Social media is all the buzz in chiropractic marketing today. In the last two weeks I have read at least 12 articles on pinterest (a Facebook or Twitter application) alone. Before that Google+ was a must-have for anybody who wanted to be anybody. It’s as easy to see how chiropractors can feel obligated to participate in social media as it is to quickly become overwhelmed with the variety of choices and maintenance required to achieve results. The enormity of creating a simple presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in addition to creating and maintaining a website, blog, e-zine and all the other mediums available today is daunting.

With all the social media hoopla anyone could easily jump on the bandwagon and add one (or several) more things to their to-do list in the rush to keep up with the newest trends. Today’s advice is look before you leap. You don’t have to be everywhere to make money!
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Squidoo, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+… the list is endless. How do you choose? How much time should a marketer actually spend on social media?

The cold, hard facts are that you don’t absolutely NEED to have a Facebook account or 10,000 followers on Twitter to make a living as a healer.  Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it necessitates your presence.

Here are some instances where it is vitally important to have a strong social media presence. For example:

1. If you have a younger clientele. Odds are these young folks will respond favorably and interact with you on social media.
2. If your clients are strong social media users, either personally or professionally, it makes sense to connect with them there.
3. You love Facebook and Twitter (or whichever medium), you are already there and expanding into a business presence is natural and easy for you. It makes sense to continue.

Many chiropractors leap into social media marketing because it’s easy and inexpensive, however, it can also be a huge time suck and, if not done strategically, can lead to a lot of effort with no results. It’s important to evaluate your niche and the needs of your clients as well as their online habits and balance that with how much time you have. Particularly smaller businesses.

I’m not saying don’t participate in social media to grow your chiropractic business. What I am saying is to be smart about it and don’t just jump on the bandwagon because you can. Social media can easily become one more distraction from making sales – which is where you need to be focusing your energy.

Thinking about stepping into a new social media medium? Here are a few questions to ask yourself to see which, if any, social media outlet is right for your business:

• Does the medium complement your other marketing efforts? Remember, social media is one more way to connect and engage with consumers – just because you are there doesn’t mean clients or prospects are there.
• If you currently gain most of your business through another avenue, such as speaking or referrals, will social media help or hinder your sales flow? If direct selling works for you then stick with it!
• How much time do you have to dedicate to updating social media? Is this something that can be outsourced?
• What do you already have in place, such as a blog or e-zine, which can be leveraged with social media?
• Social media is a personal, direct way to engage with prospects. You must have a personality – you can’t just post sentences from your blog. Can you do this?

I am leery of anyone who says you HAVE to do anything where marketing is concerned. The only HAVE to is selling. You can be as creative as you want when it comes to bringing the leads in, but you must know how to sell.

Social media is attractive to many healthcare businesses because it is free and easy to do. My experience is it’s also an easy way to distract yourself from selling, which you HAVE to do to make money and grow your business.

Marketers, be smart about social media usage. Remember it is just one of many tools available to get in front of your target market. It’s not for everyone and it is definitely not a requirement to building a highly profitable business.

Considering implementing social media in your marketing efforts? Talk to us first! Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com.

To Your Success!
Kelly

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is a marketing coach, award winning author, and copywriter. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

And How Your Marketing and Business Growth Reflects Your Ability to Do That

I am excited to announce our first Free teleconference in well over a year. I would love for you to join me! In the Stepping Into Your Greatest Self teleconference we will be looking at why your marketing and business growth may not be working. Are you self-sabotaging yourself? Are you doing marketing and advertising and your business is still struggling.

The growth of your business is in direct correlation to your personal growth and development. It has as much to do with you “doing” marketing and networking as has to do with your attitudes and beliefs about how you help others, how you feel when you approach prospects and create marketing materials and how you share your gifts with the world.

In our newest teleclass we will be examining some of the most common ways business owners and marketers self-sabotage and how to discover where we are self-sabotaging. Seeing where we are preventing our own success is the first step to stopping those behaviors!

We will also be introducing our newest coaching program, Stepping Into Your Greatest Self.

Register for the teleclass, Stepping Into Your Greatest Self Teleclass here — the telecourse will be recorded if you can’t make the live recording. The teleclass is this Wednesday, May 4th at 3:00 ET.

Listen to this blog post on our podcast, The Sounds of Marketing, here

Announcement: We are having a free teleclass on Wednesday, May 4th, 1:00pm MT, 3:00pm ET. Our intention with this teleclass, Stepping Into Your Greatness, is to not only discuss marketing techniques, but to take an in-depth look at why some of our businesses are struggling. Everyone that registers for the teleconference will receive a complementary, 15 minute business coaching session with Kelly Robbins! Register for the complementary teleconference and receive your free 15 minute coaching session here.

If you’ve been having trouble reaching your goals and creating the business and life you desire, odds are you can find several self-sabotaging behaviors ruining your success. Self-sabotage, by definition, is thoughts, feelings and actions that block your success by working against your own self-interests. Only a crazy person would consciously sabotage their own success, right? The thing is you are probably not sabotaging yourself consciously. All of this is happening underneath your radar in your subconscious. In order to stop these unwanted acts the first thing we need to work through is recognizing those self-sabotaging behaviors.

How can you recognize something you are not conscious of? You must first acknowledge that you have self-sabotaging behaviors, recognize which behaviors they are and then have the strength and stamina to look at them and work through them. This is how a strong person and a successful business are built.

Let’s take a look at the seven most common self-sabotaging behaviors chiropractors exhibit when struggling with their business.

1.    Feeling you have no value. This feeling often comes from low self-esteem and comparing yourself to others. It’s easy to compare ourselves to others – oftentimes the grass is greener on the other side. Our insecurities tell us that others are doing “it” better because “it’s” different than what we are doing. Remember that each of us is created with something different and special to give the world. We are here to serve others. Each of our talents will connect with different people in different ways and you have to trust and know that. Healing can be a very personal event – you will connect with some people on a deep level and not at all with others. Don’t look at what others are doing, do your own thing. March to the beat of your own drum. That’s how you become a success!

2.    Focusing on what is not working or not right. This is a common problem for not only chiropractors and other business owners, but also people that are generally unhappy with their life. What can you do to change things around? Start by writing down what IS working and what IS going right in your life and business right now. Then make a conscious decision that every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought you switch it with a “what’s going right” thought. Pay particular attention to what you are thinking the 10 minutes before you fall asleep and the 10 minutes when you first wake up. This time frame sets the tone for your entire day. Come up with 3 or 4 positive statements you repeat to yourself daily or write down 30 statements – one for each day of the month.

3.   Procrastinating. A big one for many chiropractors and marketers, procrastination is the number one reason people don’t move forward. They are stuck in a place they don’t want to be and procrastinate when it comes to tasks to work their way out. Stopping procrastinating is not just about discipline. It’s also about understanding why you are procrastinating. If there is a specific part of your business, such as marketing, that you keep putting off but know you need to do, look at why you don’t want to do it. Does hearing “no thanks” make you feel less worthy? Do you feel insecure about marketing because you are not clear on best practices? Are you afraid to be seen and play big because some people won’t like you? Here are a few exercises to work through procrastination behaviors:

• Try doing the task you are avoiding first thing in the morning.
• Take baby steps – make your first steps easy, such as writing one blog post a month and working your way up to one a week.
• Form your own mastermind or support group. Having others that you can either do the projects with or hold each other accountable can be helpful.

It’s important to recognize where you are stopping!! If you look I bet you’ll find you are stopping at the same places every time you come to them.

4.    Not doing anything because you are stuck in fear. This self-sabotaging behavior can be hard to recognize and even more challenging to work through. First, closely examine what it is you are afraid of. If you look closely you’ll probably find your fears are based on things that haven’t even happened yet. The truth is you can’t control the future or what might happen. This is wasted time and energy worrying about what “might” or “could” happen rather than focusing on the conditions right this very second in time. Oftentimes fear leaves us paralyzed and we take no action because of what might occur. Put your focus on the NOW –Eckert Tolle has written some phenomenal books about being present in the NOW.

5.    Having no purpose. Feeling lost or purposeless is not a healthy way to start a profitable business. Know that everyone has a purpose in this lifetime. Everyone – Especially you. The key is to bring to your consciousness what that purpose is. A life without purpose is often a life without passion and that lack of passion will come through loud and clear to your clients and prospects. People are attracted to passionate people. If you feel unsure of your purpose know that you have one, you just may not be aware of it. Journaling, meditation, and giving/serving others are an effortless way to discover your purpose and how healthcare fits into that. Sometimes bringing spirituality to your life can also help you have a feeling of purpose. If we don’t see our lives and business as having a higher purpose we tend to self-sabotage. Feeling as if we have no purpose is the root cause of the self-sabotaging behavior.

6.    Getting distracted or losing focus. First things first with this one. Check your diet – are you drinking too much caffeine in the mornings and losing focus in the afternoons? Not eating enough or eating poorly? Not getting enough sleep? Need to break up your day and workout or take a lunch break half-way through? These are the physical areas to examine when you realize you are getting distracted easily. My Starbucks addiction affected my work a few years ago and I had to wean myself off coffee for a year. If it’s not physical then take a look at a few other things…Look at how you are feeeeling as you are having trouble focusing. Is there a specific incident, say an argument with your child or spouse that has you distracted? Is fear taking over? Lack of discipline? Sometimes there are days you just have to plow through your work and not get much done. We all have those days. There is a difference when this happens on a frequent or daily basis or occasionally. It’s when you see a consistent pattern that you need to start looking at a deeper reason for the lack of momentum.

7.    Not finishing what you start. Another very common self-sabotaging technique is starting things (such as marketing!) and not finishing them. Look at what you are telling yourself or even other people about why you aren’t finishing – these are your excuses. Again look for patterns. Even important items such as kids, fights with your spouse or dramas that occur in your life are self-sabotaging behaviors which YOU create that detract from your goal. You are the creator of your world and what you manifest. You must own that.

Changing destructive patterns of self-sabotaging behaviors requires you to get curious about why you do (or don’t do) certain tasks. Particularly note how you are feeling when these tasks come up and look inward, dig deep into why. Awareness of your actions and then WHY you are doing them is how you stop the repetitive self-sabotaging behaviors that are preventing your businesses natural success and growth.

Growth is a natural state — everything in nature is either growing or dying. If you’re not growing you have to examine why.

If you don’t recognize your own self-sabotaging behaviors or can’t seem to work past them, a business coach can help. Contact us at 303-460-0285 or Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com to explore how we can help today!

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is a marketing coaching, award winning author, copywriter and intuitive consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

Listen to this blog on our podcast, The Sounds of Marketing, by clicking here…

Adding health coaching to chiropractic is a simple and fun way to increase revenues and serve your clients more fully.

Coaching your patients is something you are probably already doing…talking to them about their health, teaching them specific things they can/should do to live healthier lives, offering advice on supplements and exercises.

Do you find there are some patients that would like to spend more time with you than you have? Are there some patients that could use more guidance but don’t know how to get it? Adding coaching to the services you offer is just another way you can help them in a more personal, in-depth way.

How difficult is it to add coaching to your portfolio of services?

Adding coaching is easy. There’s a good chance you are already coaching clients and just aren’t calling it that. Rather than offering the service without charging for it, you need to name it and charge a price for it. For example, say a patient comes in repeatedly for a sports injury – do you not help them by offering techniques to avoid the injury? You may even find yourself recommending vitamins or even shoes that can help them do their sport more safely or efficiently.

This is simply coaching – you are just not calling it that nor charging for it.

Ideas for types of coaching

Are there questions your patients consistently ask about? Opportunities for learning you see that aren’t being met? Using coaching to meet these needs is a great opportunity for you to expand your practice, make more money, and more fully meet the needs of your patients.

Let’s look at an example of how a chiropractor could add coaching to their practice:

• Offer health coaching packages individually and coach clients with specific issues: For example coaching for stress endurance. Coaching for insomnia.
• Offer weight loss coaching or physical fitness coaching.
• Rotate offering specific coaching on different topics that complement your practice such as meditation, increasing energy, relaxation.

Coaches traditionally charge anywhere from $100 up to $1,000 an hour or more. Depending on your practice and niche, I recommend starting off on the lower end and raising your rates as your coaching time fills.

Integrating coaching into your chiropractic packages will allow you to set a price that doesn’t necessarily spell out an hourly rate. Many chiropractors package their coaching with existing services to increase the value.

For example, a chiropractor could put together a package of 10 adjustments that normally costs $100 each. A $1000 value. For the package, they may discount the services because the patient is purchasing in bulk. Rather than discounting the price, the chiropractor could offer 30 minutes of one-on-one coaching, or free access to workshops or classes you do. You want to offer services that are easy to do, but add value for the patient and ultimately help them achieve their health goals.

Here’s what it ultimately looks like:

Ultimate chiropractic health package:

• 10 adjustments
• Five 30 minute one-on-one coaching sessions
• Develop personal health plan
• Free admittance to monthly health seminar held in office for 6 months
  Total cost: $2800

Coming up with several different packages with different price points for clients can quickly, and easily, add several thousands of dollars to your revenues and strengthen your relationship with patients.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is a marketing coaching, award winning author, copywriter and intuitive consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

Listen to this blog on our podcast, The Sounds of Marketing, here.

As a chiropractor we understand the importance of a person’s physical health. We also understand the role a person’s mindset has on their ability to heal and live a healthy life.

As we stretch ourselves, reach to expand our practice, and create more prosperity in our lives, it’s important we understand the role our own mindset has played in the experiences we are having right now.

In order to achieve prosperity in your life and your business, you must first know what prosperity means to you. Prosperity to you may be much different than what prosperity means to me.

Understand that developing a prosperity mentality is the foundation of success for your practice.

I chose to discuss money and prosperity today because the belief that it’s difficult to make money in the healing arts and chiropractic is the most common block that holds chiropractors back. It’s not that these doctors are not great healers and it’s not that they don’t try hard enough. It’s that they believe creating a prosperous practice is difficult – and so it is.

What you believe is your reality.

I want you to engage in thought processes that allow prosperity. Understand that YOU are in control of your prosperity – not anyone else.

Developing feelings of lack happens over time. As things happen in your life, you internally consider them “evidence” to back up your “beliefs” about money and prosperity.

I also want to talk to you about scarcity thinking. When you believe that there is not enough of anything; paying clients, food, money, love, etc., you will never have enough of it. Scarcity thinking is the opposite of prosperity thinking.

As children we are taught “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “I’m not made of money”. We are raised to believe this because this is what our parents believe. The same holds true for what we are taught in school. Instructors are often practitioners that weren’t successful in their practice. They share their beliefs of lack with us, unknowingly teaching us about lack rather than prosperity.

Understand that your conscious thought can be controlled. Train yourself to consciously be aware of your thoughts. Make a choice to focus your attention on what you want, instead of what you don’t want. When you notice that you’re sinking in anxiety, depression, doubt, or confusion about your practice, know that your focus is on what you don’t want. Consider this a red flag that you need to mindfully return your focus to the qualities, behaviors, and actions that uplift and excite you.

Overcoming your unconscious chatter takes strength, discipline and patience with yourself. If you find your thoughts scattering away to worry and negativity quickly, change the path. Each morning when you wake up immediately access your thoughts and make a conscious decision to not be attached to them. One technique that works well is having a “default thought” to fall back on. I recommend you come up with a positive thing about yourself, or something you’ve done, that you can “default” your thinking to whenever you catch your mind wandering into the lack zone.

If you can even take this a step further and spend the first and last 10 minutes of your day – the time when you are half asleep and half awake – thinking positive thoughts and feeling love and prosperity you will change your life. Mantra’s such as “I am worthy to receive good things into my life” or “I am free, I have choice, all is well”.

It’s important that you develop an awareness of how your thoughts and feelings are distorted by your negative interpretations of events that developed into beliefs. Remember, your mind was programmed to focus on lack based on the past. It will only change if you consciously set the intention to change it. This can feel awkward and scary at first because it is a new way of perceiving yourself and the world. But it is crucial to your success because your practice will only grow to the extent that you do.

The perception that it is difficult to make good money in the alternative health industry is ingrained in our heads in school. Do you remember instructors telling you how difficult it is to make it as a chiropractor, or that they are supplementing their income teaching? That you have to have a “second job” to make it in the beginning?

One strong word of caution….Don’t let THEIR beliefs of lack become your beliefs of lack!

About the author

Founder of www.AMarketingConnection.com and www.TheCopywritingInstitute.com, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter, energy worker and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

We consist of four things: Our mental self, our emotional self, our spiritual self, and our physical self. To make a change, to shift a belief, or to touch a life, we must connect with all four aspects of a patient.

This may mean taking your chiropractic practice to the next level and going deeper with treatments and therapies. Treating a symptom is much different than helping a client create lifelong change by changing a nonsupportive behavior.

How we change behaviors now
Simply throwing facts and statistics at a patient is not going to motivate them to change a behavior – no matter how harmful that behavior is, or how beneficial making the change will be. Showing chiropractic patients an x-ray alone or discussing why their energy is not flowing optimally will most likely not change a behavior, at least for the long-term. What you’ll experience is the patient will change their behavior for a little while — usually until the pain stops — and then they will quit coming in.

To change a patient’s harmful behavior the chiropractor must connect with the patient on all four levels; mental, emotional, spiritual, physical.

Many of us talk or may share an x-ray with a patient and show them how their injury or pain is blocking flow – causing the physical experiences they are having. Showing the patient the x-ray is fine, but you must take that to the next level. Explain to them how this blockage is what’s causing them to miss out on baseball games with their kids or preventing them from fully enjoying their work or missing out on opportunities in life. Make it real and if you can touch on an emotional aspect of their pain. “It must be difficult not being able to golf with all your co-workers. How is that affecting your job?”

As healers, the x-ray may make a strong connection for us simply because of who we are – it doesn’t necessarily cause a connection with the majority of our patients. You have to take that a step further and connect with them on another level.

There are several ways you can do this:

1. Tell them verbally
2. Have them touch and feel something such as an anatomical model. Use metaphors and dramatizations to actively involve the client.
3. Provide them with handouts or written materials explaining their condition so they can digest the information at a later time and possibly research the information online later.
4. Have them move if they are experiencing physical symptoms. If they have a hard time standing on one leg because of lower back pain, have them stand on one leg so they experience the pain again. The pain reinforces the message you are giving them.
5. Have them repeat specific messages you want them to walk away with. THEY have to say it, not just listen to you.

Finally, for you to be present in all four quadrants I recommend you empty yourself before you do a treatment to allow spirit to work through you. Empty yourself so your beliefs and problems are not in the way – allowing you to fully serve. If you’re thinking about your next patient or all the emails waiting for your response you are not fully present.

If you experience problems with chiropractic patients coming in for an appointment or two and then not coming back, it may be because you are not connecting with them on all four levels. Try incorporating these techniques and see what a difference they make.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter, energy worker and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

The newest advertising trend today is the daily deal. In the US there are several large daily deal companies the two largest national brands are www.Groupon.com and www.LivingSocial.com.  Many cities have their own smaller daily deal companies – in Denver we have www.weeklydeals.com, Los Angeles has www.SocialBuy.com.

The premise for all daily deal companies is the same…they act on the long used marketing technique of “you have to act fast to save money”. These companies have created unique lists in individual cities across the U.S. (groupon is in 100 cities) the daily deal showcases one company a day and provides significant discounts for that one day only. The deal is only available for a limited time (usually one day) and the company must sell a minimum number of the deal on the same day in order for you to share in the deal. This encourages purchasers to share the deal with a friend which virally spreads the daily deal concept to other like-minded individuals.

Groupon is the most successful of the companies so let’s use it to explore how the daily deal works…

About Groupon

Groupon, which derives from “group coupon”, is currently the fastest growing company in web history. The Groupon business model is simple, it shares a large discount (50% – 90%) with its’ online audience on a product or service in a local community.

As I’m writing this article the Groupon deal today in Denver is for laser hair removal: $99 for 4 zones— normally a $345 value. I received this information through an email I receive every morning. As you will see I am the typical Groupon customer: female, single and employed. Over the past few months I’ve purchased restaurant coupons, white water rafting adventures and discounts at a local furniture store to name a few things. The typical Living Social demographic is similar, with a slightly older average age of 35-49.

Demographics and your health care business

According to Groupon their demographics are mostly single women that work and have a fairly decent income. Of their typical subscribers 70% make over 50K and 30% make over 100K. According to their website Groupon has a high percentage of users, 68%, that are 18-34 years of age and 18% are 35-44. It’s a younger demographic and may not be the right fit for all healthcare providers. The Groupon clients are also highly educated. 50% have a bachelor’s degree and 30% a graduate degree.

Groupon also states that their readers are socially active online and off. They use Facebook and twitter regularly and 50% go out twice a week or more. 66% also state they use Groupon primarily as guide to explore their city. As an example I tried a vegetarian restaurant with my kids she may not have otherwise tried. Who can pass up a ½ price offer? Not me!

According to an article I read in Forbes magazine (August 30, 2010), one of Groupon’s most lucrative sales was a 90-minute hot stone massage at SpellBound BodyWork in Chicago. The retail price was $220, Groupon price $55 (great deal!), they sold 4,960. Groupon also states that users generally spend 60% more than the value of the Groupon – which is a big plus considering Groupon gets on average 50% of the sale.

Marketing Benefits for your chiropractic practice

While companies are unlikely to make millions off of the initial Groupon sale, they do get exposure to thousands of local folks they may never have before. As a consumer you’ll save 50-90% off regular retail price, as a vendor you’ll get your name in front of thousands of locals you may otherwise never reach. Here are a few other benefits for healthcare practitioners using daily deals to promote their practice:

• Groupon naturally increases word-of-mouth referrals. If you see a good deal you copy all your friends on it to make sure everyone gets it together, and they do the same for you. Groupon has a built-in reward system that encourages purchasers to share the deal with friends (you get 10 groupon bucks for every friend you recommend a deal to that purchases the product).
• Exposure to tens of thousands of local prospects you may not have otherwise met.
• No up-front costs. Unlike many other marketing opportunities with Groupon you are not asked for money up front. This can be a perfect opportunity to market your business if you are short on cash. However, Groupon doesn’t promote just anybody. They only take companies they know will sell well so it’s important you put a good package together when approaching them.

Tips from a top-seller – Spellbound Bodyworks in Chicago

I spoke with Elle Rodriguez, owner of SpellBound Bodyworks in Chicago, about her phenomenal success using Groupon.com. She told me she had a positive experience with the Groupon campaign and does recommend it for other practitioners. “The key to making the campaign a success”, she shares, “is in retention. And you retain clients by providing the BEST service to the Groupon clients you can”. She says being able to project and balance the Groupon clients with your existing client base is a key factor to success as well as ensuring you are prepared for the volume and don’t bite off more than you can chew (she sold close to 5000 Groupons). Booking the Groupon clients during specific days and times helped her to manage the flow.

Rodriguez shares that she sees some employees of businesses treating Groupon clients with less respect than traditional clients because their services are discounted so much. “If the main attraction to Groupon is retaining new clients, having a phenomenal experience with you is key to having a successful campaign”, says Rodriguez. “Keep your staff motivated and positive and have a proactive attitude.” Rodriguez recommends practitioners know their costs and come at the campaign with client retention in mind. Many of her Groupon clients have rebooked and purchased items during their visit and she highly recommends the Groupon service to other healthcare practitioners.

No one likes to miss a good sale. However, businesses I’ve spoken to are strategic about what they offer on Groupon. What do you have that doesn’t cost you a lot of money or that has a high mark-up? Be strategic about what and how you discount and don’t lose your shirt in the process by over incenting or not having a strategy in place to retain clients.  Spellbound body works offered discounts on a hot-stone massage. Something a little different people may want to try that doesn’t have a high-cost to serve.

Will this work for chiropractic?

Particularly if you take insurance you may need to be creative on what services you provide on Groupon. Similar samples I found on Groupon include dentists offering teeth whitening, aa variety of massage therapy options, day spa services, hypnosis, acupuncture and more. What can you offer to bring new, health conscious prospects into your practice? Be creative. Be open to the opportunity.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

Facebook and LinkedIn are two of the most popular social media sites today and can be very effective for both relationship building and patient retention. Friending or linking with clients is a natural way to keep in touch and is something many of your clients are already doing on a regular basis.

Relationship building and maintaining clients is one thing…can these free, easy to access avenues actually be used to attract NEW patients?

Yes they can, according to a variety of healthcare practitioners that are active users of both mediums. Let’s take a look at how they can best be used to attract new business…

Facebook
Facebook’s strength is its natural ability to build and maintain relationships. Facebook can be a particularly strong medium for practitioners to build relationships with patients. Many times patients continue to see you because they know and trust YOU. Sharing photos, stories and thoughts on Facebook can be a good way to strengthen relationships already in place. It allows patients to get to know you, the practitioner, as a person which builds loyalty and trust.

When you actively post and comment on your friends posts all of their friends see it as well. This can be a natural way to extend your reach without selling or feeling as if you are pushing your services on others. You are just being yourself in a normal sharing environment.

Facebook has personal profiles as well as business pages.  I have worked with several businesses in creating their business page (called fan pages) and it’s important to note there are several differences. The fan pages are different in that they are actively searched by the search engines and can increase your SEO ranking just by having a presence there. Take a look at Dr. Carla Cupido’s fan page. She does several things to create an active site for her business: she has photos and announcements of her healthy chiropractic patients living active lifestyles, she posts events that are going on in her community her fans may be interested in, and she includes videos and other health tips in her posts.

Casual, friendly, informal….Facebook can be an excellent opportunity to connect with chiropractic prospects and patients alike.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another social networking site many healthcare insiders have success with. LinkedIn can be a strong resource for you to build business-to-business referrals as well as keep in touch with a base of clients with a strong business background.

With a more professional flair than Facebook, LinkedIn provides opportunities to recommend others, connect with people in similar fields and share opinions on matters. Lars Parkin, an employee benefits broker, has gained several new clients directly off LinkedIn. You can take a peek at Parkin’s profile here: Parkin LinkedIn

You’ll notice several things about this LinkedIn profile that makes it work. First of all Parkins is active and posts comments and updates several times a week. Parkins also freely recommends others and keeps a positive and sincere tone to his messages. I’d bet Parkins gives more praise than he receives, but he is sincere in his comments and that shines through in his profile; it’s what attracts people to him. He is also active on Facebook and has more than 400 friends. Being his genuine self he posts funny photos and talks to his kids — which people love. Again he becomes a friend rather than simply a business acquaintance.

Overall Facebook is more informal than LinkedIn and can be geared to a more consumer oriented audience. LinkedIn can be used to build and strengthen business-to-business contacts as well as increase provider-to-provider referrals.

The key to making them both work? Actively participating on a consistent basis and being genuine in sharing, giving and receiving.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

A special report is a great way for chiropractors to provide an easy and risk-free way for prospects to get to know about you and what you. A great bridge between the first introduction to your practice and making an appointment, a chiropractic or wellness special report can be a simple pdf that you make on your own. It may be as simple as a page or two and can include simple graphics (but doesn’t have to).

Getting started with your chiropractic marketing special report

Come up with a subject and title that most closely reflects your unique selling proposition (USP), which is the distinguishing factor that clearly separates you from other healers. If you focus on stress reduction, talk about that in your report. If you use modalities that require specialized training, be sure to include that in the body of your report. Also show why some of the things you offer will solve the problems prospects are experiencing.

Creating a special report can be very simple. Most have these components:

• Title
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion and Call to Action
• About the Author or About our Practice

Here are a few specific places you can use your special report in your practice:

• As the PS in an advertisement or sales letter. “P.S. To receive your free report, The Five Critical Mistakes Chiropractic Patients Make when Getting Their First Adjustment, visit www.amarketingconnection.com or call us today at 303-460-0285.
• On your website, to entice visitors to subscribe to your electronic newsletter (ezine). They want your report so much they are willing to give you their name and email address to receive the report.
• In talks you give. You can offer your free report to people that put their business cards in a bowl, or you can draw business cards from the bowl and the winner gets the free report.
• In classified ads you place or other advertisements. Visit www.AMarketingConnection.com to receive your free copy of _______.
• In your bio, “author of ____”.

Offering a special report or other methods of informative information to prospects is an easy and effortless way to let people get to know more about your practice, what you do and what you stand for without taking a big risk or losing anything.

If you’d like help creating your special report give us a call!

303-460-0285

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

There’s nothing worst than a no-show. Not only are you losing money by not treating that patient, but you have a gaping, unexpected hole in your schedule that’s impossible to re-book at the last minute. You’re left with a block of wasted and unprofitable time, leaving you with just enough time to return a phone call or two.

Is it possible to proactively reduce no shows and ultimately increase the profitability of your practice? Of course. You can start by examining why no-shows occur.

Why do no-shows occur to chiropractors?

You’ll learn a lot about your practice by doing this. Begin by looking at the charts of the people that don’t show up, and see if you can uncover any trends. Look for commonalities such as they were scheduled several weeks or months ahead of time or it’s the same people repeatedly. If they were scheduled far ahead of time, perhaps they found someone that could treat them sooner. Have someone in your office call and ask. If this is the problem you should consider how easy it is to access you. You may discover you need to leave time open in your schedule for new patients.

Another thing to look at is consistency in no-shows. Are the same people repeatedly not showing up? For these folks consider keeping open one particular time of the day, such as right before lunch and the last appointment in the afternoon. This way if they don’t show up, they are not disrupting your schedule as much.

Studies show that self-paid care sees more no-shows than those whose treatment is covered by insurance. If you are a cash practice you may see higher percentages of patients not showing up than in other practices.

Some practices charge for no-shows. If you do that you can be sure the patients won’t be back! You may consider sending a note to their PCP (if you are in communications with them) so they understand what is going on and why treatment has been discontinued. You don’t want the patient bad-mouthing you to your referral source.

How can you proactively prevent no-shows?

The most common technique is to have someone in your office place reminder phone calls and/or emails a day or two before the scheduled appointment. There are also several vendors that provide automated systems that call patients in the evenings when they are most likely home. The service is fairly inexpensive and easy to implement. If you have practice management software check with your provider to ensure the automated phone system integrates with your program.

Also, include in your initial paperwork how important it is for patients to cancel appointments if they can’t make it and request a 24 hour cancellation notice.

Proactively reducing no-shows starts with you evaluating your processes. How you handle emergency treatments and new patients can be two immediate ways you can make a difference to your bottom line.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.