You're about to discover a rock-solid way to bring in new patients day after day and week after week like clockwork. But first, let me tell you about a big marketing mistake chiropractors make.
Marketing Options
Everyone is looking for the "silver bullet"; the one magical marketing strategy that will fill their office with new patients. The truth is, if you want to have a steady flow of new patients, you need to have multiple ways to attract them.
- Google PPC
- Email newsletter and automated marketing drip campaigns
- Quarterly mailers to your local area (yes, direct mail still works great)
- Semi-annual reactivation campaigns (one of the best ways out there to generate business)
- Automated referral partnerships with local business owners
Naturally, you're not going to implement all of those at once. The point is, having a combination of patient attractions systems in place makes all them stronger.
Which Marketing Strategy Is Best?
You send a direct-mail postcard to a prospect with an irresistible offer. She reads it and thinks, That's interesting. I'm going to check this guy out. So she visits your website to learn more.
She's now even more intrigued, but still isn't ready to call and make an appointment. The next day, she checks out her Facebook page and whose ad does she see? Right – yours! This time, she decides to call for an appointment.
So, let me ask you: Was it the direct mail postcard, your website or the Facebook at the produced the result? The answer, of course, is all three. The synergy of multiple marketing methods has a compounding effect. Each method makes the other one stronger.
A New, Strange Way Of Thinking That Can Revolutionize Your Practice
Most doctors try to figure out how they can acquire patients for the least amount of money. However, if you want to never worry again about getting new patients, ask yourself this question: How much money am I willing to invest in acquiring a new patient?
Now here is the truth: With everything else being equal, the doctor who is willing to invest more to get a new patient wins.
The first step is to figure out what a new patient is worth to you over their lifetime. Come up with an average. Next, determine how much money you would be willing to invest in bringing that new patient through the door.
To make it simple, let's say a new patient is worth $2,000 to you. Would you be willing to invest $200 in bringing them in? $400 or more? Think about it this way: Where else could you possibly get such an incredible return on your money?
Once you determine how much you're willing to invest in acquiring a new patient, use every marketing method that delivers a new patient to you at that number or below.
Don't Fall Into This Trap
What you don't want to do is only use the least expensive marketing methods. Don't falsely think, Hmm, it cost me $50 to bring in a new patient using direct mail and only $10 using Facebook. I'm dropping direct mail!
That's a significant error in thinking. Remember the synergistic effect of multiple marketing methods. Each one makes the other ones more effective.
What you want to do is add up the costs to acquire a new patient from all the marketing methods you're using, and then come up with an average cost per new patient.
How to Start Building Your "New-Patient Attraction Machine"
An error business owners make, whether doctors, butchers, bakers or candlestick makers, is trying to do the marketing themselves to save money.
Would you let your dentist make an adjustment on one of your patients? Obviously that's ridiculous, right? The dentist, although skilled at working on teeth, doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to chiropractic care. Equally as crazy is for you to do your own marketing.
If you want to have professional marketing systems that bring patients through your front door, you have to hire professionals. That can come in the form of real marketing agencies or support systems like franchises. The beauty of franchises is that they can afford to hire the best, spend their money testing marketing systems and give you what works.
The bottom line is to start building your marketing machine today. Create an irresistible offer and then start using two, three or more ways to promote it. Track your results and see what's working and what's not. Drop what's not effective, keep what is and test new marketing methods. Do that, and before you know it, you'll never have to worry about having enough new patients again.
Dr. Chris Tomshack is the founder and CEO of HealthSource – America's Chiropractor (www.healthsourcechiro.com), the largest and fastest-growing chiropractic franchise in the world, with more than 300 domestic and international clinics serving more than 6 million patients. He is also the author of The Ultimate Practice Adjustment and co-author of Freedom From Fat.