Effective Patient Newsletters
By William N. Willis, D.C.
Chiropractors have long recognized the value of educating their patients. It’s
simple. When a patient understands how the adjustment removes the subluxation
and allows the body to once again function at peak efficiency, then they follow
their care plan more faithfully. We know that anyone who doesn’t grasp
how chiropractic works isn’t likely to be a chiropractic patient for long.
As a long-time practitioner, I learned early on that this message had to be
reinforced on a regular basis. People learn through repetition, and the successful
doctor takes advantage of every opportunity to reach out with this message.
One avenue that’s often overlooked and many times misused is the patient
newsletter. It’s a vehicle that’s sometimes ineffective when the
doctor’s expectations are out of line with the newsletter’s true
goals.
The measure of the effectiveness of your newsletter is in how well it reinforces
your relationship with your patients. Its primary goal should be to inform and
to educate. Every issue should carry the message that chiropractic is the path
to regaining and maintaining your health and enjoying a vigorous and healthy
lifestyle.
While certainly no substitute for an effective patient lecture and report of
findings, newsletters are one more means of reaching out to your patients, their
families, and other people with whom you meet in the course of your day. It
carries your message into their homes and gives you a presence between visits.
The contents of your newsletter are of prime importance because it will be competing
with TV, magazines, the Internet and a host of other distractions. It must contain
information that is relevant to their lives and interests.
Think about how you read the daily newspaper. Most of us skim the headlines
looking for interesting articles. Given the choice between a story on advances
in nuclear physics and the latest Hollywood scandal, most of us will choose
the latter. If we’re concerned about our stock portfolio, we’ll
turn to an article on dividend tax cuts.
Your newsletter must contain a variety of articles that appeal to a variety
of reader interests. Stories on avoiding tennis injuries for the weekend athlete,
backpack safety for parents with kids in school and the importance of weight-bearing
exercise for seniors are just a few of the topics that might interest some patients
in your intended audience. Through the newsletter you can present yourself as
a primary source for health information that can benefit your patients.
There’s no hard and fast rule as to the optimum number of articles per
issue, but there should be enough so that most people can find something of
interest to them. Your newsletter doesn’t have to be limited simply to
health information. Many doctors have received a great response from including
healthy recipes.
Your newsletter should promote the need for chiropractic in a variety of forms.
In essence, you want to find different ways of saying the same thing. Studies
show that retention of information is greatly improved after eight or more repetitions
of the message.
To promote reader retention include a quiz on the back page that asks questions
about the stories they’ve read inside. Let them mail or fax in the answers
and award all the respondents a prize that can be as small as a free refrigerator
magnet or even a free adjustment.
Your newsletter must follow that advice as well. Sending forth one publication
and then forgetting about it won’t do you much good. In fact, I usually
suggest that unless you’re willing to make the commitment to publish on
some kind of regular basis, such as bi-monthly or quarterly, then you’re
probably better off not making the effort at all.
Whether you hire local talent to produce your newsletter or buy pre-printed
ones from one of the professional chiropractic newsletter companies, the greatest
effort will be concentrated in getting the first one out the door. Creating
your look and design, choosing your personal and business information, and deciding
on what kinds of articles you want to include are all decisions to be made up
front. Subsequent issues will all require less effort as you settle into a routine.
Unless you’re an accomplished writer and designer or have that talent
in your immediate family, it’s usually best to purchase your newsletter
ready for your personal imprint. Let me caution you here against falling into
one of the biggest traps of the busy professional. Remember what you do well,
and don’t waste your time doing anything else.
I’ve seen large numbers of doctors who attempt to save a few dollars by
doing things that they should be paying someone else to do for them. Your time
should be invested in providing care to your patients and cultivating new ones.
You should never spend your time performing some activity that can be better
done by someone else. Your time is too valuable. Let someone else fold newsletters,
paste on address labels and carry them to the post office.
Your best contribution to the newsletter, after making sure it sets the right
tone for your office, is in building the mailing list. After you exhaust your
current patient list, you can concentrate on using the publication as a means
to reach out to those people you meet at civic club meetings, activities or
during other encounters.
You can begin to build a database that reaches beyond the patients in your office.
Many of these new friends will never become patients themselves. Yet, some will
become referrals when their friends ask about a chiropractor. Your name will
be at the top of the list because you reached out to them.
Nearly 20 years ago I got to know the gentleman who runs the hardware store
in the small town where I practice. I’ve been into this establishment
many times looking for a new hammer or an odd screw. I put him on the mailing
list of my newsletter. During those years he has never once come to my office.
Yet, hardly a month passes in which a patient doesn’t come in to the office
because of his referral.
You should strive to add a minimum of two to three names to your mailing list
each day. That will not only facilitate growth of the list, but it will also
greatly broaden your scope of contacts in the community.
Your success as a doctor will in large part be determined by how effectively
you present your message to the community. Using a newsletter is both a time
saving and cost effective way of educating your patients and paving the way
for referrals.
William N. Willis, D.C. is a veteran writer, practice management consultant,
teacher and practitioner. A 1977 graduate of Life University, he founded and
operates a highly successful practice in Kennesaw, Ga. You can reach Dr. Willis
at drbillsilis@aol.com.
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