By Deborah Peterson, John Healy and Stephen Bolles, DC

You’ve heard the phrase, “Play it by the numbers.”
As you make decisions about marketing your practice to recruit new patients, “play it by the numbers.” Numbers — demographics, which are the statistical characteristics of human populations used especially to identify markets — will help you get the most for your time, your money and your efforts.

For example, here are some ways numbers can help you:

• Location. Conventional wisdom holds that most patients will come from within a five-mile radius of a clinic. Income ranges, single vs. multiple-income families, racial and cultural mixes, local industry and sources of jobs (as well as the regulatory and third party payer environment) all have a great deal to do with your success in practice.

As part of the puzzle of practice success, matching your services to the needs of a community is important. If there is a mismatch between what you have to offer and what the community needs, a red flag should go up. Marketing and promotion can bridge some of the gaps, but not all of them.

Ethnic populations are a perfect example. Let’s say you find the perfect building: the price is right, the terms are great and you find little competition in the neighborhood.

But — if the building is located in a neighborhood where little English is spoken and you don’t speak the other languages, your outlook for success is limited. Treating a diverse population can be a wonderful experience, but you have to be able to communicate.

Or, if you think the ethnic mix of an area you are considering seems right, but you find that the median income of the population is insufficient to pay for chiropractic care, will you be able to run your business with an appropriate profit margin in that market?

Deciding on your location by the numbers can help you avoid expensive mistakes.

• Accessibility. Demographics can also help you decide when to operate your business — and that may not be 9 to 5, weekdays.