Pretty is as pretty does

There once was a chiropractor who decided to open his own practice.  He hired his wife to act as his office manager and it wasn’t long before his practice was thriving.

The years went by – and one day his wife announced that she was leaving him.  He was devastated.  Not only was he losing his life partner – but his office manager as well.

Despite his broken heart – he needed an office manager to step in and manage his practice.  He ran an ad in the paper and one woman who responded was a stunning beauty.  She was tall and thin, with long blonde hair and big blue eyes.  When she spoke, her voice was like that of an angel.  Of course, the chiropractor hired this goddess immediately and patted himself on the back for his exceptional hiring decision.

As the weeks went by, the chiropractor began to be alarmed.  Despite the fact that he was pleasantly busy, there was very little money being deposited into his bank account. To make a long story short – the beautiful blonde was stealing from her new employer.  She was beautiful – she was sexy – and had she been allowed to remain – she would have destroyed his practice.

Unfortunately, there may be a beautiful thief in your practice as well.  Your chiropractic websites can be just like the beautiful woman in the story above.

Your website may be beautiful – but it may be “stealing” from your practice.  However, instead of stealing actual revenue – it’s stealing potential revenue – and that’s why it may be the most insidious thief of all.

The best chiropractic websites are a lot like the people who man your front desk.  For many prospective patients, the first impression they have of your chiropractic practice is your website – so it’s important that your website be attractive and professional.  However, it’s also essential that your chiropractic website also be hard working.

It needs to be easy to update – so you can constantly be adding new and fresh content to the site.  Patients and prospective patients alike won’t come back to your website if there’s nothing new there for them to see.

Your chiropractic website must also be able to be easily indexed by the search engines – so when patientsna dn prospective patients SEARCH for your practice that they’ll find you and your practice online.

Of course, if you really want to make your chiropractic website work as hard as you do – be sure to add online appointment scheduling to your chiropractic website.  Most online appointment scheduling software allows you to easily link to their software – making it as easy to integrate into your website as inserting a link.

It’s one thing to have a beautiful website – but when that beautiful website also contributes to your patient count – well – that’s where the real “pretty” comes into play!

Trust is a key factor in acquiring new patients for your practice.  If people don’t trust you – they won’t schedule an appointment with you – it’s just that simple. One of the problems with the typical chiropractic business building systems being sold to chiropractors is they seem to ignore this basic premise.

There’s no doubt that patient referrals are perhaps the most powerful practice building tool available to chiropractors.  The reason patient referrals are such a powerful practice building tool is that patient referrals leverage trust to inspire action.

The first level of trust which is at play in the patient referral is the trusting relationship established between you and the existing patient.   You have a lot of control here – so this part is relatively “easy” for a chiropractor manage.  You simply provide top quality chiropractic care while providing basic education for your patient.  However, there is a second level of “trust” at play in the patient referral – one over which you – the chiropractor – have absolutely no control.

The second level of trust which is at play in the patient referral process is the trust between the patient and others.  While you must earn each patient’s trust – you have no control over how much trust each patient has earned with friends and family.  That patient has their own relationships – and his/her credibility is the key element in whether or not he/she is able to “pass” their trust in you to others a.k.a. provide patient referrals for your practice.

Honestly – this is most often the point where the patient referral system “breaks down”.  The patient – for whatever reason – either isn’t telling family and friends OR hasn’t established enough trust with family and friends for his/her referral to have any value.

In a perfect world, every patient would be not only willing but able to provide all the patient referrals you would ever want or need to fill your practice.  However, it’s not a perfect world and only a few of your current patients have the connections and the ability to truly grow your practice through patient referrals.

This is why actively marketing your practice to reach new and prospective patients is essential for any chiropractic practice.  In order to get prospective patients to schedule an appointment with your office you’re going to have to work at building trust with them.

How to build trust with prospective patients

Building trusting relationships takes time.

This is an important fact to keep in mind as you think about creating any marketing communication designed to build trust with prospective patients.  The only “shortcut” to a lengthy trust building process via the existing patient referral.

When it comes to spreading the word about your practice – remember the old marketing adage – that it takes 8-13 exposures to your marketing message before it makes an impression on the target consumer.  What that means is that a prospective patient has to see/hear your advertisement on average 8-13 times before it even BEGINS to register.  So if you’re running an ad on the radio – and you’re sick to death of hearing it – remember – it has just begun to make an “impression” with your target audience.

Traditional advertising helps accelerate building trusting relationships.

Advertising – either on the radio, in the newspaper, on television or via the local cinema – all do a great job of laying a furn foundation for building trust.  There’s just something about committing to placing your message in a local media on a regular basis that plays a pivotal role in building trust with prospective patients you don’t know and your current patients don’t know.  Keep the point above in mind when advertising your practice though – about the time you’re sick of your ad – it’s just starting to make an impression with the masses.

Testimonials help accelerate building trusting relationships.

Patient testimonials work best when prospective patients know and recognize the patients you feature in your testimonials.  However, getting patients to write testimonials can be difficult.  I encouraged one of my clients to bring his camcorder to work.  When he was done seeing his patients, he asked if he could record them giving a brief testimonials.  Of course, some said no – but many said yes – and he uses those powerful videos on his website – to help build trust with people in his community that he hasn’t met yet.

Blogging can help accelerate building trusting relationships.

I recently had a conversation with a client who thought that the “magic” blogging held for her business was to get it to the #1 organic search position in Google when someone searched for her by name.   Her blog did exactly that – but it wasn’t until she began blogging for her practice with the idea of building trust with prospective patients in mind that her blog really began “working” at building her practice.

The “magic” of blogging lies in how easy blogs make it to publish content to the web.  It’s only when you share your experience and expertise on your will you see what a powerful practice building tool a blog can be.

Start sharing your expertise on your blog on a regular basis and you might be surprised how quickly you can build trust with prospective patients.

Facebook helps accelerate building trusting relationships.

Recent studies have shown that regular Facebook users are more trusting of the recommendations offered to them by their friends and connections on the popular social networking device.

Create a Facebook page for your chiropractic practice and start communicating with patients and prospective patients alike there.

Not only does Facebook help to build trust – but having a Facebook Page makes it EASY for your patients to “share” you there.

Keep in mind as you create marketing messages for your practice – they need to answer the question swimming in every prospective patient’s head – “Can I trust you?”

I hate it when former used car salesmen and other “salesmen” decide to go into the business of selling “practice building information products” to chiropractors. I hate it for you – the chiropractor who is reading this post and who really wants to build a successful practice but is at wits end as to how to do it.

Why most “Effortless Chiropractor Business Builder Systems” are a load of BS.

If you’ve ever visited one of those high pressure “explode your chiropractic practice patient count” websites and felt uneasy about using those high pressure tactics to promote your practice – then I have really good news for you.  TRUST YOUR GUT! Your instincts are right on target and I’ll share with you and important reason WHY most of the “practice building” techniques illustrated in these systems aren’t equipped to help you successfully market and build your practice in the long haul.

As a chiropractor – you’re not selling cars – or books – or videos – or even a membership to a website.  Those – along with these “practice building systems” are relatively easy things to sell compared to the “sale” you have to make as a chiropractor.

As a chiropractor – you have an incredibly difficult “sale” to make because your objective is to “sell” your ability to provide quality health care for your patients.

I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know.  However, this is where it gets exciting.  See, chiropractors aren’t the only ones who have trouble making this kind of sale.   Thanks to studies performed back in the early 1980′s there’s now a word for this kind of sale: it’s called a MAJOR SALE.

A major sale is not some term I coined – but rather one used by Neil Rackham a psychologist who decided to study and document the traits of super successful sales people.  What he discovered was literally ground breaking information upon which a series of books were written and upon which a multi-million dollar sales training company has been built. If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of Mr. Rackham – or his ground breaking work – it’s because he works with Fortune 100 clients like IBM and Honeywell.

In the book  SPIN Selling Rackham shares why traditional sales methods which were developed for small consumer sales just won’t work for what he called “Major Sales”.  IBM and Honeywell executives are well aware that their sales teams are involved in making these types of sales.

Does it surprise you to know that as a chiropractor – you too are engaged in making a Major Sale?

Which is why I literally CRINGE when I see the marketing tactics employed by almost every “Chiropractic Practice Building” bullshit program.

Those marketing tactics – the popup beg screens – the outlandish claims promising an “avalanche of new patients” -are all great marketing tactics to use when you’re making a MINOR SALE.

According to Rackham, you know it’s a Minor Sales if/when the follow criteria are met.

• The buyer’s financial or emotional investment is low or insignificant
• The purchase does not warrant the time/energy necessary to research alternatives
• There is little interaction between you and the customer
• The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are inconsequential or insignificant.

As you can see from the list above, selling a “chiropractic practice building system” qualifies as a Minor Sale.

On the other hand, your practice marketing is making a Major Sale if:

• The buyer’s financial and/or emotional investment is significant
• The purchase warrants significant time and research into alternatives
• There is the potential for a long-term relationship between you and/or your business and the customer
• The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are high

The second list – the one which lists the qualities of a major sale – sure sound like they apply to building your practice – don’t they?

This is why most Chiropractic Practice Building Systems are worthless.  Not because they don’t contain GREAT marketing/sales information – many do.  However, many of them approach the “sale” of chiropractic like it’s on the same level as selling an ebook or video system.

You’re not selling a “system” – you’re not even just selling “health care” – you’re selling yourself as a professional health care provider.  Your patient’s health is in your hands.   They know this – make sure your practice building marketing tactics show you do as well.

When you mention “social media” – the first site that comes to mind for most chiropractors is Facebook.  With almost 3/4 of a billion users – it’s THE online place to be.

While chiropractors still need more than Facebook to promote their practice – Facebook can be a great practice building tool when used properly.

That’s right – just like any other social media tool – you have to learn HOW to use Facebook for your practice.

Begin by creating a personal profile.  You’ll need this personal profile in order to create a Facebook Page for your practice.  If you’re a sole practitioner you might be tempted to stop there and just use your personal profile.  However, if you really want to use Facebook to promote your practice you’re probably going to need to set up a Facebook Page.

Creating a Facebook Page for your Chiropractic Practice

Click here to get started creating a page for your chiropractic practice.  When it comes to naming your page – remember that the name you type in is the name you’ll have FOREVER. The name you choose will also affect the URL of your Facebook Page – and the search engines do pay attention to such things – so be sure to choose wisely.

You’ll also have the option to choose from several different TYPES of pages – and as a chiropractor the one you’ll want to choose is “Local Business” and then “Health Care”.

Next it’s time to upload a photo.  This image will appear next to posts you create through your Facebook page – so if you’ve had a logo designed for your practice – this is the place to use it!  Choose this image carefully as well – because its going become strongly associated with your priactice’s “brand” on Facebook.

Facebook does a great job of walking you through the rest of the fields you need to enter.

Most of the “suggestions” made by Facebook are aimed towards promoting your page to other Facebook users.  In the “old days” the people who “liked” your page were called your “fans”.   Even though Facebook doesn’t use this phrase anymore – we will here because it’s a VERY good description of the people who will go to the time and trouble to “like” your page.

Creating Facebook Fans

Facebook “fans” are simply people who have “liked” your company’s page. In order to “like” your page – they must be logged into their Facebook profile.

There are many ways to get people to “like” your Facebook page.  Facebook even offers a few suggestions such as ‘invite your friends’ and ‘invite your current customers’.

Remember – when someone clicks the “like” button – it’s a very visible way to permanently “link” themselves with your practice.  Be sure to reward your Facebook fans because trust me – they deserve it.

When it comes to marketing your chiropractic practice – you must keep the following in mind:

The better your patient’s experience with your practice, the more they will reward you in terms of repeat visits and patient referrals down the road.