All marketing is communication. But it is a special type of communication.

A report of findings is at least partly marketing. The manner in which your phone is answered is marketing.  In fact, everything you do that promotes your services is marketing.

Remember that the purpose of marketing is to create — or support —  exchange.  

That is why we market our services – to increase or support the level of exchange going on between patients and your business.  Marketing sends OUT communication so that people can come IN for services so that you can give OUT the services.   It’s really physics, but that is another tangent.

On another level, our higher purpose for marketing has to be a sincere desire to help more people.

But the point is – it is an OUTFLOW of communications that helps bring an INFLOW of patients so that you can provide and OUTFLOW of services.

Much of this is done in how you educate of your patients and your community.

The education should be factual and honest, of course. It should contribute to the increased health of those you are educating. But, it should also help create more, or support existing, exchange.

And education is usually the least expensive forms of marketing.  A care class for new patients – how much does that cost?

Community Education: What Worked And What Didn’t

This same approach can be used externally to people not yet patients.  One time tested approach that worked was to use a number of different channels to educate the community on a hot topic.  We call this the Community Education Program.

At one time, for example, carpel tunnel was the “new” worrisome condition.  We would put a column in the local paper about this condition, listing 3 to 4 home remedies, and the last remedy was to come in and see us.

In the column we also would cross promote our very short radio program: “Listen to “Health Tips with Dr. Joe” every Thursday on WXYZ at 12:20, just after the Farm Report.”  We also promoted our special workshop on “Home Remedies for Carpal Tunnel.”

We would plan these several months in advance and have them all organized. It was a marketing system, which we always recommend.

We also promoted these in the office as well for friends of patients. We sometimes would send faxes to office managers of local businesses. There are many different channels that were and are available.

Sometimes the workshop would be empty and sometimes it would be full.  I remember one night people kept coming in seemingly out of nowhere. It was standing room only.  Regardless of the attendance, to the community we were a smart, active and helpful office. We became authorities and someone who could be trusted.

We tracked this over a couple of years and found that not only did we get New Patients directly each month on the topic, but new patients from other sources also increased.

This approach had both direct and indirect marketing appeal. Some companies at the time were offering bland newspaper columns for the doctor that while informative, did not sell anything.

So, your education has to have both: good useful info as well as a sales approach.  I never saw these columns work as they were not integrated into a campaign and had no sales sequence embedded in them.

The New Fast Infomercial For Chiropractors

Remember the infomercial?  They are still used. Exercise programs, for example, often use this format to sell, or nutrition products sold around a fake discussion group or with a “scientist.” A more honest approach is used by Dr. Mercola in his newsletters and videos that provide good info and often promote his products as well.

The idea is still the same: offer useful tips but also sell your services or products. Every magazine does this. In fact, every media does this.

With our Community Education Program we now making our own infomercials. Using a hand held camera and YouTube, we can show you how to record your Health Tip and post it on the Internet.  In a later article I will outline more specifics on how to do this but a fast summary of the benefits and procedure are as follows:

Benefits:

Your own video Health Tip gives you fast high rankings on Google and likely on other Internet search engines. It establishes you as an authority, as someone who is helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly.  Patients can refer their friends to watch you and people looking for health solutions can find you. You appear trustworthy.  This is a very inexpensive process that you and your staff can do.

And the main benefit: you’ll get more new patients!

Procedure:

1. Select a condition or health topic that you are interested in and that people in your community are also interested in.  For example, pinched nerves, weight loss, flu and colds, childhood vaccinations, ADHD, TMJ, etc.
2. Look it up and get some current statistics on the subject.
3. Come up with 2-4 helpful home procedures that can help with the condition, or some action steps to take.
4. The last tip is to come in and see you for a no charge consult, screening, conference, etc
5. Work out the script.
6. Post an outline of the script on a white board.
7. Practice.
8. Get someone to record you while the outline on the whiteboard is next or behind the camera. (Other tactics are to down load a prompter to your smart phone, have someone use cue cards, or just go impromptu.)
9. Upload to YouTube.
10. Use key words and geographic terms  and link to appropriate sites.

That’s it.

Takes a couple of hours in all every month.  Pretty soon, you are known as THE place to go for natural health care solutions.

Oh, and one other thing… these are fun to do!

So get to it and have some fun and more patients.