As a practice owner, you know too well that marketing is crucial to creating long term business growth. We've narrowed down some of the most important marketing efforts you can make today.
As a practice owner, you know too well that marketing is crucial to creating long term business growth. Too often though, other priorities start eating up your day and marketing gets put on the back burner.
Having worked with many doctors of chiropractic like yourself, the team here at Bishop & Royal have narrowed down some of the most important marketing efforts you can be making to start moving the needle towards your growth goals.
And we hope this guide also builds confidence in your current efforts, as well as clearing up some of the common myths around marketing, such as cost and time commitments needed.
Here’s our complete guide to growing your practice. Let’s get started!
The foundation of your marketing efforts starts with a strong business website. We often see local businesses putting a lot of effort into keeping their Facebook page up to date, but neglecting their main website. Sure, being active on social media is vital, but there are some key reasons behind creating and maintaining a solid website for your chiropractic practice.
Firstly, Google and other search engines will reward you for a strong website and help people in your local community to find you through their online searches. Plus, having a blog on your site elevates this and builds your practice as an authority figure in the community.
Another benefit of creating a comprehensive website - it’s a place to display your practice details, such as your services, location, opening hours, the insurance you accept and various other FAQs. This both reduces the number of queries your office staff need to handle each day, and reduces the friction a potential new patient is facing. Say I live in the local area and search online for a ‘chiropractor near me’. With many results to choose from, I’m more likely to choose the practice with a professional website that gives me all the details needed up front to make a decision. They feel the most trustworthy, plus I’m busy, I don’t have time to call or wait for an email response.
Now we’ve set the scene of why your practice website is so important, what details should you be including or regularly updating on your site? Here are a few ideas to get started:
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating your practice website. If you need further help, we can help optimize your practice. Click here to learn more and schedule a call with us.
Crafting your brand, the perception people have of your practice, can truly impact your business growth. There may be 10, 20, 30 or more other chiropractors in your city. The fundamentals of your service offering may be the same, but your brand and what makes your practice unique is what will drive new patients to you specifically.
Take this example. There may be 3 cake shops in your neighbourhood. They all sell the same product. But if this was true, you’d always choose the nearest or cheapest option to you. These 3 bakeries are in fact very different. The first, specialises in making grand wedding and birthday cakes. The second, is a traditional family owned shop with grandma’s recipes. And the third are known for their delicious gluten free cakes.
So what makes your practice stand out? Are you known for creating a family friendly environment? Do you specialize in sports injuries?
It’s time to hone in on your practice’s uniqueness.
And of course, you can’t talk about a brand without mentioning the visual elements of branding such as logo, fonts and color palette. This topic is a whole post on it’s own but there is one vital takeaway - consistency. Whenever possible, from your website to social media and physical assets within your practice, be consistent.
Patient reviews are worth their weight in gold, but not all practices ask their patients to write them.
Those 5 gold stars say so much about the quality of care and patient experience a person will receive if they choose you as their provider. And you can’t have too many good reviews!
Make a habit of reminding your patients to take a few minutes of their time to review you on Google and Facebook. You can even send them an email after their appointment with a short feedback form.
For local business owners like chiropractors, telling Google to put your name on the map is a must. Google My Business has a great advice page to help you optimize your local ranking.
There are 3 ways Google determines local rankings: Relevance, distance and prominence. Whilst you don’t have control over the distance factor, you can improve your ranking and be seen by more potential patients by ensuring your business information is complete and accurate. Other tips include ensuring you have positive reviews (and manage those that are not so positive), and by making yourself known on the web through directories, website posts and your social media accounts.
We all know having a presence on social media is expected these days by any business. But simply being on social (without a strategy) isn’t going to drive growth.
From a potential patient’s point of view, a business who hasn’t posted in the past few months may be closed. But there are many other chiropractors in the city they can choose without having to make the effort of finding out.
Big companies have marketing teams dedicated to posting on social media. You're a small busy team with many other tasks to prioritize. This is completely understandable. Because of this, it’s not super useful to refer to the industry statistics on how often you should post. If posting on Facebook 3 times a day and twitter 5 times a day is completely unrealistic, let’s look at what is realistic for your practice.
Sit down and decide what is a realistic posting schedule for your team. If it’s every day, great. If it’s Mondays and Thursdays, let’s start there. The important thing is to be consistent with posting quality, valuable content that’s original and shows off your practice’s personality.
It’s recommended to use a tool like ContentCal or Loomly that allows you to pre-schedule your posts ahead of time.
As well as quantity of posts, the quality of content is highly important when looking to grow your practice. The two content types below will provide some insight into content your practice can utilize.
Not everyone likes to be on camera. But now may be time to get onboard as by 2022, online videos will make up over 82 percent of online user traffic!
Creating videos for your practice, using a mixture of formats such as vlogging and sitting-down in front of the camera, can provide many benefits.
Video builds trust with your potential patients. By virtually experiencing your practice and getting to know you as a doctor through the screen, you break down reservations they may have and start building a relationship before they even walk through your doors.
As well as familiarity, video establishes you and your practice as an authority in the field. Your practice is perceived as more professional and an establishment offering quality care from highly experienced, skilled Doctors.
Whilst video sits under the umbrella of content marketing, there are other methods of boosting trust and authority for your practice through written content.
Some formats relevant to chiropractic marketing include:
The most important point to remember is that the focus of content should be about giving value first. It’s tempting to write a sales pitch about what you offer, but this isn’t the strategy we’re going for at this stage in the customer journey. Let’s use an example…
Someone in your city is experiencing unexplained back pain and they head to google to find a solution. They might not know what chiropractic care even is at this stage! But, after coming across a blog post from your practice about potential causes, which then led to a post about treatment options for back pain, they’re now problem and solution aware. From here, you can introduce your services or offer a new patient special to make your practice the no-brainer solution for them.
Another valuable use of creating posts is the plethora of social media content it provides you with. After writing a post, you’ve got many micro topics and snippets you can then draw out and turn into social posts. And of course, you can link followers back to your original article to drive website traffic.
Creating a system to generate new leads for your practice - this may well be the 20% in Pareto's 80/20 law - creating the most leverage and impact for growth.
In recent years, the level of competition for user’s attention online has skyrocketed. Organic content is still important, but there is a general consensus that a combination of paid and organic content is how you move the needle and bring a consistent stream of new patients into your office.
A lead gen system (or funnel) starts with an irresistible offering to a paid targeted audience. It has to be something of value, such as a relevant lead magnet ebook or a promotional offer, in exchange for user details. From here an automated system of follow up emails and content nurtures the lead, helping them to decide if your service is right for them. If it is, they will take action and schedule an appointment.
This system has helped our clients generate 100’s of new patients and grow their revenue.
We often hear doctor’s voice their concern about spending money on advertising. However, the return on investment our clients see quickly dissolves this concern! See our latest client case studies for more info.
If you want to grow your practice, chiropractic marketing is our speciality and we’re here to help. Learn more about Bishop & Royal and how your practice growth could accelerate today.
As Peter Drucker said “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it”.
It’s easy to think your small business website doesn’t gain enough traffic to bother using tools like google analytics. However, after a few simple set-up steps, you’re opened up to a world of useful data and insights.
All of this data is gold for a practice looking to grow and serve their community.
And even if you don’t have the time or resources to dive into these insights now, start collecting the data; As you grow online and/or choose to get external marketing help, your Google Analytics account is full of incredibly useful information.
You might have heard a rumour that ‘email marketing is dead’, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The old days of spamming your email list with irrelevant content are over, making way for personalized, valuable content readers want to see in their inbox. In fact, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in engagements (including click-throughs) in the last 12 months.
So what does this mean for chiropractors like yourself?
It means creating intentional content that adds value to the lives of your readers and persuades them to take action.
You can send email broadcasts to your list to promote special offers, share solutions to their health and wellness ailments, ask for reviews, and to tell your community about events or appearances your practice has been a part of recently.
You can also start segmenting your contacts using a platform like Mailchimp or Sendinblue. This allows you to deliver content that is more relevant and interesting to each group, which in turn leads to higher engagement.
Growing your list should also be a priority. In addition to point #8 above on how to generate more leads for your practice, another idea is to set up a referral program. You have current patients who love your practice, they likely sing your praises to their friends and family. This isn’t always enough however to get them to take action. Why not incentivise friends and family with a referral offer. After visiting your practice, send an email to your patients with an offer they can quickly and easily share with their loved ones.
Chiropractic marketing doesn’t have to be a time consuming burden. By focusing on the activities that will make the biggest impact on your practice growth, you’ll soon be reaping the benefits of your efforts.
We hope this guide has given you a solid foundation for your marketing. If you still feel overwhelmed or simply don’t have the time to implement these strategies, let us help. Bishop & Royal offers comprehensive digital marketing services that ensure your business grows how you want. Simply click this link to speak to us today.
%203.png)
.png)
