6 Keys to Dramatically Improve Your Marketing in 2015 - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

MD Referrals?  The 6 Keys to Building Interdisciplinary Referral Relationships in 2015- 

Would you like to increase the amount of interdisciplinary referrals you receive in 2015?  Below you will find 6 keys to dramatically improve your physician outreach.  By implementing these strategies you will have a solid plan to build interdisciplinary referral relationships.  I highly recommend viewing our Free Tools after reading through this step-by-step toolkit to kickstart your 2015 outreach plan. 

Tracking Sheets

You can only build upon what you measure. Tracking sheets are the fundamental to your success. The two most important tracking sheets are 1) MD Monthly Tracking Sheet and the 2) MD Lunch Tracking Sheet. These two simple documents will help you stay focused and accurate with your outreach efforts. The more accurate and focused your outreach becomes, the better ROI you will receive and the results will continue to improve. At The Evidence Based Chiropractor, we offer these sheets free of charge to all chiropractors. Get them HERE. I have included all the fields/criteria which we have found to be important in maintaining your relationships.

Gathering Your List

There are a few ways which you can gather your physician list. I have gone into great detail regarding this in the blog “Building Your Physician List” which is available HERE. 

Gathering and building your list is crucial because the profile of the doctors, and their sub-specialty, should be tailored to your practice style. The bulk of each list should be primary care physicians (approximately 75%). However, you can fill out the back end of your list with doctors such as pediatricians, sports medicine doctors, orthopedic surgeons, etc., depending upon your personal practice interests. I recommend starting with a list of at least 50 local physicians.

Verify Your List

Verification of your list is where the “rubber meets the road”. Verifying your list ensures that your communications are received; saving you time and postage. Additionally, the verification process offers a great opportunity for your first contact with their office. 

Verification is as simple as making the following phone call, “Hello this is John calling on behalf of Dr. Langmaid’s office.  I am calling to confirm that Dr. Smith is still practicing at your location of 123 Main Street.”

By verifying your list you are able to create extremely accurate tracking sheets. This will become extremely important as you fine tune your list throughout the year. Many medical practices neglect their online presence, so the verification process also helps you get a feel for their practice. You are then able to tailor your future meeting in a way which maximizes effectiveness.

Set Up Objectives

Your next step should be to establish some objectives for your outreach.

What is your anticipated ROI from your outreach?

How many current physician referrals am I receiving?

Am I interested in setting up meetings to build rapport?

How many physician referrals would you like per month?

How can I best serve this physicians patients?

What niche am I focusing on?

We review all of these questions with our members during their implementation call, and they always have access to my email and phone to talk strategy and decide what is best for them. However, I would encourage you to think through these questions and determine your professional objectives. The goal will be to increase incoming interdisciplinary referrals, but the process may vary office to office depending upon personality, location, and finances.

Establish Meetings

Establishing and scheduling meetings with local doctors on your list is a great way to accelerate your relationship building. This can build rapport and expand your network at a rapid pace. Our members have access to a full MD Meeting guide, but I invite you to download the abridged free version HERE.

For the outgoing chiropractor this can be an engaging and even “fun” activity. However, for those of us who are a bit more reserved it may seem like a daunting task. It is important to keep in mind that you know more about the spine and nervous system than 99% of doctors. Also, by being fully prepared (which is elaborated on in our guides) you will execute the meeting with the confidence and polish of a seasoned pro.

Follow Through

Outreach without follow through is likely to be ineffective, inefficient, and soon abandoned. As a fellow physician, you don’t need to be in the other doctors’ office every few weeks as a pharmaceutical rep would be. However, it is paramount that you reach out on a consistent basis. The hallmarks of The Evidence Based Chiropractor are our customized Monthly MD Research Briefs. These provide a welcomed monthly update in the realm of musculoskeletal care which helps position you as a knowledgeable and trusted colleague. I have found that most physicians are very interested in learning about advances in evidence based medicine. Thankfully for us, there is a plethora of research which shows chiropractic care as a safe and effective health care profession. It is extremely important that we take the opportunity to showcase this research to our local colleagues and help grow our profession to the prominence it deserves. No one will promote this fantastic research for us.  The onus is on us.  Get started today and build the relationships that can lead to referrals. 

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

Have you viewed our FREE Guides?  Download The MD Meeting and the 5 Secrets to MD Referrals today.

How to Explode Your Email List and Increase Referrals! - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

The lifeblood of many chiropractic offices are referrals.  At The Evidence Based Chiropractor, we predominately focus on interdisciplinary referrals.  However, today I wanted to touch on an extremely important source of additional referrals- your mailing list!  

Building a large mailing list is one of the most important things a chiropractic office should focus on.   So how can you take action steps today to build and potentially double your mailing list?

1) Provide Valuable content

2) Make it Easy to Opt-In

3) Follow up with Valuable Content

Providing valuable content is the foundation of list growth.  How do you determine what content is valuable?  Start with identifying your patient base.  Is your practice sports based?  Perhaps its auto-accident care?  Maybe you focus on concierge care?  After you determine your audience, you can focus on providing value for them.  For instance, if your practice caters to a Medicare population of golfers you may want to provide information such as "Tips to Play 18 Holes Without Back Pain" or "Drive the Ball Farther with These Exercises".  The key is to provide content that is actionable and valuable to them.  Greater value will increase the likelihood that they share it with friends and spread your message.  Even if the content is not shared you will begin to establish yourself as a trusted source of health information.  

Second, you want to make it extremely easy for people to opt-in to your list.  Your website should be optimized to collect email addresses'.  You may choose to provide content in exchange for an email address or you can configure your website for a pop-up email collector to appear when the patient is ready to leave your site.  Tools such as SumoMe make it easy to accomplish email collection.  

Finally, following up consistently with valuable content is imperative!  Research shows that people are actually more engaged when they are emailed with greater frequency; so don't be afraid to email people often (as long as the content is providing value).  Creating a series of auto responders is easiest way to do this.  It can truly become a "set it and forget it" system with a little work on the front end.  Again, when you provide content that enriches the lives of your patient's they will share it with their friends which will continue to grow your list.  

When executed properly your email list can give you a far superior ROI when compared to traditional print advertising.  Feel free to ask questions in the comment section below.  Now there is only one thing left.... get started!  

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

Have you viewed our FREE Guides?  Download The MD Meeting and the 5 Secrets to MD Referrals today.

Top 3 Chiropractic Research Articles of 2013- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Last year, three landmark chiropractic research articles were released.  But, like a tree in the woods; if it falls and no ones hears it, did it actually fall?  We used these articles as part of our Monthly MD Research Brief's and our members were able to get the information out to thousands of MD's.  Yet, many chiropractors are still unaware of this great research.  Here are the top 3 chiropractic research articles of 2013-  

“There was a statistically and clinically significant benefit to those patients receiving chiropractic manipulative treatment...” 

“73% of participants in the SMC plus CMT group rated their global improvement as pain completely gone, much better, or moderately better, compared with 17% in the SMC group.” 

“This is the first time that spinal manipulation was investigated in a double-blinded randomized controlled design showing clear superiority compared with placebo and NSAID.” 

“HVLA manipulation can be recommended for the therapy of acute nonspecific LBP.” 

“Final evaluation showed manipulation being significantly better than NSAID and clinical superior to placebo.” 

JMPT 2013

“A systematic review of the literature done the next year concluded that spinal manipulation is a very safe and cost-effective option to treat lumbar disc herniation.” 

“Both of the treatment groups had significant decreases in their NRS scores at 1 month with a 60% reduction for the Spinal Manipulative Therapy cohort and a 53% reduction for the Nerve Root Injection group.” 

Have you viewed our FREE Guides?  Download The MD Meeting and the 5 Secrets to MD Referrals today. 

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

Have you viewed our FREE Guides?  Download The MD Meeting and the 5 Secrets to MD Referrals today. 

Ever Wasted Time Meeting with a Medical Doctor? - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Have you had a disappointing meeting with an MD in the past?  

Maybe you were shuffled through and received hardly a passing glance?

This has happened to many chiropractors who did not have the tools and training necessary to maximize their time and energy.  At The Evidence Based Chiropractor, we approach MD Meetings in a systematic fashion with an emphasis on using the socratic method.  In order to present and position your office you need to know how you can best serve their patients.  Fortunately, chiropractic is one of the most safe and effective health care professions ever known.  However, we must position and present our practices in a very systematic fashion to avoid and overcome the negative perception many other healthcare practitioners falsely hold of our profession.

Their has never been another time when more positive and supportive literature for chiropractic has existed.  Journals such as Spine, the British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, etc. have all produced recent research supporting the use of chiropractic care.  Next time you meet with an MD, be prepared.  Explore our free tools such as The MD Meeting or join our flagship Membership Program.  Research, Relationships. Referrals.

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world.  Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.

The 3 Big Hinderances to Chiropractic Referrals- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Most MD's have 3 big hinderances when it comes to making a chiropractic referral (aside from safety, which is a topic for another day).  At The Evidence Based Chiropractor, the guides in our Members Vault help chiropractors directly address and overcome these hinderances.  In this blog post we will examine each of these hinderances.

1) The Patient Vortex-  Many MD's are anxious about referring a patient to a chiropractor only to never see the patient again.  Whether its a fear that the chiropractor may try to "talk them out of" medical care, or that the chiropractor is treating patients as a primary care physician would; there are many MD's who are scared of the "patient vortex".

2) Lack of Communication-  Research shows us that between MD's and DO's, case notes are exchanged nearly 90% of the time.  When a DC gets added to the equation the case notes drop to 60%.  I would argue that its prudent in terms of service and case management to provide case notes for each and every patients PCP (within the law and with consent).  The bottom line is that we, as chiropractors, need to improve our interdisciplinary communication.

3) The 500 Visit Care Plan-  Almost everyone has heard a story of a patient entering a chiropractic office, being examined, and then subsequently being recommended years of care.  While this is unfortunately true, it happens extremely infrequently.  However, the story has scared off many MD's who are hesitant to refer when they are unsure if the patient will receive a trial course of care or a multi-decade treatment schedule.  

As you can see, the 3 big hinderances to chiropractic referrals are mostly based on conjecture and myth.  It is our task to make sure our potential referral partners know that 1) research shows that patients receive the best results when their primary care physician and chiropractor are working together, 2) we send case notes for every patient and provide timely communication, and 3) upon examination and evaluation we support a trial course of care.  By addressing these topics up front you will ease the mind of your potential referral partner and further position your practice as a trusted asset for their patients healthcare.