My new website WWW.FreeDCHelp.COM is up and running.  This site’s purpose is to provide a repository of materials that will be helpful to those in the profession.  On this site will be posted archived articles as well as sample reports, letters and marketing materials — FREE.  I also hope that as much assistance that this site may be able to provide to you, that you will see the need to pass along this “Secret” to others.   Please do not hesitate to contact me, drvernonchiro@aol.com, if you feel that you may have information, resources or web content that could provide additional assistance to those in the profession. Please feel free to write me with comments or criticisms.

Remember: To get the most out of this newsletter, I suggest that you print it out and read it-don’t skim it-Refer back to it when implementing your marketing plan

(If you read the whole newsletter there is a special free bonus at the end-You could cheat and go directly to it, but you would know you cheated-NEVER CHEAT!

Database Marketing, What Is It? How Do I Do It?

Let’s start with what it is. Database marketing is the technique of gathering all the information available about your customer, leads, and prospects into a central database and using that information to drive all your marketing efforts. The information is stored in a marketing database and can be used at both the strategic and tactical levels to drive targeted marketing efforts. In the case of the chiropractic practice you should, let me correct this, you MUST have a central database. Your database can be a single list or multiple lists divided by category. At the minimum you need to have a complete list of EVERY patient who ever entered your door, even if it was for a free consultation and they never returned they belong in your patient central database. If you are using lead generation marketing you should already have a list of everyone you have sent a report to in a separate database. PLEASE, do not underestimate the value of a database and its importance in all of your marketing endeavors.

To what extent you use your database is up to you. If you are using one of the chiropractic software systems then you can easily send out birthday cards, reminders, and recall cards as all of this information is available to you as part of the original patient data entry. You can ask the system to give you a list of all patients who have not been in 3 months or more or a list of patients whose birthday is in a given month. However if you are using a simple spread sheet such as Excel and have only name and address you can still work well with this limited information.

All of the above information is aimed at in house or existing patient marketing.

Other forms of database marketing include outside companies that maintain databases. It is now possible to really fine tune your market. You can actually purchase mailing lists of people in your zip code who have asked for headache information from one source or another. The same is true for back pain or any other ailment. You can obtain accident reports of people involved in accidents in a given town, (be careful here, as some state boards require a cooling off period, usually 30 days before you can contact these people. Please check with your state board, all of the research I have done indicates that as long as the reports were legally obtained there is no problem) 

Although I prefer target marketing there are other lists available such as new residents, this might work well, although I have not done it. The important thing is like every marketing technique you do it should be outrageous in order to grab the readers’ attention. More about outrageous marketing techniques later in this newsletter, for now just realize you need to be outrageous, don’t be afraid, don’t let others tell you it won’t work, it will.

Every single patient in your central data base should receive a piece of mail monthly. If you remember in earlier newsletters we talked about top of consciousness marketing. Even if they don’t require or want your service now when they do or when someone else mentions they would like to see a chiropractor they will automatically mention your name. You want chiropractic and your name to become synonymous with the people on your list. One of the best ways to keep in contact with patients is through a bimonthly newsletter. Don’t get hung up on the cost of postage and all of that crap, it may cost you about $1.10 to print and mail a newsletter to a patient. If you send out 1000 and get 4 returning or new patients what is that worth? It better be worth more then $1000.00 or you need to talk to me. Don’t think because we are in the internet age that you should be sending an e-mail newsletter, you can, however nothing works as well as having an envelope arrive with an information sheet that someone can lye on couch or sit in a chair (or elsewhere) and read. I consider myself fairly computer savvy and I still don’t use e-mail newsletters on a regular basis. Patients love to see their names in print and despite the overall dislike of junk mail like getting informative mail. Especially if it’s for free. I have added a patient newsletter that you are free to customize and take to Kinko’s and print. I will be making the newsletter available every other month on www.freedchelp.com and will send you an e-mail every time it becomes available, of course like everything else, it’s free. September/October newsletter will be posted in a few days. A sample of the patient newsletter is available by clicking here.

We will address this subject more next week when we discuses recall/reactivation. This is a very detailed and specific marketing science, however if done right it can pay large dividends. Don’t confuse the purpose of a monthly Newsletter with patient reactivation. One is, (the newsletter)  a “remember my name” the other, (patient reactivation) is a specific call to action. There is a science to all of this, and I am giving it to you for free, PLEASE use it, you won’t be sorry.

Low Budget Marketing Tips

If your budget is shoestring right now, (A situation that I hope we have you out of in the next 3 months) Here are a few ideas that you can use to generate leads and follow them up,(remember these name go into your central database and remain there  forever even if they don’t come in. you never know when they will need you)

The first idea is to print up the one page flyer that you see here. Like everything else this should be printed on goldenrod colored paper, the point is it shouldn’t look pretty. It is meant to grab the reader’s attention. Now you need to post these like you were looking for a lost child. Put them in grocery stores, health food stores, leave a stack at your library, post office, college dorms, college lounges, apartment complexes, health clubs, Senior citizens clubs, Jewish Community Centers, YMCA’s, karate studios, Curves and other clubs of this type, laundry rooms, Laundromats. Get creative, anywhere people congregate. You can even use a tear off pad at the bottom so people can take the number with them and leave the flyer hanging up.

If you offer massage in your office a great way to get leads is through a lead generation box. This method is widely used by one of the gurus and has proven to be very successful. You place a small corrugated box in the local stores, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, whoever will let you, you have small pads made that ask for name, address, city, state and phone number. The pad is glued to the box and a sign on the box reads Tired? Neck and back pain? “FREE ½ Hour Massage and Spinal evaluation” So what if you give away 100 massages what did this cost you? $300 (You should be paying your massage therapist a flat hourly rate, not by the massage) if you get 1 new patient form it your ahead of the game and remember, what is the lifetime value of the patient. A good source of these boxes is U-Line Products. Pads with a peel and stick back or just glued to the box can be made at any instant printer.