How to get new chiropractic patients: 5 steps to increasing the flow through the front door
How do you stand apart in your career, build patient loyalty, and create long and lucrative business streams and relationships? Attracting more patients is comparable to fishing — if you don’t have the proper lure, you won’t attract those patients you really want.
Notice, I said “want,” not just take whatever comes along.
Here are vital steps for how to get new chiropractic patients — attracting, and keeping, devoted and staunch patients:
Develop a plan
Highly successful people live by a powerful axiom: “A goal is just a dream if you don’t have a plan and see it to fruition.” To use a sports analogy: It is not enough to merely want to run a marathon. You must formulate and commit to a program of frequent and regular “road work” (a.k.a. running), superior nutrition, a disciplined rest schedule, and so on.
Discipline and follow-through are essential to converting dreams into reality. Hence, you too must commit to an equivalent regimen to create a prosperous practice.
Develop intentionality
Sustained and lasting professional success doesn’t happen by accident. Whether you are a top-tier athlete or an exceptional chiropractor striving to shine, you need a workable and robust strategy.
The law of attraction (LOA) represents the theory of influencing similar energies and powers of the universe to achieve one’s goals when you’re thinking about how to get new chiropractic patients. Specifically, LOA manifests through your thoughts, thus drawing the thoughts and ideas of like-minded people who correspond in their situations and circumstances.
To illustrate: the comedic actor Jim Carrey recounted writing a $10 million check to himself for “acting services rendered” long before he was famous, as a struggling actor. He gave himself five years from that date to “make it” in Hollywood. It’s no secret he reached his goal. He would go on to star in movies like “The Mask,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and many others.
Therefore, your energy and your promotional efforts must be laser-focused on your goal. Do not let outside influences distract you; have a clear vision of how “success” looks. Chart your progress; and, make adjustments as needed to keep you on course.
Inspire
Inspiration draws, compels and motivates people to seek you out on a visceral level. Inspiration is literally the glue that brings and holds together people of different backgrounds but similar interests. Political groups, sports teams, fraternities, etc., are all energized by that common bond.
Do you want to inspire patients? Then be conscious of what your message “should look like.” In other words, if inspiration was a place, how would you know when you have arrived?
Additionally, ask yourself, “Why are you in business?” And don’t say for the money. Deep, rich pools of loyal patients (who continually refer others to your practice) aren’t built on financial self-interest. Plus, consumers can see dollar signs in your eyes.
In all my years in marketing, I have found one fact, in particular, to be true. If you can inspire patients, you will create a practice featuring loyalty, repeat and additional services, and an eagerness to refer.
Strive to instill a sense of instinctual trust and camaraderie. Therefore, your content must deliver a deeply perceptive message; your patients must feel that you’re one of them and “get” them. Hence, your promotional efforts must aim to allure, motivate and galvanize people to see you as the “only” solution.
By no means am I suggesting any manner of manipulation; mainly, because it just doesn’t work over the long haul.
Inspire with ‘why’
To summarize, think about the many ads you have seen. Very likely, you saw a promotional piece featuring a brief introduction, and an immediate segue into what they do and how they do it. Often, ads are presented in this general format: “Check out our 2019 sedan; it gets 40 miles per gallon, has a backup camera, and it’s priced at $$.” Do you want to buy it?
Or, perhaps a phone dealer: “Come take advantage of our summer sale; we have a great selection of 512-GB phones, sleek designs, for only $$.” Will you buy one? Or, “We’ve been in business since 2005 — back pain relief and sports injury treatment, and a free consultation.”
Do you feel inspired? Do you feel that this provider “gets” you?
Variations of those ads above are presented to consumers numerous times daily; and, the concept works reasonably well on a transactional basis. “How” and “what” ads depend on time, price and scarcity manipulation to generate sales; alas, you become a commodity.
To be clear, your “how” and “what” statements are crucial to the totality of your business message. However, to inspire, you must lead with why you do business — raving fans are created through “whys.” Take Harley-Davidson, for example. The company’s “why” statement is so compelling (“We fulfill dreams through the experiences of motorcycling…”), that their client base is instinctually drawn and loyal to the product. In fact, on any given warm day, you will see people walking around with a Harley-Davidson tattoo on their body — including some who don’t even own the product.
Develop your vision
As mentioned, your vision (aka your “why”), is what inspires people to follow you. Besides your promotional content, add a mission statement that clearly states your “why.” For example:
Google: Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.
Learn to identify and articulate your “why”; feature that message front and center. Incorporate your alma mater, group alliances, sports affiliations or military background — remember, concise and stirring is the ideal.
Establish yourself as an expert
Now, demonstrate why you’re the superior option.
Take the Disney Corporation; specifically Disneyland, for example. In 1955, Walt Disney opened the doors to “the happiest place on earth” — an audacious statement, wouldn’t you agree? Well, not if you can deliver. Years before opening, Walt Disney traveled near and far, visiting every available amusement park. He took careful notes and documented everything. Then it hit him; he wasn’t going to go into the amusement park industry. He was going to go into the “magical experience” industry.
He was going to transport and transform adults, bogged down by life’s pressures, into happy-go-lucky kids, without a care in the world, via this wondrous experience. Every ride, attraction and shop in Disneyland is designed to deliver adventure, thrills and awe. That is why, in spite of pressures from the economy, travel costs and growing competition, year over year, Disney’s attendance figures continue to grow.
You must do the same as Disney; prove yourself the undisputed fibromyalgia or sports injury expert, for example. Your entire brand must exude your “why.”
Media matters
Your website, waiting room(s), your blogs, etc., must deliver your vision. Then, provide patients with quantifiable evidence that you “get” them, and that you are the go-to doctor in town, by publishing your knowledge.
Create a book, informative pamphlets, case studies and so on. Publishing allows you to spotlight your expertise by elaborating on how and what you will do for your patients in the process of healing them.
As your reputation grows, consider launching an online radio program. Share it with your patients and visitors in your waiting room(s), and also make recordings of it available as podcasts.
Deep, rich pools of “A-caliber” patients are built on inspiration and medical talent — arouse in them a deep sense that this doctor “really gets me!”
CLAUDIO GORMAZ is a medical marketing strategist and freelance writer for the last two decades. He develops robust branding platforms, enhances reputation campaigns, and cultivates fruitful and predictable advertising messages. He can be contacted at 951-294-2274, at summitmarketingstrategies.com, or at info@summitmarketingstrategies.com.
