online Chiro. OnlineChiro.com offers customizable Web sites, an e-communications suite and full search engine strategies to get you found in the only place that matters … your local Web! You can reach her at 1-888-932-5560 Ext. 111 or by email at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Marketing
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Written by Dennis Perman D.C.
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Thursday, 16 September 2010 13:56 |
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Marketing Inside Out
by Dennis Perman D.C.
Most chiropractors think that good marketing works and bad marketing does not, and this oversimplification interferes with your ability to interpret the results of your marketing efforts. There is more to it—those who maximize their marketing know that success comes from you, not to you, that it’s who you are that determines how well what you do works. That means that if two doctors apply the same marketing strategy, the one who brings a greater sense of inner purpose, self esteem and persistence will get a better result, and this is the missing link for many frustrated marketers —you must learn to market inside out.
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