Creating a brochure used to be one of the first things a chiropractor would do to establish a chiropractic practice. Those handy dandy pieces of folded paper could provide prospective patients with all the information they needed to know about your practice.
Today – there are far fewer chiropractors seeking to create these marketing gems for their practice – but a printed brochure can provide a powerful real world illustration of how your website works as well.
Chiropractic websites often serve as virtual online brochures for your practice. However, many chiropractors would never dream of treating their printed brochures the same way they treat their online brochure.
Imagine for a moment that you spent the time, effort and money to create a printed brochure. It’s a thing of beauty – and when the box arrives from the printer – you have several thousand of these “marketing gems” to use to promote your practice. After you’ve opened the box and inspected the contents, you take a handful out and place them at the front desk. The rest of the brochures are left in the box and carefully placed in your office – so that when the brochures at the front desk run low you can replenish them.
You might not be surprised to know that adopting this “distribution” technique for your printed brochure probably won’t build your practice. After all – in order for patients to SEE your brochure they must first walk in the door.
Ideally, your marketing should communicate with people who haven’t walked through the door of your practice.
Unfortunately, this “distribution” technique is very similar to the one used by many chiropractors for their website. Their website is not search engine friendly and not optimized for terms prospective patients may use to find solutions on the web. Instead, the chiropractor will list his/her website url on business cards, letter head and other written correspondence. Just like a brochure that is only distributed once patients walk through the front door – this is not the most effective way to use a website to market your practice.
What is an effective way to use a printed brochure to promote your practice? You can begin by distributing your printed brochure OUTSIDE of your practice. Try visiting local health food stores and gyms and asking if you can set up a reciprocal “brochure display” arrangement. The local health food store and gym agree to place your practice brochures prominently as customers check out – and you agree to distribute their brochures as your patients check in and out of your practice.
This is a great “win/win” situation for all involved. Of course, to increase the effectiveness of your printed brochure – you should be sure to include the URL of your chiropractic website. On your website, you can feature patient testimonials and lots of helpful and useful information. (Learn how to create a successful chiropractic website with the Web Smart Chiropractor.)
Again – the key to creating a powerful brochure – either online or offline – is to get that brochure into the hands of people who need your services. Creating a website you don’t promote outside of your practice is like storing your printed brochures in the backroom. Brochures – online or offline – have to get into the hands of prospective patients before they can get to work promoting your practice.
