The Complete Guide to Chiropractic Marketing

If you don’t know the story by now, I started out as a chiropractor.

And, not only did I endure years of schooling just like you, but I also built a highly successful practice from the ground up entirely off of Facebook.  

Say what?! Let me guess. You just turned into a real-life cartoon character as your eyes about popped out of your head reading that last sentence.

And, I don’t blame you. But, I’m just dishing out the honest truth right now. Ultimately, that’s how I got my start in this whole chiropractic advertising thing, which is what any business like yours wants to succeed at.    

Don’t get me wrong, though. Being a chiropractor and serving patients is what I loved doing. But, just as you might be right now, I was struggling with bringing people through my office doors. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, especially as you most likely have a marketing toolkit filled to the brim with completely outdated practices. (And, that’s putting it lightly.)

Am I right? I thought so.

For those reasons, I’m here today to tell you how you can bring in more leads and, overall, enhance your practice thanks to chiropractic marketing ideas, a sample chiropractic marketing plan, email marketing, and even videos.

I’m sure you’re eager to hear it all. Let’s get started…

Marketing and Advertising Ideas for Chiropractors that Get Results

While it can be challenging to get patients to stick from time to time, marketing and advertising a chiropractic practice is by no means an easy task either.

Why? Because you’re coming out of the “dark ages” so to speak. Think marketing by way of mailed letters, tchotchkes such as fridge magnets or gel ice packs handed out at local events, spinal screenings, and even Yellow Pages—all with the hopes of seeing new patients walk through your doors.

All that said, when it comes to using chiropractic marketing techniques, you may have doubts. And, for a good reason. You’re unsure of what it is you should and shouldn’t be doing.

Remember one thing, however: you became a chiropractor to help people. Marketing simply helps you help as many people as possible. And the best part? You’ve probably done 90% of the work.

So, buckle up because I’m about to dive into just three of my ten favorite chiropractic marketing techniques that can allow you to help many more people.

1. Share Your Expertise.

Writing for other blogs, publications, or newsletters will help expand your reach and promote your authority. A great place to share your thoughts? On the blogs and websites of chiropractic associations and programs.

Start with the college or university you attended. Just check their website for submission guidelines, and send them your ideas (aka a pitch). A well-thought-out pitch to an editor should include:

• The topic of your story and why it is unique
• The reason you should be the person to write it
• A brief (2-3 sentence) bio of yourself
• 2-3 links to other examples of what you have written

These sites have a built-in authority and great reach. As such, they are often busy and are scheduling posts months in advance. Therefore, if you have a great idea, send it to them immediately! They will help promote your content, sharing it throughout the community, and boosting the ranking on search engines like Google.

2. Stay in the Inbox.

To do this, you’ll need an email list, which you may already have thanks to your current patients! Get to using their addresses to send out monthly newsletters. But, these should not be treated as an opportunity to share everything at once. You’ll want to pick and choose what gets sent out via email and when. Monthly is a great frequency to start with.

If you’re curious how to write an email campaign, stay tuned because later in this post I’ll share the tips you need.  

3. Maximize Your Social Media Marketing by Simplifying.

Internet marketing is a great way to increase leads, without increasing the amount of time it takes to develop them. Through Facebook, advertisements and posts (like patient testimonials and offers) can be scheduled in advance (using a tool like MeetEdgar), limiting the amount of time someone needs to spend on them.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the multiple platforms available for social media advertising. I understand. That’s why I suggest making sure your information is correct on all of them. But, only focus on two platforms…

Yelp & Facebook.

Why? Because, these days, these two are where most people look for information about businesses. Considered one of the most trusted review sites, Yelp is the go-to for people looking for a service.

On the other hand, Facebook is important because it is one of the first places people use for researching your business. If your Facebook page is blah, your prospective patients will think your entire practice is also blah. Keeping your page up-to-date with the correct information and regular posts will let people know your practice is alive and active.

Also, Facebook is a great source for generating chiropractic leads as long as you build a jaw-dropping offer (JDO) funnel for the right audience. What’s a JDO, you ask? Keep reading to find out.

And, if you want the full list of my ten favorite chiropractic marketing and advertising ideas, be sure to check out this blog post.

Here’s a Sample Chiropractic Marketing Plan and Calendar

A Sample Chiropractic Marketing Plan You Need

I’m sharing all the secrets today, aren’t I? One being, the secret “sauce” of your chiropractic marketing plan—the jaw-dropping offer (JDO). It’s that special something that’ll make the Facebook user stop in their scrolling tracks and go all googly-eyed over your ad, compelling them to click.

While that last paragraph probably got you spinning your wheels about the exact offer you could serve up to your ideal audience, hold up for just one minute. There are a few requirements that go along with creating your JDO.

• It needs to be a narrowly targeted, irresistible sales offer that compels your people.

• It also needs to be a product or service of perceived high value to offer for free (or at little cost).

So, let’s start with the first requirement. You need to determine who exactly it is you want to target. Now, with a chiropractic practice, there are many different audiences you can appeal to—exercise fanatics, athletes, seniors, pregnant women; you name it.

But, you must focus on only one audience at a time and build an offer that’s exclusive to them. In this case, we’ll focus on CrossFit enthusiasts—specifically women, ages 22-45, with interests in CrossFit and health.

With all the running, jumping, squatting, lunging, pushing, and pulling they do, they’re super tough on their bodies. For that reason, they’re flooding chiropractic practices all over the place, making them a prime target. They need that kind of care to be able to head back to the gym and do it all over again the next day.

Now that we’ve pinpointed our people, let’s move onto the second requirement: the offering. The most compelling and feasible service you can offer to this type of clientele is a free 15-minute massage.

Ultimately, you must offer this service or have a massage therapist on staff—which seems to be the norm these days—for it to work. This offer, however, is going to allow you to get leads through the door, build trust with them, and double the odds of them returning time and time again.

And, to put this JDO to work, you’ll need to set up a simple four-part funnel, which includes:

• A well-targeted Facebook ad
• A landing page (aka opt-in page)
• A thank you page
• And, a simple follow-up email sequence and text message

Consider it a mini-puzzle of sorts—without one part, you can’t complete it with much success.

To ensure you pass the process with flying colors, I’ve put together this blog post for you, which goes into much greater detail on each component of an effective chiropractic sales funnel.

Need Help Staying Organized in Your Efforts? Here’s a Chiropractic Marketing Calendar Template.

Creating a completely separate e-calendar strictly for keeping track of your marketing and advertising efforts should be a no-brainer. Take this content calendar example many writers use to note important content piece releases and promotions.

(source)

Similar to this, if you’re looking to craft your very own ad calendar through Google Calendar, we’ve put together a list of the simple steps you can follow. Check them out here.

Ultimately, nothing beats a little organization via a digital calendar. It’s a great tool to manage deadlines to keep your chiropractic marketing plan running smoothly.

How Chiropractors Can Implement A Successful Email Marketing Campaign

First, you might be wondering how a successful chiropractic email marketing campaign works. Trust me when I say that it’s simple!

Seriously. It really is.

You compile all of your customers’ email addresses. And, one time a month, you write a simple email newsletter (300-500 words) that teaches those customers, clients, or patients something valuable and cool as it relates to your chiropractic practice.  

That’s the important part: something valuable and cool that relates to your business.

A newsletter is definitely not the place or time to beg and plead the recipients back into the office. It’s the time to keep things as non-salesy as possible, while dropping a call to action in after all the insightful info to encourage the reader to call or stop in for a visit.

Once you click “Send” (I recommend on a Monday, either the first Monday or last Monday of the month), that’s when the fun begins. You’ll begin receiving calls with the long-lost customer on the other end saying something like:

“It was SO weird…I was just thinking this weekend that I needed to get in to see the Doc. And, then I got your email. It reminded me to call and make my appointment.”

Best of all, this tends to continue all week long, with more and more patients calling in to schedule appointments. What does that mean, exactly? Well, that the newsletter is apparently doing its job: reminding people you still exist, and why your people need to come back and see you.

The work doesn’t stop after the first email, however. Instead, on the Monday following the initial send, you deliver the exact same newsletter out to the people who didn’t open the first one.

Can you guess the result?

Yup, even more calls continue flooding your phone lines.

Exciting stuff, huh? I think so, too. Now, you probably want to know how to write and set it all up. So, without delay, here are my not-so-secret secrets.

Follow the Winning Chiropractic Email Campaign Writing Template  

Reflect for a minute on the content you receive in your inbox from various brands and local businesses. How often is it valuable and how often is it impersonal garbage? More often than not, it’s the latter.

Reason being, far too many businesses go the propaganda route just to get customers and patients to come through the doors. And, that certainly doesn’t work (or work as well).

What does work, however, is recognizing that you’re knowledgeable in your trade. Additionally, that you have valuable insight to provide that can be applied in everyday life.

So, how do you best communicate your insight via an email campaign to get quality results? By tackling the following steps:

• Craft a highly relevant, catchy subject line to get the recipient to open it. According to MailChimp, the most effective email subject lines are brief, descriptive, and include a compelling reason for the user to open. Make it just that and tease the value you’re about to dish out. For example, say you’re sending out an e-newsletter for your chiropractic patients sometime during the fall season. The subject line could go something like: “Is Your Little Quarterback Getting Sacked?”
• Start it off with something highly topical and timely. Play into the time of year when they’ll be receiving the e-newsletter. Continuing with the example for the e-newsletter in the fall, you can open with something such as: “Happy October! It’s officially fall…”
• Use bullet points to share tips or steps. Break out the insightful content and make it easy to skim by using bullet points to position it as quick tips or simple steps. It’ll help the reader digest it and, most importantly, remember it. And, when they remember it, they’ll share it with their friends. Thus, the effect of word of mouth kicks in.  
• Finish strong with a solid closing remark. Go out in style! Wrap everything up and consider dishing out one last useful nugget of advice (could be signs or symptoms to look for, etc.).
• Remind them how to get back to you. Consider this the call to action. It doesn’t need to be related to the content you’re offering up in any way. Simply remind them how to contact you to get an appointment set up if they’re interested.

Does Video Marketing Work for Getting Chiropractic Patients?

Want the short answer? Yes, it does.

When you’re on the advertising side of things trying to push your practice out into the social media world, all this content noise can make it easy for your potential chiropractic patients to drown you out.

If there’s one thing you start utilizing today to break free from all that noise and up your conversion game, it’s Facebook video ads. Video is extremely popular on Facebook and other social media platforms. Weave it into your marketing plan by asking some of your regular patients if they’d be interested in recording a few minutes of video sharing how chiropractic care has changed their life.

I know what you might be thinking, though: “I have no idea how to even create a high-quality video. And, I sure as heck don’t have any technical skills when it comes to this sort of thing.”

Stop getting bogged down with those thoughts right this second. Today, smartphones and webcams help make recording video so easy that any old Joe Schmoe can do it. If you think otherwise, you’ll be missing out on a seriously underutilized method to reel in your ideal customers.

For a five-step guide to create Facebook video ads to get chiropractic patients, add this post to your reading list, which is chock-full of free info.

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Did we cover a lot today or what? But, I hope you feel fired up to get started on the chiropractic marketing initiatives shared here today so you can attract new patients and enhance your practice ASAP.

And, I’m proof that all I shared today actually works! So, say goodbye to outdated methods and use these as your secret weapon to grow and succeed!

Have questions or something to share on today's topic? Drop them in the comments section below, and we'll get back to you!

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