This original article was featured in the February 2021 issue of Chiropractic Economics

The world of marketing is constantly changing. When I first started out, “marketing” meant that we had an ad running in the giant yellow phone books that got delivered to people’s houses. Having a black and white image there was extra fancy and special at that time. The term “Digital Marketing” didn’t even exist yet. 

In today’s chiropractic environment, there are way more possibilities! There are so many outlets out there now that it can be overwhelming. I will review the different areas and ways to market but before we do that, I want to stress something even more important is the content you are putting out there. The same message doesn’t always work across the board for every outlet. 

A key clarifying point is that “marketing” does not just mean that you are trying to attract new patients. This also means that you are staying in contact with your existing practice members! 

Frequent contact and education is also a form of marketing. We know that frequently connecting with and educating your existing patients leads to higher retention, is a great way to reach inactive patients, generate more referrals and just stay at the top of mind of your patients. 

From here on out, when I talk marketing, I do not mean just for new patients! Retention is key to a successful practice and marketing to your existing clients will help that. 

So, you’re ready to take on the world of digital marketing. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you are clear on your message. What is it that you are offering? I don’t mean any sort of promo or deal but is your message about overall health and wellness? Getting people out of pain? Posture? What is it that you are selling? I like to refer to this as being clear on what your “product” is. 

Once you are clear on the message you want to get across, I have a few tips when it comes to content: 

• Deliver something of value. This can be health tips or stretches or a quick explanation of how their nervous system works. Delivering content that people can learn from not only gives you credibility, but it keeps your audience engaged.
• Be consistent with social media. Post frequently and often.
• Always have a call to action. 
• Don’t be afraid to stand out. We are advertised too non-stop from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. Having something catchy (with the ability to make people stop scrolling on their phones) will help set you apart from the rest.
• Don’t be afraid to brag about your successes! Tell the stories of wins people have had in your office. Chances are that if the person seeing this marketing material wouldn’t benefit from the results you get, they know someone who will! 
• Focus on what’s in it for the person, not you! 

Now that we have that established, let’s discuss some marketing outlets you can use: 

Email

Your email list is a very powerful tool. Even though our inboxes are way too clogged, it’s still one of the most powerful resources you can use for marketing.  You don’t have an email list?  Well, you better start building one.

Like I mentioned earlier, frequent contact is crucial to the success of your existing practice members staying under care. I use email campaigns to consistently and automatically educate them over time.

I even assign them a birthday campaign so that every year they automatically hear from me on their birthday. That way, any that may have fallen through the cracks will hear from me.

We also send them newsletters from time to time just so should they be ready to come back to us one day, we are the first office they think of! 

For prospective clients, email is a great tool to use to continue communication and education. If at a screening event and they don’t sign up for a new patient appointment, we add them to a specific group and continue to invite them into the office. They will also start receiving the newsletter emails for when they are ready. 

Related Article: How to Help Promote The Practice

If you host educational events or webinars, your email list is absolutely one of your top ways to promote it to both existing patients and prospective patients. Think of them as “warm leads” to your event. They already showed interest so they are more likely to attend and better yet, bring friends! This brings us to our next topic: 

Online Events (webinars)

You may think that this is something just for software companies to host but it most definitely is NOT! Especially with Covid shutting down a lot of in-person events in the past year, webinars are a great, low overhead way to reach and educate your community. 

The best part of webinars is that people that may have been skeptical and hesitant to go in person to an event are more comfortable with the low-stress environment of watching it from the comfort of their own home. It also allows more flexibility in scheduling. Educate on your topic (again, be clear on the messaging) and have an easy and valuable call to action delivered with hope to the prospective clients! 

Be sure to encourage your current list of people to share the event with their friends and family. Post and promote this on your social media (we will discuss this soon). 

Social Media

Love it or hate it, it’s the way of the world now and is a great way to reach an audience you may not have met before. There are countless ways to use this and I am self admittedly not a social media expert. But, that’s what makes these tips easy for anyone to implement! 

In my office, we would run wellness scores on patients that produce letter grades. At re-exam time, we re-run them and give feedback on the progress that they’re making. I would not only post a HIPAA compliant version of these comparison reports showing the progress someone has made, but I would also tell a story about that person.

“This is a 35-year old that came in with complaints of XYZ.” This makes it so others that may be experiencing the same thing can see the results we get in our office! It also keeps existing patients motivated to see that others have done it, they can too.  

You can do the same thing also using before and after x-rays, posture pictures, or any other tool that visually demonstrates an improvement in the patient.

I’m also a fan of doing quick videos with tips and announcements. It just keeps people engaged. Today, pages that do this successfully have followers in the tens of thousands. This establishes them as someone that is credible and will definitely keep their offices busy!

Prospective patients get a taste of the environment in your office and can see more personality behind just a name. They get to see the community you have built and the results you get. For your existing patients, it helps that top-of-mind awareness and also builds a sense of community. 

Digital Media In The Office

When your patients are in the office, you have a golden opportunity to use digital messages to educate and market.  And the cost to do this is crazy affordable compared to years ago.  When I first got in practice in 1994, there was a company selling Digital Marketing with TV’s for over $24,000.   

Now there are companies providing similar services for small monthly costs.  All you have to do is just buy the TVs and network them all to the service.  Simple and low cost.

We used to have TVs all over the office playing educational content.  We even had one in the restroom.  I’m pretty sure it got read the most as it was routine for patients to ask about what they learned on the TV when returning from the restroom.

In this article, I’ve only scratched the surface with a number of things that you can do when it comes to marketing. Get all of your team members involved! We all possess different skills, talents, and perspectives so if you have a team member who is full of personality and loves the camera, then make the best use of their talents. If you have someone who would rather contribute content and ideas behind the scenes, that’s wonderful too! 

Promoting the practice, educating your community, and marketing your brand is a team effort that needs to be executed in a thoughtful and strategic way. Sit down, make a plan, and do it with joy! I look forward to seeing what you come up with. 

Check out our other articles!