How Chiropractors Can Use Healthcare Market Research To Grow Their Practice

It is reported that the healthcare industry collectively spends $30 billion on marketing each year. Most chiropractors spend about $15,000 pr year- so that means we need to be creative with our approach!

It is not always easy to explain complex medical and chiropractic concepts to the public using traditional marketing techniques.

Read on as we explain the best ways to leverage healthcare market research for the benefit of your practice.

Conversational Marketing 

Many experts have begun to dismiss traditional marketing methods as too one-sided.

They claim that the idea of broadcasting a carefully tailored message from a billboard or television is borderline propagandistic.

They suggest treating marketing as a conversation. The idea is that you communicate with potential patients as if they were sitting before you.

This approach fosters trust and respect. When dealing with healthcare products, this is especially important.

People with medical issues need to believe what you tell them. They also need to believe that you care about them and that you're not just trying to line your pockets.

If you can use research findings in this way, your marketing budget will be far better spent.

Know-How to Back Up Your Claims

Patients might not understand everything you do, or why you do it. However, many of them are quite adept at catching out doctors who don't understand what they say themselves.

When acting on new market research, consider why you're doing it. Make sure you can justify your course of treatment to a patient if they make inquiries of you.

Improving the quality of your care is the best marketing strategy you can employ.

If you leave most of your patients in a better condition than you found them in, word of mouth will grow your business.

Consider Your Medium of Communication

Social media is the most important means of communication for many people nowadays, especially younger adults.

Where suitable, therefore, make use of it. Use Facebook posts or YouTube videos to communicate with your patients. Break down difficult concepts so that those without medical expertise have a better chance of understanding them.

If you become adept at this type of communication, you can even start to build an online community. As well as increasing the traffic to your practice, it will also open up other moneymaking avenues.

Using Healthcare Market Research to Your Advantage

There are many ways to grow your medical practice. However, using healthcare market research to inform your expansion will allow you to achieve your business goals in a way that is beneficial to your patients.

If you're a chiropractor and you're interested in securing more referrals from doctors, join our program today.

Marketing Chiropractic with Research

So this is where research becomes a massive ally of ours. If our research sucked, it would be hard to market it! Fortunately,  we have great literature supporting what we do as chiropractors, and it comes out all the time. There is a backlog of terrific research. And if you've never reached out in the past, you may have ten years worth of content before you have to think about trying to find something new. 

But getting out there with it, marketing it, using it, is the critical step. Marketing through research gives you that monthly marketing touchpoint. And in marketing, consistency and focus are key.  If you start sending people 20-page research papers..you are punishing them. You are not helping them. Nobody has enough time to short through a long-form research paper. 

So if you're going to do the outreach, the onus is on you to frame it in a way that matters to them. 

That is why we use a straightforward process. One peer-reviewed piece of research, one time per month. At worst the other physician will see your name in a professional context, becoming a leader in education in your community. At best they're going to take action. Ultimately sending brief, concise, and impactful monthly research updates it's always going to be looked upon in a favorable light. It adds value to them.

The Ultimate Chiropractic Marketing Success Secrets Revealed

Marketing a chiropractic practice can be tough. I mean, real tough (think parallel parking in Manhattan). 

It’s difficult to get all the marketing strategies, all the different marketing approaches, and all the experts insights without spending countless hours visiting dozens of websites.  

Also, depending on your practice type (family, sports, rehab) and philosophy (yes, please or no, thank you) you can end up struggling to implement changes. 

A classic case of paralysis by analysis. 

Well…

What if you had the best influencers, from all sides of chiropractic, come together and tell you their top strategies for growth?

I have good news for you. It’s here.

I bribed, pleaded, and blackmailed (ok, I didn’t blackmail anyone) the top minds of chiropractic marketing to offer insight into their strategies for chiropractic success. By calling in a few favors and twisting a few arms, I was able to wrangle up Beau Pierce, Jerry Kennedy, Matthew Loop, Laurence Tham, Bobby Maybee, Tristan Schaub, and Erik Brower. 

So I did what any reasonable man would do, I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

No one was harmed during the making of this blog post, although we came pretty close (ask Tristan about it sometime).

So without further adieu; here is the Ultimate Chiropractic Marketing Success Secrets Revealed. 

What is the biggest misconception that chiropractors have about utilizing social media? 

“The biggest misconception about social media is that it takes a lot of time. If done in a certain way, the doctor can create systems which feed the office traffic and new patient referrals for years to come. Unlike a postcard drop where you may reap the benefits one time only. Slow but steady always wins the race. Consistency moves mountains. The goal is to get one system in place, automate it the best way possible, then stack another layer onto the marketing machine. And YES, the doctor needs to put some time in. No one that's ever become a wealthy industry influencer online outsourced their entire social media outreach. That's the cold hard truth. You are your brand. Your voice is unique and needs to be heard if you want to build a loyal following that knows, likes, and trusts you”, says Matthew Loop, expert social media marketer and author of Social Media Made Me Rich. 

Also focusing on the SOCIAL aspect is key. Beau Pierce, the founder of Circle of Docs, told me, “Many doctors think of social media as a glorified bullhorn and nothing more than a chance to "show off."  Once they fully grasp the true understanding of Why you should use social media and the ability to build a community of people who are looking for your knowledge, then they rally behind it.”

Tristan Schaub, of ChiroSushi and the ChiroSushiSummit, kept it real by saying, “Chiropractors think that all they need to share is “ChiroContent”. Chiropractic is about Life. Social Media is now Life. Chiro's need to realize that their social media should emphasize the social part of social media and get creative with their content on a consistent basis.”

What is the best framework to market your practice without “selling”? 

“Marketing without selling depends 100% on communication skills and relationships.  Every part of your marketing has to communicate a specific and targeted idea or feeling.  The ideas must be conveyed in a way that tells patients what their implied benefit is when using your services.  When you bring people to your practice that way, then you can focus on goal based, functional planning in cooperation with the patient.  They will come in with a certain expectation that your marketing hopefully set for them (hopefully).  Then you frame their experience around those expectations and specific personalized goals.  When you make those goals measurable, and you manage expectations and work to build relationships, you can easily market without selling.”, Bobby Maybee- founder and admin of the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance

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Exclusive Success Tips from Laurence Tham of Drive Your Practice

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If you want to market without selling, you have to be in the community building/relationship building business. It's a different mindset. You have to start implementing cost-effective tools and systems that are designed to provide value and stay in touch over the long haul. 

Newsletters are a great example. Sending emails to people doesn't cost much, and when done correctly, it can be a great relationship builder. The same can be said for written newsletters. It's a bit old-school to send someone something in the mail. It also costs more than doing things online, but printed newsletters are an excellent way to stay in touch with your existing patients. If nothing else, use them to stay in touch with your VIPs. Your most valuable patients are worth the extra effort. 

“Social media can also be used as a community/relationship builder. It's more difficult to do that it used to be because social media has become a very noisy place. But there is still potential there if done correctly. Unfortunately, most chiropractors don't have a social media strategy that makes any sense, so they are just wasting time.” Jerry Kennedy, Black Sheep 

“The best way for a chiropractor to amplify their message and establish authority is to master the art of Facebook outreach along with social proof marketing. With Facebook, you can flip a switch and target your ideal prospective patient, build your name quickly, hit critical mass in your local community, and create a surge of new patient referrals each month. Some of these strategies are free while others can be implemented on a shoestring budget. On the social proof side of things, review platforms like Google and Yelp can influence opinion instantly. People buy chiropractors like they buy books on Amazon. The first thing the prospective patient does is look at what others are saying about you. If you have dozens of reviews, you look like the obvious logical choice. If you don't have any patient feedback, you don't look review worthy.”- Matthew Loop

What is the greatest challenge in building an audience online?  

“Staying consistent with the audience you have while opening up your strategies to welcome new followers and not alienating the latter”.- Tristan Schaub 

Remember, you don't need to always jump to the next online fad. “The greatest challenge that chiropractors have when building an audience online is knowing where to start. It's easy to get overwhelmed with social media and think you need a new tool or course every week. That's not the case, though. Certain foundational principles have worked for years and continue to be effective. Start with one platform like Facebook and implement one practice growth strategy. Then, as you and your staff get comfortable, you can always layer more on top. Don't get preoccupied with Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, or Pinterest yet. Follow one course of action until successful. Stay away from the shiny objects until you're seeing a steady flow of new patients”.- Matthew Loop

Also, keep in mind the story of the tortoise and the hare. It rings true online. “Consistency.  Flat out.  When you start out, you post all the time, write articles, etc.  but once the glimmer and shine of that new website start to fade, you must force yourself to stay consistent.  My best advice to create a calendar and rhythm.  Schedule out what you are going to post and then do it.  Stay consistent. If you want to write one article a week and do a podcast, then stick to that schedule... force yourself to commit and then over deliver with your content”.  - Beau Pierce 

So there you have it, the best frameworks, action items, challenges to building your online presence, and growing your practice from the top minds in chiropractic. 

To not only survive, but thrive, in the modern healthcare era, we all should be building our audiences and expertise. 

But you don't need to reinvent the wheel. By using a tried and true framework, you can make the process efficient. Then, by knowing where others have struggled, you can avoid those missteps and grow at a faster rate. 

So you made it to the end of the article. Now it’s time to go cause a ruckus. 

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Special Bonus: Check out Erik Brower from Amped in this exclusive video interview! 

Building Your Tribe- by Beau Pierce of Circle of Docs

As a Doctor of Chiropractic we should always be looking for ways to grow our practice and make our personal brand synonymous with the words authority and trust.

One way to aide in accomplishing this is to have a great working relationship with other medical professionals. What was once generally perceived as an easy task of, “Just pick up the phone and call them” can turn quickly into a daunting situation. 

Here are strategies to help build your tribe of medical professionals in your local community.

1. Be a “Real” Person

If you want to reach other doctors, act like them. Simple right? Hardly

Contrary to perceived belief, medical doctors are living and breathing people. Yes, their ideas for how to best care for a patient may be slightly differing from ours, but at the core we are still all on the same team. 

A lot of people turn into robots when they get in front of other “doctors” and freeze up or become the “holier than thou” doctor.

Don’t be that guy or girl.

You can be different:

• Talk like a real person (even if it means breaking a few grammatical rules).
• Be accessible. Answer your phone when they call, respond back to emails promptly and send over detailed notes about the patients you share. 

Just don’t be someone you’re not. Be you and amazing stuff will happen.

2. Be Relevant

People don’t care about what matters to you; they care about what matters to them. If you want to attract more doctors, you need to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about how you can help them and their practice.

One thing I see Chiropractors do is immediately try to “talk shop” to the other doctor the day they meet them. 

Stop!  

They do not care. Why? 

Because the word “chiropractic” holds no relevancy in their minds… yet

Remember: MD’s are taught to find a problem, prescribe, and fix it.  Words like low back pain, neck pain, headache, etc are what these doctors associate with “chiropractic”. Be relevant in their terms and then let the conversation flow.  

Eventually you will be able to go into the history of Chiropractic, show them a presentation on chiropractic and channel your inner BJ Palmer, but not at first.

The first thing you should be doing is figuring out how to help them. Be their best marketer. Send them patients, answer any questions they toss your way and be a cheerleader for their practice.

Over- the top generosity is the best marketing you’ll ever do. Nothing builds an audience faster than freely giving without expectation

3. Create a Bond

In the words of former Navy Seal, Marcus Luttrell, “Bonds are created in times of Adversity”.  If you are working with another doctor by managing a case, use this “Adversity” to build a bond with that doctor and his/her staff. 

Perform!  

Do a great job caring for that patient and then follow up with that doctor. Forge that bond further by sending over your detailed notes and pick up the phone and have conversation about your care plan.  Show them that you are responsible for the patient and want to work with them further. 

4. Make them a Super Star

Everyone loves to see their name in “lights”.  Highlight the doctor. Write a blog post about them and their practice. Grab your iphone and do a quick interview with them on camera. Perhaps even create a page on your website for “affiliations” and put their practice logo and a snippet about them.  Make them a Super Star.

 When you make your practice about other people, they’ll make it about you.

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Dr. Beau Pierce is the Founder of CircleofDocs, the online network for the Chiropractic Profession. His expertise in digital community building paired with his medical background has catapulted him to be a in demand speaker and lecturer. His Chiropractic practice is located in Santa Maria, California and where he resides with his wife and two children.

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor has assisted hundreds of chiropractors around the globe build interdisciplinary referral relationships.

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Highlighting the Adjustment- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Highlighting the adjustment is a foundational aspect of The Evidence Based Chiropractor.  Journals such as SPINE, the British Medical Journal, JMPT, the Annals of Internal Medicine, etc. have all produced research in support of the chiropractic adjustment.  Chiropractic is a distinct and unique health care profession which, in my opinion, needs nothing "added" to it.  However, we are in dire need of increasing our market utilization by highlighting our primary advantage... the chiropractic adjustment.  

Chiropractors in the past could not actively promote the adjustment due to a lack of research.  Throughout the years this may have contributed to our desire to include other modalities in our offices'.  However, now we have a deep and vast base of research which we can draw from and promote.  In a previous post I broke down the numbers and estimated that implementation of a interdisciplinary outreach system should be able to be accomplished with roughly a hour of staff time per month.  The Evidence Based Chiropractor was founded to help facilitate this process, increasing our market utilization and ultimately creating more opportunities for chiropractors to practice worldwide.  And, it is all done in an effort to honor the act of the chiropractic adjustment. 

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the fastest growing chiropractic marketing group in the profession.  We are dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is proven, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.