The Best Known Marketing Secret
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Artificial Intelligence is all the rage. For good reason. It’s set to change the world as the Internet did, maybe more so, and in ways we can barely fathom.
Geoffrey Hinton recently quit his job at Google to speak freely about the risks of AI. He and two other so-called “Godfathers of AI” won the 2018 Turing Award for their foundational work leading to the current artificial intelligence boom. He now says a part of him regrets his life’s work.*
His immediate concern is that the Internet will be flooded with false photos, videos, and text, and the average person will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”
What is True?
You can fool people some of the time, but success in chiropractic marketing and practice is ultimately based on trust.
You may already send your patients scripted texts, prefabricated emails, and even automated educational or sales videos. You may have a testimonial service that posts positive testimonials for you.
Yes, the world is becoming more automated, artificially “intelligent,” and virtual.
But at some point, your patient, or potential patient, will start to wonder… “is this communication from Dr. Smith, chatGPT, or a robot in China?”
You are the Truth
What is the truth in marketing?
In this age of increasing artificiality: you are the truth!
Images and voices of people can be faked. You can record your voice, type in a sentence, select an image of a person, and that person will vocalize what you typed, in your voice. The future is going to be amazing in its ability for fakery.
But overcoming this is simple.
Show up and meet people. In person. In real life. (IRL) Person to person, create relationships and from these, generate referrals.
People want community. They want relationships. They want a real person.
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
(From TV sitcom Cheers.)
Marketing in Truth
Marketing in real life is networking. Networking is getting to know people who know people.
The most immediate and obvious resource for networking is connecting with those people who know you, trust you, and probably even like you (lol). Your active patients, inactive patients, friends, and community members in business or in organizations, all add up to hundreds, if not thousands of people.
I recently saw a dedicated chiropractor I know promote a local BNI workshop. BNI stands for Business Network International. It was founded by Ivan Misner, who wrote the excellent book, The Best Known Marketing Secret. It is all about Word-of-Mouth advertising – networking.
Perhaps because of technology, or the COVID lock down, or possibly more nefarious reasons, friendly public in-person get-togethers have been declining.*
I think now, more than ever, networking is and will be a very effective form of marketing.
You can spend money on Facebook ads or advertise on other platforms. Now and then, go for it! But strictly speaking ROI, a structured and continuous networking plan can’t be beat. (Contact me if you want a few tips setting up your networking plan.) It may take time to develop, but once in place, it can almost run on its own, sending people to you who need your services.
In his book, Misner refers to a friend of his who says that we all are cave dwellers. We live in our cave houses, get into our cave cars, and go to our cave offices. I would add that we also live in our virtual media caves, whether social or Netflix!
His point is that there is a whole world out there if we just get out of our caves and meet people.
I have seen many different and effective forms of network marketing that work. I’ll go over a number of examples in the next newsletter to keep this letter short.
But consider this: AI will never replace you. And it will never replace the individual across from you.
And THAT…is the truth.
Stay Goal Driven,
Ed
References:
*77 percent of planners find it harder to attract attendees, while 73 percent report lower attendance. (Skift Meetings, 2022)