A guaranteed marketing
strategy for 300 patient adjustments a week.
By Dr. CJ Mertz
Successful marketing strategies have changed dramatically in the past 15 years.
In fact, what worked fabulously in 1999 may only yield a moderate result in
2004. You have to make an effort with marketing and practice building to remain
current and have the right answers.
Growing your practice to three hundred plus adjustments per week is easier than
you think. If you want to make a significant difference in your practice and
have a dominant impact on your town, you must learn how to effectively position
yourself.
Begin With Intent
Today, chiropractors are feeling choked by Blue Cross/Blue Shield, dwindling
worker compensation and the Bermuda Triangle of HMOs, they have gradually lost
their uniqueness. Meanwhile, every town across America is filled with sick families
afraid of their circumstances and praying someone will, step forward and help
solve their problems. In some ways, marketing hasn’t changed at all. It
always has, and always will begin with your intent. I make it a point that each
of my new clients takes their staff through a tour of a hospital before beginning
any strategic changes in their practice. What they see are hundreds of people
laid out, tubes stuck everywhere, taking multiple medications, every one of
them subluxated, yet none of them know it and none of them know you. Successful
marketing must, first and foremost, have a cause before it has a function. Marketing
isn’t about new patients, rather it is about improving, extending and
saving lives.
Today, a marketing campaign must contain a powerful combination of internal
and external strategies. In the past big practices were built by referrals only.
Now, this is seldom the case. Every chiropractor is different and every practice
is different, yet generating a consistent flow of new patients remains relatively
unchanged from one to the next.
Know Your Product!
Optimal health. Lifetime family wellness. One hundred percent nerve flow. Peak
potential. Make sure you and your staff have identified the result you’re
looking to achieve with your patients. This will become a constant theme throughout
all of your messaging. For example “Changing the world, one spine at a
time.” Or “Advancing wellness for happy families.” In other
words you have to take your most passionate belief in chiropractic and turn
it into a cause. You want to become the headquarters of the wellness movement
in your town. Knowing and believing your product lets you boldly communicate
your eagerness to help sick and suffering people with your special brand of
care.
When I think of all my clients who consistently average over 30 new patients
per month, they follow the following formula: Every morning they focus on the
names of each patient scheduled on the books. Thoughtfully, they determine which
patients they will inspire to refer today (no less than 10 percent), and then
carefully assign a staff member to each of the patients in their target group.
The staff or team sets a goal in the morning as to how many new patient leads
they will generate that day, and they check in throughout the day to see that
they’re on target. The team chooses a new theme each week and utilizes
the theme as an opportunity to help their patients refer others. For example,
this week’s theme is “Children missing school or taking medications.”
Next week is “Joint stiffness and lack of motion.” It gives your
team the ongoing focus and inspiration needed to keep reaching out to help those
in need. Without a specific plan for referrals the end result is fewer new patients.
Learn To Formulate Power Weeks
Clinical trials have proven that marketing events scheduled closely together
are dramatically more effective than if scheduled months apart. A power week
is defined as three or more marketing events scheduled within a 10-day stretch
of time. Rather than doing a spinal screen one month, a newspaper ad the next
month and a patient appreciation day the following month, these events all take
place within the same month. The result is outstanding. If you decided to do
four power weeks in a year rather than twelve isolated events, you would drastically
increase your new patient results. It takes more preparation and more organizational
processing than you’re use to, but it’s well worth it. I recommend
performing group reports to new patients to maximize your conversions. Power
weeks conducted properly can increase your practice by 100 adjustments per week
in as little as 90 days.
Establish Your Anchor Campaign
If you are not consistently in a specific form of media, then you do not yet
have an anchor campaign. In 2004 this may be one of the most essential decisions
you make to ensure the future success of your marketing campaign. This involves
setting an annual budget so you can consistently be in front of your community
month after month. The average person may need to see, or hear about your ad
three to five times before they decide to call you. Do not get impatient and
do not get discouraged. Upon quarterly review, your marketing investment should
be yielding a 3-to-1 minimum return. Whether or not you choose direct mail,
newspaper ads, telemarketing, outside ads, screenings, radio, free reports,
TV ads or an infomercial, it must be done with a long-term perspective. I tell
my clients to view the monthly expense as payroll that’s responsible for
touching hundreds and thousands of people every month. Dabbling with marketing,
getting in and out of different forms, if it doesn’t pull right away is
the most costly and under producing strategy in the field today. Get advice
on which anchor would be best for you, then commit to it in full faith. What
most chiropractors fail to recognize is advertising is one of the best tools
for your patients to use for referring their friends! If you don’t let
your patients know where and how and what special opportunity you have, then
they can’t use it to inspire someone to give you a call.
Put it all Together
When you have learned to link right intent, with a solid product, daily referral
strategy, an established series of power weeks, and a consistent anchor you
can proudly say you have joined “The 300 Club.” While your parking
lot is filling up, the hospital parking lots are emptying. Families of patients
are referring other families and though your profit begins to soar, your greatest
reward is the satisfaction of knowing you’re fulfilling your purpose as
a chiropractor.
Unfortunately, marketing isn’t an absolute science. However, with the
proper layering of your strategy, you have the greatest chance for success.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help—there’s no reason to waste
time reinventing the wheel. Embrace the marketing of your practice like you
embrace the care you give to each patient and turn your dreams into reality.
Dr. CJ Mertz is the president and founder of The Waiting List Practice. Since
1984 Team WLP has successfully built more practices seeing greater than 400
patient visits per week profitably than any other coach program. A video training
on creating a marketing calendar is available by calling 1-877-TEAM-WLP. For
more information, visit www.teamwlp.com.
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