The Evidence Based Chiropractor Blog
Hundreds of chiropractic marketing and research articles to help you grow.
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The Top 3 Blog Post Topics to Skyrocket Your Website Traffic
You may already know that blogging can drive massive traffic to your website and help more future patients find your office by improving your search engine optimization. But while most chiropractors realize they should be blogging, far too many don't know where to start.
You may already know that blogging can drive massive traffic to your website and help more future patients find your office by improving your search engine optimization.
But while most chiropractors realize they should be blogging, far too many don't know where to start.
Does that sound familiar?
If so, you are in the right place, because in this article you will discover the three key categories and topics that will help you produce hundreds of future blogs!
The Top Chiropractic Blog Post Ideas
1- Create LISTS
Creating lists is a great way to start blogging, or to pump up your blog because they are relatively easy to execute and provide tremendous value for the people in your audience. You may choose to start with a list of healthy snacks. It's always nice to feature your favorite local healthy restaurants. Or maybe you even put together a list of your recommended stretches and exercises.
There are hundreds if not thousands of different ways you can go with it. The list's also tend to perform very well because the headlines typically grab attention. By putting together a variety of blogs around lists, you can provide a nice quick way for people to see your subject matter expertise.
Also, since they are easy to read, it's more likely the audience will "digest" the material, implement, and take action steps. So lists are an easy way to start blogging — an easy way to start posting that could have a tremendous impact.
2- How-to Blogs
How-to videos blogs and videos are fantastic for many of the same reasons as lists. They provide immense value for the people in your audience. The other great thing about how-to blogs is the extra juice you will get from Google with search engine optimization. Many people start their search by typing "how-to...". So if you have a blog post that answers the question of "how to...", it becomes MUCH more likely that Google (and all of the other search engines) will push you to the top.
How-To Blogs Take Advantage of Google AutoFill and Drive More Traffic to Your Website
As the search engines push you to the top, it can disproportionately affect your website traffic. Studies have indicated the top 5 search results get over 75% of the total traffic, so moving even one position can make a HUGE difference on terms that are searched frequently.
More traffic means more people will visit your website and more people will begin to understand your unique healthcare message which will inevitably result in an increase of new patients into your practice. So "how to" blogs are fantastic. You can go to thousands of different directions; these are an excellent way to start putting out blog content quickly and efficiently while also helping your search engine optimization.
3- Weekly Health Tips
And finally, the third content category is weekly health tips. This is a huge focus of what we do at The Smart Chiropractor and have seen tremendous success. When you can provide health information, health education, and health entertainment every week, it's a tremendous value-add to the people in your audience. It's also great for audience building.
Evaluating research updates and explaining why it matters to your audience (the life impact) is one powerful way to go. You could also feature a healthy exercise that you have found helps your patients with low back complaints.
There are a million different ways you can go with weekly health tips, but the bottom line is that they are a great way to establish cadence and consistency with your brand and practice. Putting out consistent content is crucial. And when you can do it in a way that adds education, information, and entertainment to someone's day- well know you have a piece that ready to be shared!
You'll notice a common theme between all of these categories. They all focus on the other person. They focus on your community, your audience. So take a moment to understand what are you after. Who is the ideal person that you'd want to see in your practice?
Then ask yourself what the primary issues or problems that those individuals are dealing with are.
Then break it down one step farther and ask:
How can I teach them something that benefits with a how-to blog/video?
What's the list that they might be interested in that will make their life better and or more comfortable?
And what is a weekly health tip that will tie it all together?
Focus on providing content that will help make their day and life better.
When you're putting out blog content on your website and social media channels it can help position you as that expert. It will help you become a healthcare leader in your community.
If you have any questions or you want to run any topics by me, leave them down in the comments below. I'll be happy to chip in and help you get on the right path to improve your SEO, ramp up your content production and getting more people into your practice!
How to Create an Iconic Chiropractic Logo
Designing a chiropractic logo can be challenging! You probably spent more time in the clinic than at the museum of modern design. This article is intended to simplify the process for you. I'll help you discover the three key design elements that will help make your chiropractic logo stand out and make a lasting impression.
Also, we'll look at some examples of what not to do when creating a logo that will represent your business for years to come.
Creating a chiropractic logo for your practice that can stand the test of time and perhaps even last your entire career isn't easy. So we're going to go through the three key things that you need to keep in mind as you go through that process to make sure you get the result you desire.
Now whether you are a new doc just starting out or maybe a doc who's getting ready to rebrand your practice, deciding on a logo can be one of the most intense times in anyone's practice. You want to make the right decision. You want to make sure it's going to be something that you can be proud of, and that's it's not going to look dated and drab in a few years. This is so important because the branding and logo of your practice are going to be on every piece of marketing material that you get out to the people in your community. That's why it's so important to do it right the first time!
There are three key things that you can keep in mind as you go through your process to make sure you get a fantastic logo that will make you proud.
1- Clean Design
Number one is looking out for clean design. Ever notice how the suits Frank Sintra wore in the 1950's look just as sharp today. It's all about clean design. He wasn't wearing a frilly Seinfeld-esque pirate shirt. It was clean and straightforward. So make sure that your logo is not too intricate.
This is a common problem I see with a ton of chiropractic clinics.
Especially when you want to incorporate a spine when you get small, and that image gets smaller, and you try to get it into the top of a paper, or you try to get it very small on a shirt. It just becomes a blurry mess. Keep in mind that cleaner design enables your logo to be seen very quickly and very easily if you think of some of the biggest companies that you know Nike has the check or the swoosh. McDonald's is the M. Google is the G. There is a clean aesthetic design where it does not get messy. It does not get blurry regardless of how it is utilized a clean design is number one.
2- Breaking Apart Image and Text
Number two is making sure that you can break apart the image and the text. So a lot of times you might have a brand name for your practice and then a small icon. Be sure that you can break those apart. Depending upon how you want to utilize your logo- if the logo is too tall or too wide you can become jammed into a sloppy final product. But when you can take the little icon and maybe move the words to the left move the words to the right or keep it centered and balanced, you have the opportunity to utilize your exact branding your logo your icon on all your merchandise and marketing materials without having to compromise on aesthetics.
When we're talking about logo and branding it's all about aesthetics; so make sure that you can break up the words and the little image or icon so you can utilize it with all of your marketing channels.
Clean design.
Please don’t do it.
3- Get the VIBE right
Number three make sure that your logo and branding match the aesthetic of your clinic. If you have a clean, modern practice, make sure that that logo is clean and contemporary. This simplifies the process and friction for consumers or future patients. Consequently, if you have a rustic office don't hesitate to go rustic with your logo. There are still ways to make that look beautiful. But keep in mind that the branding and the colors of your logo should very much mirror what people are going to see and experience when they come into your practice. When they receive something via e-mail, go in for a visit, or check out your website, everything should be unified. That is what establishes branding. It is the unification of your aesthetics and messaging.
BONUS TIP- Got to keep them separated!
Whether your logo designed was sourced from Fiverr or if it's an independent designer, make sure that you get one copy without the background. I've seen too many practices where they have a nice beautiful logo, and it's just on white. And they're trying to use it on something that's not white like a shirt, and they end up with a white square on a dark shirt with a logo on top. There are plenty of programs where you can strip the background cleanly and efficiently, but while you're at it, ask your graphic designer.
Creating a logo, and branding are a few of the most important things that you can do as you establish your practice and also as you grow and evolve. But keep in mind clean design wins the day. These quick tips will get you 99 percent of the way there!
I'd love to see your logo, and I'm happy to provide any feedback as well. Drop them down in the comments below. I'll take a look, and I'll answer any questions that you may have.
And remember, "great design is devine" - (me)
Understanding the Lifetime Value of a Chiropractic Patient
Understanding the lifetime value of a patient is crucial when marketing your practice. Lifetime value, or LTV, is a particularly important metric when you are spending money on paid search/PPC/Google Adwords
Understanding the lifetime value of a patient is crucial when marketing your practice. Lifetime value, or LTV, is a particularly important metric when you are spending money on paid search/PPC/Google Adwords. And we all know the power of being able to drive down the cost per click and acquisition. By reducing costs, you will be able to spend more on marketing and scale!
Below is a conversation that I recently had with Matt Adams of Empirical360 here at The Evidence Based Chiropractor HQ where we dive deep into the lifetime value of a patient in your practice and how to maximize your returns.
Understanding the Lifetime Value of a Patient
(conversation has been edited for clarity)
Jeff- Let's dive right in- what's been your experience as far as how many chiropractors or service professionals know the lifetime value of their patient's and what does it mean to their practice?
Matt- So you start with the first question there. The number of chiropractors that I've talked to that has a definitive answer on the lifetime value of a patient is probably close to zero. I don't think that that's through any fault of their own. It's a complicated question to answer.
The reason that lifetime value is so fundamentally important is it's how you can base your decisions on your marketing efforts. Lifetime value helps you assess the health of your practice in regards to patient retention. Are you offering enough services? Are you seeing patients drop off during their care plan? Are referrals coming in? By understanding lifetime value, you can start to answer these questions.
Jeff- The challenge is that a lot of docs get pulled into the weeds when they attempt to calculate LTV. But, in essence, it's quite simple. Just take your total revenue, divided by the number of patients, within a specific timeframe. And that's the easiest way. But using time as the variable, you can do a comparative analysis of let's say last year to this year. Has your lifetime value over time been increasing or decreasing? If you're doing a good job retaining, if you're doing a good job interacting with your patients, and they are coming back into your practice at different points in time it should continue to ascend. And if it's flatlined or it's going down as the year's progress, then that is probably a good indicator that you lack long term retention.
Matt- Yeah absolutely. So there's a couple of different ways that you can look at this as well from a practice standpoint. If the past year is less than what it was four years ago you may ask yourself- did I stop sending out e-mails for patient retention? Did I quit sending out e-mails to get those google reviews and keep people engaged? If you know, last year your revenue numbers for lifetime value are less than what it was four years ago. You have an issue. Another way to way to look at it is based upon your marketing. Again tying back to your e-mail campaigns and getting people engaged through social media, etc.
Jeff- How does lifetime value play into making good decisions with Google Adwords and PPC advertising?
Matt- Yeah it's huge. So it's paramount for us because again we have our own proprietary CRM. We encourage all of our clients to use this not just for the sake of it, but because it's fundamentally important for our clients to be able to grow their practice. But when it comes to having a lifetime value assigned to a particular patient, that's when you can go back to a specific ad, which developed into a lead, and help you optimize your campaigns. We want to be able to maximize towards an actual sale happening, revenue being generated, above and beyond just a lead being created, which is where most marketing companies fall short. Who cares if a point has been created if it generated no revenue for you. So when we look at our CRM, and we see all these different lifetime values that were assigned to this particular campaign which generated that appropriate action step and conversion. That's the importance behind that because then you're getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to your marketing.
Jeff- What are somewhat are some individual factors that you've seen that can affect lifetime value? For instance, your lifetime value may be different in you live in Manhattan compared to Lexington. What are some of the various factors where not everyone is going to have the same lifetime value, and that's okay?
Matt- I would really wouldn't be able to answer that question. And the reason for that is because when I speak to chiropractors about knowing the lifetime value, they don't know the answer to that. So I don't have anything to assign it back to, whether it be demographics, geographic location, etc. But insurance reimbursements are different across the country, and so that's important to know. Because if somebody has a $1,000 marketing budget and has a lifetime value of $300 per patient and we get the three new patients...we're in the red. Whereas if I talk to somebody in different locations that are saying, "we'll make about a $1,000 from every new patient, and I spent $8,000. Well, now they've doubled their money. And so that is a necessary component to your marketing. And that's what's fundamentally important because then as a marketing agency I can tell you if you're going to spend a $1,000 with us and you're saying me that your life lifetime value is $300 per patient and then I may tell you PPC may not be the best option for you right now. Yeah, maybe you do a little bit more social media or organic search.
Jeff- And I think that gets back to some of the points that we've chatted on earlier episodes. Understanding not only the lifetime value that's going to set the anchor but the secondary component of having proper keyword targeting so you're not competing at a level that's beyond the scope of what you can do to increase your conversion rate. The amount you pay per click pay is the advertising amount that you're starting with as the patient goes down the funnel of acquisition so to speak. And if you don't know the lifetime value, you going to have a difficult time deciding as the conversion steps increase along the acquisition cycle.
Matt- Oh yeah absolutely. You know marketing agencies are excellent, but that's also why we prefer to call ourselves a revenue-generating agency.
Jeff- Messy data is not only a chiropractic issue. There are a lot of health care companies that also get stuck in paralysis by analysis and have difficulty making the right decision. The sooner that you understand your data, you will have a competitive advantage, and that's an essential part of doing paid search. Any competitive advantage you can have that drives down the cost of that click or that acquisition is a perfect thing because that enables you to scale.
Matt- Yes absolutely. You need to know where your new patients come from. You don't want to be in the situation where you're looking at your patients and all the information and data that you have for your practice and saying I have no idea what to do going forward. So your data being clean is probably the most important thing.
Jeff- That's an excellent point. You are segmenting out what's what's working and what's not — balancing out branding and sales. You've got to balance short term strategies and long term objectives. And I think that's a that's a tough situation as well as the dilemma of the entrepreneur and the business owner. Many times you start doing things that work, and then you stop doing those things for no good reason! I'm sure that you see that all the time.
Matt- Yeah absolutely. Again it becomes kind of a snowball effect you get going down the path of having different systems and ideas, and you spin off in one direction and you it becomes a very challenging thing to dig yourself out of it. So the better you can clean your data, know your sources for where patients are coming from, and have definite and assignable value for patient acquisition- it will help the growth of your practices is that plain and simple.
Jeff- I think that's a that's a very good ending point. And I encourage everybody if you have questions about lifetime value to throw them down in the comments below. I know Matt, and the team at Empirical will take a look. I'll take a look. We're happy to work with you answer any questions that we can to help you get a better grasp as far as what's going on in your practice with lifetime value.
How to Reduce Crossfit Injuries
Here are the 3 top strategies you can use to prevent Crossfit injuries.
You know the key to Crossfit success is staying consistent with your WOD's; but that's just not possible when you're injured.
By stretching pre/post, improving your lifting ergonomics (don't cheat!) and progressive lifting- you can limit your chance of injury and keep getting those gains!
If you’re into Crossfit, you know how addictive it can become. That mix of high-intensity interval training and competition can help drive your motivation and commitment and lead you to achieve amazing changes to your body. That consistency becomes the key to your success - to getting the results you're after, but what do you do when you're injured?
Preventing Crossfit Injuries
Injuries often occur when your body doesn’t have the correct balance of strength and flexibility. Muscles tears, sprain and strains, and even painful arthritic changes can flare up for a number of reasons, such as attempting to lift too much weight at once or not having enough flexibility to support that weight through a full range of motion. How can you reduce your likelihood of injury? Researchers have discovered that a combination of proper warm up/cool down, a full range of motion and progressive intensity training can help reduce injuries when strength training.
Take a few minutes to stretch before and after your workout.
Increase the weight you lift slowly and focus on quality reps vs. max weight.
Use good posture and ergonomics during your workouts - don’t “cheat” and increase your risk of injury.
One of the most effective ways to improve your spinal mobility and flexibility is through Chiropractic care. Adjustments to your spine and extremities have been shown to increase their range of motion and may help you find that perfect balance of strength and flexibility.
Short-term effect of spinal manipulation on pain perception, spinal mobility, and full height recovery in male subjects with degenerative disk disease: a randomized controlled trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2014. Progressive resistance strength training and the related injuries in older adults: the susceptibility of the shoulder. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 2014.
Create a Chiropractic Blog to Drive Massive Free Traffic with SEO
SEO or search engine optimization is how people find your website when they search Google for a chiropractor. Being at the top of the list is crucial. But you can you get there for free? Consistent, high-quality blogging!
SEO or search engine optimization is how people find your website when they search Google for a chiropractor. Being at the top of the list is crucial. So how can you get there for free? Consistent, high-quality blogging!
Blogging is essential if you want to drive massive traffic to your website and more new patients into your practice. When you have a blog that you actually update, it is going to get more people onto your site, it's going to get more people into your practice, and it is going to help spread your message- your unique health care message- in a way that gets maximum impact.
Your Chiropractic Blog Can Drive MASSIVE Free Traffic to Your Website via SEO
So when I say blog, you might be thinking, "those things have been around forever. I don't know if it's right for me, it seems kind of passe". I want you to get that out of your mind. Blogging gives Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all the other search engines an opportunity to find your practice.
If you have a website and it's just a single page, like a click funnel, but you've made it awesome and loaded it with keywords, you are still fighting an uphill battle! That page is only a single opportunity to showcase to the search engines what you and your practice are about. I want you to have hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities to showcase your practice! That is why blogging is so important.
So I want you to think of a blog like multiple opportunities to show different facets of you and your practice to the public, to the community, to your audience, because that's really what a blog is all about. It gives you the ability to have your own territory and not rely only on Facebook or Instagram or all these other channels and platforms that can change their algorithm any day of the week. Controllable assets, like a website and blog, are a great thing to have a business and market effectively over a long period of time.
Every time you publish content to your blog it gives you the opportunity to control your message. And these messages can grow over time. Keep in mind that every chiropractic blog that you produce gives Google an opportunity to "see" your keywords. So if you have ten blogs posts, fifty blog posts, or one-hundred and fifty blog posts you have the chance to exponentially increase the number of keywords that you're hitting relative to your practice. And it also gives all of the search engines a great deal of context for what you're practice focus. Maybe it's natural healthcare, alternative healthcare, chiropractic fitness, stem cell, multidisciplinary care. Either way, by consistently publishing blog content you will be providing more information to hype your SEO. And the more data that you provide to Google, the more information that you put out there, the better job it can do to find the right people to get to your website.
Search engines are in the business of serving up the best and most specific answer to a query on their platform. That is why a blog is by far and away the best way to improve your search engine optimization. The other thing that is fantastic about a blog is that over time it can evolve. It doesn't need to be your" grandfather's blog" where it's just text on a page.
You can make it engaging with pictures.
You can add in video content.
You can even add infographics and gifs.
As the search engines have increased their abilities throughout the last five to ten years, their ability to understand images and video embedded into your blog has dramatically increased. So what do I mean by that? Previously it was only the keywords was all about the words on the page. But now the pictures themselves give context clues to the search engines. When you give Google more data, it will find highly relevant people to give your page more exposure. These people are more likely to come in and be patients.
Adding video and images also gives you the opportunity to have that page becomes more dynamic. If a patient or person goes to your blog and it's just a million words on a page, and it looks like the next great American novel, it's difficult for somebody to get through. Mostly, it's poor user experience. But if you see a paragraph, and then there's a beautiful picture, another paragraph, and perhaps a little video- now your blog starts to become a really compelling piece of your website that can keep people engaged for a long time.
And guess what happens?
The longer people stay on your page, the higher the page will rank in Google. They love people hanging out on the page because in Google's mind that means you are delivering the goods. Your page gave the exact information that the individual person was looking for. And when somebody hangs out on your page for a while and clicks around, in Google's mind that tells them, they did a good job matching you up. Guess what happens as that starts to occur across multiple pages?
Your overall ranking will go up, and you will start to drive massive traffic to your website with organic search engine optimization.
You can almost think of it like lottery tickets. If you have just a home page or only one blog you have one ticket to win. You don't have a high probability of getting the jackpot. But if you create high-quality content across hundreds of blogs, your essentially buying hundreds of lottery tickets. You just dramatically increased your chance to win!
Tactical Tips to Improve Your Blog and SEO
One tactical tip when you put out a blog is really try to stay above 350 or 400 words. Now you don't need to go up to 8,000 or 10,000 words necessarily, but if you can get between 300-1200 words, you're in a great spot. If you only have 50 words on a page and maybe one image, the search engines may believe you have a "landing page" or squeeze page and Google will begin to steer traffic away from that page. If you have at least 300-ish words in the blog, then you are telling Google that you have done your homework that you have put some time into providing context for your information. Getting over 300 words will also keep people on your page longer and allow you to hit more keywords.
Finally, remember to keep your blog dynamic. If you have a video relevant to that topic of the blog, put it in the middle of it. It's a great way to get engagement, grab additional keywords, and to keep people excited about your content. If you have a beautiful picture, throw that on there and share it to Instagram.
The bottom line is that if you put out high-quality content consistently over a long period then you will be rewarded with a massive influx of organic, free traffic to your website. So if you have been on the fence about starting a blog, you can clearly see I would encourage you to do so. Blogging allows you to climb the rankings on Google, drive more traffic to your website, established subject matter expertise and more. It has been one of the biggest reasons The Evidence Based Chiropractor has been successful for many many years. You can do the same for the people in your community, and build your practice in the process!
If you have any questions about blogging or any questions on platforms, leave them down below. I'll be happy to answer any question that you might have, and that is why you need to start a blog today.