Think community outreach events are overrated? Think again.

There’s an old adage that it takes a village to raise a child.

Well, the same is true in business. It takes a community to help it grow.

If you look at some of the biggest companies today—the household names such as Target, Walmart, and Home Depot—they all have one thing in common. They all have communities of people behind them, spreading the word about how great they are, enticing friends and families to want to shop their too.

Now, imagine if your community did the same thing for you. Imagine if the people who live and work around you rallied behind your chiropractic business, sharing not only what a great doctor you are, but also what a great person you are, growing your business as a result.

One way to make this happen is through community outreach.

The value of community outreach events

When you become more involved in your community, your community will want to become more involved with you. It’s called reciprocity, or “a mutual exchange of privileges.” In other words, when you give to those around you, they’ll be more inclined to want to give back to you. In this case, it would be by bringing their business to you.

That’s why a lot of businesses share their giving histories on their websites. They want to show their visitors 1) that they are a giving company, and 2) what types of agencies, organizations, and causes they support.

Seeing them as a business that is giving kind makes them more likeable. It shows their level of goodwill and, as American businessman Marshall Field once said, “Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.”

Secondarily, learning that the company supports the same types of causes as you reinforces the notion that they’re similar to you, and who doesn’t want to do business with a company that has similar interests and passions? It makes us feel good to support agencies that have our same beliefs, that care about our community as much as we do.

Making community outreach work

Whether your practice is in a small town or a big city, there are several ways to approach community outreach in a way that can help your business grow.

For starters, you can reach out to the local schools and see if they need any help with sporting events or other school functions. Even if you can’t help with your chiropractic skills (like by helping injured sports players), just the fact that you’re there and helping in other ways puts you in the face of prospective patients. It also makes it easier to strike up a conversation with them and help them to better know, like, and trust you—the three keys to marketing success.

Another option is to reach out to governmental agencies who serve and protect the community. Talk to the local fire department, police agencies, and emergency medical responders. See what they need and how you can help. Again, while offering your chiropractic services is the best case scenario, helping in other ways still gets your name out there. And it does it with people who can spread the word to countless others because they deal with everyone within your community.

Also, keep your eye open for events that occur on an annual basis and tend to draw a number of local people in. Fairs and carnivals are a good place to start, but so are expos and other larger scale events. Consider becoming a supporter, both financially and physically, maybe helping with setup, take down, or by standing at the entrance and addressing attendees’ questions.

The key to making community outreach work, to doing good for those around you while growing your business at the same time, is to find agencies, organizations, and causes you support locally and asking what you can do to help. Show them that you care about them and they’ll likely begin to care more about you.

Then, once the event is over, ask if you can use their logo on your website or other marketing materials. They’ll likely say yes because it’s free advertising for them, making it an easy way to show your patients and prospective patients that you support your community in more ways than one.