How to Attract Local Chiropractic Clients
Through Online Marketing
Online marketing is a lot like fishing. To be successful, you can take a “buckshot” approach, employ a “wait and see” strategy; perhaps utilize market data to “stalk” the fish or use a combination of all three strategies. Each approach has its merits and instances when it works and each is particularly relevant in certain circumstances. There is also the key point of knowing when to use each methodology and when not to. As you can probably imagine, though, the last approach greatly increases your odds of heading home with your limit.
The buckshot approach is to blindly throw your lure at any and every nook and cranny you can cast into. You hit every cove, use multiple lures and try to cover as much territory as possible. In marketing, this is considered a generic, blanket approach and often it is not effective and good marketing money from your business budget is spent for naught.
The wait and see approach is to let your lure or bait attract the fish by using time and patience as your fundamental weapons. In marketing, this is called the front porch approach, where you put your advertising out there, and then lazily sit back on your laurels and wait for clients to come to you, when they feel like it, and with no real incentive to make a decision to choose your practice. The problem with this approach in many markets is that a more assertive competitor is reeling in your new clients.
When you stalk the fish, you use the data at hand – water temperature, clarity, weather conditions, food in the water, water levels, the type of fish you are trying to catch, etc., and derive a strategy that matches your bait or lure to the environment you are dealing with. This allows you to increase your chances of putting the right lure in front of the fish in there habitat. You essentially use smart technology to present the fish with something they cannot resist! In real world business marketing, this equates to devising a strategy based on research, collection of data and gaining a firm understanding of your demographic and competitive landscape.
A combination approach is often the best way to increase your odds of market penetration success. By using each when it is appropriate and strategically placing your message in a position that uses data, chance and frequency, you increase the opportunities that you will find receptive patients and potential customers.
Your online marketing strategy should be to use whatever means you have available to increase the likelihood your site will get noticed and then increase the chances that a customer will like what you have to offer. This means you have to rely on chance, frequency and data and make sure that each is utilized in a way that optimizes its effectiveness. Not capitalizing on one of the three, or using an approach the wrong way, can actually decrease your chances to the point of diminishing returns.
For instance, some of your web traffic will be solely up to the luck of the draw and random website landings by someone browsing the internet. A potential customer will have an ailment or injury and will go online and will search for a local chiropractor and will select the first one they see. The more streamlined, easy to use and informative your site, the more likely you will be to get them as a customer. Does your chiropractic website offer valuable information and resources to attract and interest customers (and to make your content fresh and keyword rich)? What about an online reservation form where a new or existing patient can make an appointment or download your patient history form to complete before their first visit? Lastly, does your website offer the right marketing feel to turn browsers into customers?
Then there is the laissez-faire customer browsing online with some idea of what they are looking for. This customer will l look at dozens of websites, but only pay attention to the sites that provide them with the look and information they are expecting. A site, for instance, that relies heavily on sports images or holistic medicine will attract customers of different flavors. They also might turn away customers that do not relate to one or the other.
The third type of online patron will have specific criteria in mind and will only be interested in those sites that offer that selection of products, experience, price and service. They are the “discriminating” customer and will not waste valuable time on a site that does not quickly and easily show them what they want. If you do not have their products or offer their required services, or alternatively present them with services or information that catches their attention, they are like that trout that sniffs your bait, fly or lure, flips its tail and explores other offerings.
So how do you make sure your website and online marketing efforts attract all three types of customers? By using the “combination” marketing approach. If you capitalize on what you know your customers will likely search for, offer services that you know they need and make it easy for them to say “yes,” you will entice customers by chance, frequency and intelligence.
For instance, some chiropractic services are not covered by traditional insurance and offering them on a cash basis makes the most sense. These can include therapies such as Prolo-Therapy, themography, auriculo-therapy or Hypnotherapy. They are traditionally low-cost services that will infuse a chiropractic business with instant cash flow and attract those customers who will be looking online because they understand that insurance companies do not cover what they want or need. Using this important knowledge, you can showcase offered cash services on your website or in other online marketing services and provide that specialty product or service to a customer who is only looking for a specific reason or for a specific product or service.
Another way to maximize your potential customer base and thus your online marketing efforts is to use keywords. By purchasing the right words or phrases in keyword auctions like those offered by Google, you increase your chances of getting listed on the first page of any search. That is critical when you consider that most consumers will not look beyond the third page of any search so, like direct marketing, your ability to catch their attention in the first fifteen seconds of them reviewing search results greatly increases the chances they will take a closer look at your website.
This is where your site’s presentation comes in. A site that is too busy or hard to navigate turns consumers off. The same holds true for a site that is infernally slow. You have to make sure your website is attractive, relevant and easy to use or you will reduce your opportunity to turn a sale or pique a consumer’s interest.
There are online businesses that specialize in helping small business owners make a big marketing splash online. One such company is run by a chiropractor and marketing guru, and offers services specifically for chiropractors called Catch Fire Coaching (www.catchfirecoaching.com). It is imperative to get help when you need it, and seek out marketing professionals to assist you in getting established online. Professionals can give you the tools you need to maximize your online marketing efforts. This might include learning how to use the combination approach to marketing that capitalizes on chance, frequency and data and allows you to target the customers most likely to use your services.
The Internet is a very, very big pond and even the smartest business is only a very small fish. However, that does not mean that you cannot target your customer demographic and secure new clients on a regular basis. Just remember that you can have the smartest looking website in the world, but if it is not presented properly or marketed assertively, you will end up watching potential customers “swim away.”
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