Marketing You
Marketing is essential for chiropractors, and any health care professional for that matter, however, it is an area that is poorly understood and regularly mistrusted.
The notion of ‘convincing’ someone to come in for your care seems a little unethical with mantras such as ‘surely they would come in if they need to’ and ‘marketing is just scare tactics’.
All of these notions are false, and they are holding you back.
Marketing is your chance to show the world who you are, what you stand for, and present an opportunity for people to come in for your care.
Misunderstood, is that marketing is NOT the sale, the sale is presented after the marketing, after people have got to know you and only then can you offer a sale that will be effective. Something I like to call the ‘logical sale’. The marketing that you have done should be so authentic to you that it has resonated deeply with the people you want to serve, and who want to be served by you, so that when a sale is presented, there is no big ‘scam’ or ‘tactics’ needed. It is simply a logical step for them to purchase.
The difficulty comes when marketing is not authentic, when you present yourself in a way that you think will appeal to an audience but not one that you really care for. For example, you may decide to do a marketing campaign for back pain let’s say. The campaign is designed to appeal to people who recently hurt their back and position you as someone who can fix that quickly. Now, given the way most of the world think, this would definitely bring a lot of custom, but ask yourself, are you the chiropractor who wants to do ‘quick fixes’? If yes, great, but in my experience, the chiropractors I have worked with usually want to work with patients for a lifestyle and longer term care. So why didn’t you say that in the marketing?
Authentic marketing and the logical sale are built around one simple concept, congruency.
Are you aligning your personal and practice values with your actions? This is to say, are you saying who you are and what you stand for in all your marketing? Are you consistent with your messaging and aiming to appeal to those patients who will align with your vision? And granted, the growth from this may be slower initially, but long term it allows for much faster sales and a much richer practice full of the people you love to serve and who refer like-minded people.
We all want a practice that is not only successful but one that is also fun and congruent with who we are. When we learn to produce material and marketing that is completely who we are, this will attract and gain the following that we want. Consistency is key and a long-term plan essential. With daily congruent content, it is easy then to offer a sale on a periodic basis to increase you practice numbers with confidence of a large and committed uptake.
So, what exactly do you need to do now to make this all possible?
1. Identify your values and what you stand for.
We have a free values calculator available for download on our website with our newsletter, if you do not already have it, grab yours for free by registering here and see where you stand.
2. Think about who you love to serve and what your ideal patient base would look like.
3. Forget about marketing tricks and tips, start today putting out authentic content that highlights who you are and what you stand for.
4. Then once you have done this for a long enough period, now you are ready to present the logical sale.
The logical sale is simple, it is an opportunity for people to come into your practice and sample your service. It is targeted at those who have been following your authentic marketing. This naturally keeps the ad spend down as it is a smaller audience.
It can be done as either a limited time discount on your first visit or a limited availability for new patient appointments. Both create a little urgency which will motivate the potential buyer to take action there and then. And remember, they want to take that action! Because they have been following and appreciating your authentic marketing for some time now.
You deserve the practice of your dreams; one you love to be in and people you love to work with. Authentic marketing and the logical sale make that possible.
With love
Tom