October 2007

What message will bring you the most new patients?

by Jim Valco

You are about to learn a fresh and innovative way to market a practice, a method that hundreds of doctors around the country have used to swiftly and greatly increase their weekly new patients...even on a shoestring budget.

While what I'm about to say will probably go against everything you've ever learned about growing a practice, to use an old phase, "times have changed" ‑‑ and you have to change with them.

Let's pretend that getting new patients is like mining for gold. To "strike it big" you, of course, want to hit the "mother lode." Here's how to do it.

There are many methods of marketing your practice to acquire new patients. Some of the most common include: giving lectures; advertising in newspapers, on TV, by mail, etc.; spinal screenings; and stimulating referrals. But, if you want to hit the mother lode, the method you use to get new patients is not as important as your message.

The world's most successful businesses spend millions to come up with a unique message, which will attract customers. Since it's your message that draws patients to you, hitting the mother lode is all about having the right message, which attracts the right public.

Most chiropractors use the overused "pain relief" message. Herein likes the problem. This message is extremely limited in terms of the size of the public it "talks to," along with the quality of the public it may attract.

The pain relief message has countless versions ‑‑ relief from back pain, headache pain, whiplash, neck pain shoulder pain, and on and on.

Here are three reasons the pain message is limited:

1. The pain message only talks to people who are experiencing pain or symptoms when they see or hear the message. If their back isn't hurting when they hear your message, then getting pain relief won't be a priority. The timing problem reduces the size of your public considerably. You can advertise in a newspaper with a circulation of 100,000 papers, but perhaps 100 people read the section of the paper featuring your ad, and 40 of them notice it. Of those, three people are actually in pain at that time.

2. At least two of those three people who notice your pain message already have a "family doctor" (MD) ‑‑ who they're likely to see first for their pain problem.

3. Everybody is using the pain message, ‑‑ namely all types of doctors, as well as paramedical companies that spend billions on advertising to also attract in‑pain customers.

4. Referrals are especially difficult to generate with a pain message. Your patients can spread your name around, but again, the timing must be perfect for potential referred new patients to actually walk into your office. They have to be in pain at the time they hear your message.

The pain message can work for a practice, but it yields limited results, is often slow at generating results, and is expensive.

There's a better message.

If you want to hit the mother lode, you have to send the right message to the biggest public in your community. You must reach those most hungry for a solution to their problem...and who are willing to pay to get rid of it ‑‑ now! You want a public that:

***  always has the very problem you can solve;

***  doesn't think of a family doctor first for the solution you offer; and

***  is "all ears" all the time regarding your message!

And you want a message that will spread like wildfire from your patients to their friends and family, so that you get an abundance of referrals.

There are more than 80 million Americans with a particular health problem right now. Last year alone, these people spent in excess of $40 billion on products to try to fix that problem, products which almost one for one failed them! By survey, it is the biggest health‑ related problem in America.

There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of people who pass by your office every week who have this problem. For most chiropractors, about 60‑70% of their patients have it, but (unbelievably) they don't offer them a solution!

The problem is obesity or being overweight.

The overweight public is a hundred times bigger and more likely to come to you for a solution to their problem, than the pain public...if you offer them the right solution.

Send the message to people in your community that you have a natural, doctor's system to help them lose weight and you'll hit the mother lode. When a patient losses seven‑to‑twenty pounds, don't you think their friends and family and co‑workers are going to ask them how they did it?

Referrals will happen naturally and abundantly.

Once the weight loss person comes in your office, you then have the opportunity to turn him or her into a chiropractic patient. I'll explain how to do this in my next article in The Chiropractic Journal.

Offering a weight loss solution is also a great way to reactivate your inactive patients.

When you send the right message to the biggest and most accessible public, it hardly matters what method of marketing you use. Any method will work 10 times better than it did with the limited pain relief message.

You don't have to stop promoting pain relief if you don't want to, but also start promoting yourself as the solution to weight loss and watch your practice grow.

There's gold in those hills. Just make sure you have a weight loss solution that takes off the weight swiftly and naturally. That's the key to hitting the mother lode.

(Jim Valko has been a practice marketing consultant for 23 years. He is the co‑developer of the NuLean One Week Diet, a natural diet that assists the patient to lose weight swiftly and safely by cleansing the body. For more information call 800‑948‑5307.)