An ongoing debate in the chiropractic profession is what approach works best: Marketing in-house or outsource?
This article answers some common questions from DCs who have experienced various challenges and scenarios when conducting their marketing in-house vs. hiring from the outside.
Q: I’d like to consider outsourcing marketing on social media. Is there enough ROI? It is hard to measure the value of building your marketing brand organically.
A: Outsourcing organic social media was common in the chiropractic profession in the past. However, because the landscape has changed, organic social media is becoming more difficult to outsource and experience a tangible ROI. For example, Facebook and Instagram are progressively becoming pay-to-play platforms. This means if you are not spending money on ads, the chances of your organic social media posts getting seen are less likely than if you spend money on ads, unless your posts are standing out significantly from many other posts in the feed and receiving good engagement. Social media posts that incorporate a personal/brand flair and sharing your perspective on things will set you apart more than generic organic social media posts that are about how chiropractic can help. Even if you post less frequently, those posts will be more potent than posting the typical “how chiropractic can help” type of posts consistently.
If you choose to outsource, the first step would be to find someone who really understands you and your brand. Ideally, incorporating video into your social media posts will also increase their impact. One efficient way to go about this is to create videos on different topics and outsource it to someone to cut those videos into smaller clips to air. If ROI is important to you, you need a strategy to attract new patients. You could evaluate ROI from organic social media by measuring statistics of the actual number of patients or inquiries you receive. If you are outsourcing mainly for brand building, include metrics for key things that are important to you, such as audience size growth and engagement.
Q. How do you attract a marketing person who can speak your language and simplify the verbiage for your specific audience?
A: When outsourcing marketing, it is challenging to find a person or agency that “gets” your voice and brand flair, truly understands what you have to offer, grasps how you are different from other DCs and clearly communicates all of this to the right audience in the chosen medium. For example, there is a difference between an organic Facebook post, Facebook ad, email marketing, vs. blog article not only in style but also in how it is written with conversions in mind to attract quality leads.
This is why one agency may be very effective for one DC, but not for another.
It is possible that results vary significantly regardless of previous track record of other DCs having been helped successfully by the agency, because of that outsourced marketing agency’s lack of understanding of the above due to how it’s been communicated to them.
If you are planning to outsource marketing, it is helpful to create and provide an outsourcing manifesto. This should include a very clearly written description of what you offer, what kind of a person is perfect for each type of service offering, what differentiates your practice from other practices, what your brand stands for and your story and why you offer various services in your practice.
For organic social media outsourcing, include in your manifesto the characteristics that make you uniquely you as a person and professional. This can include what you like to do outside of work and what you care about, such as your perspective about health and other interests in your life.
Q. When should I keep marketing in-house?
A. The advantage of keeping marketing in-house is that either you or a person you hire who is in-house will understand your brand more than any outsourced marketing agency because of having hands-on experience working as an integral part of the practice. Consider hiring someone to do marketing who also supports you in other ways in the office. A common challenge with this is that someone who is good at marketing may not be good at something else, such as office administration. The fortunate thing is it is possible and there are chiropractic offices with talented administrative staff or chiropractic assistants who also have a knack for marketing. If you would like to go this route, be very clear in the hiring process about expectations and evaluate the candidate’s competency for marketing for you to ensure optimal success.
Q. A lot of agencies seem to sell their specific tactic, i.e., Facebook ads or Google ads, instead of diving into your situation, creating a strategy and implementing tactics, then showing a true return on investment (ROI) on their services, i.e., money in the bank, not reach, views, likes, etc. What is the best way to approach this?
A. This can be frustrating because the most important factor you need to know when deciding where to spend money to grow your practice is likely ROI. It is helpful to work with a practice management company who understands your situation and can guide you to find the best approach (marketing in-house or outsource) based on your goals and objectives. Sometimes a strategy may seem like it could be a good one just because it was brought up at a conference or you heard about a vendor from another DC, but it may not be the best strategy for you right now based on the stage of practice you are in.
Final thoughts
Finally, knowing when to cut someone loose you outsource to is important. It also depends on whether you are at a stage in your business where bringing in new patients is more important than brand building. If you hire someone to do brand building with organic social media, but over a set period of time, i.e., six to 12 months, you have not seen an ROI, it may be time to revise the strategy and allocate that money or resources elsewhere.
CHEN YEN is a practice makeover mentor, speaker and founder of Introverted Visionary, which helps introverted visionary holistic health practitioners accelerate growth to fulfilling six to seven figure practices, without having to do it the exhausting extroverted way. Clients include past president of American Chiropractic Association Sports Council, recent president of American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and board member of American Society of Acupuncturists. Yen’s mission is to wake up the planet and make holistic options mainstream and the first line of care. She can be reached at mentor@fillmyholisticpractice.com or introvertedvisionary.com.
