Four
common sense marketing strategies that work
By Shawn Powers, D.C.
There are so many people on this planet that have a need for chiropractic but
don’t know it. It’s easy for us to forget that there are thousands
of people in our communities who do not understand how a healthy nervous system
relates to their quality of life. If you want to make a significant contribution
to the health of your community while increasing your practice volume and revenue,
then it’s necessary to market your mission.
I have seen my practice grow because I have committed to doing everything I
can to provide the highest level of service, to building long-lasting relationships
and to letting others know about chiropractic and why they would want it as
part of their lifestyle. My other secret to success is consistent, effective
marketing—or as I like to call it: throwing out the lifesaver.
So many chiropractors consider marketing to be unprofessional, pushy or self-serving,
so they shy away from it. If you are a good chiropractor, understand the value
of chiropractic, focus on helping others and are proud of what you do, why be
inhibited about telling others?
In my experience there are four reasons that turn us off to marketing or our
marketing efforts produce limited results. They are:
The intention of this article is to help you learn effective strategies that
increase your business, empower you to create a marketing plan, become comfortable
at telling others the value of chiropractic and how you can help them, so you
can market your practice with confidence.
Marketing: Throwing Out a Lifesaver
I define marketing as sharing and transferring my enthusiasm, knowledge and
experience with the current practice members and potential practice members.
Marketing is my intention to save more lives. An effective marketing plan focuses
on building relationships through a blend of internal and external events and
activities. Everything in the plan should be designed to increase service, referrals,
retention, contacts and influence in the community.
Strategy 1. Willingness To Provide Extraordinary Service and Care
If you orient your entire practice on helping and serving people you are more
likely to have an unlimited stream of new people, high retention, profit and
success. Our ability to build relationships is vital to creating an endless
flow of new practice members. If you think about it, most people who come into
our practices do not know enough about chiropractic (nor do they have the ability
to evaluate our competence), so they make their decisions on how we relate to
them, how they are treated and how comfortable they feel in the office.
Your patients are buying a service that is not tangible like a new piece of
furniture that they feel, touch and sit in to evaluate its quality. In chiropractic
they are evaluating the quality based on the doctor and the staff. They “buy”
us first before they “buy” chiropractic. The entire team must master
communication skills and be dedicated to outstanding care and service.
Strategy 2. Be Involved
If your goal is to increase your flow of new practice members, focus on increasing
your reach and effectiveness of your contacts. In short, expand your Rolodex.
Become more involved in your community by knowing others and becoming known.
Just consider the routine task of picking up your dry cleaning or ordering lunch.
Are the people you come in contact each day aware of who you are and what you
do? Do you meet new people regularly and do you connect with them? Any encounter
can lead to new contacts.
Strategy 3. Expand What Already Works
Review how your last 30 new patients heard about your practice. Now find ways
you can get more from these sources. As an example, the bulk of my practice
members come from referrals and my Path to Wellness lecture series. So I am
focusing on improving the promotion and attendance at workshops by utilizing
radio ads, an appreciation system and internal events that stimulate even more
referrals.
Strategy 4. Create a Marketing Plan
A plan provides consistency and focus while diminishing desperation and despair.
First start with the goals for your practice and then lay out steps (your plan)
to achieve them. If your plan involves promotional events, it’s vital
to schedule your activities at the most effective times. Mark off all holidays,
vacations and events that take you away from the office. Don’t schedule
a promotion unless you will be fully staffed at least two weeks after the event.
If successful, you will need time to process your new practice members and give
them your best service.
Include a blend of internal and external events, free and fee-based, in your
plan. Consider a series of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual promotions.
Keep in mind the complexity of the promotion, the cost, the labor requirements
and its potential effectiveness. For example, a major screening is time, money
and labor intensive that can yield huge returns, while an in-office workshop
is easy to organize, but it may attract fewer attendees. It’s wise to
have a balance of different types of events, including seasonal promotions.
In my office we keep logs and records to ascertain the effectiveness of our
efforts. Every Tuesday we review our plan and our results and refine our activities
accordingly. If money was spent, look for a minimum 3:1 return and of course
always go for a higher ratio. When evaluating ROI, which I do every month, I
not only look at the initial new practice member that started care, but their
family members and referrals as well.
Marketing Means Making Changes
Marketing takes time, money and attention. You must budget all three to be successful.
The newer or smaller the practice the more time, money and attention will be
spent on external activities. The larger the practice volume the more people
you are serving and helping. This provides more referrals and greater numbers
of people who know you and what you do, that will want to tell others, so internal
activities take precedence.
If you want to serve more people and increase your revenue then you will have
to make different decisions, take more calculated risks, and be more effective
in your actions than you have in the past. It is time to throw out the lifesaver,
start an effective marketing plan and be proud of what you do. Remember, your
community needs you.
Dr. Shawn Powers has been a successful practicing chiropractor for over
l6 years. She is an international speaker and coach, and has served on the board
of the Colorado state association and the World Congress of Woman Chiropractors.
You can reach Dr. Shawn Powers at www.powersourcecoaching.com.
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