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.

Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

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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).

Having said this, let me states these important facts...

That's right!  This Blog Is Not Just About
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!

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)..

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.

Other free marketing ideas are of course... "Lunch & Learns", "Library Workshops", "Community Ctr Talks" etc... which are always free.

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).

1. LBP
2. CTS
3. FIBROMYALGIA

The reason why these work the best is because there is large percentage of the general population out there that is afflicted with these ailments.  LBP is #1 (hence the reason why it works the best).

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.

"How is that possible?" you say?  

It's very easy and all too many doctors do it without even realizing it AND EVEN WORSE, they lose tremendous amounts of respect and integrity!

Before I tell you what it is... I highly recommend that you watch this video (start it at the 6:00 mark).  The video is from the popular T.V. show called "American Chopper".  This video is of 3 companies having a bike competition on who can build the better bike.  The competition is between Orange County Chopper (Paul Sr.), Paul Jr. Designs (Paul Jr.) and West Coast Chopper (Jesse James).

I can hear you all now... "What?!  How can he say that?!  I live and breath chiropractic!  That's a complete insult to me and all that I stand for!"

Well, suck it up!  Because whether you want to believe it or not, whether you like it or not... it's TRUE!

Let's face it, the only people that this matters to, is the chiropractor that you are sitting next to at the chiropractic seminar that you are attending.  

The only concern your potential patient cares about is if you can get them better or not.  Right?  Of course I'm right... because that's the reality of the situation.  

Here is an example, much like chiropactors, dentists are a dime a dozen, right?  Sure they are.  How many times have you seen a dental clinic that looks just like the one down the road.  Pretty much every time.  And for most people, when they choose a dentist, if it's not from a referral, it's the "Cross-My-Fngers-And-Pray-That-This-Doc-Is-Good" maneuver and they walk in to book an appointment.

So going back to my initial claim... forget HOW you practice, because for the most part, it's meaningless to your patients.

To make yourself competitive in a dime-a-dozen market place and to get new patients banging down your door, you have to differentiate yourself from your competition.  How do you do that?  It's easy! YAY!

You have to figure out what your "Competitive Advantage" is.  That is to say, what is it that makes you different and better from the chiropractor 2 minutes down the road.  In other words ask yourself "Why would a patient want to come to my clinic?"

Is it because you are a super nice guy, that you're caring, that you are a straight chiro, mixed chiro, that you are the worlds best adjuster?  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Well , if there is an award for the worlds best adjuster then YES that would be classified as an example of a "Competitive Advantage."  Following me?

Let me try to give you other examples (note: only use if allowable by your association)...

Your Competitive Advantage doesn't have to be something that is not offered by another clinic (i.e. only offered at your clinic)!!  If the other clinic is not marketing it (i.e. telling the people in your town what they do) no one will know about it.  So make the claim first!!  When you make the claim first, even if the other doc has been doing it longer, the general public will see you as the doc that offers it first and more importantly, the only one that offers it!  YAY YOU!

Remember, you clinic is a BUSINESS!  Yes you are a doc and probably a great chiropractor, but if  you're a great chiro and you have no one to treat, it'll be like you're the riches dead guy in the cemetary.

It's funny... as a chiropractor myself, I've gone to a number of chiropractic seminars where at the end of the seminar, chiropractors are holding each others hands  in some Chiro Unity Building Fest saying that we are all chiro brothers and sisters, but as soon as they go home to their practice, reality hits and they are back to bashing the chiropractor down the road because they are taking their portion of the patient pie.

It's not about loving or not loving your chiro brother and sister, it's about serving people and building and sustaining your Chiropractic business/practice!

So, just like any other business, you have to attract new business and to attract new business you have to set yourself apart from your competition... develop your "Competitive Advantage"

If you want to read more about "Competitive Advantage" I strongly recommend that you read the book "Creating Competitive Advantage" by Jaynie L. Smith.

Here's to your clinic success!

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http://www.promodocs.com

 

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