By Ivan Delman, DC

What is advertising? Simply put, it’s what you do when you can’t personally go see all the people you’re targeting. Before going any further, let’s talk about the term “targeting.” In a nutshell, targeting is when you point your advertising toward specific groups in your desired marketing base.

When it comes to advertising, do keep in mind that your services still must be affordable, available and effective, or even the best-laid marketing/ advertising programs will not yield the results you desire. Taking the above thoughts a step further, your services must be good enough to stand on their own merits with or without advertising. As Albert Lasker, the legendary advertising figure, so well stated, “The product that doesn’t sell without advertising will not sell well with advertising.”

With Lasker’s words ringing in our ears, here are some proven tips that can substantially increase the results from your print advertising.The first thing you will want to do before you even start planning your advertising program is to develop a marketing plan. When you develop your marketing program, you need to determine the location of your patient base, your intended public perception, plus the services you’ll offer and how to determine your advertising/promotional budget. All this will save you from a bunch of wasted time and money, plus it will give you an excellent return on investment (ROI).

All the tech-talk aside, ROI tells you how much you are going to get back in relation to what you have spent: In this case, advertising. Obviously, you should always get back more than you spend. Although there are as many opinions regarding ROI as there are opinions on how to make a good omelet, a reasonable range of acceptable ROI seems to fall between $2-$5 returned for every dollar you spend on advertising. If you’re able to achieve higher numbers, even better.

During this era of managed care and competition from similar providers, we have to carefully scrutinize our expenses. You don’t, however, want to panic and cut back on your advertising. Look at this situation the same as you would look at a big boulder rumbling down a mountain toward you. Don’t stop moving: Just decide which direction to jump.

So, instead of cutting your advertising budget, make sure your advertising budget is being spent wisely and effectively. During tight times, the business that advertises wisely will be far ahead of the business that pulls in its advertising dollars. When better times arrive (and they always do), the practices that continue their advertising will be ahead of the rest. There’s a story about two retired DCs that illustrates this point. The two docs were talking about how they managed their practices. The first chiropractor, Phil, said to the second, “John, I can’t understand why your practice failed. You are a terrific chiropractor.” John, the bankrupt DC, replied, “Too much advertising!” Phil looked at John incredulously and said, “What do you mean too much advertising? You never spent a dime on advertising.” “That's true,” replied Poor John, “But the other DCs did!”

The best way to tightly control your advertising expenses, and save money besides, is to use your marketing data to precisely target your intended market. Rather than shotgun your market, be methodical. It’s a lot more effective and will get better results for your expenditures. Specific direction of your advertising efforts toward targeted markets will yield a substantially higher ROI. Make a plan and then stick to it. Most small businesses spend about 4% of their revenues on advertising. That percentage should really be closer to 10%, with a portion of that percentage set aside for exploration. Taking that extra portion of your budget, check out alternate venues for your advertising exposures. Then, measure the results to see where it takes your practice.

Like chiropractic, advertising is not as precise as we would like it to be. Therefore, when you test out those alternate venues, you will occasionally find profitable areas in new territories. Some venues work very well and some are like a bad movie... a waste of money.

However, with solid planning, even your experiments will have a better chance of succeeding.
When it comes to advertising, these eight proven principles will help you develop a growing, successful practice:
1. Determine your uniqueness. As individuals, we all develop and provide our services based on our personal traits, inclinations, and training. Therefore, the services we offer are unique to ourselves. The key to this kind of marketing (niche marketing) is to determine the nature of your unique aspects. Then, develop those special aspects of your services to make you stand out as your community’s extraordinary chiropractic provider. One way to start the evaluation would be to assess your hobbies or special talents and see if they interface with your chiropractic services.

2. Advertise with clarity. Be extremely specific and clear about how you define your special qualities, because the typical ad reader does not always absorb exactly what you are trying to communicate. Therefore, be very clear about the offers you are placing before the public.

3. Pinpoint your advertising. Throwing your money against the broad wall of a market then seeing what will stick is a waste of your
dollars. When you begin testing the waters in certain markets, run a series of smaller ads in several areas and
track the results, rather than making a big splash in a broad market and using up all of your advertising dollars at once.

4. Strive to communicate, rather than to impress. Remember, you’re trying
to get the public to understand the nature of your services. Most of them probably don’t care that you have more degrees than a thermometer. They want to know if you can help them. Stay with
words that succinctly tell your reader how you can help. When your reader understands the message, you’ll achieve that goal.

5. Leave white space. Don’t load up every available inch of your ad with text. You have about three seconds to grab the attention of your reader and not much longer to get out your message. The white spaces in your ad will help the reader focus better on your message. (See how the spacing helps?)

6. Forget the chicken dinners. Don’t cross the line with gimmicks and giveaways. Offer your services in a manner that will make you and your family proud. Bozo the Clown belongs in the circus, not in chiropractic.

7. No institutional advertising. This is the type of ad that is used by companies that have long-standing public exposure and want to continue keeping their name in the public’s eye. Institutional ads, however, are missing some very important items that you should have in your advertising.For example, your ad should always contain the following:
• your location;
• what exactly you do
(services you provide);
• a “command” to take action;
• the specific benefit to the person reading the ad.

8. Have one theme. Your killer lead line should grab your readers’ attention. You want to keep your readers’ attention, so don’t throw too many ideas at them in one ad.
Examples of ad themes could be:
• lifestyle changes to your reader due to physical difficulties;
• the doctor has 70 glorious years of experience;
• your treatment programs are affordable;
• you have appointments available for new patients;
• you are available for emergencies (only if you intend to follow through!);
• other themes are limited only by your abilities and imagination.

Whatever fits your personality, talent, and philosophy will work, because your advertising theme should be honest. Advertising will familiarize potential patients with your special, offered services. It will not necessarily bring in new patients just because your text is awe-inspiring, your credentials heroic or your photograph makes Dr. Marcus Welby look like a troll. Your advertisement will, however, help to bring patients to your practice. Your skills will keep them returning.

Advertising has to be complemented and balanced by other activities such as community involvement, special clinic programs and so on. If you are going to give anything away, give your time for the benefit of your community.

Consistent application of these and related activities will substantially add to the sum total of your imminent success. Put another way: If you want to grow an abundance of flowers, you have to plant lots of seeds.

Dr. Delman is the author of “The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup.” He has degrees in both business and chiropractic. His experience includes 20 years in business management, and then 20 years as a chiropractor before retiring to write and travel. He can be reached at ivan@businessofchiropractic.com; or sign on to his website at www.businessofchiropractic.com.