Internal vs External Chiropractic Marketing Strategies: Part1

This week Ben Altadonna has a 5 part chiropractic marketing strategies lesson on the difference between Marketing For Patients and Marketing To Patients. We hope you enjoy it. Comments and Questions are Welcome. Thank You!

Lets start by asking the question: What is Chiropractic Marketing To You?

Here’s what it is to most D.C.s…

Business Cards
Brochures
Office Sign
Window Signage
Spinal Screenings
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Yelp
Google +
Groupon
LivingSocial
Civic Organization Involvement
Patient Appreciate Days
Calling Old Patients
Some sort of short-lived promotion
Spinal Care Classes
Asking For Referrals
Face to face networking
Patient Education Classes
Dinner Workshops

All of the above fall into the “Marketing FOR Patients” category and it’s the exact reason why most Chiropractors need “new patients”.

Marketing “for” new patients is expensive, not often only in terms of dollars, but in self-respect, professionalism, time and in lifetime value of a customer.

It’s poor positioning.

Nevertheless, it’s what most Chiropractors do but then they stop there and that is why they have a serious GAP in their marketing.

AFTER they procure the wrong patient in the first place, their marketing ceases to exist when in fact, the key to BUILDING a practice is to recognize that what takes place once you procure the patient is how you attract the right patients, how you build your practice, and how you become profitable.

The key is to maintain, NOT replace, customers.

So if you “need” new patients, you have a GAP in your marketing.

You are marketing FOR, not TO, patients.

SO SHOULD YOU DO BOTH?

If you “need” new patients, while you are fixing your product, your positioning, your processes, and your marketing, the answer is YES. But if you do all of these things right, what you will notice over time is that most of your patient visits will come from compliant patients, referrals, and reactivations…NOT new patients who were not referred in.

Those patients do not tend to stay, pay, or refer and that is why marketing FOR patients can’t hold a candle to marketing TO patients.