As a chiropractic practice owner, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of everyday life. It’s also just as easy to take your eye off the ball when it comes to marketing your business. But one of the most important parts of running a successful practice is having an effective marketing strategy in place that keeps you top-of-mind with both current and potential patients.   

However, we often see chiropractors starting or trying to grow their practice, and get a bit sad. They start investing money in things they think they need — but doesn’t necessarily help them achieve their goals. Because of this, they often invest in the wrong things so they don’t get the return on investment (ROI) that they were hoping for. But don’t panic! I’ve got some tips for you. And, spoiler alert: It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg! 

1. Build Client Relationships

Building relationships with your clients takes time, but it’s worth it! For your chiropractic practice to be profitable, you need to remember patients’ needs come first. And in this industry, trust is the key to success. The better they feel about you as a company and the more they trust you, the more likely they are to come back and fulfill their treatments.   

You don’t have to be a close friend of every patient, but getting to know them a bit on a personal level can help you build this kind of trust and improve communication. 

Here are some tips to get started: 

• Make sure they know who you are. Introduce yourself and salute everyone who comes into your office. If you want to be remembered as the nice doctor, nurse or clinic; let them notice you are aware of them patients who are coming in for follow-up visits and checkups. 
• Get to know their names, their families, and what they do for fun. It’s easy to remember someone if you know a little bit about them and what makes them tick. 
• Keep up with medical news that affects your patients’ lives so you can talk about it during visits and provide helpful advice. 
• Offer suggestions on how they can live healthier lifestyles so they’ll be less likely to fall ill in the future — this will also make them feel like they’re getting more out of their appointment! 

2. Boost your Social Media Presence

The most successful businesses are able to build a following on social media platforms by engaging in meaningful conversations with their customers or potential customers. They post content that helps their audience understand the value of their products or services, and they respond to questions and complaints in a timely manner. Social media is the perfect way to boost your online presence and get your message out there. Many people use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues.  

You can start by posting a couple of things a week and gradually increase the frequency of your posts as you start to see results. Also, there’s no need to be a social media professional to start your social media presence, you can use Canva for easy image editing and your knowledge as a doctor to create beautiful and engaging content.  

3. Use video and content marketing

Content is king! It’s important that your posts are relevant and valuable so that people will want to share them on their own feeds (and hopefully tell their friends about your business). Use video marketing. Videos are easily shared, and they can help you make a bigger impact on your customers. Create short videos showing your services, or explain how they work in a way that makes sense to the everyday consumer.  

The best part about video content is that it can get viral. If you can create something that people want to see or share, then you’re creating a piece of content that could potentially go viral and give you thousands of views. 

4. Get involved in your community:

Chiropractic is a great way to help people get back to living their lives without pain. The key to being successful as a chiropractor is getting the word out about your practice and how it can help people. Hosting free educational events or sponsoring local events to become better known in the community, will give you a chance to explain how chiropractic treatment can help them. Get involved with local sports teams like rugby club, swimming club, football club, etc., as well as local schools, so that they start thinking of chiropractors as an option for their health needs without being prompted by marketing materials from other healthcare providers. This also helps generate word-of-mouth marketing which is very effective! 

5. Build your reputation.

Work on building your reputation in the community as a trustworthy and reliable healthcare provider. A good reputation is vital to a chiropractor’s success. As a medical professional, you need to be able to build trust with your patients and their families. That way they’ll be more likely to come back for treatment, and they’ll also refer friends and family members. 

The best way to build your reputation is by providing quality care and customer service. But you also need to keep a close eye on what your patients say about your practice on review sites. Remember, both positive and negative reviews can help you with your reputation. Encourage your happy patients to leave positive feedback. And if someone leaves a negative comment, address the issue, tell them that you’ll work on that, and use it as an opportunity for improvement. 

6. Show what makes you unique

What makes your chiropractic business different than your competitors? Maybe you offer a unique type of adjustment or specialize in a specific type of chiropractic care. The answer to this question is what sets you apart from the rest. 

Whatever it is, figure out how you can use that to stand out from the crowd. If you’re not sure what makes your chiropractic business unique, ask your patients. They’ll be able to tell you what they like about you and what sets you apart from the competition. Remember that patients do research before choosing a chiropractor, and they chose you for a reason, so ask them why. 

7. Offer rewards for action

One of the most effective ways to incentivize patients is through rewards. The key to using rewards effectively is ensuring they align with your office’s goals and are tailored to your patient population. Offer rewards that improve overall health, such as discounts on dental services or healthy food items. Giving patients the opportunity to earn points toward a specific goal makes it more likely they will participate in the program. Rewards can be simple, a thank-you card, gift card, coupons with deals, etc.  

8. Partner with other wellness businesses

In the wellness industry, it’s important to collaborate with other businesses that are on the same page. Seek out other wellness businesses in your community that aren’t direct competitors, let’s say yoga classes or acupuncturists. 

Get creative! For example, if I’m a chiropractor who offers spinal adjustments, I might partner with a Yoga instructor and refer some of my patients that I think could benefit from doing yoga. That way, both of us can grow our businesses while benefiting from increased word-of-mouth marketing. 

9. Evaluate office procedure

Your office procedure is a critical part of your chiropractic marketing strategy. If you don’t have a system in place that converts callers into patients, then your digital marketing efforts will be wasted. 

A typical chiropractic office has multiple phone lines and staff members who answer those lines. But answering the phone isn’t enough. You need to train your staff on how to convert callers into patients. 

Ask yourself: When your chiropractic marketing initiatives get prospective patients to call, is your staff converting them? Are they knowledgeable about your services and effectively answering new patient questions? Are calls being answered or are too many being put on hold? 

10. Improve your website

How often do you update your website? Is it still working for you? 

The truth is, if you’re not updating your website regularly, your patients are going elsewhere. Even if you’ve been doing the same thing for years and are getting by, that won’t last forever. Now this approach does need a bit more of investment, but it’s totally worth it. 

Here are some things to consider for a good website: 

• Is it mobile-friendly? If people can’t navigate your site on their phone or tablet, they’ll give up looking and go somewhere else. People expect websites to work across all devices. 
• Does it load quickly? Fast-loading pages rank higher in Google search results and keep visitors from bouncing off. Make sure your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile browsers. 
• Keep it simple! Keep the design clean and easy to navigate. Don’t try too hard to be “cool” or “hip” — just provide relevant information (and lots of it). A lot of chiropractors go overboard with their websites by putting too much content on them in an attempt to appear knowledgeable or experienced…but they end up looking like they’re trying too hard instead! It’s better to keep things simple and focus on providing useful information rather than trying to impress someone (which can actually turn people off). 

The bottom line is that chiropractic marketing doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Good marketing relies on creativity and strategy more than budget size, so there are plenty of great ideas that you can implement right away. Most will find that a combination of different marketing tactics works best for them, but at the end of the day, you want to be able to reach as many people as possible in order to grow your practice. The ideas listed above should help you achieve your goals. 

Need more new patients? GSP has the perfect solution! Our team handles advertising, contacting leads (through calls, emails, and texts), booking, and follow-up on these new patients for you until they reach your doors. That means you can sit back and relax while we handle the whole first-contact process. See how GSP helps doctors every month.