Thanks again to Lori Leipold for sharing her insights on marketing at a grass roots level, public relations and direct mail. You can read her notes on the class web page under the marketing section.
I would also like to direct you the the October 8, 2010 edition of Chiropractic Economics. There are several good articles on marketing you will want to read. One of the articles, "Marketing made easier", by Don Macdonald, DC, talks about three good options for increasing business:
- Internal events - which are staged to create exicitement, referals and retention.
- Reactivation - keeping up with patients who have lapsed in their care.
- External events - or external communication involving going out to the community to spread the word of chiropractic and your office.
The article also talks about the power of communication. It outlines three aspects:
- Careful communication - where you are more concerned about the values of others that you tend to lose your own principles
- Careless communication - where you only honor your values and force others to see your point of view
- Optimally - Caring communication - which is the most effective - where you get to know your patient and their values and communicate your values through theirs.
This week's blog topic is - Marketing your business and turning marketing into revenue.
Teams with an "odd" number are to comment by/no later than Monday November 15, 2010.
Please discuss how you plan to apply marketing strategies to your business. Please address thoughts, plans on using direct mailing, internal and external marketing. Be specific. Also what processes do you plan to use for feedback to know that the dollars you are spending are bringing in patients? Those on preceptor please get thoughts and input from your doctor to share in this format.
Just click on the "comment" link below to get started. For more directions, please refer to the class website and the powerpoint with the "how to" directions.
Have a great week. Alexis
Group 3 (Danielle Sazama, Seth Sazama, MIke Olson, Jeff Leno, Jessica Noblet)
ReplyDeleteWe feel that marketing is crucial for the success of a business, especially in the early beginings of opening up a new practice, which some of us plan to do. We feel that it is important to stick to a structured marketing plan and marketing calendar. This should consist of marketing objectives and events that are directly aimed at marketing your niche and the type of practice that you want to have.
We feel that direct mailing would be a very good option right when you plan to start your practice. Depending on the size of the town you plan to practice in, a flyer placed in everyone's mailboxes within say a 10 mile radius would be a great idea. It can just consist of who you are and how you plan on serving the community as a chiropractor. As far as frequent direct mailing, we are unsure if the cost and benefits would pay out. We are also concerned that if direct mailing were to be done often, the information mailed would turn into junk mail.
Another great way to market externally is just by going to local events. Set up a table or sponsor events such as marathons, health walks, club fairs, and etc. You also do not always have to talk specific chiropractic at these events. If you are just making an appearance and showing your face, people in your community are going to notice this. Another great way to externally market is just to do luncheons with other professionals and find out what they do.
We all thing that the best way to marked internally is by patient referrals. If you treat your patient right and let them know that you care a lot about their health, patient referrals can come easy. They are also free! Another great way to internally marked is just by giving the patient a report of findings. It lets them know you took time to review their case as well as it gives them something to take home that they can show their family and friends if they want.
We feel that the best way to get feedback is by asking your patients how they heard of you, or who referred them. That gives you some of the best information and will help direct you on where to spend you marketing dollars. If you are doing 5 different things to market yourself, and when asking patients how they heard about you, they are telling you 4 of the 5 ways, it gives you an idea that maybe you should not be spending money on that last marketing strategy.
Recent research has shown that empirical evidence for the globalization of corporate innovation is limited and as a corollary the market for technologies is shrinking. That was just a humorous comment to start out our first blog as a group, now we will go into the topic at hand. Simply put good marketing leads to good returns in revenue. Small efforts in marketing can lead to large gains in revenue. It is certainly important to determine if you are actually getting a return on your marketing investment. One easy way to do this is to have a form for new patients to fill out with one of the questions being how they heard about your practice. This can at least give you a baseline idea of a percentage of patients that are coming into your office from your actual marketing campaign. In addition to this you should obviously focus on internal marketing as well. The best way to do this is to get referrals from patients that are happy with the care that they are receiving. Many patients are willing to give referrals they just might not actually realize that you are seeking out more patients. People seeking care are more likely to ask a friend or relative for advice when choosing a doctor to trust than place the trust of their health in some doctor they saw in the yellow pages or in a mall passing out fliers. This trust gained from internal marketing with a patient is passed on from patient to patient until internal marketing is all you need to sustain a practice.
ReplyDeleteExternal marketing can be utilized in a low budget plan as well as a high budget plan as long as the doctor as a creative mind. The community is full of opportunities for low budget external marketing. Such opportunities are educational talks, teaching classes, writing articles, and even being active in community events. A larger budget provides many advantages for marketing allowing the doctor to advertise and sponsor events. These are important for making the doctor known in the community. As many of us younger doctors starting out a large marketing budget will unlikely exist. Being creative and involved will be crucial in our efforts to become part of the communties we are hoping to serve.
That was group 25( Brady Pearson, Carrie Jo. Calisesi, Josh Fothergill, Ryan Pribble and Tom Cotter
ReplyDeleteGroup 5- Kyle McChurch, Adam Miller, Jeannette Fotang, Joshua Jorde, Michael Lane
ReplyDeleteEvery office that is still seeking patients actively utilizes every opportunity to market to the public in getting more people through their doors. In a practice startup, you would probably be spending most of your day setting up screenings, typing up newsletters, making contacts with local clubs/business associations, and so forth. You must be active in your community for the free marketing and good publicity.
Internal marketing- We plan on typing up our own newsletters as well as ordering a pre-made newsletter. Putting on monthly "---a-thons" are a great way to a show positive public image and offer discounted prices for goods brought in/referrals. Also by posting testimonials in the office for other patients to see the different conditions that have seen success through Chiropractic Care. We would also have a pediatric table in the adjusting room so that our patients can see the wide range of ages that we care for.
External marketing- For this we would plan on doing a bi-monthly screening a large vendor area, and a weekly screening at a local health food store. We will also use the local papers to advertise and possibly sponsor a local athletic team.
Reactivation patients- These are the tougher ones to get back in the office due to their prior experiences, if it was a bad experience for either the Doctor or patient, then we would have to consider whether we really want them back in the office. If we are going to market to this group, then a reminder letter would be sent with the context of maintence care or a free check up coupon would be sent.
When a new patient checks in, we will have an area on the forms that ask where they heard from us. This will allow us to know how well our marketing is working and which to place more money into.
Group 7 (Tanya Bindl/Brock Auten/Sally Loos/Barry Moon/Adam Moeller)
ReplyDeleteAs a group, we feel that marketing is one of the most important steps to starting a successful practice. The more you get your name out into the community, the more likely you are to attract a steady patient base. Some external marketing ideas we thought of include getting involved with area schools and helping out at athletic events. If you're a doc involved with sports/PT, why not work with the teams on the sidelines for their games? Depending on how large your city/town is, you could do this for multiple area teams on different nights or weekends. This would be one that you'd have to weigh the pros/cons, as not every doc has the extra time to do this. Also, getting involved with area fitness clubs and having flyers at the gym is another way to market your practice. You want your patients to know you are active in the community and care about the community, as well. "Practice what you preach" goes a long way.
For internal marketing, having a patient appreciation day will help retain the patients you have and help referral numbers increase. Set aside one day every year where established patients receive free adjustments/care and have refreshments provided for the entire day (fresh fruit, water, etc). Also offer surveys to patients so you have feedback about what they like/dislike about your practice (hours, office staff, etc).
The more you get involved in the community, the better off you are. Personally, we feel that callbacks are not always the best attempt and can often times by very annoying to patients. Treat your patients with respect and they are more likely to refer their friends/family to you for care.
Group 1 (Joseph Dionne, Ashley Danner, Sara Nelson, Jeremy Baldwin, Taylor Vanden Wynboom)
ReplyDeleteWe understand that advertising is paramount to the success of a new practice. It is true that patient referrals are the best way to advertise; however, a new chiropractic office must first attain patients to refer others to the doctor. We would first arrive in the community where we are planning on opening up our practice at least two months before seeing patients. This would allow us to attend community events, meet local business leaders, join the Chamber of Commerce, as well as church and other social organizations in an effort to be seen in the community prior to opening our doors. We will wear our shirts and polos with our clinic logo so that others begin to recognize our office by name.We will engage people in conversation regarding chiropractic to educate them for referrals. We will then take their name and contact information so that they may receive our newsletter and a phone call when we open to schedule their first patient encounter. Those who prefer, will receive our first newsletter and a business card via direct mailing and others will receive updates on our e-mail newsletter with a link to our office website. This will decrease the amount of paper waste and cost of mailing to prospective patients that expressed an interest in our clinic.
To educate the public about chiropractic and receive new patients without referrals, we will focus heavily on advertising our web address through business cards, newsletters, a small Yellow pages ad, and shirts with our logo and web address displayed. We will also continually participate in local health fairs in an effort to further educate the public about what our clinic offers by way of the chiropractic adjustment.
Internally, we will offer Time of Service discounts to those without insurance coverage as well as on site chiropractic and health information classes. We will also offer discounts for patients on their birthday and when they refer others to our clinic. We will also participate in philanthropic events such as hosting a canned food drive around the holidays in lieu of payment for services rendered. This will benefit patients on a budget as well as those of the community in need.
Upon admissions, we will ask our new patients how they were referred to us on the patient intake form. We will monitor our advertising methods on a quarterly basis and adjust accordingly when changes are necessitated. Successful methods will be further expanded upon while those of less benefit will be altered and/or discontinued.
Bonnie Harder and team 11 (Ian Palmer, Mariah Rashid, Laura Stone, Mandy VanNatta)
ReplyDeleteI will not use direct mailing much unless it is strictly for advertising an event to current customers or Christmas/Holiday Cards. I didn’t have much response when using them in my prior career and found coupons and other such materials mostly a waste of money. I did find it useful, though, to have other companies help pay for them by offering to use her logos and/or have them sponsor the event.
I will be opening an animal chiropractic practice specializing in horses and barefoot hoof care. My strategies will be a little different occasionally from the common clinic practice.
Internal Marketing: Since I will be traveling from stable to stable my car will be my office/clinic. I will have my logo decaled on my car with contact information and this will double as some external marketing while I travel as well. I will endeavor to keep my vehicle clean and organized. I will have polo shirts and jackets imprinted with my logo. I will have navy shirts, blue jeans or khakis for the dress code that will later apply when I hire an assistant.
External Marketing: I will network with local veterinarians and attempt to get to know the vets that are open to chiropractic. I will help out at the local horse emphasized 4-H club and become involved as a club leader or assistant. Toward the end of my first year I hope to own a horse farm and plan on joining a trail riding club like Trod.us, or Northern Illinois Southern Wisconsin Trail Ride Association. Cold call at prospective customers homes/stables within a territory I am comfortable driving and introduce myself if they are available or at least drop off a brochure, business card, and or flyer. Work on offering a basic website that I can keep up that will just offer contact info and services provided. I also hope to work with the Chicago SPCA or horse rescue facility in Woodstock, IL.
As far as keeping track of what marketing dollars I spend actually bring in clients, I will just ask them and make a notation in each animal’s file.
Group 19 Amarillas/Guler/Lorek/Nam/Yard
ReplyDeleteMarketing your Business and Turning Marketing into Revenue:
As a group, we agreed with many of the previous entries regarding how important referrals are for marketing since they are effective and free. We also believe that in order to be successful at doing this you need not only good adjusting skills, but also good interpersonal skills. We liked Ms. Vanderhorns comment about the optimal type of communication, caring communication. We think this is the ability to be able to read people well,so that you can taylor the way you communicate your values to that patient, so it resonates with them. We also believe its important to let the patient whom sent you the referral know how much you appreciated it by either calling them to tell them thanks or better yet, send them a hand written thank you letting them know how much you appreciated the referral.
Regarding the direct mailings, we believe this can be very effective if not done too frequently as other groups have stated. We also thought that by researching your community with sites such as Zip Skinny you can find out more about your target audience and make those direct mailings more effective. Important information may be finding out the average age in the commuity, average income, what schools are there and how many etc.
We found another way to market yourself from this month's ACA News issue, it stated the importance of building relationships with other health professionals in your community. The author gave great ideas on who is the best health professional for you to get in contact with. Some examples are, the Medical doctors whom your patients see, Medical doctors who are providers with the same insurance companies as you, and lastly picking a doctor according to their speciality. Of course once you have built a relationship with these doctors they will be more likely to send patients your way.
This past week I recieved a good idea from a doctor out in the field that I met at a board review. She stated that her and her husband give free sports physicals. They found this to be highly effective in bringing in new patients because the sports physical didn't consume much of their time, but they were able to educate the athlete about the importance of chiropractic care. Not only were they successful at retaining that athlete as a patient, but they started to see the athlete parents, siblings and teammates. It was nice to be able to get advice from a practicing doctor who has tried different marketing tactics and has figured out what works and what doesn't.
Lastly, as stated above, it is important to know which marketing tools are working for you and worth your time, and which ones aren't. People have stated that they would simply survey the new patients about how they heard about the practice. We agreed that this was the best way, and fairly simple. However, we thought that it was important to gauge how well you are doing on a weekly or monthly basis to find out if you should be doing more. So we think it's important to record how many new patients you are bringing in a week or month, and find out what percent of those people who have come in, are coming back.
Group 29 (Dan Cappozzo, Adam VanGessel, TaraJo Green, Kyle Nye)
ReplyDeleteUnless you are the only chiropractor in a one horse town, developing a strong marketing plan is essential to the success of your practice. We also believe your marketing plan should be dynamic as you review what aspects of the plan are/are not working. It is important to review the success and efficiency of your marketing efforts to maximize the effectiveness of your time and money. Since we have a limited budget starting into practice, we will devote a lot of our time rather than money to marketing.
As far as direct mailing is concerned, we believe it can be an effective tool for introducing yourself to a new community as long as it is not over-utilized. This would be a good way to share a little bit about yourself, who can benefit from chiropractic, and how you are different from the other chiropractors in town. We also think direct mailing can be a good way to say happy birthday to your current patients with a simple postcard. You can also say thanks to patients that are referring other people to you. Direct mailing can be an effective marketing tool as long as it is not over used.
Initially, our internal and external marketing efforts are going to involve a lot of time rather than money. A few of our internal marketing ideas include opening the clinic one or two Saturday’s per month solely to provide free chiropractic care for our veterans. This could expand to include any other group of people you would like such as teachers, police officers, firefighters… We would also like to open the clinic 45 minutes early 2x/week for a core stabilization class. The best internal marketing you can do is to let your patients spread the word and let your results speak for themselves.
A great way to let people know more about who you are, what chiropractic is, and update with new topics, is a good website. You can also sponsor a little league team. This way, you can have 20 kids with your practice name plastered across their back market to dozens of families every week. Lastly, we feel the best way to “market” your practice is to get involved in the community. Volunteer your time so people get to know you on a more personal level and know that you really do care about the welfare of the community.
Group 9 (Andrew Schieber, Brad Bark, Jeremy Kerrigan, Joseph Shepro)
ReplyDelete"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
Mark Twain
As chiropractic students and chiropractic patients we understand the value of quality chiropractic care, the trick now as we head into practice is being able to communicate its value to those around us. While many people are overwhelmed by marketing and the limitless media options available, marketing starts out very simply and very inexpensiviely: learn to communicate. If you can't communicate chiropractic in a casual conversation, no amount of marketing money is going to improve that.
In our practices, we plan to first utilize face to face communication by being involved in the community through local networking groups, Rotary organizations, and Toastmaster organizations. Being involved on campus is similar organizations has given us tools that will help us communicate in these settings.
We do not plan to utilize mass mailings in our practice at first. Most people merely use mailers as dustpans and throw them away. We do plan on sending mailers out to people connected to the practice or that have had some interaction with the practice. Specifically we would target friends, families, and business associates of those connected to the practice. Sending two mailers to each person, one to keep and one to give away.
Internal marketing will be done in stages. At the beginning there will not be many patients to internal market to, but each new patient entering the practice will be given a Welcome Kit that will contain information on how the patient can help in their own health and healing process, a list of conditions and ailments that have found relief in our office, and a certificate to invite a friend or family member to initiate care in our office at a discounted rate(initial visit discount). Another form of internal marketing will be white boards in each room where we will share a Case of the Week, a patient case (no identifying material will be included) that shows a variety of conditions that have been helped in our office. We also plan to be direct and ask patients questions like: "Have you told anyone about our office recently?" "Do you know anyone who can benefit from what we do?"
External marketing will be more limited and will focus on social media and the internet. We will have a website, a Facebook presence and whatever else is en vogue at that point. We do plan to have a listing in the yellow pages, with maybe highlighting but no real ad. We will invest in internet search engines that will allow our site to show up near the top of searches.
Each new patient will be asked what brought them into the practice and our office manager will keep track of and tally the statistics every month to see where we are getting returns on our marketing dollars.
Group 23b (Tom Pellatt/Brian Dewey/Tobijas Wells/Angelica Wujiac)
ReplyDeleteDirect mailing has potential if the information inside is of interest to the patient in some way. If it only contains nonsense advertizing or content irrelevant to a regular person's life, it has a good chance of being thrown away. People will read and take in info that catches their attention such as the benefits they can expect to see in their health, easy read articles they can use to help themselves and content which is well organized. Intervals of once monthly should be often enough without becoming annoying. Email has potential too as long as it's written by the clinic and not a subscription sent out to everyone on a list.
Internal marketing would be set to work in many ways. The clinic would offer a membership plan where members have reduced rates for all types of care. The membership would pay for itself by sticking with their care over a period of time. Referrals are a free way to spread our name by the quality of care we provide.
External marketing would begin at a high level and hopefully level off to the point where it is no longer needed due to adequate referrals and community knowledge of the practice. A few of us have direct knowledge of building websites for personal businesses which can be marketed on search engines or relevant partner webpages. Webpage visits can be monitored by analytics services provided by Google and the like. Sponsorship of local sports teams, an ad in the church bulletin and being active in community events will also help get our name out there.
Marketing is the key to sucess when you are starting your own practice in a market that is becomming more and more competative. We thought that the use of mail shold only be used if you are sending out a news letter. Our news letter will be a quarterly letter when we can share some information that patents might not now about chiropractic and how that can relay our message to their friends. The news letter will be a trial and error marketing plan at first, but we think it will show some great results after we start getting some input from our patents.
ReplyDeleteWe think that our best way of marketing will be to have luncheons where we talk to patients about how we proced with their treatment, and why ther are receiving the treatment they are. Our favorite idea is to have a mandatory patient education meeting once a week that all new patients must attend to continue with care. If they bring a friend to listen to us talk then we will offer them some sort of deal. We are not sure the deal we want to offer yet, we need to consult with other chiropractors in the community to establish some ideas on what they would do and what we might want to try differently.
Group 13 [Adam Van Gessel, Dan Synowicki, Eric Carpenter, Rachel Berent, Jeff Elmore]
ReplyDeleteWe too agree with many of the ideas previously posted on this blog. As soon to be chiropractic field doctors, we understand the need to gain a patient base seeing that we will start with zero. We discussed a plan for marketing that would consist of having marketing strategies in different periods of time. Much has been discussed about individual useful strategies and we felt it was prudent to address when each strategy may be beneficial to us and our goals for our practices. We decided to layout the first year of marketing, seeing that the first year is when marketing strategies are most utilized. Doctors in the field have told us that most of their patients came from referrals, that is why it is paramount for us as new practitioners to build a base of patients. The first step is getting them to our door.
We felt it was important to start marketing prior to opening. 3-months prior to joining or starting the practice we would include:
- Designing and ordering new business cards/stationary.
- Change/update all signage
- Create office brochures
- Order an in-column Yellow page ad with bold print
- Begin meeting and greeting local businesses and neighborhoods
- Begin arranging speaking engagements (churches, clubs, organizations, gyms) that could take place following our opening
- Direct mailing postcards for an area that would depend on our location, so that they are aware for our practice is opening
These are all forms of external marketing that we felt would be beneficial prior to us starting.
As we obtain patients and more responsibilities in the new office, our time spent on
advertising will be reduced and would transition to being more internal. Externally, we intend on continuing to meet business men/women and neighbors and begin our speaking engagements (churches, clubs, organizations, gyms). We also feel that newspaper ads/inserts and press releases may be beneficial, but may not be financially viable.
Internally:
- Open house/ Grand Opening
- Newsletter that would be emailed 1x per month
- Birthday cards with a free visit attached
- Kid’s day where children are free if seen in conjunction with a parent.
- Office Décor would match our theme for our practice
- Internal Signage including logos
- Patient testimonials would be included in our newsletter and made available in our waiting room.
- Reactivation of patients at the end of the year
Our chief monitoring device will be our intake forms. Included on the form will be a section of how them came to our office and what was their motivation for seeking chiropractic care. We also intend on having in house surveys that existing patients can complete that not only tells us how we are doing, but also provide suggestions as to how we could reach their friends or family.
Jenny and Jenelle Group 23a
ReplyDeleteThere are free resources to create external marketing such as free email weekly news letter in regard of chiropractic and health, chiropractic and children. Whatever topics you are interested you can always write up news letter to send for free. Free facebook advertisement, since facebook becomes more popular than ever and there are company will design an unique facebook page along with video advertisement about your practice. Participate social and community events to promote the practice such as health fair, local race and county fair. I actually attend several in the past, it was fun and more people are interested to stop by see what you can offer. If the your business has certain budget toward marketing, newspaper advertisement is also an option but in the past I have heard some have many success with newspaper advertisement, many don't. It is kind of hit and miss.
While external marketing may need to be more heavily relied on in the early days of a new practice, the true growth potential exists through internal marketing - namely, patient referrals and retention. The best patients are those who are referred by other satisfied patients. Patient Appreciation days are an excellent way of encouraging existing patients to get their family and friends to come it. These days consist of exclusively new-patient appointments. All existing, active patients are sent two certificates in the mail allowing for a free exam, neurological consultation and x-rays if needed (this works in Canada, not sure if it would in the USA). ROF visits are scheduled for the rest of the week when the DC can go over a recommended schedule of care. Depending on how busy you expect to be, other DC's can be hired for the day to perform one of three components of an intake visit: history, neurological exam and x-rays. This allows maximum patient visits in a shorter period of time. Success of this endeavor can be tracked by number of patients scheduled, number of ROF's scheduled, or even number of patients choosing to go on a payment plan. Refreshments can also be provided.
On an the intake form, allow a space to indicate who referred them. Immediately create a "Thank you for referring! Free Adjustment" card to send to the patient indicated. This encourages non-active patients to return as well and patients to continue referring.
Family discounts are also an option, as well as payment plans.
Following-up with patients who have been inactive for a long period of time is also important. A front-desk staff member can be easily trained to make follow-up phone calls with patients in a non-confrontational way.
E-Newsletters are a terrific way of providing patient education, especially in terms of other aspects of chiropractic (pediatrics, sports, extremities, etc.). They are also a friendly and useful way to remind non-active patients.
Group 27 (Womboldt,Holst,Hanson,Lorenz)
ReplyDeleteMarketing is essential in every business. If done correctly and effectively profit can rise and increase popularity.
Internal Marketing : I plan on creating brief but informative memos for my patients as well as potential clients. These memos will consistent of information about our practice, interesting facts about chiropractic and the body, as well as promotions for the month. Promotions will be key in getting new clients as well as keeping the dedicated ones. Promotions consistent of monthly specials as well as weekly offers.
Continuing with internal marketing, the office will be dedicated to the health and benefits of the patients. I will strive for the best equipment as well as professional appearances.
External marketing will take place as soon as possible. I will build websites as well as advertisements on Facebook. Creating a name for the business starts with informing the community about the abilities and strengths the business has. Therefore, I will also focus on billboards around the community and coupons around restaurants and popular stores.
Word of mouth is also very effective, therefore, it will be the doctors responsibility to inform at least three new patients a week. Personality and being personable is key to any successful business.
Lastly but most importantly, steak holders will be a driving force for this practice. Figuring out who will be dedicated steak holders starts in the beginning but never truly ends. Steak holders will bring more profit as well as dedication to chiropractic.
Writen by Joe Mehring
ReplyDeleteGroup 15: Joe Mehring, Curtis Weinstein, kristal wolf, jasmine hornbuger, kriten Heim
There are many important factors both internally and externally. When one wants to start a practice external marketing is the most important aspect to get a pactice up and rolling. The first thing you must create is a good company website and other social networking such as a professional facebook and twiter acount. The next step to get your name out there is to start doing health screening and health talks within the community demographics in which you wish reach through your practice. On top of doing screenings and health talks we plan on volunteering and getting involved in the local high school sporting events and possibly offer free water bottles during events with our companys logo and contact information on the label. It is also a good idea to offer complimentry 1st visit physicals to players and family members of players at the school in which you volunteer for. For our business we are also planning on distributing business cards to local GYMs and spas for them to distribute to there clients and then we will have their business cards to help them out also. This will establish a good working relationship with multiple levels of clients. Once the business is established i feel it is also important to sponsor a local youth sporting team. It is also very important to get involved in the community representing your business. Volunteer for multiple organizations and create a positive name for your. We also will develope a monthly e news letter and writen news letter (at office) talking about hot topics that partain to chiropractic care and the benifts of proper nutrition and exercise. This will be sent out to all patients with the email contact information they give on the first visit.
Internal marketing:
Most patients that enter the office will not recieve an adjustment the first visit. That is very important for patient education. They will have the initial physical, x rays and passive modalities such as electrical stimulation. Then they will come back for a report of findings where they will hear there dignosis, if we can help,what chiropractic is, what chiropractic is not, stages of chiropractic care, how long this should take to correct problem and finally answer any questons that the patient has. Along with the verbal report of findings patients will recieve flyers that are pertinent to there situation and about referals. This we feel will improve referal numbers and also improve the transition from acute cases into lifelong patients. Once a patient begins they will recieve the same high quality care and when they leave they will recieve a free bottle of water with our logo and contact information.
there are many different ways in which you can tell if what you are doing as marketing is working. Our method will be cliet satisfaction surveys and initial questions asking if anyone refered them or how they heard of us. Then we will offer rewards for internal referals.
Group 21 lets try this again. We've already posted somewhere else on this site, but I would like to add the method of tracking our ROI. With every patient that comes in we will inquire as to how they heard about our clinic. Thackin this information will guide us to wich marketing stratagy is the most productivve.
ReplyDeleteDirect mailing will be used twice a year to coinside with the baseball and football seasons for athletes, but not specifically focused to that audience. Instead we would offer free sports physicals as a public service to raise general health awareness. Please look around to see if you can find the other half of this post.
thanks
Group 17
ReplyDeleteMarketing your business when you first open your doors is very important. It's probably more important to start marketing before you open your doors. We feel that it is important to have a good marketing plan for the first three months into practice then continue it throughout the first year and make small adjustments to it as needed.
Before we open our doors we plan to go door to door in our neighborhood to tell the other businesses that we are opening on a certain day and that we are having a grand opening. Next we plan on going to the chamber of commerce, local governmental offices and schools to let them know the same information. After our grand opening we plan on using internal and external marketing.
As far as direct mailing we will send out surveys and a thank you to patients after their 1st adjustments to ask them how they heard of us. In return for a filling the survey out they will receive a free 1/2 hr massage from our message therapist.
Internal marketing we are going to do monthly awareness talks on certain aspects of health (ie. Breast cancer, nutrition, exercise and ect.)
External marketing we are going to go to local events and do screenings. We also plan on going to all the area schools and performing sports physicals.
Group 31 Catherine, Kyle, Johanna
ReplyDeleteThe importance of advertising in the chiropractic business is highly dependent to the location and kind of office that the responsible DC is wanting to offer. Not only are there various types of offices existing and actually working (meaning of making money and growing) but also there are various interpretations of what an actual chiropractic office is SUPPOSED to advertise and what it means to be successful.
Our (new) group agrees on the point that being a successful chiropractor does not mean that one has 5 new patients a week with an average income of 1500 dollar per patient until he/she is fixed and leaves for unspecific time again. The success of an office in our interpretation is that the quality of the actual work of chiropractic is so high, that advertising can be done in form of referrals.
Referrals and internal marketing are the daily events of talking about what you as a dc are doing and why with every patient.
A customer will usually only buy when a) the product stimulates positive feelings b) the consumer feels a need/necessity for the product and/or c) the consumer feels that he/she makes a bargain/gets something positive out of the deal. If an office has the ability to sell chiropractic as something positive, that the patient needs and can have to a bargain price, the actual process of selling is kindergarten-level easy. Now, handing out business cards for name recognition or having office talks about nutrition, chiropractic, pregnancy, etc. are good events to advertise the actual need for chiropractic and can be a very successful way for internal marketing, but we agreed that the talk one-on-one when the patient is there is the most critical time for communication to have a satisfied customer. But, the problem arises when offices sell the deal easy, for good money and do not keep their side of the deal, as in giving lousy care, having hidden fees and not being able to provide the customer with the service he/she was buying into. At that point the customer/ patient usually asks to return the item, get a refund or some sort of deal, or just leaves and goes to a different store/office.
Now unfortunately many offices make the mistake to think, that with a low patient retention rate the need for external marketing increases. So there is many ways of advertising to the wide public and many,many potential customers now. Screenings, banners, flyers, newspapers, the list is long and many chiros mutate now from a DC to a salesman and try to get even better at talking and convincing patients to come into the office. And many patients come and show up and leave again. Because the DC in charge forgot that he is a chiropractor as well. The product that we sell is not wellness or feeling great or just the adjustment, its the process of a doctor-patient relationship that has its peak in the actual adjustment. "Internal events" so to speak. So as a group we decided to the conclusion, that a budget spent on external marketing, no matter how much money, should never be an excuse for a failing office. Why spending more money on getting people in, if you cant keep them in? Patients appreciate a thank you letter for a referred friend way more than a TV add of their doctor. Patients actually do read monthly newsletters if they understand what they are about. Patients actually bring in testimonials if they had results. Patients even participate in community food drives if they feel welcome and as a family in the office. But those are all internal marketing ways, that we hope we can relay on in the future. So, as a group we hope we can keep track of our money spent on advertising by keeping a high patient retention rate high.
Group 31 Catherine, Kyle, Johanna
ReplyDeleteThe importance of advertising in the chiropractic business
is highly dependent to the location and kind of office that
the responsible DC is wanting to offer. Not only are there
various types of offices existing and actually working
(meaning of making money and growing) but also there are
various interpretations of what an actual chiropractic
office is SUPPOSED to advertise and what it means to be
successful.
Our (new) group agrees on the point that being a successful
chiropractor does not mean that one has 5 new patients a
week with an average income of 1500 dollar per patient until
he/she is fixed and leaves for unspecific time again. The
success of an office in our interpretation is that the
quality of the actual work of chiropractic is so high, that
advertising can be done in form of referrals.
Referrals and internal marketing are the daily events of
talking about what you as a dc are doing and why with every
patient.
A customer will usually only buy when a) the product
stimulates positive feelings b) the consumer feels a
need/necessity for the product and/or c) the consumer feels
that he/she makes a bargain/gets something positive out of
the deal. If an office has the ability to sell chiropractic
as something positive, that the patient needs and can have
to a bargain price, the actual process of selling is
kindergarten-level easy.
Group 31 Catherine, Kyle, Johanna
ReplyDeletepart B
Now, handing out business cards for name recognition or
having office talks about nutrition, chiropractic,
pregnancy, etc. are good events to advertise the actual need
for chiropractic and can be a very successful way for
internal marketing, but we agreed that the talk one-on-one
when the patient is there is the most critical time for
communication to have a satisfied customer. But, the problem
arises when offices sell the deal easy, for good money and
do not keep their side of the deal, as in giving lousy care,
having hidden fees and not being able to provide the
customer with the service he/she was buying into. At that
point the customer/ patient usually asks to return the item,
get a refund or some sort of deal, or just leaves and goes
to a different store/office.
Now unfortunately many offices make the mistake to think,
that with a low patient retention rate the need for external
marketing increases. So there is many ways of advertising to
the wide public and many,many potential customers now.
Screenings, banners, fliers, newspapers, the list is long
and many chiros mutate now from a DC to a salesman and try
to get even better at talking and convincing patients to
come into the office. And many patients come and show up and
leave again. Because the DC in charge forgot that he is a
chiropractor as well. The product that we sell is not
wellness or feeling great or just the adjustment, its the
process of a doctor-patient relationship that has its peak
in the actual adjustment. "Internal events" so to speak. So
as a group we decided to the conclusion, that a budget spent
on external marketing, no matter how much money, should
never be an excuse for a failing office. Why spending more
money on getting people in, if you cant keep them in?
Patients appreciate a thank you letter for a referred friend
way more than a TV add of their doctor. Patients actually do
read monthly newsletters if they understand what they are
about. Patients actually bring in testimonials if they had
results. Patients even participate in community food drives
if they feel welcome and as a family in the office. But
those are all internal marketing ways, that we hope we can
relay on in the future. So, as a group we hope we can keep
track of our money spent on advertising by keeping a high
patient retention rate high.