Friday, 18 May 2012
The Reason Why Working "In" Your Clinic Is Detrimental To Your Clinic's Success
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Over the last few weeks, I have been getting a lot of emails from fellow chiropractors telling me how their clinic numbers are dropping or just staying stagnant even though they've been spending so much time at their clinic.
Is it the economy? Is it the bad press?.... No it's not!
Here is a typical letter that I have received in the last few weeks...
"Dear Richard,
I've been in practice for a couple of years now and I work 5 full days a week. I already have a relatively slow practice and now my numbers are starting to drop. I went from seeing 80 patients/week to now only seeing 50-60!
What should I do? Please help!"
First of all, this doctor only sees 80 patients per week, that's only 16 patients per day (with working 5 days) and 80 patients is what a chiropractor can typically see in just a single day.
So going back to the title of this blog... The Reason Why Working "In" Your Clinic Is Detrimental To Your Clinic's Success, whether you have a super busy clinic or a super slow clinic, working "IN" you clinic can make your numbers drop.
As someone once told me, the key to chiropractic clinic success (or any business for that matter) is to work "ON" your clinic not just "IN" your clinic! That is to say, doing activities that will build traffic to your clinic.
For instance, the chiropractor above could easily keep his chiropractic office open just 2 1/2 days per week. By doing this, he will benefit in 2 immediate ways...
- By shortening up the work week, he will make his clinic look much busier. Having a busier clinic makes your office appear more successful, which in turn, will make converting consults to patients much easier.
- Cuts down on your expenses (e.g. don't have to pay your receptionist as much)
Meaning, you now have the freedom to do more talks, more promotions, more networking, more strategizing... more practice building things.
See, all too many chiropractors and other business owners think that they have to be at work to build a successful clinic/business. This is just not the case!
Unless you have, what I call, PASSIVE PATIENT ACQUISITION TECHNIQUES - promotional techniques that will automatically drive new patients to your clinic without having to actively get them (which will be the topic of my next blog! Here's a major technique... ALL chiros need powerful chiropractic websites.
If you're not networking or doing a promotion, go to a coffee shop with a pen and paper and think of ways to improve your clinic, think of cool referral contests, places to do talks, new marketing material - marketing to MDs, Lawyers, other chiropractors.
Here's a task you can do on your time off (and we'll talk more about this in the next blog)... think of 75 to 100 ways to get new patients through your door. It's a challenging task, but a fun one.
Just think of it this way... if you just get 1 patient per month from each of these ideas, that's potentially 100 NEW PATIENTS PER MONTH!!
Now say, just 50% of your ideas brings you 1 new patient per month... that's 50 NEW PATIENTS PER MONTH!
Even if only 25% of your marketing ideas work, that's still 25 NEW PATIENTS PER MONTH and that's still an awesome number!
And when those patients start coming in and see your busy clinic (because you're still only working 3 days a week), it will appear that you have a successful clinic, it will increase the likelihood of your consults starting care and it will increase your referrals!
And so, as you increase your patient numbers, start to increase your working hours. For instance, when I started practice, I only worked 2 1/2 days per week and seeing about 40-50 patients per day. Later, I increased my days to 4 full days and I was seeing about 80-100 patients per day.
I could have increased my work day to 5 days per week, but I have always been a big fan of long weekends and so I have never worked a Friday, Saturday or Sunday (well, I did but only on rare occasions).
So to sum it up... you WILL develop a more successful clinic when you work ON your clinic than if you work IN your clinic.
Just make sure that when you take those days off you PROMOTE your clinic AND WORK FULL days ON your practice. Don't just use it to run errands or watch your recorded episodes of Dexter (lol).
So tighten up your work week, spend less time in your clinic and build yourself a wildly successful clinic!
Remember, I'm here for you. If you ever have any questions or concerns, just like the doc in the email above, please feel free to email me at contactus@promodocs.com. I will ALWAYS give you free advice and will ALWAYS try to reply within 24 hours.
One last thing... Promodocs has created the most powerful chiropractic website templates for chiropractors that is truly breaking industry standards. Our team has incorporated features that no other chiropractic website company offers that will drive huge amounts of new patients to your clinic and give your clinic massive online exposure.
And the price? It's unbelievable! So check us out at www.promodocs.com
Just to let you know, the new site and chiropractic site will be up in just a couple of day. So we're a bit late on our launch date, but that's a good thing because we are adding another exclusive Promodocs feature that will make your Promodocs Website so much more effective!!
Hope this helps,
Richard
Saturday, 28 April 2012
The 6 Most Effective Ways To Avoid Clinic Burnout
If you have a busy successful clinic, burnout can come from constantly having to go out to promote your office or almost being like a robot and repeating the same chiropractic message/script to your consults, ROFs and existing patients or from having to quickly bounce from room to room adjusting patients.
If you're just opening up a new clinic or you have a struggling clinic and you're burning the candle at both ends trying to make a go of your clinic and just trying to pay the bills.
Regardless of how you get to clinic burnout, the experience is the same...
- Dread knowing that Monday is tomorrow and you have to go to the clinic.
- Just don't want to get out of bed to face another day at the office.
- Don't want to spend another weekend doing another promotion.
- Don't have the energy and the focus to give what your patients need.
- Always tired during the work week, but have lots of energy on your days off.
The great thing is... there are easy ways to re-energize and get back that excitement about practicing like you had on the last day of classes at your chiro college. And I'm going to tell you about it right now!
Here at the TOP 6 ways to get out of a slump...
- The Pareto Principle: A.K.A. the 80-20 Rule - roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. That is to say, get rid of the patients that just whine and complain and bring down the energy in your office. Do the promotions that bring in the best patients. Don't waste your time on all those other promotions that only bring in a few, but you have to spend HOURS getting those few. Of all the task that you have to do, only 20% of them matter. So ONLY work on that 20% as those are the ones that will drive 80% of your business/clinic.
- Write It Out: Often people become overwhelmed because they feel that they have so much to do and they just don't know where to start. So they start tasks haphazardly and just spin their wheels and get no where because they are jumping back and forth from task to task trying to get everything done. AND at the same time, busying themselves doing less important tasks and NOT the important ones that will truly benefit them and their clinic. But, if you write out your task in a list format, you will realize that you actually have less to do to achieve your goals and you'll know which tasks are the important ones.
Here's what I do... on my wall (in my home office), using cue card, I have 3 columns. The first column is the "To Do" column. 2nd column it's the "Doing" column. 3rd column - "Done" column. So I then write down each task on 1 card and put them in the "To Do" column and as I start a task, I move the card into the "Doing" column. When I finish that task... I move the card into the "Done" column.
You will be AMAZED how it removes your stress levels! Because now you see what you actually have to do (and as you move the cards to the "DONE" column you get a lot of satisfaction as you see your tasks getting completed) AND you realize that it's a lot less than you think you actually had to do. - Go On A Spontaneous Vacation: Right now, think of a place you want to go to (the Caribbean is really cheap this time of year), book it for 3-7 days from now (so that you give your patients the heads up), and then just take off! Ya, you heard me... just jet! I did this. During a super stressful time in my life (and I had an insanely busy office), I took off for 3 weeks. You might be thinking, "What are my patients going to think?!" Well, when I got back after 3 weeks, NONE of my patients said anything and the clinic started back up as if I never left! My advice... JUST DO IT!
While I was on vacation, I not only came back super charged and ready to go back, but I also came back with amazing marketing and promotional ideas that built up my clinic that much more! And more importantly, my patients were feeling much better from my adjustments because I was able to focus more! - Change Up Your Clinic: Paint the wall, get new chiropractic posters, new flowers, new furniture etc. Don't have the money for that? That's fine.. then just rearrange your furniture, change the patient flow patterns in your office, change the music in your office to more pop or energetic music. If you are already playing pop music, switch it up to jazz or ambient music.
Instead of wearing jeans and a T-shirt or golf shirt in the office, wear dress pants and a dress shirt or vice versa.
Or have some fun contest in your office. Do some Give-Away to the patient that brings in the most referrals within the month, organize a food drive. do a Chiro Quiz Contest (i.e. make up a sheet of 10 questions about chiropractic that your patients have to answer and hand in on their next visit. Then at the end of the month have a draw - person who's name is drawn must have answered the Qs correctly. Winner get a gift certificate to a nice restaurant). - Go to a Chiropractic Seminar: Although you may think that you're the only one suffering, believe me, YOU'RE NOT ALONE! A great place to get motivated, learn new ideas, get the moral support you need, is from Chiro Seminars. Not only is it a great escape from your office, but it sets your mind straight so that you can get back into the game.And My ALL Time FAVORITE... with LASTING Results...
- Network With Other Chiros (WITH A TWIST!): First of all get a Magic Jack (i.e. internet phone where you can call anywhere in North America (and some other countries) for free.
Second: Find successful chiropractors in different states or provinces. I did this by Googling different chiropractic websites. I had 2 main criteria that I used to gauged a successful practice... - Quality of their website - Was the site just slapped together with no thought just so that they had a website, or did they have a high quality site because they took pride in their clinic.
- How did the office look - Did the office look professional, clean and modern or did it look like just a plain office with typical M.D. office chairs, plain walls, and just really no thought involved.
At first, I was met with hesitation because the chiros didn't know if I was their competition down the road. So I told them that I am calling docs from completely different states so that there is no conflict of interest and we can openly share our insider secrets without having the office down the road using them.
It Was A HUGE Success!
We'd all talk once a month and email each other whenever we had an issue. Great support network and we'd always come up with kick ass marketing ideas.
And all of our clinics grew and we never had a burnout as we supported each other when needed!
(NOTE: Don't form your group of chiros from seminars that you regularly attend r chiros that you already know obecause often your ideas will be too similar and there won't be that degree of anonymity you can be completely open with . Just do random Google searches (i.e. "Arizona Chiropractor") and use the criteria above. Believe me it will work much better!).
Hope this helps!
Promodocs
One last thing...
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Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Chiropractic Membership Clinics - Are they destroying chiropractic?!
And a ton of chiropractors jumped on the thread... some bashing the marketing campaign and some supporting it.
Those that were knocking it stated that it was devaluing chiropractic, that it was an insult to the chiropractic profession and that it was sending out the wrong message about chiropractic. Whereas those that were in support of these clinics/ads were saying that by providing such an offer, it makes chiropractic more affordable and therefore assessable to more people.
Now, I should state that I have never used this type of marketing and I don't think that I would have ever used it if I still practiced.
HOWEVER...
My questions are... Is it really devaluing chiropractic? Is it sending the wrong message?
Before I continue, let me say this... there was once a chiropractor that put a box on the wall and told his patients to pay whatever they thought the adjustment was worth to them (which I think is a very noble idea). Of course, I don't know what the average collection was, but I am sure some people left very little money whereas other left a lot.
Either way, patients probably paid what they could afford so that they could have money to return for another adjustment.
Although this example is different from the Membership model, one could argue that chiropractors should have fixed rates for their treatments otherwise it devalues care. I personally do not think that this is the case, but arguments can still be made.
The main problem that I see is simple mathematics. If a clinic is going to charge $49.50 (more or less) per month for unlimited care, how many patients does one have to adjust to make a profit? or even just sustain their clinic's overhead?
As such, this is a model that I would never engage in.
However, does it devalue chiropractic or sends the wrong message about chiropractic? I would say that it doesn't, so long as the chiropractor that is offering this fee structure does not make the fee the focus for the patient to come in for care. Instead, the focus has to be about chiropractic, the philosophy of chiropractic, and the absolute importance of chiropractic to one's health.
Once you make the focus about money/fees, then you have completely devalued chiropractic... regardless of the amount you charge.
Someone once said, that if you don't piss someone off with your marketing, then you're doing it wrong.
As such, given the marketing concept that I talked about and my opinion on the matter, I know that there will be those doctors who will agree with me and others that will disagree with me.
However, no one can argue that all chiropractors have to stress the importance of chiropractic in one's life.
However, no one can argue that all chiropractors have to stress the importance of chiropractic in one's life.
Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!
One Quick Note (and shameless plug)...
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Promodocs would also like to announce their latest chiropractic poster called "Innate Flow". We just launched it and it has become one of our fastest selling posters! The Innate Flow poster is ONLY $29.50ea (24"x18" HxW). Also, take advantage of our FREE SHIPPING offer!
Monday, 5 March 2012
Which Will Convert Your Consults to New Patients Easier? Pay Per Visit or in Installments?
In this economic time, money is an issue for everyone... and so you might ask, which method of payment will my consults be more likely to accept in order to undergo care?Pay per visit or in installments.
Well the answer depends on a few factors...
1. Perceived Value.
2. Demand
3. Financial Status.
Perceived Value:
Perceived value is the view that your consult has on your offering. Do they see value in what you are offering? Do they think that chiropractic will help them? If so, do they see it as a "short term fix" or a "long term fix"? Is it worth their time? Is it worth their money? Do you "sell" them on chiropractic, do you "over sell" them on chiropractic or do you make them want to "buy" into chiropractic?
Demand:
Are there patients in your waiting room and treatment rooms when your consult comes in? Does your clinic look quiet? Does your front end staff look busy? Do you have a waiting list?
Financial Status:
Simply... does your patient have the income to pay for treatment?
Although there are other factors, I feel that these are the most important factors, but often your consults' financial position tends to be the biggest factor in the decision making process... or is it?
Your goal typically is to have your consult realize the importance of chiropractic and that money is of little importance.
Have you ever wanted something so badly, say some exciting new gadget, you can't really afford it but somehow you scrape up the money and get it? Well you're driven to do this because of the messaging that the company has put into their marketing.
So if you have addressed the above factors, that is to say, you have a great looking clinic, a "perceived" busy clinic, you've emphasized the importance of chiropractic care, you've not oversold chiropractic, you've made your consult understand that their health is an investment, then you have made finances a non-issue!
Remember this one important note...
People Don't Like To Be Sold Anything.
People Like To Buy!
So if you have everything in place, finances should never be an issue.
Having said that, due to these economic times, money issues are generally to be top of mind for any purchase. But to decrease the fear of spending, people like security. One of the ways that you can offer them that security is to provide them with the option of paying per visit.
The great thing about having patients pay per visit, is that they are more likely to start care due to the level comfort of being able to discontinue care without any hassle (i.e. having to go through the refund process after paying in installments).
While your new patient is now under care and has that level of comfort, you can gradually teach them and reinforce the importance of chiropractic care, following through until their treatment plan is over and the importance of maintenance care.
People are generally more receptive to information gradually being presented to them, than having a shot gun approach... especially when they may have a certain degree of apprehension in their "purchase".
If you are having difficulty in having your consults pay in installments, try having them PPV. The chiropractors that have contacted us (contactus@promodocs.com) for advice on this matter, have boosted up their consult to NP by 80-90%. But not only this, by gradually educating their patients (and by gradually, I mean talking chiro every other visit or so), they have also skyrocketed their conversion for maintenance patients.
I hope this helps!
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Monday, 6 February 2012
The Most Effective Way to get LASTING M.D. Referrals to Your Chiropractic Office!
Since my last couple of blogs on how to market your chiropractic clinic with no money, we've had a FLOOD of emails about how to market your chiropractic clinic to M.D.s. Although I had addressed this point before, I will go more in depth this time around.
Before I go on with this blog, I should say that there are going to be those chiropractors that are totally going to disagree with my approach as they may think that I am selling chiropractic out or discrediting chiropractic by aligning chiropractic with the medical paradigm of symptom based treatment.
This cannot be further from the truth and if you continue reading this blog, you will understand how powerful communicating/marketing in this manner will not only benefit your practice, but will also benefit the chiropractic profession as a whole (or at least I personally think so).
This cannot be further from the truth and if you continue reading this blog, you will understand how powerful communicating/marketing in this manner will not only benefit your practice, but will also benefit the chiropractic profession as a whole (or at least I personally think so).
Having said this, let me states these important facts...
- More people see medical doctors then any other alternative health care professional.
- People will generally go to their M.D. for their input before undergoing care with an alternative health care professional.
- Essentially, the ratio of patients visiting chiros vs. M.D's has remained unchanged.
In other words, when it comes to health care, people typically function on the medical model of "I have pain/problem, please remove it!" Therefore, create your marketing such that it talks about symptom relief! NOT about "Wellness Care".
Why? Because the fact remains that the Wellness market is tiny in comparison to the "I have pain/problem, please remove it!" market. Thus, you will get more bang for your marketing $$, marketing to symptom relief patients than you would to wellness care patients.
Now here's the "catch"...
Once you've have made these "Symptom-Based" people into your patients, treat their condition. But in the course of care, educate them about chiropractic and what TRUE health is all about.
HOWEVER... keep in mind, "Symptom-Based" people/patients have a different mindset than those who are interested in wellness care.
With wellness care patients you can talk all day to them about chiropractic principles, but with "Symptom-Based" patients YOU CAN'T! (of course, there are always exceptions).
Want proof? Ever have a Spinal Care Class with these types of people? lol Trying to get them there is like pulling teeth and you get a lot of sighs in the process.
So, with the "Symptom-Based" patients, your chiropractic education has to be done gradually... and not every day.
If you shotgun and shove the chiropractic philosophy down their throats, you will only frustrate and anger these patients, and if they don't drop out during care, they most certainly will at the end.
However, when education is done on a gradual basis, these patients will be more accepting of the chiropractic philosophy and will develop a greater appreciation of it and the end result... a long term maintenance care patient. That is to say,one that understands what true health is and how to optimize it without blindly taking medication etc.
Now that you have educated and "won" over your "Symptom-Based" patient, how do you get M.D. Referrals?
On the Patient Intake form and during your history taking with your patient, you should get your consult's medical doctor's name and contact information so that you can mail their M.D.'s a report of your examination and proposed treatment plan.
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TIP: Hand write, in red at the bottom right corner of the envelope, "Personal - RE: Mutual Patient" (check your local state laws if this can be written - generally, there shouldn't be an issue).
This is done for 3 reasons...
- Hand Written: does not look like a marketing piece.
- Red Ink: so that message will get noticed.
- "Personal": so that the letter goes straight to the doctor.
"Hello, this is Dr. X (don't tell the receptionist that picks up the phone that you are a chiropractor). I am presently treating a mutual patient of yours and I was wondering if Dr. Y available to talk?"
At this point, the receptionist will pass you on to the doctor.
"Hello Dr. Y, this is Dr. X and I am presently treating Ms. Z as she is a patient at my chiropractic office for her XX condition. She thinks very highly of you and I just thought that I would touch base with you in regards to what we have done so far and how she is responding to our care, etc., etc.".
At this point, the M.D. will have probably already read your report and is pleased that you called to keep him/her informed.
After informing the M.D. of your findings etc., end the conversation with "Well, thank you very much for your time and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me at any time". DO NOT START TO ASK FOR REFERRALS OR ANYTHING OF THAT NATURE!
As your patient is going through care, send follow up reports to their M.D., but this time include some business cards (or better yet, make a referral pad with your clinic logo on and send a couple sheets). In the follow up report, at the end you can say something like...
"If you have any patients with XX condition that you think may benefit from our care, please feel free to refer them to our clinic"
(Although it is fine to send this note in the second letter, I would suggest that you send it the last letter when you have done the final follow up exam with your patient).
THEN... sometime during the course of this patient's care, they are going to visit their doctor to give them an update. Find out when your patient is going to do this and give them a brochure about chiropractic care so that they can give it to their doctor as they sing your praises. (note: staple on some business cards or prescription sheets). At this stage, you want to start to inform the M.D. of the true meaning of chiropractic.
LASTLY, make another call to your patient's medical doctor and tell them about the awesome results they got. At this point, the M.D. will be more receptive to understanding more about chiropractic care. NOTE: Just like your symptoms-based patient, do NOT go over board with the chiropractic explanation as you will lose their interest. Finally, tell them that if they have any patients that they think could benefit from your care, that you will always welcome them and treat them with the respect and skills that they would.
LASTLY, LASTLY... put the M.D.s office on a mailing list and send them letters or postcards reminding them of your office.
GREAT NOTE: When you get one M.D. that refers to you, make sure to use that doctor's name (with his/her permission) on other marketing pieces/letters that you send to M.D.s When M.D.s see other doctors trusting you with their patients care, they will send more patients too.
So every M.D. that send patients to you, put their name on each marketing piece. EVEN BETTER... get the referring M.D. to write a one line testimonial that you can use! ~ THIS IS VERY VERY POWERFUL!
Hope this helps!
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below or email us at contactus@promodocs.com!
Don't miss our next blog where we will be talking about the best way to talk about the cost of care to today's patients!
Yours,
Promodocs!
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012
How To Get The Most Bang Out Of A Small Marketing Budget - That is... FREE Marketing
Well the best way to market your clinic is to do it without spending a penny! Right?!
In today's blog, I'm going to talk about how you can do a lot of chiropractic marketing without spending a penny!
That's right! This Blog Is Not Just About
Marketing On A Budget... It's About Doing It For FREE!
Marketing On A Budget... It's About Doing It For FREE!
In my last blog ( click here to read ) I talked about the most power marketing concept that will massively and rapidly build up your clinic with new patients. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend that you click on the above link first, then read the rest of this blog.
Okay, so now you've read the last blog post, we're now going to talk about how to market your clinic for FREE on a smaller scale, BUT STILL BEING HIGHLY EFFECTIVE.
Now, because these marketing ideas are going to be free for you in terms of $$$, it will not be free in regards to your time. That is to say, you're going to have to put a bit of time in it to make it work.
The first one, which everyone knows about is Spinal Screenings... BUT WITH A SLIGHT TWIST(S)!
So many chiropractors set up stalls in a mall where they often have to pay the mall some sort of Exhibition Fee (a fee to be allowed to set up and run your screening), but because we want to do everything for free, I suggest hooking up with a nutrition store or some health related store (TWIST 1) within the mall and set up a small stand at the edge of the stores entrance way. The store won't charge you do to this as they will love the extra attention that their store gets!
I used to do it at the GNC (General Nutrition Center) at the local high end mall next to my clinic. It was amazing for a few reasons... 1. the people that came into the store or to our stand were those that were into their health (so it was easy to get them as patients) 2.When we just had a few people gathering around our stand, it was like a magnet that drew in even more people! As such, every weekend we always had a crowd around our stand. 3. by hooking up with a well known store, it gave our clinic instant credibility to those in the mall that didn't know about us. 4.GNC LOVED us because it drew a lot of eyeballs and customers to their store and they allowed us to come ANY time we wanted to do a Spinal Screening!
TWIST #2: GNC offers sample or temporary gold cards (which gave the user a discount off their purchase) that lasts about a month. GNC would give me a bunch so that I could put them into my "Patient Intro" package that I give to all my new patients. Also, to build reciprocity with my existing patients, I would give them the gold cards when they asked me about taking supplements or if recommended a particular supplement. {Click HERE to read about Reciprocity and Rapport from an earlier Promodocs.com Blog). I would always stamp our clinic name on the back of the gold card so that the GNC store knew that the customer came from me.
GNC and I had a fantastic relationship because we helped each other out! They would let me do a screening ANY time I wanted (and I would get around 20 solid new patients every screening) and in return, they not only got more eyeballs looking and walking into their store from my Screenings but they also got new customers from the Patient Intro Package that I gave to all my new patients.
2. Mailers/Newletters... mailers if done right can pull decently for you. Studies have indicated that there is about a 1-4% response when you do bulk mailers. Not the best, however if the mailers don't cost you a penny, the return on investment is very good! Right?! Also, remember, that the average Sales Cycle is about 7-9 contacts with a potential patient. That means, a person has a higher chance of becoming a patient after seeing some kind of ad 7-9 times (btw, it doesn't have to be the same ad each time). So just because your ad doesn't pull on your first attempt, doesn't mean it didn't work. It just means that your audience hasn't seen it enough to motivate them to come into your office.
So how do you do your bulk mailing for free? First you have to call your post office and find out their rates on bulk mailers and how many houses you want to mail to in each zip code or postal code in your local area (the post office break up the post mans walks by zip or postal codes - you'll learn all about that when you talk to the post office rep).
Then you have to figure out what kind of mailer you want to create (I suggest something simple, like a 11"x17" light colored stock paper that is folded in half , then tri-folded. What you put in the newsletter/ mailer is up to you - obviously make the focus about you and chiropractic. By the way, you DON'T have to make your newsletter have a professional look. I always used to use Microsoft WORD to make my newsletters)
Now here's how you do it for free. Go to your local business (I would suggest you go to those in the health care field, but it really doesn't matter) and sell them ad space on your mailer. Your selling points are the number of homes (i.e. in the business's local area) your newsletter is going to, that you will do all the work (all the printing, delivery etc) and how cheap it is to place ads with you. All that they have to do it send you their logo and what their ad copy is going to read.
My suggestion is NOT to try to make a profit off of your customers (i.e. local businesses), instead, just have the ad costs such that it covers your costs (this way, you can offer the lowest ad fees to your customers).
To cut your costs even further, hire a flyer distribution company that hand delivers your newsletters. The difference between the two is that flyer distributors are cheaper, but cannot distribute in condos or those block mail boxes (only the postman/woman can)..
To cut your costs even further, hire a flyer distribution company that hand delivers your newsletters. The difference between the two is that flyer distributors are cheaper, but cannot distribute in condos or those block mail boxes (only the postman/woman can)..
3. Here is a SOMEWHAT of a Free idea. I say that it is 'somewhat" of a free marketing idea because it entails printing business cards or post card, but they are so cheap to produce these days that the cost per card is almost free.
NETWORK WITH EVERYBODY in your local area! Try to think of 100 stores that you can give out a bunch of "special" business cards to. For example, Supplement stores, Massage Ctrs, Dentist, Golf stores, pharmacies (YES, I said pharmacies... remember, not everyone that goes there is thrilled about taking meds and many customers are wanting a better alternative), MD offices, Mattress stores, etc.
NETWORK WITH EVERYBODY in your local area! Try to think of 100 stores that you can give out a bunch of "special" business cards to. For example, Supplement stores, Massage Ctrs, Dentist, Golf stores, pharmacies (YES, I said pharmacies... remember, not everyone that goes there is thrilled about taking meds and many customers are wanting a better alternative), MD offices, Mattress stores, etc.
Just think, if pnly 10% of the 100 stores you leave a "Special" business card with, sends you just 1 patient per month, that's 10 new patients that you got with very little effort or money!
So what is a "Special" Business Card?. It's a promotional card that you have placed by the business's cash register that their customers will notice and will be motivated to read. The card can be the size of the standard business card, but I liked to use a postcard size "SBC" (that way it is more noticeable and you can put more copy on it)
Make the card stand out and use both sides. The front of the card should just be an eye catching image of something of your choice and a headline. Try to use the word "FREE" or something to that effect. People's eyes are always attracted to that word. Put all the details of your offer, contact info, location etc on the back.
For instance, I gave all the local golf supply stores my SBC (postcard size) where the front of the card was a pic of grass (that I took standing over grass with a digital camera) and I superimposed a picture of an old golf club on top of the grass. And the caption read (in bold yellow)... "Do You Use This As A Club or Cane?" and near the bottom of the postcard it read "If you use your club as a cane, then turn this card over..."
On the back of the card, it I wrote how we see a lot of golfers with back pain, elbow pain etc, and how were are able to get them back into the "swing" of things in no time etc. I also included a Free exam or something.
This one postcard MASSIVELY increased my new patients per month. Remember, golfers (like joggers) are a different breed of people. They need to golf just like they need to breath. So it's a great market to target (just like joggers are!).
For instance, I gave all the local golf supply stores my SBC (postcard size) where the front of the card was a pic of grass (that I took standing over grass with a digital camera) and I superimposed a picture of an old golf club on top of the grass. And the caption read (in bold yellow)... "Do You Use This As A Club or Cane?" and near the bottom of the postcard it read "If you use your club as a cane, then turn this card over..."
On the back of the card, it I wrote how we see a lot of golfers with back pain, elbow pain etc, and how were are able to get them back into the "swing" of things in no time etc. I also included a Free exam or something.
This one postcard MASSIVELY increased my new patients per month. Remember, golfers (like joggers) are a different breed of people. They need to golf just like they need to breath. So it's a great market to target (just like joggers are!).
Other free marketing ideas are of course... "Lunch & Learns", "Library Workshops", "Community Ctr Talks" etc... which are always free.
Lastly, visit http://www.promodocs.com for high gloss chiropractic posters for the modern clinic and take advantage of Promodocs.com FREE SHIPPING Special!
Here's to your clinic success!
Monday, 2 January 2012
How To Get Massive Exposure For Your Chiropractic Clinic!
HAPPY NEW YEAR DOCS!!!!
I hope that this year brings you all great happiness, health and prosperity!!!
So on the prosperity note... I thought that I would show you how to get MASSIVE exposure for your chiropractic clinic! You may be presently doing some local marketing on a small scale (btw... stay tuned as I am going to talk about how you can make your local "small" chiropractic marketing in to a "Small" POWERHOUSE marketing plan that will bring in tons of new patients), but why not start the New Year with a Go Big or Go Home marketing blitz?! lol
I hope that this year brings you all great happiness, health and prosperity!!!
So on the prosperity note... I thought that I would show you how to get MASSIVE exposure for your chiropractic clinic! You may be presently doing some local marketing on a small scale (btw... stay tuned as I am going to talk about how you can make your local "small" chiropractic marketing in to a "Small" POWERHOUSE marketing plan that will bring in tons of new patients), but why not start the New Year with a Go Big or Go Home marketing blitz?! lol
And The Best Part... This Massive Marketing Plan is...
ABSOLUTELY 100% FREE!!
No Word Of A Lie!
And What's EVEN BETTER... It Will Have A Chain Reaction Effect
That Will Blow Up Your Clinic With New Patients!!
Before I begin, I would like to thank all the docs that have purchased posters from Promodocs.com last year! Promodocs' sales were so high, that we are proud to announce that we were able to hire 2 more full time workers!
Also, I would also like to thank all the chiropractors that emailed me with great comments and questions about our blogs and how it has helped increase their clinic activity. This is exactly why I write these blogs. In fact, I do not get paid by Promodocs, instead I volunteer my chiropractic and marketing knowledge so that I can help you all build wildly successful practices.
Anyways, back to showing how you can blow up your clinic with new patients!
If you follow what I say to the letter (and the steps are outrageously easy), you will not only have a rush of new patients to your office, but you are going to be your town/city's chiropractic celebrity!
In this blog, I am going to show you how you can easily get interviewed on any Radio station,TV station, newspaper and magazine you want.
So here are the steps...
First of all you have to "Package and Name" a treatment protocol. That is to say, do you have a specific protocol that you use for a specific condition? When a patient comes into your office with a lower back complaint, do you apply heat on the area, use laser therapy, use an adjusting tool? Do you use spinal decompression? Or do you just manually adjust the spine regardless of the patients condition and seek and remove subluxation?
If you are a "Straight" chiropractor and you do not believe in using other modalities and you strictly remove subluxations via manual adjusting, then this marketing technique may be a bit more difficult to engage in. Now, I'm not saying that it's definitely not going to work, but what I am saying is that the general population is much more receptive to a "Unique" treatment and since there are so many chiropractors that strictly manually adjust spines, the media will find nothing unique about it. If the media is not pumped about it, they're not going to use you.
So, editors and producers may give you the typical line of "Thank you for sharing that with us. It's sounds very interesting and we'll keep you in mind if we need you." In other words, your story does not have mass appeal and therefore, we are not going to use you. Remember, the news loves new things AND things that their audience will tune in for!
If you don't have a specific protocol that you use, design one. From your clinical experience, you probably know what modalities or particular treatment has worked well for your patient. Once you figure that out, slap a name on it. Make it a catchy name.
These were the Top 3 conditions that worked for me (in order).
So once you have packaged and named your treatment, it's time to call the networks!
Hint: Do a bit of research. See if there is a specific section in the news or a particular show on the network that deals with health issues (this applies to ALL forms of media). If there is, call the producer of that show or you can even all up the host of that show. The host has a lot of input as to what goes into the show.
Once you have gathered the specific contacts name and phone number, call them up. Don't email them and don't leave a message with their assistant about your proposed story. The goal is to talk to the editor, producer and or host directly.
When talking to your particular contact, make sure to use proper media terms as it will make you look more experience in dealing with the media. For instance, the audience for newspapers = "readership", TV = "Viewship" and radio = "Listenership". Number of people watching tv or reading the newspaper are "eyeballs".
So this is exactly what you have to say once you'veve reached your contact...
"Hello Mr/Ms. X. I think that I have a story that you and your viewer/listeners/readers may be very interested in hearing"
Typically, the contact will be intrigued and will invite you to tell them more. At this point you want to throw out some statistics and how it applies to their viewers.
For example, "Back Pain". "Well, as you may or may not know, LBP is the number one cause of disability in North America. More people are injured due to LBP than any other problem; as such, you will have a huge proportion of your viewers that are suffering with LBP. {pause - let that sink into your contacts head, you have to relate your story to THEIR audience}. Well, we have a very unique and highly successful NON-SURGICAL treatment that is ONLY offered at our clinic. In fact, our treatments are so successful that... (give example). AND, even M.D.s are amazed {if this is actually true}. And if this story is of interest to you, I would love to do an interview on your show"
At this point your contact will ask you for more information or ask you to come in for an interview.
Also, I would also like to thank all the chiropractors that emailed me with great comments and questions about our blogs and how it has helped increase their clinic activity. This is exactly why I write these blogs. In fact, I do not get paid by Promodocs, instead I volunteer my chiropractic and marketing knowledge so that I can help you all build wildly successful practices.
Anyways, back to showing how you can blow up your clinic with new patients!
If you follow what I say to the letter (and the steps are outrageously easy), you will not only have a rush of new patients to your office, but you are going to be your town/city's chiropractic celebrity!In this blog, I am going to show you how you can easily get interviewed on any Radio station,TV station, newspaper and magazine you want.
So here are the steps...
First of all you have to "Package and Name" a treatment protocol. That is to say, do you have a specific protocol that you use for a specific condition? When a patient comes into your office with a lower back complaint, do you apply heat on the area, use laser therapy, use an adjusting tool? Do you use spinal decompression? Or do you just manually adjust the spine regardless of the patients condition and seek and remove subluxation?
If you are a "Straight" chiropractor and you do not believe in using other modalities and you strictly remove subluxations via manual adjusting, then this marketing technique may be a bit more difficult to engage in. Now, I'm not saying that it's definitely not going to work, but what I am saying is that the general population is much more receptive to a "Unique" treatment and since there are so many chiropractors that strictly manually adjust spines, the media will find nothing unique about it. If the media is not pumped about it, they're not going to use you.
So, editors and producers may give you the typical line of "Thank you for sharing that with us. It's sounds very interesting and we'll keep you in mind if we need you." In other words, your story does not have mass appeal and therefore, we are not going to use you. Remember, the news loves new things AND things that their audience will tune in for!
If you don't have a specific protocol that you use, design one. From your clinical experience, you probably know what modalities or particular treatment has worked well for your patient. Once you figure that out, slap a name on it. Make it a catchy name.
These were the Top 3 conditions that worked for me (in order).
- LBP
- CTS
- FIBROMYALGIA
So once you have packaged and named your treatment, it's time to call the networks!
Hint: Do a bit of research. See if there is a specific section in the news or a particular show on the network that deals with health issues (this applies to ALL forms of media). If there is, call the producer of that show or you can even all up the host of that show. The host has a lot of input as to what goes into the show.
Once you have gathered the specific contacts name and phone number, call them up. Don't email them and don't leave a message with their assistant about your proposed story. The goal is to talk to the editor, producer and or host directly.
When talking to your particular contact, make sure to use proper media terms as it will make you look more experience in dealing with the media. For instance, the audience for newspapers = "readership", TV = "Viewship" and radio = "Listenership". Number of people watching tv or reading the newspaper are "eyeballs".
So this is exactly what you have to say once you'veve reached your contact...
"Hello Mr/Ms. X. I think that I have a story that you and your viewer/listeners/readers may be very interested in hearing"
Typically, the contact will be intrigued and will invite you to tell them more. At this point you want to throw out some statistics and how it applies to their viewers.
For example, "Back Pain". "Well, as you may or may not know, LBP is the number one cause of disability in North America. More people are injured due to LBP than any other problem; as such, you will have a huge proportion of your viewers that are suffering with LBP. {pause - let that sink into your contacts head, you have to relate your story to THEIR audience}. Well, we have a very unique and highly successful NON-SURGICAL treatment that is ONLY offered at our clinic. In fact, our treatments are so successful that... (give example). AND, even M.D.s are amazed {if this is actually true}. And if this story is of interest to you, I would love to do an interview on your show"
At this point your contact will ask you for more information or ask you to come in for an interview.
AND IT'S THAT SIMPLE!
Believe me, it truly is THAT SIMPLE! And it gets even better... they will most likely put you, your contact info and web address on their website. This will be an excellent reference source with potential patients google your name and office. PLUS, their web page will have a high PR rank and will rank your website higher in the Google.
AND it STILL gets BETTER... When you have done the interview, ask them to send you a copy so that you can throw it on your website. When patients see you in the news or in some from of media, it gives you more credibility than the diplomas on your walls.
EVEN BETTER... You can use your first interview as leverage to get you on another show or another station.
AND....... you will notice that when you start doing the circuit, you will start to become more known in the media and the media will start to call you for interviews and will view you as the city's expert!
Believe me... this works. How do I know it works? Because this is exactly what I did and everything that I just mention is EXACTLY what happened to me!
And the great part is... it's really cool to do, it's all FREE and marketing and publicity that you get from this you could NEVER afford on your own!
So get at it, make this your priority and blow up your clinic with new patients!
Good luck and if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them! You can either write it in the comment box below or email me at contactus@promodocs.com
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