Tips and techniques for how to market your webinar to bring in and convert new patients or clients
Marketing is not about brochures and other collateral materials. Marketing is a state of consciousness where the doctor and the practice create relationships. Chiropractors and staff are therefore all marketing professionals. All must operate to create relationships with patients. As patients positively connect with personnel and the culture, they consistently return. Repeated visits help build the brand while lowering the cost of acquisition. This is vital to the practice, especially when it comes to how to market your webinar and make connections, because patients invest in relationships with those they know and trust.
Doctors must develop a marketing mindset. Yes, your mind must alter from where you are today and shift toward business development. Admittedly, this is no easy task, but it is imperative to make the shift so that your practice moves from merely surviving to thriving.
What is your marketing mindset?
Value in the marketing world, especially for chiropractic, is the relationship and trust built around the benefits of care and the sacrifice(s) necessary for the patient to receive these benefits.
One of the best modalities in helping to build relationships and trust is delivering webinars. One of the most incredible things about conducting a webinar is that you have the capability of introducing content you’re passionate about, content you’re knowledgeable about, and content that individuals need. Once a chiropractor learns how to market your webinar, they become a marketing content expert because of the shared knowledge.
Most importantly, in today’s present culture of quarantine and desire for social distancing, webinars get chiropractors in front of more people in less time. Webinars are extremely powerful for generating leads, building brand awareness, promoting your practice and helping generate new patients.
How to market your webinar and leverage your content
Since you’re knowledgeable about your content, the best advice for this particular piece is to help you understand how to market that content. What you’re needing to do is create interest in not only your topic but also in yourself. There are several methods by which you can bring attention to your webinar in the most effective manner — and this includes content, content and more content.
Rather than put together brochures and other road-marketing pieces, the easiest modality for you to get in front of individuals is the use of both your website and social media channels. Once you create your webinar title and agenda, you then need to begin scheduling social media content posts. These may include but are not limited to: parts of your agenda, important actions you desire from individuals, issues individuals are currently having or solutions individuals desire. Start with posting on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and even Twitter. For your website, you can simply create a webinar registration page with a great video and share the page.
Timing outreach to maximize your funnel
Timing is everything, and so the best marketing funnel schedule in terms of how to market your webinar for you could look something like this: 45 days, then 30, 21, 17, 14, 10, 7, 5, 3, 2 and 0 days.
Looking at this schedule, you may feel that it is completely overdone — but it’s not. People like you and me are exceedingly busy, and we don’t have time to look at every post, and most importantly we tend to scan and move around based upon issues of the day. All you’re doing at the very beginning is announcing that you’re planning on having a seminar, but 80% of your attendees will register no sooner than 48 hours in advance. I know it sounds disheartening because of all the work that needs to be done, but this is the way that technology, as well as individuals, work.
Funnel success factors
In addition to social media, the other crucial factor to use for your seminar is your existing database.
This includes current patients, former patients and those who inquired but never really did anything. This crucial marketing tool is one of the most important factors of your practice because it houses those individuals who already understand your value. Following the same cadence of the schedule listed above will allow you to continually keep in front of potential seminar registrants.
Once you begin orchestrating your content, the next important aspect is not only registering people for your particular webinar but also continually communicating with them. You need not utilize the same cadence above, but you do need a cadence that allows them to understand the reasons for attending and some of the action steps they will gain from attendance. Remember, the goal of the webinar funnel is to generate leads and gain new patients. Therefore, you not only want to send a thank-you to these individuals for registering, but you want to ensure the fact that they will attend the webinar.
Here are a few facts that will encourage you:
- 72% of consumers prefer video over text invitations
- 20-40% of attendees turn into qualified leads
- 1-5% will make a purchase
- 78% of BTC (brand, target group and competitors) marketers say that webinar marketing is easy to generate leads
Another aspect for a webinar to work the best is to be as personable as possible.
Tell your “why” story. Be genuine and integrate how the solutions were resolved by existing patients. If they can’t relate to you, they probably won’t be interested in your webinar.
Webinar funnels checklist
Offer marketing magnets — These can be a free offering or something to help encourage individuals to register. It can be X seats, or Y time or a free booklet. The simple fact is that you want to not only get people to a webinar, but you need to get leads, and the best lead generator today is an email. Without their email, you can’t follow up; you cannot nurture a lead or continually engage them, or stay in contact with them at all.
First impressions — Two things here. Do check your content for spelling and grammar. Also ensure your registration page loads easily and is easy to use, read and register. Walk through the process so the new patient does not have to.
Remember the headlines — People scan when they read, and whether you provide a registration page of text or video and text, people will scan. When considering how to market your webinar be sure to make your headline visible, provocative and engaging so your potential audience will stick around.
Content, value and content value — Remember, individuals desire content and solutions. You are developing a relationship; you need to deliver exemplary value. The idea is not to focus on a standing ovation but on what you can provide that keeps potential patients standing for you.
Use a call to action in all marketing content — Approximately 88% of individuals offering webinars fail when there is no call to action. Ensure success by getting your registrants to do something.
Follow up — As soon as the webinar concludes, you must follow up with conversions, with attendees as well as non-attendees. Believe it or not, as many as 30% of individuals who sign up for webinars do not show. Don’t take it as an insult, but do know that it requires consistent follow-up to anyone and everyone who has provided an email so that you can obtain and pursue leads.
No reason to go solo — There is no reason why you have to go it alone. You can coordinate with another chiropractor in the area or even other health care providers, and include a joint session so that all of the work and all of the anxiety does not fall on you.
Construct your funnel, then convert
Webinar marketing is simply one way in which you can create an abundance of leads that convert into potential marketing and sales opportunities.
Webinar marketing is a project and needs to be conducted similarly. In other words, you must plan for it up front, and you must continually follow up, not thinking that once it’s over you’re done. This is where some of the best work continues because it is your opportunity to continually remain involved with those participants and then ultimately convert them.
Using the steps above to construct your funnel will help you convert more leads and hopefully those leads into potential patients. The first step is always the toughest, but once you get going, you will see the ease with which it brings in new patients.
DREW STEVENS, PhD, is an accomplished speaker, author, advisor and coach for chiropractors. He is also the author of the best-selling chiropractic practice management book, “Practice Acceleration.” He can be reached at drew-stevens.com. © 2021, Drew Stevens, all rights reserved.