Revenue is revenue, whether it comes from new patients or existing ones. And it’s been proven that it costs 5x more to acquire a new patient rather than retaining an existing one. Therefore the path of least resistance (and maximized profits) lies in harvesting the gold in your own backyard.

 

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Let’s take a look at 3 different ways you can be marketing to your existing patient list…

1. Increase PVA By Educating Your Patients

To move from a pain-based clinic to a wellness-based clinic requires discipline to your methods of educating your patients.

Most people think chiropractic = pain relief. Let them come to you for pain relief! Then enroll them in ALL the other benefits that regular chiropractic care facilitates.

Of course running health care classes is a great way to do it, but people don’t always show up when they say they will, and everyone learns a little differently. Therefore, you need to use multiple channels to reach them.

Here are a few to consider:

  • Live workshops and Health Care Classes
  • iPad in the waiting room to watch videos as they wait (text based images and videos, avoid noise pollution in the office, or use headphones)
  • Tighten up your Table Talk; avoid conversations about the weather and bring them back to how their body is reacting to the adjustments
  • Video lessons emailed out over the course of a week or two from their first adjustment
  • Have a new patient package including:
    • a print out explaining common benefits
    • page of miraculous recoveries from chiropractic (your office or others)
    • testimonials that speak to regular care
    • calendar of events for the year
    • perhaps a 25% off coupon for a product you sell in the office

2)  Word of Mouth Referrals

Most businesses find the bulk of their new business from warm referrals, and of course chiropractic is no exception. So what are you doing to encourage it?

A typical course of action is by incentivizing it with discounts, rewards, and contests. If you know the Lifetime Value of a new patient, it makes it easy to put money into a great contest prize.

For example, most of the numbers we see in our community is anywhere from $1100-$3500. It’s not a scary investment to allocate $1500 for a contest prize that generates new patient referrals if you can get one or two new patients to break even.

There are many online contest platforms to host your contest and promote virality. A very simple choice that I’ve used recently for a Chiropractor in Calgary is ViralSweep.com.Your patients enter for a chance to win, and receive 5-10x the entries by successfully referring a friend to the contest.

This grows your email database, giving you permission to email these new community members with a new patient promotion, a Dinner Talk, a community event, etc.

 

3) Sell More/Different Products and Services

As a chiropractor, you are a trusted health professional. Most of your patients probably don’t have a dedicated nutritionist. This opens the market and your revenue wide open to endless possibilities.

There are tons of services that are found within multidisciplinary offices, however having multiple services offered under one roof requires a lot of expensive office space, dedication from a service provider with OR being versed in multiple disciplines yourself, and it can complicate the books. Instead, build relationships and joint venture agreements with local service providers, that way you don’t spread yourself too thin and you can create more channels of new patients.

Selling products is a MUCH easier path to increased profits and it makes perfect sense for an authority figure like yourself to offer products that promotes pain relief and wellness.

You can buy 20 ergonomic pillows and stuff them in some shelves at the front desk to garner some attention to your new income stream, but that promotes clutter and you’re risking your own money up front.

Instead you can promote other people’s products and get commissions for sales. There are respectable MLM companies that offer great wellness options, Isagenix as an example. An easy start would be Amazon’s affiliate network where you can earn a couple dollars when people click your link and buy a product.

You can sell:

A simple way to market these products to your patients would be to have a webpage for Doctor Recommended Wellness Products. This can be a gallery of products linked to Amazon through your affiliate link and each week you can send a newsletter to your list with the Product of the Week (or Month).

You can print out reading material for your waiting room with Doctor Recommended products that they can check out on your website.

No one likes to be sold to, so one of my favourite options for marketing to your existing patient list is with Custom Audience Facebook Ads. Facebook allows you to upload (or copy and paste) all those valuable emails you’ve collected from your patients and create a custom advertising audience. This way your ad is only seen by those on your email list with an associated facebook account.

Use “custom audience” facebook marketing to put a product recommendation in front of them, invite them to an event you’re hosting, or just run a campaign to get more Likes on your fanpage for greater engagement in your practice.

There are many ways to leverage your existing patients to grow your practice, as long as you make it a win-win.

What was the most successful marketing campaign you’ve done in the past?

If you want to discuss your current marketing plan on a complimentary consult call, book a call with the marketing arm of Full Circle, by clicking below.