New products and services
How to kick-start your marketing efforts
By Tom Deters, DC

Every chiropractor wants to do more to serve the community. That means doing more for existing patients and getting more new patients! While the core (the central focus and the major revenue source) of any chiropractic practice revolves around chiropractic manipulative therapy, herbs, homeopathy, and wellness services are becoming increasingly prevalent.

Are these ancillary products and services viable? It depends! This is not a debate over efficacy, but rather business.

What if a company made the best product in the world, but was terrible at managing its business and terrible at advertising and marketing? The product would probably languish in obscurity or disappear completely. What a disservice!

Chiropractors offer a phenomenal healthcare product, starting with adjustments and including nutrition, homeopathy, herbal therapy, and wellness, but if the business expertise isn’t there, only a small percentage of the community will benefit.

Here are some things to consider regarding any new or ancillary business for your practice.

ORGANIC BEGINNINGS

Once you’ve decided to go forward with a new product or service, marketing and advertising your products and services will, to a large degree, determine your level of success.

Often the most cost effective and prudent course of action is to begin leveraging your present patient base with in-house marketing and advertising. Selling to a core audience is efficient and can expand your new-patient base before the more costly methods of outside advertising are pursued. This approach also allows you to ramp up incrementally, test drive, and refine your new business.

That means that your success with new products and services is predominantly dependent on the quality of your patient relationships. How deeply sold are your patients on you and your services? How educated are they?

Truly educated patients not only comply with regular adjustments, but also refer their family and friends because they see the value of chiropractic care. These same patients are most likely to be receptive to new or additional services.

This aspect is so critical that your first and greatest marketing and advertising efforts should be spent reaching your present patient base.

Build your internal marketing program on three action items:

1. Develop a program. It should have appropriate supportive materials to establish the link between the patient’s condition or situation and the new product or service. People love learning about themselves, so establishing relevance and applicability in any marketing or advertising material is key. Remember — it’s all about them!

2. Show features and benefits. Once relevance and need are established, focus on features and benefits as they pertain to your patients. Simple but powerful charts, handouts, and literature that distill bona fide research results strengthen your credibility and tends to increase buy-in.

3. Create a mentorship environment. You have a special and unique relationship with your patients, compared with other healthcare professionals. This relationship allows you to counsel, guide, and encourage your patients more deeply and over a longer period.

When appropriate, have the discipline to make it a point to emphasize or revisit whatever product and or service that would help the patient and call the patient to action.

STEPPING OUTSIDE

The second marketing and advertising efforts, both in terms of timing and the amount of resources allocated, are often aimed to attract new patients to your new products or services.

It is important to realize that depending on your business model and the financial projections you have done for this new aspect of your business (breakeven points, revenue estimates, profitability, etc.), you may choose not to go with an outside marketing and advertising program.

When it comes to new customers, it takes more advertising effort and dollars for a lower percentage of success and a lower profit efficiency, as compared to the internally focused programs described above. If you do choose to develop an outside program, realize that it will take some time to establish momentum with advertising.

The objective with any advertisement — especially outside advertising — is to drive sales directly. An effective ad contains four components:

1. An attention getter; (a strong statement or graphic),

2. The establishment of relevant need for the product or service,

3. Information about specific qualities, advantages, and competitive distinction

4. A call to action. The call to action is to close a sale.

The style and voice in the ad should be direct or commanding, persuasive, and audience-specific. Advertising is all about “what they get out of it” — how the product or service helps customers and how it fulfills their immediate and specific needs.

Advertising that you have a “wellness practice” is probably too diffuse to connect with most audiences. Hammering services and benefits might be more effective. Remember it’s all about them.

If you spend some time reviewing ads for chiropractors around the country, you might be amazed at how many ads use half their space or time talking about the credentials or accomplishments of the doctor. The ad should be focused on the patient’s needs!

Another critical point: Whenever you think advertising, think multiple impressions. Only by hearing the message over and over again do people tend to respond. “One shots,” even if they are big and glossy, usually have little impact.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

The last important area for advertising and marketing is with former (inactive patients). While this area may be allocated the smallest amount of time, effort, or money, it can offer relatively efficient returns.

The assumption is that this group was satisfied with you and your services in the past. (Use patient-satisfaction surveys to verify this.) Refreshing your relationships through newsletters or mailers that announce your broader business helps you gain mindshare and increase awareness, which can result in a check-up visit or a referral source (and don’t be shy about asking for referrals!).

STAY ON TRACK

A few final reminders for any advertising and marketing program:

• Target your audience. Don’t try to have a “one size fits all” message. Ads for current patients, new patients, and inactive patients might require different styles, voices, and creative content.

• Send a complete message. Your ad needs an attention getter (words or graphics). It also needs to tell the buyer about the services and benefits — what they get out of it — and what makes you better than or different from the rest. Close with a strong call to action (what you want them to do).

• Track responses. Monitor ad response carefully so that you can modify or cease the ad if you are not getting your predetermined response.

You also might need to do an operational analysis to determine how this new service will impact your current practice (core business) both positively through cross-promotion and negatively through the expense of finite resources like time, energy, opportunity cost and hard dollars. This will help you evaluate and identify your expectations, risks, and potential return.

For further information on seminars, workshops and consulting on strategic practice development by Dr. Deters, go to his Web site, www.tomdeters.com, or you can e-mail him at info@tomdeters.com.