Sunday 10 February 2013

Understanding the psychological triggers that motivate people to undergo your care

Hello Doctors!

Sorry for the delay in writing our latest blog post, but we are really excited to announce that we will be launching our new Video Marketing Blog!

In our Promodocs Video Marketing Blog, we are going to teach you the psychological triggers that will convert the majority your audience (e.g. from you Webinars, In-House Spinal Care Classes, Lunch & Learn, Consultation, ROFs, etc.) to become not only your patients, but convert them into PERFECT patients.

You'll find our Promodocs Video Marketing Blog by going to www.promodocs.com

 Official launch date will be February 17th, 2013! 


For more news and latest updates, visit our Facebook Fan Page, Twitter Page or visit our Promodocs Website.

Don't Compete. Dominate.



Tuesday 11 December 2012

Protecting yourself from Negative Online Reviews of Your Clinic Part II

How to turn a negative review site to your advantage and use it to actually grow your clinic.

I mentioned in the last blog that a technique that is commonly used to remove negative online reviews is to build mini-sites, optimizing them where they begin to rank high on Google and consequently, knocking down the negative review site so that they drop further and further in Google’s ranking so no one will find them.

Although this can be an effective technique, the problem lies in the fact that Google gives such authority to these sites and ranks them so high that it’s very hard to drop their ranking.  As such, it can take a very VERY long time to see results

Actual Post of a Chiropractor on RateMDs


In fact, by the time you’re able to bury these sites, it may be too late and you’ll have been forced to close down your clinic.

So action needs to be swift and effective and since the majority of your potential patients are going to see these reviews before coming to see you, you have turn these sites into your favor.

More important than being swift and effective, is that every step of your efforts have to be done correctly right from the start.

If you ignore these negative comments, this will most likely happen...
Actual Post of a Chiropractor on RateMDs
 Having comments that support other negative posts reinforces and legitimizes previous negative comments about you.  So previous negative reviews will NOT be viewed as simply a former patient with a grudge and this can be the nail that closes the coffin on your clinic.


As mentioned in my last blog, having your patients respond to these negative comments with positive comments is a very powerful way.  However, since writing the last blog, I had a number of docs emailing me stating that instead of having their patients write a positive review, they did it themselves.  That is to say, the docs wrote fake reviews.

The result… they were called out on it!  Meaning, people posted on the thread that the doc wrote comments themselves and that they were completely fictional, therefore further destroying their credibility.  And overcoming this is unbelievably hard.  Sadly, even legitimate comments can be detrimental to you as they too can also be mistakenly called out as fake

But there is a better way and like I just mentioned, it’s by turning these harmful review site(s) into practice building and reputation building engines!

How do you do that?

Before I answer that, let me state this… in order to have skeptical people listen to you, you have talk to them where they are most at ease, most comfortable and more importantly, where they are most receptive and open to your message.

And where is that? 

At their home!

Now you’re probably saying “Why would anyone let me into their house to allow me to explain myself?”

Well, I’m not asking you to do that, but…

If you were to do that and they did let you in, you’d know for certain that they’re interested in hearing what you had to say, that they’d give you a chance to explain and that they’d probably be more willing to come to your office as a new patients after they heard your side of the story. Right? Right.

Well, fortunately with the technology of today, you can reach these people at their homes without even stepping inside.  And it comes in the way of “WEBINARS”.  That is, live online seminars that you can perform in front of your webcam that people can watch on their computers from the comfort of their home.

So going back to my last point, if people were to let you in their homes (by watching you live on their computer) aren’t they giving you a chance to explain yourself?  Wouldn’t they be more receptive to your message?  And wouldn’t they be more likely to give you a chance and book a consultation with you? 

Answer… Ya, they would be!

So here’s the simple and highly effective method to turn these negative online review sites to your benefit and build up your practice once again.

Simply write a post on the site, of course within the thread where all negative comments are, and say something to the effect…

“Hello All, This is Dr. X and I was told of these comments from a patient of mine who saw them.  Needless to say, I am shocked and saddened by these comments as we at {clinic name} have always made it our mission to provide the best care possible to our patients in a warm and loving environment.

Although, it’s impossible to help everyone, we do everything we can for all of our patients.  But there are some patients that have not been satisfied and have decided to post on this site. 

We would like to set the record straight and we invite everyone to watch and talk to us live online, from the comfort of your home, in an open Q&A format where I will answer all you questions and show you what our clinic is really like.

Please give us a chance to explain and join us on every {Date & Time} by going to {webinar domain} and just for taking the time to listen to us, we would also like to give you a special gift..
Yours,
Dr. X”


Before I get more into webinars, let me address the above invitation.

Again, these review sites are going to be ranked high on Google for a long, long time and you have to address these comments right away and show the readers that you have nothing to hide and that you want to re-establish your good name.

Write in an informal and humble manner so that you appear like real down to earth person and not some stuck up doctor.
Having positive comments is one thing, but allowing people to actually see you, relate to you and be able to have their concerns answered, is priceless and so much more powerful in re-establishing yourself.

Now, there are going to essentially be two types of people that are going to make a point of watching you. People who are wanting to hear you out and give you a chance to explain yourself and people that are curious to see the doc that everyone is bashing.

Either way, these are all potential new patients.  NOT ONLY THAT, but when these people get to know the real you and realize how caring you are and how you have been misrepresented, not only will they come in as potential patients, but they will spread the word about you AND may even write a positive post on the review site.

So over time, not only will you save your clinic from shutting down, but you’ll gain new patients and more importantly, the negative comments on the review site will simply be disregarded by visitors.
To be maximally effective, I recommend that you hold a live webinar every week for about 30 mins in order to reach as many people as you can.

Side Note:  Once you see how powerful webinars are, you will most likely continue to do them for all your Health Care Talks, Lunch & Learns, Health Care Booths etc. because you’ll not only will you be able to reach the people right in front of you,  but you’ll always be able to reach the 100’s if not 1000’s of people online.  Imagine how many new patients you can now potentially get!!

Where can you go to find a webinar service?


Well, there are several that you can find online.  One of the best is Gotomeeting, but for the most part, they are all quite good.  But there are a few drawbacks with these services.

1.    Cost: - Because you shave to pay every time you use their service, pay for the length of your webinar, the number of attendees and up-sell features (e.g. webinar host/co-ordinator) it can get quite expensive.

2.    Different Access Code -
every time you hold a webinar, you’ll be given a different access code to give to your attendees. So instead of posting just one time for all your upcoming webinars, you’ll have to make several posts.  Problem with this is that review sites will most likely block your posts as they will be deemed similar.  As such, your future webinars won’t have attendees
.
3.    Webinar is not linked to your website – webinar services are not attachable or embeddable into your website.  This is a major downfall because viewer of your webinar may want to get more information about your clinic so having the webinar embedded into your website makes your information easily accessible to your visitors and increases the likelihood of them booking an appointment.  People are fundamentally lazy and the more steps it takes to get something, the less likely people will take action. So without having your webinar embedded, you will lose potential patients.

4.    No downloadable options – skeptical people generally will not make quick decisions nor making financial commitments.  So during  your webinar, viewers should have the option of downloading a Gift Certificate with some sort of promotional  offer (e.g. FREE examination and Initial treatment)

But there is a better way. A better webinar option and it successfully addresses all of the above issues and allows you to maximize your viewer-to-new patient conversion.

In addition, you can now hold as many webinars as you want and at any length of time as you want. 
And the best part… the cost is pennies!

Promodocs chiropractic website developers have created built-in website webinar feature (exclusive to Promodocs chiropractic websites) that allows you to direct viewers to your website to watch your live webinars without the need for access codes and continuous posts.    Thus making your posts much more effective in being able to reach a larger audience.

In addition, Promodocs chiropractic website designs have also incorporated into their websites Event Calendars where you can post upcoming webinars and events (e.g. Health Care Talks, Lunch & Learns, Trade show Booths etc.) that your online visitors can make note of and attend.

Lastly and more importantly, after performing your compelling webinar, your online viewers can take immediate action by utilizing your Promodocs Fillable Online Intake form and Online Patient Scheduler so that they can quickly and easily schedule an appointment with your office.

Thus having an all incompassing website webinar feature is so vitally important in getting new patients because you want to make everything easily accessible for your online visitors to book a consult after you have them pumped up about you and your clinic. 

Of course the decision is up to you.  So whether you use a Promodocs site or a webinar service, it is imperative that you take action immediately, allow visitors of the negative review sites to get to know the real you and to build back up your clinic.





Tuesday 30 October 2012

The Top 4 Ways To Remove Negative Online Reviews About Your Chiropractic Clinic

The Top 4 Ways To Remove Negative Online Reviews About Your Chiropractic Clinic

You have worked so hard to build your clinic, create a good name in your community and provide exceptional care for your patients all to have a negative review of your clinic take you down.

As you probably know, a bad customer experience will spread far faster than a good customer experience.  In fact, studies have indicated that people will tell 7 people about their bad experience that they may have had with your clinic, whereas people who had a good experience will only tell one.

But it gets worse.

Before blogs, forums, article sharing sites etc., when there was a complaint about you, it would perhaps linger for a few days or perhaps a few weeks and then it would die down.  However, now with the internet, negative comments and reviews about your clinic can last years… and years… and years.

Since more and more people turn to the internet for their research (e.g. finding what people have to say about your clinic), if you have bad online reviews, you can bet that your clinic is going to suffer.
To make matters worse, statistics indicate that 72% of internet users trust online reviews – whether the reviews are legit or not.

So… there are comments about your clinic on the net… 
what can you do about it? 

Here are the TOP 4 ways survive and protect yourself from negative online reviews.

1.    Bury The Site – This is great approach because by “burying” the site, you not only get rid of the review, but at the same time, you’ll also enhance your online presence.

Burying a negative review (which has been posted on a site of some sort) requires you to build “Mini Sites”.  These can be Wordpress sites or blogs that are between 3-5 pages in size that are then optimized for the keywords that are used to bring up that negative feedback.  Most likely the keywords are going to be your clinic’s name and your name.

The objective of building Mini-Sites is to have your sites begin to rank high on Google searches and by doing so, you’ll push the site that contains the negative review down (i.e. lower in search engine ranking).  If you get the review down into the 2nd page of Google, you can pretty much be rest assured that no one will find it (as typically no one really looks past the first page of Google).  In fact, 80% of the clicks are done with links above the “fold” – the last part of the screen that you can see without scrolling down).

The benefit with developing these Mini-Sites is that it will give you that much more online presence and you’ll dominate the pages when people are looking for you.  In addition, it’ll make your clinic look superior (i.e. the leader in your community).

2.    Gang Up On The Negative Posts – If you see a negative online review ask your star patients to reply to that post.  Having multiple positive reviews will squash a negative review and those that read the bad post, will pass it off as just a person with a grudge since you have so many of your patients defending you.

3.    Contact The Person Directly That Created The Negative Post – If you know who the patient is that posted the bad comment about your clinic, call him/her up and talk to the person about it.  DO NOT get confrontational when you call.  If you do, their defensive walls will go up and you’ll get nowhere.  In fact, it may cause that person to throw up another harsh online comment.

When you call, be empathetic… but overly empathetic.  Remember, all conflicts can be resolved and all parties involved can develop a good solid positive bond.  It’s all in the approach.

When you have addressed that patients concerns and you have come to a mutual understanding and are back on good terms, ask the patient to kindly remove the post.  Chances are they will.

4.    Encourage Your Patients To Complain To You BEFORE They Take It Online – it’s better to nip the problem in the bud rather than let it fester and explode in your face.

But, first and foremost

Make sure that your patients take ownership of their condition and how their body reacts to treatment.  All too often chiropractors don’t have their patients take ownership and when the patient doesn’t get better, who do they blame? You.

Secondly, make sure that your patient knows that you always want to hear if they have any concerns or complaints while under care.   If they share their concerns with you, you can diffuse and address them and not have your disgruntled patient take it to the masses. 

So, how do you know if someone has posted a comment about you or your clinic? 

EASY and it’s FREE! It’s called “Google Alerts” and all you need is a Gmail account.  Google Alerts (just Google it) will email you and notify you if anyone has posted anything on the net regarding your clinic.  All that you have to do is sign up and enter the keywords that you want Google to look out for.  It’s that simple.

If you want to get an edge on your competition and find out what they are doing on the net or what others are saying about them, you can have Google Alert you of any posts that have been made online regarding your completion (posted by either them or by someone else) simply by entering the keywords associated with your competition (e.g. their clinics name).

Lastly and a shameless plug, if you want to start your clinic’s online presence right and drive massive numbers of new patients to your clinic, we at Promodocs have developed websites for chiropractors and have incorporated exclusive Promodocs Enhanced Website Features that will drive more new patients to your clinic than you ever thought possible. 

So, if you’re looking for a new chiropractic website for your clinic, we encourage you to check out our site to find out how the Promodocs’ team of  chiropractic website developers  have set a new industry standard and why our sites are so powerful in building your clinic or call toll free at 1-800-652-0592 today!
Wednesday 10 October 2012

The FIVE Essential Features To A Successful Chiropractic Website

In this day and age, it is a well known and excepted fact that people’s first impression of a business that they are searching out information about is their website.  Chiropractic is no different.

The fact of the matter is, websites are the new store front…  whether you have an online business or a brick and mortar shop.   This being the case, peoples views on a business is based on how their website looks and functions.  If you have a run of the mill website, people will view your clinic inferior or run of the mill.  If  you have a website that will blow your visitors away by enhanced visitor experience, you can bet that your visitors will not only have a very high opinion of your clinic, but chances are they are going to contact your office and book an appointment.

Imagine walking down the street and seeing a 30 or 40 store fronts all looking relatively the same, but the items in the store range from clothes sold at Walmart to Armani and Dior.  Now, you’re the type of person looking for Armani but you can’t go into the stores  to see which one sells Armani, instead you have to stand down the road and chose the store that you think sells what you want based on the store front.

That’s a really hard determination to make right?  Now, what happens if a store opens up on that same street where the store front is beautiful decorated, has sophisticated and elegant signage  and really stands out from the other stores.  Well, chances are your going to go straight to that store and find what your looking for and completely disregard  the others, right?

And that’s exactly what online visitors will do when they see a bunch of chiropractic websites.  If visitors see just a plain static typical chiropractic website, the visitor will perceive that clinic as below par (whether justified or not).  But if a visitor jumps on to a site that blows them away and enhances their online visitor experience they will look no further and contact your office, right?  Of course.

So what makes a website stand out from all the rest?

1.    Contacting and Communicating with your Office has to be BEYOND easy – in the world we live in today, people have little patience and time.  Your chiropractic patients are no different.  Having a well visible phone number is essentially, but it’s just the start.  Your chiropractic website has to have a Live Chat function where your visitors can text chat to your staff via their  Smart Phone and computer (btw… statistics are indicating that more people are starting to search online using their smart phones than lap top and desk top computers - so your site has to be Mobile Compatible!).  Your site also needs Fillable Online Patient Intake Forms that can be emailed to your office (not just printed out by your website visitor and brought into your office) and there needs to be and Online Patient Scheduler where patients can book their consults and appointments online.

Never doubt this fact... your website HAS to be a complete extension of your clinic - educating, communicating, and booking - if it's not, believe me, you are loosing a ton of potential patients.

2.    Remove Website Clutter -Information must be concise and not overwhelming – all too often, chiropractors have websites where they jam pack it with information… tonnes of information, too many tabs and too many choices.  This is a website killer!  Just like the saying goes… “less is better”  If too much information is given, people will feel overwhelmed and will jump off your site to go to your competition.  In addition, because people are time sensitive and impatient they want their information is small packages so that they can just get what they need to know and then take action.

3.    Site Must Be Visually Stimulating – websites have to be visually stimulating and interesting.  By this I don’t mean having all these flashing lights and attention grabbing gimmicks.   I mean a website that is attractive and pleasant to the eye and one that makes the visitor to want to explore your site further and more importantly, drive them to contact your office to make an appointment.

4.    Doctor Must be Able to Build Rapport with their Visitors – This is massively essential and I cannot over stress this one enough.  Too many chiropractors think that throwing up a few pics of them with their patients or with their family members will allow their online visitors to get to know them and see how great and caring a doc he or she is.  Well, this may have worked a number of years ago but it no longer does.  Visitor-to-Doctor interaction IS the new standard.  That is to say, visitors want to get to know the doctor not from pics of them on a page, but from interacting with them… but from the comfort of their home!  This is why Webinars (i.e. Live seminars online) are growing in epic proportions.  Now I’m not saying that  you have to be online live all the time during your office hours, but all your Lay Lectures, promotional talks etc should be shown live online.  Therefore, not only will you be lecturing and building rapport with those standing before you in your clinic (or where ever you may be), but now you’ll be able to lecture and build rapport with all those people online.  Imagine how many new patients you'll be able to get now!

5.    Overburdening Visitors with Emails and Newsletters – A visitor email capture (having your visitors willingly provide you with their email address) and an auto-responder (i.e. an email/ e-newsletter mailer that sends those visitors that have given you their email address information on an automatic and continuous basis) are crucial to a successful website.  Much like #4, a lead capture and auto-responder built into your website is a MUST HAVE. 

In order to get as many of your visitors to book with your office, you need to be in constant contact with them and this is the reason why having a website that will automatically send out timed emails (i.e. auto-responder) to your visitors is so important. Sending out periodic  emails to your visitors is critical for your clinic success because they will keep your clinic top of mind and thus, if your visitor feels the need to see a chiropractor, your clinic will be the one they call. Not your competitor. 

But you CANNOT email them too much!  If your visitors/leads get an email from you more than 3 times per month, they will perceive your clinic as an annoyance and they will not only request to get off your mailing list, but you can bet they will never come to your office.

Now, if you have an old site or you have a site that does not incorporate the above 5 components, you may be thinking that this is going to be too costly to do, not to mention the cost of website optimization in order to build your online presence.

                                                     But fortunately there are options!

There are companies that you can find online that provide businesses with auto-responders services, patient scheduling services, webinar services and you can pay for all of them or choose which ones you think you need and depending on your budget.

                                                       However, there is a better way.

At the risk of taking away the importance and necessity of these 5 essential website features by sounding sales pitchy, Promodocs specifically builds websites for chiropractors that incorporates all these features and much, much more to create the most powerful chiropractic website available.

Our team of chiropractic website developer at Promodocs have spent countless hours and have done tremendous research in understanding what drives your online visitors to be motivated to not only tour your website but also to communicate and book an appointment with your clinic.

To learn more about how our chiropractic websites are so effective in bringing you new patients and why we are so different from other chiropractic website companies, visit us at http://www.promodocs.com or call us toll free at 1-800-652-0592 and take advantage of our limited time $200 Promotional Discount!
Sunday 16 September 2012

100 Ways For Passive Patient Acquisition Part III

So we are down to the last few ways of the 100 Ways for Passive Patient Acquisition for your chiropractic office!!

But before I begin the final count down, let me mention this...

after I wrote about putting an ad on Groupon in Part I (I know some of you are puking right now thinking that an ad on Groupon is devaluing chiropractic, but like I said, some of these ways that I have suggested, you may not approve with), a few weeks later, when I was checking out Groupon on my iPhone, I saw a chiropractor who had an ad for his/her decompression treatments and if memory serves, I think that in the end there were 390 purchases! That's to say... 390 potentially NP within less than one month!

In the ad  the doc was charging $35 for I think, 3 treatments (the average cost of a single treatments is usually around $200).   But here's the thing...a standard spinal decompression rehab protocol is 20 visits.  So the doc may have lost some money at the start of the treatment plan, but he/she gained massive amounts of new patients and income.

Now, some of you may be thinking  this doc got these patients who were looking for a deal and the people that they refer, may only come expecting a similar deal.  However, this can be squashed by making sure that patients know that this is a one shot deal and does not apply for any other person.

Anyways... just something to consider.

SPECIAL NOTE... 

When you're done reading this blog scroll to the bottom. We at Promodocs would like to send you a free gift...NO STRINGS ATTACHED...  it's just our way of saying thanks for all your support!

------------------------

So here are the final 10 ways for Passive Patient Acquisition (ya, I know... we got up to 70 in the last blog... but if you go through the list, you will realize that in the end, I will have given you over a 100 different ways).

Oh ya... finally... these are in no particular order and again, you may not agree with them all, but as I said right from the start, I have essentially done all of these techniques and they have all brought in new patients.

So lets begin...

1. Gym Membership Packages - Often when new members sign up at a gym, they are given their contract in a card stock folder along with some promotional material associated with the gym.  My suggestion is to talk to the manager/owner and ask if it would be possible to put one of your promotional postcards in their new members package.  In return, you will give your new patients a promotional piece of theirs. New gym members are great potential new patients.

2. Market to Moving Companies - Who has more torn up spines than movers?  As with the Police station or fire department , give the head of human resources, owner and/or head manager a stack of promotional postcards that you have created specifically for moving companies..  Explain to the owners/managers how chiropractic can prevent injuries and down time for their workers. 

3. Webinars - This is HUGE!!!!  I mean M.A.S.S.I.V.E.!  Webinars are lectures or seminars that are done online - on the web ("Web" "Seminars")  As you probably already know, everyone searches on the internet for all their information and purchase making decisions.  In fact, online shopping is a multi-billion dollar industry because more and more people prefer to do things from the comfort of their homes.

As such, what better way to reach to your potential patients when they can watch you live from their home?  Where they are comfortable and more receptive to your message.

Many people (i.e. potential patients) may not come to your office simply because they are apprehensive about going to see you - Why?  Because they don't know you.  They may be skeptical of chiropractic or since there are so many chiros to choose from, they just don't know who to see and who to trust.  So imagine how many new patients you are losing on a daily basis because of this?!

But imagine being able to spread your message, build rapport and trust with these people without ever having seen them!

This is what webinars can do for you and why they are now essential to driving new patients to your office.

With webinars, you can have your lunch and learns, lay lectures, promotions (e.g. Health Fairs) and your chiropractic info session performed online for everyone on the web to see - LIVE- while you're performing them.  As such... your potential for new patient reach and acquisition is virtually unlimited!

There are some great webinar companies out there (e.g Go To Meeting), but they can be expensive as you have to pay every time you use their services, pay for the amount of time you use for your webinar, pay for the number of people who are attending your webinar, etc, etc.

But what if you could have unlimited webinars and it's free*? Even better... what if your webinar function is built into your website where you can not only promote when you are going to perform your live webinar to every visitor that comes to your site (so your visitor can make time to watch you), but when a visitor  does a google search and lands on you clinic's website while your performing your live webinar, they will be instantly notified that you are performing a live lecture!

Think about it...  your visitors will not only get to know you, but you'll build rapport  and trust with them.  How powerful do you think that would be in getting those visitors as new patients?  Do you think that those visitors would more likely book an appointment after they see you live than if you just had some static chiropractic website?  How about if your visitors could interact with you online and ask you questions... and you can reply back?  What if your visitors can  download your Gift Certificate during your live webinar? How about if you could perform as many webinars to as many people as you want for free*?   If this was all possible, can you see how your clinic would blow up with new patients?

Well, it's now possible!

Promodocs.com has developed an advanced webinar feature that is exclusive to Promodocs Chiropractic websites that has all the above features already built in and it comes included in your Promodocs website!

Sorry...I know that was a total plug for our chiropractic websites, but we are so pumped about being able to provide our clients with this amazing feature simply because it is truly one of the MOST effective ways to market and grow your clinic quickly.

4. Sensible Shoe Stores - These are shoe stores that sell "sensible" shoes (e.g. Walking On A Cloud Shoe Store).  Again, like with the pro-shops, ask to leave promotional postcards at their sales counter.

5. Promotional Hats - For the winter - wool hats with your logo (everyone will wear it in the winter) or golf hats in the summer with your logo.  Just like the wool hats... everyone will wear them and they will get noticed!

6. Auto-Responders - A MUST HAVE on chiropractic websites (This is why we have included them in our Promodocs Chiropractic Website designs.  This is when visitors come to your site and request information and have to leave their email address to get it.  What happens here is that your website captures these emails and automatically emails out to them newsletters  about your clinic and the benefits of chiropractic.  WARNING: DO NOT barrage your leads with emails (eg. 3-4 or more emails per month) otherwise you will irritate your leads and they will remove themselves off your mailing list and you'll lose them forever.  The ideal amount of time is to email your leads once every 3-4 weeks

7. Radio"Ask The Expert" - now, this is not a passive patient acquisition technique because you have to go out to a studio and do it live. But I have included it here because... A. it's so fun to do.  B. you get huge numbers of new patients (especially if you do a call in show). C. you tend to get NPs days and weeks after the show (hence the reason I have included it in the list).  I used to do a lot of Ask The Expert on the radio and it was awesome.  Take my word for it and give it a shot.

8. Mobile Text Message - Just like in point #6, this is not really passive, but the WOW factor and the referrals after makes is passive.  At the end of the day, text message your new patients and message the following "Hello {patient's name}, this is my personal cell phone number.  If you ever have any question or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours, Dr. {your name}" 

This will blow your patients away!  This is not like calling your NP from your office and saying the same thing  and giving out your clinic number.  Here you are showing that you take a real personal interest in getting them better by giving them your personal mobile number.  You'll be surprised how many friends and family members your patient will tell.  You'll get a lot of referrals from just the one little thing.

9. Inhouse Referral Promotions - I left this for one of the very last ways for passive patient acquisition, simply because we all know about it and do them.  But I wanted to mention it because so many clinics have these promotions, but the "prize" is so lame.  Lame like a bank giving away a toaster when you open a new account.

What I suggest is having a competition within your clinic where the patient that refers the most people (and that undergo care - you don't want patients to send just anyone ~e.g. some tourist they met on the street from Guatemala that's leaving the next day~ to your clinic just to get their numbers up) wins the grand prize.  The first time I did this was when surround sound for home theaters were expensive and was the hottest thing going. You should have seen the number NP that came in!  It was amazing AND the majority of them were long term patients.

So don't give away a free water-based pillow, a pair of orthotics or some other lame boring item ... make it cool, exciting and motivational.  Like a trip for 2 to Mexico or something.  This will not only exponentially bring up the energy and excitement in your clinic, but it'll drive a lot of new patients into your office.

10. Lastly... and as cheesy as this may sound... be awesome.  Be awesome to yourself, be awesome to your family and be awesome to your patients and in return, you'll acquire new patients that pay, stay and refer.  Being great, kind, and caring IS passive patient acquisition!  Because when you do it everyday to everyone you meet, it simply becomes reflex action... it becomes effortless.

We have come to the end of the list of ways for Passive Patient Acquisition.  Remember, I have done almost all of these techniques and they have worked.  So chose as many as you can that you are comfortable with and start doing them this week.  Even if you do half of them, and each one only brings 1 NP/mo... that's 50 new patient... or 600 NP in one year!


Good luck and start today!


A SPECIAL NOTE...

We at Promodocs would also like to say a special thanks to all the docs that have read our blogs, like our facebook fan page, emailed us with your question, and supported us.  And to show our appreciation, we have designed a Chiropractic America and Chiropractic Canada print ready T-shirt design (based on the Captain America Shield) that you can receive FREE!

All you have to do is contact us by going to our website at http://www.promodocs.com and let us know which print ready image you want (or if you want both) and we'll email it right off to you!

To your clinic success,
The Promodocs Team

* the Promodocs Webinar feature is included in the monthly Promodocs website maintenance fee.
Friday 3 August 2012

100 Ways For Passive Patient Acquisition PART II

Okay... first of all sorry for the delay!

We had a lot of great feedback with Part I of 100 Ways For Passive Patient Acquisition and we are pumped about sharing part II with you!

Again, just like I mentioned in the last blog, you may love some of these ideas and some you may hate.  But, as previously mentioned, I have done them all (with just a few exceptions) and they all work.  So use what you think will work for you.


Lastly, these are in no particular order.


So, let's get started...



40. Mailers - This is an obvious one, but with a slight twist. You can send out a bulk promotional mailer by sending  massive quantities via the post or a mailing service... OR... better yet and to greatly increase your response,  you can hand deliver them yourself. But instead of just dropping them off in the mailbox, knock on their doors and introduce yourself.  This works incredible well and is a great idea if you just opened shop and you want to have that personal connection with your neighbors.

Going door to door and introducing yourself to your neighbors greatly increases the chances of them coming to your office as opposed to just sending a bulk mailer to their home.  Note: make a note of the people that you have a face to face contact with and send them a follow-up letter saying how nice it was to meet them etc.  and then continue with monthly mailers.

41. Senior Residence - this is a really good one!  You can go to those senior centers that are run by the government (where their residents are quite ill etc.) or you can go to the ones that are for healthy active seniors. I personally recommend the senior centers that are privately run where the residents live independently for 2 reasons... 1. Generally they will have their own cars to drive to your office with.  2. They have extra income to pay for your care.  Of course, you can always spend a 1/2 day there and perform adjustments on site.

42. Senior Centres - center organizers love to hold presentations and seniors love to listen to information on health.  Great place to get NPs.

43. Pro-Shops - (I'll put this under one listing, but it could count for 3-5 different ways as there are so many different types of proshops :) ) Pro-Shops at gyms, golf clubs, tennis clubs etc.

44. Sandwich Trucks - sounds tacky?  Not at all... especially when you think where these trucks go... construction sites and offices.  Great new patient potential.  And guess what?  The advertising gets noticed and it's dirt cheap.  Just negotiate with the truck owner.

45. Sandwich Trucks Pt. II - while your doing the ads on their truck, have special promo business cards (or postcards) made up the the driver can hand out to his customers.

46. Mobile Sign

47. Bill Boards

48. Lawn Signs - these are the little signs that you see stuck in the grass on the side of the road.  Very cheap and you can get like 100 done for very little.

49. Kids Sports Sponsor

50. Charity Raffles

51. Flickr - http://www.flickr.com A great site for pics etc and helps drive traffic to your chiropractic website

52. Mattress Company

53. Physiotherapist's office

54. Massage Therapist Offices

55.  Police Stations - NO... not for the criminals or the deviants of society.  lol  Make a promotional poster up and have placed in their meeting rooms or lunch rooms.  Police generally have great coverage for chiropractic.

56. Fire Departments - Same as the police stations.  They too have great coverage.

57. Ambulance - Same as above.  BTW, it has been my experience that these guys are HUGE supporters of chiropractic.  I used to have a bunch of them as patients!

58. Library - great place and the library will allow you to put up a promotional poster up a week or so prior to the presentation and most libraries have a calendar booklet-type hand out that they will write a small blurb about your presentation.  I have had some huge turn outs from this... in fact, I've had presentations where over 100 people attended!

59. Grocery Store Presentations - some of the larger grocery stores have community centers inside them that are dedicated for presentations and workshops.  Just like the library they have a hand  out that they give to their customers and they will help promote your presentation.  This was great because not only did I get patients from the attendees but I also go a lot of the workers to come in as well.

60. High Schools

61. University Lectures/ Sports Teams - great way to get the teams to come to your office.

62. Networking Clubs - I'm not a really big fan of this one and it really only brought me a couple patients here and there, but its helps.  You have to consider the time you dedicate to this vs. the patients that you get from it and determine if you think it's worth it.

63. Coffee Shop Cups - this one I have not done, but I know a doc that did this and it worked well.  Go to your local coffee shop (has to be an independently owned one - not like a Starbucks or Second Cup chain).  You can talk to the owner and say that you'll help pay for the cost of their cups if you are allowed to put your clinic name and contact info on them.

64. LED Lights - I have not done this one, but I did see another chiro do this. You may think this is tacky, and perhaps it is, but his car was a Mercedes and I thought that it lessened the tackiness of this concept. These are those LED message runners that you can place in the back window of your car that other drivers can see and read.  This will, without a doubt, get noticed.  I never had a chance to ask how it worked for him, so I can't report how successful it is.

65. Licence Plate Frames - these are relatively cheap to produce and they really get noticed.  Put your name and contact info along with a message like..."Feel'n fine cuz I got my spine aligned at XXX" (I know that was bad, but it was the first thing that came to my mind)

66. Mall Signs - can be pretty inexpensive and works well.  We got a lot of the seniors come in when they noticed it during their mall walks in the morning (before the shops opened up).

67. Pod Casts - if your information is good and  you have a following, it works well

68. Video Presentations - works well.  Check out http://www.promodocs.com and see how we have made video presentations HIGHLY effective in driving massive numbers of new patients to your clinic!

69. Staff Bonusing - don't overlook bonusing your staff  for both bringing in new patients themselves and helping achieve your monthly goals.  This doesn't have to be just money, I used to give them gifts or Gift Certificates.  Most I mostly gave them money as an incentive and that worked super great!

70. Taxi Cab Ads - This works well if you have a clinic downtown.

Well, that's enough for today.  I will put the rest up next blog.

I hope that you have found this useful and of course, I always welcome your feedback!

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Thursday 21 June 2012

100 Ways For Passive Patient Acquisition


This blog article is about 100 different ways to achieve passive patient acquisition!   

Actually, there are much more than 100, as different techniques can be used multiple times (e.g. promoting to several different golf stores) .  Now, I wanted to get all 100 in this blog, but I realized that the blog would be far too long.  So, I’m going to break down into a couple of blog posts.

PLEASE NOTE:  I have written these 100 different ways to market your chiropractic clinic in NO particular order and some of these different techniques you'll love, others you will hate and some you’ll feel indifferent to.  However, regardless of how you may feel about them, you need to know, that I have done every single one of them and they have all brought patients into my office.

Lastly,  before doing any of these techniques make sure that they fall within the guidelines of your association.

Let’s start….

1.      Newsletters – this one is obvious and essential.  You need to be in constant contact with your patients and leads.  Both to educate them and to keep your clinic top of mind.  By keeping your clinic top of mind, when your leads or patients are hurt or whatever the case may be, you will be the first doctor/clinic they think of and call to book an appointment with. E-mail newsletters are great, but they can kill your clinic if you do it too much.  How many times is perfect?  Every 3-4 weeks.  Any more than that you will not only upset your leads/patients because you’re bombarding their inbox with constant emails, but they will remove themselves from your mailing list and you will have lost them forever.

2.       Golf Stores – talk to the owner and ask if you can put some of your business cards on their sales desk or better yet,  promotional postcards offering customers some promotional offer.  In exchange, any customer that undergoes care will receive a Gift Certificate of $X towards their next purchase at the store. Promotional postcards work the best and make sure there is a blank space on the card where the golf store can stamp their contact information.  You can see a sample postcard cover if you go to our Promodocs Pinterest page.

3.       Shared Marketing Mailers – using a 8 ½”x 11” sheet of white paper (or larger if you want) for your mailer, divide it into ad spaces and get local businesses to purchase them (give your clinic the largest ad space) and put their logo, contact info, special promo offer and a small blurb.  Charge a fee that will not only cover your printing costs, but delivery costs as well and have it mailed (either by post or a private company) to residences in your local area.  So by having the costs covered, this marketing piece will be free for you. 

4.       Penny Saver – Low cost and great readership.  Works really well in smaller town.

5.       Nutrition Stores – network with a few health food stores (much like the golf store example) so that you can have promotional postcards along side the cash register.

6.       Grocery Store Announcement Boards – I’m not a very big fan of this one, but you can pin up your business cards or promotional post cards for people to take.

7.       Craig’s List – I have known of  a couple chiropractors that swear by the effectiveness of posting their clinic on this site.  In fact, years ago, I found my first lawyer on Craigs list and he was great.

8.       Kijiji – same as #7

9.       Bus Signs – bus signs are very effective and surprisingly inexpensive.  I prefer the ads being on the outside (back or side) of the bus because it is more visible, noticeable and more eyeballs will see it.  If you put the ad on the side of the bus, make sure the ad in on the street side of the bus and not the curb side. 

10.   Hospital magazines – you’ll be surprised at how many people at the hospital who read these magazines  are wishing that they knew of a better treatment alternative to their or their friend's/family's condition other than medicine.

11.   Hospital TV monitors – Same as above

12.   M.D.’s offices

13.   Lawyers

14.   Accountants

15.   Local papers –  they have a good readership, relatively inexpensive and you are targeting your clinic's local residence/market.

16.   Leaving your business cards with your tip – servers see a lot of people so you never know who they will give your card to (if he or she doesn't use it themselves). I gotta say, I was uncomfortable with this at first and then I saw that it worked... I wasn't uncomfortable anymore.

17.   Article Sharing Site – promote your clinic with a blog and article sharing sites. 

18.   Website – Chiropractors are everywhere and they all have chiropractic websites…  and so, it’s not enough to have just a website for your clinic.    All too many websites are static, boring and are the same from clinic to clinic.  This being the case, potential patients will chose a clinic by  just throwing a dart at the monitor and see which website it hits.  It’s ESSENTIAL to have a website that not only stands apart from all the rest, but that addresses the triggers and demands of the modern consumer (“Modern Consumer” does NOT mean young consumers, but instead it's the new consumer mindset that is in everyone from the age of 15 to 70 years old).   If you do not address this new mindset, you will simply NOT get the new patients numbers you want.   It is for this reason, Promodocs has developed the most advanced and most effective chiropractic website templates available on the market today that has been specifically designed to set your clinic apart and address the triggers that motivate visitors to become your new patients (Our site will FINALLY be live this MONDAY!! YAY!!!).

19.   YouTube – an amazing 50% of internet users will chose to watch a video over going to a website first.  So video tape yourself during talks or just record yourself doing info sessions and put the video up on YouTube.

20.   Twitter

21.   Pinterest – this is the fastest growing social website today.

22.   Facebook – A MUST.

23.   Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – having your site ranked high in Google is essential.  If your site is “below the fold” (i.e. in order to see your site on Google you have to scroll down), you will get minimal activity.  You need to be ranked #1 in Google (or at least within the top 3 spots). Promodocs offers their Platinum SEO Package which the most comprehensive SEO package in the industry at the lowest possible price.

24.   Yellow Pages – the online Yellow Pages… NOT the yellow pages that are delivered to your house.

25.   Theater Ads – Theaters are now willing to put ads (static or non-static ads) up on the big screen before the movie. 

26.   Radio – Of the conventional media platforms (i.e. Radio, print and TV, radio is still holding its ground)  Also, don’t think radio is expensive because in some regions of the country it's amazingly cheap!! 

27.   T.V. – very expensive but if your message is right and you hit the right shows,  you'll get massive numbers of new patients.

28.   Spinal Scans – don’t do it yourself, instead hire others to do it for you.  Make sure you train them well.

29.   Magazines – you can place ads in them - they are not as effective as they used to be (since readership is on a downward trend). HOWEVER, try to become an Expert in the magazine and get your own column.  Even offer to do it free.  Your pay will come from the new patients that read your column.

30.   Local Papers – Like in the above example, become the Expert and get your own column.

31.   Local Businesses – leave promotional postcards in dry cleaners, sports stores etc.  The more people see your cards around town, the greater the chance they will come to you if they need your services (Top of Mind).

32.   Builders and Construction sites – network with these companies as their workers are well known for having  aches and pains.

33.   Car Magnets – these are really cheap to make. You can put a large one on your car and you can give smaller ones  to your patients so that they can put them on their car  The key to this is to not make it look like some boring chiropractic office magnet with a pic of you or a spine and your clinic contact info.  Make it humorous or really cool looking so that your patients will be proud to put it on their car.  You can even offer them a small discount off their care if  they do it for you. 

34.   Referral Packages – give them out to your patients.  ONLY give them out if they ask about sending someone.  NEVER, just out right ask your patients for a referral.  It will create an uncomfortable setting and potential resentment.  There are ways to ask directly but that's beyond the scope of this particular article.  However, if you want to know the exception, please email us.

35.   Chiropractic T-shirts – give them to patients that successfully finish their rehab program, who start care or as a referral gift.  They will wear them all the time and others will notice them.  Email us at Promodocs if you want us to send you our FREE “Chiropractic America” or “Chiropractic Canada” print-ready T-Shirt design with an Avengers theme (they will be ready July 1st, 2012 - it'll be the Capt. America shield but instead of the white star in the middle, it'll be a white C1 vert! - really cool looking - if I do say so myself! :)

36.   Pro Shops – at a golf club, tennis club, gym etc. EXCELLENT PLACE FOR NEW PATIENTS!

37.   Sandwich Truck – put your ad on the back of their truck.  It’s cheap and they visit a lot of people who have the potential for back pain and other injuries.

38.   News Article Sites – these are sites that reporters go to when they want to to get information on a topic for a story that they want to write.  So they may contact you if you uploaded an article of interest.  NOTE:  Often these are pay sites, but if your story is picked up or they ask you for an interview, it could give you and your clinic a lot of exposure.

39.   Groupon – this is a site that sells products/services at a huge discounted price, but the offer is only available if enough people are willing to buy.  Not a big fan of this method, but it can bring a few patients in and you can turn these patients into long term patients and they are also a good referral source

That's it for now.

Well, I know that I stopped at a strange number, but the blog was getting to long so I decided to end it here.  However, in my next blog will give you another big list of even better ideas (and some worse ones).

Well, I hoped this helped and as always, we are  there for you and if you ever have any questions on how to better improve your clinic, please email us... we're more than happy to continually give you free advice.

ALSO!!!   Our NEW Promodocs website and chiropractic website template will FINALLY BE LIVE ON MONDAY!!!! So please check us out (http://www.promodocs.com)  and see why our websites are shaking up the industry!

Lastly, we want to thank all of our docs that made our latest addition to our chiropractic posters, such a massive success.  Our “Innate Flow” poster is still holding the #1 spot for highest sales!

Yours,
The Promodocs Team