Millennial marketing strategy for health care practices

Three principles that will help you reach this fast-growing but elusive demographic when devising millennial marketing strategy

Millennials — society sure loves to hate them, doesn’t it? As someone who has a pretty large staff, the changes to this generation have certainly not gone unnoticed. We sometimes want to call them lazy, unmotivated or other derogatory terms. What we find out with millennials is mostly that they have different priorities, which make knowing about them of great import when putting together a millennial marketing strategy.

Not so different

Millennials aren’t really all that different from other generations. The key factors for millennials as far as chiropractic marketing are how they want to communicate with you, and what they value. Recently at a human resources event, an HR consultant was talking about how a young person was leaving a job for a lesser-paying job due to the poor lighting in the office. Now this might seem crazy, but the key thing to get out of this — they are often more concerned with comfort and convenience versus just value. This applies to the chiropractic clinic as well.

Millennials are not necessarily looking for the best chiropractor, or the least expensive chiropractor, but the easiest to communicate with and most convenient for them. This is a quantum shift to think about. They may not be checking the insurance book first; they are more concerned that you have evening hours and that they can text or email for an appointment and not call. So, let’s dive into making it more convenient for millennials to get to the clinic.

Marketing to millennials

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with the internet. This has shaped the way they communicate with the world and chiropractic clinics. How do they want to communicate? They are not big fans of calling on the phone.

Chiropractic offices, including mine, have been relying on the phone for decades to schedule and make appointments. This generation would rather utilize alternative methods.

What would they like to do?

Texting is important, and there are simple programs that allow you to receive texts via your office number. In our clinic we use a program that allows our main office number to receive texts that the front desk team can answer via computer messaging software.

Millennials also like email and Facebook Messenger for appointments. Have a front-desk email listed on the website and have it checked regularly to receive appointment emails — although we do find that texting is more popular than email. Also, make sure your Facebook page has Messenger installed and someone is checking it regularly. Making appointments on your website or via Facebook can also be a great tool. However, be careful of overlap so you don’t have three new patients scheduled at the same time!

Combining communications and marketing tactics

Communicating differently with millennials is key. Making it convenient to see you and communicate with you is just as much marketing as running an ad.

Business expert Dan S. Kennedy is famous for his saying, “Match the message to the market to the media.” What does he mean? Well, figure out who we are speaking to: in this case, millennials. We know the market, so what is the message they want to hear? It’s more about convenience than just price, so our marketing should talk about “Open til 7, weekends,” and “text or call us anytime,” etc.

For your millennial marketing strategy, now we have the market we are going after and the message they want to hear, so now it’s time to match the media.

Millennial marketing strategy: find where they ‘live’?

We tend to think in terms of digital, print, etc., but they are all just media. Where are the millennials? Online mostly, yes, but we need to watch the demographic shifts. Facebook has been getting older and older, so the millennials are leaving there. Instagram is kind of in the sweet spot right now, but Snapchat is getting there.

This changes rapidly, but the principles of marketing do not:

• Find the market: millennials
• Find your message: convenience
• Find the media: It’s ever-changing, but think digital and watch your demographics

Find what the customer values

In the end, millennials are not that different from anyone else. The key difference as far as marketing a chiropractic practice is that they value convenience and environment over price and other factors. The other key factor to remember is they are the first generation to grow up on the internet, which means the correct media to reach them is probably online.

Other media may work, but millennials are the online generation. The trends in demographics as far as which platform they are on change — but they change slowly, so follow the trends and market to them where they are now with your millennial marketing strategy.

JAMES R. FEDICH, DC, owns a large multidisciplinary practice in northern New Jersey. He is also the author of Secrets of a Million Dollar Practice and host of a popular chiropractic podcast, Dr. J’s Path to Success. To find out more or to contact Dr. J, visit drjamesfedich.com.