CHIROPRACTIC MARKETING 101 10 TIPS THAT WILL BRING PATIENTS 1 INTRODUCTION In this booklet, we have highlighted the top 10 grass-roots marketing concepts to help you promote your monthly events and better market your clinic as a whole. These are designed to not only get you new patients, but to help you keep the patients you have. All of the ideas enclosed are unique enough, kind enough, or just plain wacky enough to be noticed not only by your community, but also by your local media. These are all press-worthy events. Happy Marketing, The Maximized Living Team A word from Dr. Ben & Dr. Greg, co-founders of Maximized Living: “With Chiropractic, 99 percent of your new patient results come from physically creating them through internal and/or external events. Very little of it is passive marketing strategies. By focusing on internal events and partners in the community who will also participate in those events, you get the best type of new patient – one that is coming in for an evaluation who has already been educated. The added bonus of these events is that existing patients who participate are far more likely to retain and become an even more committed patient.” NOTICES IMPORTANT COMPLIANCE NOTICE: These are high level descriptions of some of the best steps and programs available to attract new patients. This is, however, not a complete step by step guide to following state and federal advertising guidelines, new patient evaluation laws, nor a description of the compliant codes and fees relative to documentation and billing. Maximized Living does provide complete compliance services to its offices, partners, clients, and students. If you are not affiliated with Maximized Living, before carrying out these activities, be sure to reference your local state laws and talk to your compliance officer or attorney. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This booklet was created for the sole use of Maximized Living Health Centers and ML Doctors and released for a brief period of time to people responding to this communication. It contains information that may be confidential and/or legally privileged. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of this booklet by someone other than a Maximized Living Health Center, ML Doctor, or you the recipient is prohibited. 2 1. PROGRAMS = PATIENTS An example of a perpetual program is our Patient Dinner. Guests from the dinner are invited into our clinic to be evaluated as a new patient. Should that guest move forward and become an actual patient under care, ask them to share the value of our clinical experience by inviting close friends and loved ones to your next dinner event. Additionally, the dinner itself is a great time to ask attendees to invite guests because the information they are receiving is relevant, engaging and life-changing. All dinner attendees (both patients and non-patients) are asked to submit the names of 3 non-patients they’d like to invite to the next dinner. The combination of referrals from new and current patients creates a self-sustaining stream of patient attraction. Many of our clinics have enough dinner referrals to have a perpetual patient dinner as often as every week. Additional perpetual events are those that go into your annual education and outreach calendar. We recommend a calendar planned 12 months in advance, with at least one internal educational event per month. We also recommend partnering with organizations in your community. Their involvement includes co-promotion, getting their employees involved, promoting to their customers and lists and donating gifts to add to the excitement of the event. 2. DRESS UP YOUR WINDOWS A great way to get attention is to build anticipation. Approach a patient who has participated in a Fitness or Weight Loss Event and experienced outstanding results. Ask if he/she has a before (the event) and after (the event) photo of themselves. If so, ask his/her permission to display it in your clinic window. This tactic works especially well if you are in a high-traffic area. Don’t just place the photos in the window. Instead, place a large sign in the window that says: “WATCH THIS WINDOW. Your friends and neighbors appearing soon.” In the meantime, get 8”x10” sizes of the two photos and stick them each in an inexpensive, plastic frame. Wrap both frames in brown paper or cover them with a cloth and then place them in the window (along with the large sign). People will be curious as to what you will be unveiling and will be watching. Let the suspense grow for 1-2 weeks. Then, unwrap or remove the clothes from both of the photos and let them be seen for four days. 3 After four days, start over again with a new patient’s photos, or you can even use before and after photos of spinal x-rays if your patients will allow it! 3. “MISSING” FLYERS Everyone looks at a flyer that announces that something is missing. Create a flyer with the headline “MISSING” in large, bold letters. Underneath, put a number of pounds! Go on to state that the pounds were last seen before participating in your office’s Weight Loss Event. You can then list details of your upcoming fitness event, as well as a REWARD. The REWARD can be listed as all of the benefits your clinic offers. You can even incorporate tear-off phone numbers at the bottom of the flyer. Use your clinic phone number so people can call you in order to sign-up. If you don’t have an event coming up, simply list details of the Challenge itself. People can still signup to participate even if there is no event happening. 4. LUNCH-N-LEARN DRAWING Instead of contacting corporations to try to set up a Lunch-N-Learn, let them come to you! Place an empty fish bowl at the front desk of your clinic for patients to drop their business cards in. Advertise with a small sign that a business card will be drawn every month and the winning business will receive a FREE Lunch-N-Learn for their entire office (or department depending on the size of the business). Briefly explain that this is a one-hour talk that includes a FREE, HEALTHY lunch for all. Fish bowls for Lunch-N-Learns can also be set up at your events, Advanced Talks, and even at local, complimentary businesses (such as a health food store) if you can get permission. *You can also have multiple winners, based on your capacity. To maintain the perception of exclusivity, however, simply market the promotion as one winner per month. If you draw only one winner, keep the remaining cards in the bowl for the next month. Include a notice that entering a card into the bowl opts the patient in to your e-newsletter. If any of the cards have an e-mail address, add them to your leads list and keep them plugged in to your e-newsletter. 4 5. WORK THE ANSWERING MACHINE Instead of a boring or standard outgoing message on the voice mailbox for your clinic, change it to advertise an upcoming event or a new product! For example, if your clinic is hosting an upcoming health and wellness event, change the outgoing message 2–3 months beforehand to sound something like the following: “Hello! You’ve reached John & Jane Chiropractic. Are you calling to learn how to lose weight and keep it off? Maybe you’re calling to get your customized nutrition plan or obtain exclusive access to our Health Site? We can share all of this and more with you at our upcoming events and challenges on ___________. Please leave us your name, number and the reason for your call, especially if you’d like to register for our event, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!” Make sure the tone of the speaker on your outgoing message is friendly and excited! 6. GIVE THE GIFT OF HEALTH Identify a nationally observed month and/or week that compliments the care you give at your clinic and promote a special offer during that particular time. For example: May 11-17 is National Women’s Health Week & June 9-15 is National Men’s Health Week. Promote an offer that applies to all women and men who visit the clinic within their applicable health week. Additional examples: October is National Chiropractic Month, so every single person who walks through your door will receive _______. Amount due that day (or whatever offer you deem appropriate). TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER Offer a special promotion every month based on what national health observance occurs that month. CURRENT EVENTS TIP Many doctors are offering dramatically reduced fees for veterans returning from the Middle East. Your country, your community and the people that know the military personnel you’re caring for will appreciate you if you do the same! 5 7. CATCH CALLERS OFF GUARD Don’t wait for callers to tell you why they are calling your clinic – ask them why! Have your receptionist answer the phone as follows: “Good afternoon! Thank you for calling ___________ Chiropractic. Are you calling to register for our Weight Loss Event?” Even if the caller is not, they probably won’t be able to keep themselves from asking about it. The idea of a fitness or weight loss event is exciting. If you don’t have a weight loss or fitness event at that time, simply substitute for a new product or other upcoming event (ie. “Are you calling about our new detoxification line?” OR “Are you calling to sign-up for our Nutrition talk?”) 8. EARLY BIRD GETS THE PRESS The way to the mic is through the stomach! Wake up at 6AM one Monday morning and bring your local morning radio show a healthy breakfast from your clinic, no strings attached. The food served should represent your clinic’s commitment to health. The Maximized Living Nutrition Plans Book is the definitive resource for healthy consumption, and can be found on our website. If you can give the breakfast to the DJ’s yourself, all the better. You have a better chance of being put on air (or getting a shout-out!) if you can present the breakfast face-to-face. If, however, you are asked to leave the breakfast with someone at the station to deliver, don’t force the issue. TIP: Make sure that your business card is attached to the packaging of the food items, and if you have an event coming up, also attach a flyer (make sure the details of the event are on the flyer). Repeat whenever the mood strikes or even every Monday for a month. This will help in developing a relationship with the radio station and the morning DJ’s! 9. 3 COOL TIPS THAT WORK TIP 1: A print shop in Rhode Island put a flyer in their window inviting people to make up to five free photocopies per day. As a result, their walk-in business increased as 10-20 people stopped by every day to make free copies. 6 The store ended up receiving other business from their “free copy” customers, such as faxing, printing, layout work and some people even left money for their copies regardless of the free factor. Even better, the name of the print shop was spread around the neighborhood. Think about what you have that you can offer to get people through your door and increase your potential for additional workshop, talk or dinner attendees and new patients! TIP 2: LAY DOWN THE LAW No one likes a traffic ticket, yet almost everyone will get one at some point in their lives. People are rushing and are then feeling stressed due to the cost of the ticket. So offer them the relief and support that they need! Let your local public know that anyone who receives a traffic ticket and brings it to your clinic within 3 days of receiving it will get a free consultation to include: •Time management instruction (no more rushing) •Stress management instruction Detailed time and stress management information can be given to them on a few sheets of paper in order to cut back on the length of the consultation. TIP 3: TESTING, TESTING Spread the word to your community that you are looking for five volunteers to participate in a onemonth case study that will be reported to the local press. Try to find someone with headaches, someone with very poor posture, someone with immune system problems….basically, a selection of different individuals who can each benefit from chiropractic care in different ways. You can place a small ad in a local publication for the volunteers or you can simply place flyers throughout your community. Alert the media of your intentions and pitch the idea that a reporter can follow the case study by attending appointments and talking to the volunteers throughout the process. Not only might one (or all) of your volunteers become patients, but the reporter might also. The final printed results may intrigue and compel other community members to call you for an appointment. 10. MAKE IT OFFICIAL Maximized Living doctors are the official Chiropractic and Performance doctors for four USA Teams, US Martial Arts, multiple top MMA Teams and fighters, and the 2010 MLS Cup Champions the Colorado Rapids. This is the kind of experience and credibility you want to build. Approach a local high school, community college or university sports team and speak to the coach and the school about becoming the official Chiropractor of the team. Offer a substantial discount for chiropractic services to the coach, the team members and the school Principal and Vice Principal in exchange for allowing you 7 to advertise that you are the official team Doctor. Make sure the school knows all of the services that you have to offer so they recognize this as an opportunity they can’t pass up, and explain the benefits that chiropractic care will have on the team members and their physical abilities. You can then send out press releases to local press informing them of your partnership, and you can even spend a small amount of money to have a banner made to hang at games or create brochures and posters showing you working with affiliated patients. TIP: Offer to provide the team members supplements or sports gear with your information on them like a t-shirt, backpack, etc. QUESTIONS? ASK AN EXPERT. Practice can be tough. Each doctor’s situation is unique, and no download, guide or speaker can cover every single issue that you may be facing in the real world. That is why communicating with coaches and mentors is essential for someone in practice, no matter what level. LEADERSHIP COACHING One of the many components of Maximized Living’s Health Delivery System is personalized coaching. Each and every one of our clients has access to seasoned professionals who have operated multiple clinics, changed the health paradigm in their communities and are giving their time to serve their colleagues. ASK US ANYTHING Here’s your chance to address that nagging issue you’ve been dealing with in practice. Do you need advice with a billing or insurance issue? What about help overcoming a certain type of objection? There is nothing too big or too small to ask. Once you click the link below and field your question, an e-mail will be sent to Maximized Living’s Coaching Department. One of our representatives will contact you and set up a personalized coaching call or e-mail (your preference) to assist you with whatever you are dealing with. As chiropractors, we’re all in this together. The more we help each other, the more we can start changing the way people view their health. That saves lives. CLICK HERE TO ASK AN EXPERT 1420 Celebration Blvd. Celebration, FL 34747 • 321.939.3049 • [email protected] 8