Make (effective) marketing mandatory
By Seth A. Braverman

No one has a magic formula to guarantee a consistent introduction of new patients. No mathematical equation or ancient folk spell can guarantee new faces to come into a practice.

The driving force behind every successful business, chiropractic or not, is marketing. This fact has been cut up, refried, and seasoned so heavily with bogus fillers that the actual truth to marketing has been lost in the mix.

What sets a great practice apart from a good practice is consistency — at least two internal and two external marketing events per month. With a consistent plan you are always implementing one thing, just as you are following up on the previous event.

The thinking behind this strategy is to make sure the practice has equal exposure to both existing patients and the community.

If you consider some of the most successful marketing campaigns in the history of sales, you see a recurring trend of ideas and events that don't seem like marketing. Consider, for example, the GEICO commercials. The little green gecko doesn't have anything to do with auto insurance.

Yet, by providing entertainment, the company has carved out a niche for itself and for a majority of viewers: Whenever you see a green lizard, you think of GEICO.

This indirect method is the "big secret" that dictates how effective a marketing idea will be with patients.

A marketing truth: Great marketing is based on either entertainment or values.

SIMPLE VS. EFFECTIVE

A distinct difference exists between simple marketing and effective marketing.

• Simple marketing. Simple marketing puts responsibility on the potential patient to contact the practice. Examples of simple marketing include yellow-page ads, newspaper flyers, and radio advertising.

Simple marketing makes up the majority of promotional efforts by doctors, because it is the easiest (and often least expensive) to implement.

The problem with simple marketing is that people do not always take the initiative to act. Some of your patients can't even remember their appointment time!

Simple marketing is not a bad thing, but it cannot be used to drive large numbers of new patients to your practice.

• Effective marketing. Alternatively, effective marketing plants an idea in the potential new patient's mind and puts the responsibility on the practice to make the contact and close the deal.

Examples of effective marketing include running internal events, occasional discounts, and raffles. By design, effective marketing is more desirable, but it also requires more work.

EFFECTIVE MARKETING'S 3 COMPONENTS

Effective marketing has three main components: enthusiasm, commitment, and follow up.

A marketing campaign lacking any one of these components is doomed to failure:

• Enthusiasm. All team members in your practice need to be enthusiastic about the marketing event. If the team isn't excited about the promotion, potential new patients surely aren't going to be.

• Commitment. Next, the team needs to be committed. This means seeing the promotion through the goal regardless of the current status of the operation. Encourage that commitment by recognizing the team's hard work.

• Follow up. Running a promotion and failing to follow up on leads is the equivalent to paying for gas and driving off before filling your tank. Remember to keep your case average in mind.

Every lead who isn't called is another potential case lost and endless referrals that could have been generated by those new patients.

If the ideas discussed here make sense to you, then put them in place. If the ideas discussed here don't make sense to you, then put them in place anyway! The fix is simple. To overcome ineffective marketing, simply make effective marketing mandatory!

SIDEBAR:
Referrals: Be honest and direct

Seth A. Braverman holds a degree in marketing from Hofstra University and works as a coach and PR specialist for 4th Dimension Group. He can be contacted at 520-575-0207, by e-mail at Seth@4thDimensionGroup.com, or through the company's Web site www.4thDimensionGroup.com.