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Ethical Direct Marketing
By Dr. Paul Varnas | September 30, 2009
When marketing a practice, most practitioners engage is identity marketing. It is an ethical way to get your name out in the public domain and hopefully drum up some business. A typical chiropractic ad will list the doctor’s credentials, the types of conditions he or she treats and contact information for the practice. Unfortunately, it is not a very effective way to get patients to contact you.
Direct marketing is usually much more effective. Generally the ad should target a single complaint, make an offer and urge the reader to contact the office. The problem this poses for chiropractors is that it is hard to make a direct marketing ad that is ethical. Writing a compelling headline is hard, because you cannot make guarantees. Making an offer is difficult, because you do not want to give away x-rays, consultations or any of your services; people do not want to go to bargain basement doctors.
But there is a way to ethically and effectively utilize direct marketing without harming your reputation. You can offer free reports, DVDs or CDs relating to as specific condition. Some of this material is available for free; www.wholehealthweb.com has free MP3 files to teach your patients about ADD/ADHD, Pain and Diet. You can burn a CD with your practice information and offer them in your ads.
Getting a patient to come through the door is difficult, but getting them to contact you for something free is easy. Build a list, and then send newsletters and other correspondence. You are now building a relationship with potential new patients. When they finally decide to do something about their health, guess who they will call.
Chiropractic can be the future of health care if we effectively market and we broaden the scope of conditions that we treat. Incorporate nutrition and have a credible approach to most chronic complaints. Offer wellness care. We are the sensible alternative to the overpriced and ineffective health care offered in this country.
I actually have written detailed instructions on marketing. Two FREE ebooks, “Practice 911” and a “Workshop Manual” are available for free at www.marketingwholehealth.com.
Topics: General | No Comments »
October 9th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Treating the whole body not just one symptom is key to successfully having patients return.