Promoting Your Chiropractic Practice
Anne L. Prinz
When promoting your Chiropractic Practice, there are some effective, fun, and simple ways to inspire your existing clients and open the door for new patients. They do not have to be expensive, and time consuming to make a big impact.
Here are some simple ideas which reap great benefits:
1) The clients who are already in your practice are an incredible asset. Those who have been there for a while love the services they receive in your clinic. Your existing patients are providing the long-term stability in your practice, so remember to treat them well. If treated well they become your greatest referral asset.
2) Be equally interested in all your clients. Send birthday cards, or congratulations for important events in their life. The more they feel part of your chiropractic family, the more they will want to continue their care beyond active treatment. Also, stay in contact with your patients. Encourage them to give you their email address, and send them notices of special promotions, new equipment, changes in office hours and anything else that might be of interest, such as new blog posts or even a monthly newsletter.
3) This one is key: Don't be afraid to ask patient's who are excited about your care to refer others and give them an incentive to do so. Good patients typically refer other good patients. Something I learned from Dr. Noel Lloyd of Five Star Managements was the use of an "Invitation to Good Health." In our practice each staff member and the doctor could give this Invitation to client who wanted to refer family members or friends.
For us, we offered a complimentary consultation and evaluation for a referral - your office can determine what services you are willing to have as complimentary. On this Invitation, we have an expiration date of two weeks to encourage the referral to be made sooner than later. A prime time to give an Invitation to Good Health is at patient progress evaluations. When a patient sees the results they have made, they naturally want to refer others they care about. For the patient who has referred a new client, offer them a new service in your clinic at a reduced rate. This promotes another level of healing for your existing client. For example: in our practice, we offerthem a complimentary nutritional consultation. In your clinic it may be different therapies you offer.
77 The easier you can make it for clients to give a review for your clinic, the more likely they will do it.77
4) Each month create an event which encourages patient participation. You can base them on themes for the months - like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc. You can also have a birthday party for Chiropractic (which is September 18, 1895); run a food drive for a local food pantry; and have a patient appreciation day. This is where you get to be creative and come up with great ideas which encourage patient participation in ways that not only support your practice, but also your community. (If you do not know where to begin with ideas - you can look at Pinterest under Patient Appreciation Day)
5) Connect with other businesses in your community who have complimentary services and swap referrals. This is a win-win for your clients and for you and other businesses in your community.
6) Make yourself known in your community by becoming active in community events. This is important for potential clients in your city/town get to know you outside of your practice. This opens the door to people who may never otherwise consider Chiropractic, and this gives you the opportunity to educate them. Part of making yourself known in your community may include belonging to the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Networking group, etc.
Another important aspect in Chiropractic practices today is your online presence. There are several important parts to this. One is having a website and the other is leveraging social media.
Having a website helps people to find you and learn about the services you offer. From there you can customize your website to promote any events you are offering in your practice - whether that be a patient appreciation day or a new patient class, etc. On your website you can also offer blog posts educating patients about chiropractic or offer a place to sign up for an e-newsletter. Many chiropractors also use their website to provide new patient intake forms - which helps encourage potential clients by making it easy for them to come into your clinic. One item that is a must in this era of website design is to make sure your website is mobile optimized. More people today are surfing the internet via their smart phone and you want to make it easy for those people to engage your website and business.
Learning how to leverage social media is also important because your potential clients spend a lot of time there. This includes Facebook, Linkedln, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as YouTube. This can be more valuable to you than the old-fashioned newsletter, because as you post patient educational advice, relevant articles, or videos, anyone who follows you can comment and share it with their friends. This creates a broader reach foryour clinic and starts establishing your practice as experts in the field.
Another important aspect of your online presence is to encourage the patients who have had remarkable outcomes to share their experiences on your Google+ or Yelp page, plus then add the reviews on your own website. I have seen some clinics keep a tablet in the reception area specifically for asking patients to review their practice. Offering an incentive, like a drawing at the end of the month encourages them to participate. The easier you can make it for clients to give a reviewforyour clinic, the more likely they will do it.
There are many more ways to promote your Chiropractic practice. Be creative and have fun with it! Most often the simple ideas do reap the greatest benefits.
Anne Prim has spent over 20 years as an offee manager for a successful chiropractic clinic, honing her skills so she could teach others how to do the same. She currently serves the profession as a consultant for Chiropractors and their staff speaks at national and statewide chiropractic ' seminars offering training for Chiropractors and Chiropractic Assistants, and writes articles for Chiropractic publications. Anne is also the author of the book, Living Your Exclamation Point Life!, and the owner of Exclamation Point Living, LLC. To learn more or contact Anne visit her website: www.AnneLPrinz. com.
