On any given day you will hear, see or read a multitude of advertisements for something, someone or some product. A magazine of 100 pages will have about 15-20 ads. You can't watch a 60 minute television show without at least 20 minutes of commercials. However with all of the busy lifestyles, DVR's have helped to relieve us from commercial laden television viewing as we fast forward through to the next scene in the show. But you can't fast forward through radio so you are left with listening or turning it off. With the computer we have pop up blockers, spam filters and more. The junk mail, don't even get me started. I've threaten to place a trash can next to my mail box. That leaves the newspaper and it too has its share of ads.
Am I an "ad basher"? Absolutely not, I realize that advertising is part of business. It pays for publications to stay in business; it keeps television free, unless you have to have cable, which by the way used to be advertisement free. Advertising keeps radio stations operating and I guess the advertisers are keeping the postal service afloat too.
Business owners have to market themselves in order to compete with other businesses. So business owners market themselves through advertising in various venues in hopes of getting more business, more patients and bottom line more money. There is so much marketing going on that one might wonder if they even have a chance of being seen. But they can be seen, they just have to find their niche, focusing in on their target audience and by doing this a business owner can actually save time and money.
For chiropractor's time and money are valuable as is for most business owners, but let's face it, advertising for chiropractic is different from advertising for ice cream, delicious food or the newest shoes to hit the stores that every teenager wants to own.
There are many opportunities available for chiropractors marketing their practices and get their name out in front of their intended target audience. I've included some tips below to help utilize some common marketing platforms and ideas.
Chiropractic Marketing Tip #1 - Print Advertising. The internet is a great tool for marketing your practice but remember that newspapers are still a viable platform for your chiropractic advertising. Even though there are fewer newspapers than there were 10 years ago, print advertising is a great way to market. Costs to run an ad in the paper will vary from region to region and I will admit, for some the cost is too great to overlook. However there are other print marketing techniques that are more cost effective. Example; ask your newspaper rep about the cost of inserts if the cost or placement of the ad is not working with your budget.
Chiropractic Marketing Tip #2 - Use all available resources. Take advantage of the internet even if you think that you cannot afford a website, web presence is still easy to master. Begin a blog website and write articles about chiropractic in the community, write about your office, fitness, health, sprinkle with some personal experiences. There are blog sites that you can pay for, but there are also free sites. You can even purchase a domain name and direct it to your free blog site. Both Blogger and WordPress offer free writing venues. Later on when you do decide to have a website, you will be able to incorporate your blog posts into your site which will only enhance your web presence by feeding fresh content to your site on a regular basis.
Chiropractic Marketing Tip #3- Jump into Social Media with both feet. Twitter and Facebook are the social media hot spots. Both are very user friendly and what you don't know or can't figure out, a quick Google search for step by step tutorials and you will have more information than you know what to do with. Research and find out information before you plunge in, but if you already have a personal profile on Facebook then you are only one step away from a fanpage. Here's one quick tip; if you are thinking about a Facebook fanpage for your chiropractic practice, you will want to carefully name it using the right keywords so you can be found by those looking for you. Example, your location and your profession go hand in hand. If you are a chiropractor in Smalltown, BigState; then you will want to utilize that information. So your Facebook fanpage could be named Smalltown Chiropractor/Your Name. That way when anyone who lives in or near your location doing an online search for a chiropractor, they simply type in the town name + the term "chiropractor" and your page should pop up on the results page.
Chiropractic Marketing Tip #4 - Think outside the box. Find a reputable source for established, tested and proven chiropractic marketing tools. You already know that there is a wealth of information out there about marketing and now with all of the niche marketing you have many companies marketing their chiropractic marketing products to chiropractors. Be smart! Do your homework, read as much as you can about the companies selling chiropractic marketing products. Things to look for... price of course but more important, what do you get for that price? Do they offer support? Is there a money back guarantee? Are the products tested and proven to work? Find blogs and articles on or about chiropractic marketing. Many offer free tutorials and nuggets of information to implement into your marketing and they cost nothing.
Chiropractic Marketing Tip #5 - Be consistent with your marketing and never stop marketing your practice. Map out a marketing plan for 6 months out to a year. Break it down into weeks. Beginning with holidays, write in a holiday focused marketing plan, then move to seasonal marketing ideas, next go for the holidays that are not known for their national observance, like grandparents day, hug a tree day or make one up. Don't forget to market within your office. A dry erase board with a chiropractic tip of the week only opens the door for your patient's to ask you about what you've written on the board.
My last bit of advice, never miss the chance to get a referral from your patients. You don't have to hound them about it, just have some nice referral cards or coupons printed up and ready to hand out when you hear one of them mention a friend, neighbor or family member.
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