Thanks to Lori Leipold Kim Kent for sharing insights on marketing at a grass roots level, public relations and direct mail. I will uploading their notes on the class web page.
I would also like to direct you to an article in the October 8, 2010 edition of Chiropractic Economics. "Marketing made easier", by Don Macdonald, DC, talks about three good options for increasing business:
Internal events - which are staged to create exicitement, referals and retention.
Reactivation - keeping up with patients who have lapsed in their care.
External events - or external communication involving going out to the community to spread the word of chiropractic and your office.
The article also talks about the power of communication. It outlines three aspects:
Careful communication - where you are more concerned about the values of others that you tend to lose your own principles.
Careless communication - where you only honor your values and force others to see your point of view.
Optimally - Caring communication - which is the most effective - where you get to know your patient and their values and communicate your values through theirs.
This week's blog topic is - Marketing your business and turning marketing into revenue.
Teams with an "even" number are to comment by/no later than Monday July 25, 2011.
Please discuss how you plan to apply marketing strategies to your business. Please address thoughts, plans on using direct mailing, internal and external marketing. Be specific. Also what processes do you plan to use for feedback to know that the dollars you are spending are bringing in patients? Those on preceptor please get thoughts and input from your doctor to share in this format.
Just click on the "comment" link below to get started. For more directions, please refer to the class website and the powerpoint with the "how to blog" directions. Also - one blog per team.
Also in the previous blog, I have updated the list of students who still need to sign up for a team.
Have a great week. Alexis
Team 2: David Johnson, Kyle Bergbower, Isaac Linstad, Joel Myers, Bryan Bittner,
ReplyDeleteSome marketing ideas that I have come up with are health talks to the local Sheriff's office and Police departments. I have already been invited to speak to the Sheriff's office employees on the affects of the equipment they wear and how it affects their posture. This will not cost me any money, and all I will have invested in it is my time. I will also use direct mailing to send out a advertisement offering a free consultation. I will also be advertising in the Christian Business Directory. To keep track of the money spent on these types of advertising and if it is beneficial to my practice, I will supply a spot on the intake form for new patients to write how they were referred in to the office. With the direct mailers with the coupon providing a free consultation, the coupons will be brought into the office for the consultation and keeping track of the revenue generated by the coupon could be tracked by each coupon provided. As for the advertising in the Christian Business directory or by the health talks given to the Sheriff's office and Police Departments, have a space provided on the intake for the patient to responded to how they were referred in. After finding this out you can then analyze the information to find out if the advertising is providing you with new revenue for your office. These are just a few ideas decided to apply when I open my office up after graduating.
Marketing strategies should be a necessary aspect of running a business. A business needs to be able to asses how they are being perceived and what populations you are reaching. I think that some aspects of direct mailing are useful but can become a waste of money if not well researched and planned out. I would like to use direct mailing for things like grand openings and events but not for promotional events. Internal marketing can be great within your office, it makes sense to me to target the patients in your office since they are the most likely to be interested anyway. I think that external marketing is vital to an office. People want to have businesses that are active in their communities and it gets you name out. One way I will track how my marketing dollars are being spent is by putting on my new patient forms how the patient heard about our clinic. Another way is to simply ask the patients if they have seen your ads and what they thought of it.
My preceptor doctor said that she has had no luck in any form of paper advertisement, including ads, and promotionals in our area. She also said that she did not have any luck with radio. She said that the biggest thing for her has been word of mouth.
Although I have never been fond of "direct" mail, it does work occasionally. I could not find a snow blower repair place until I got a coupon for one.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how much I intend on being one of those that gets so many referrals that I don't need to advertise, I have to start somewhere.
Has any of you every called or used the services of someone because the gave you a mug, pen, water bottle etc?
This is Team 8's blog for the week
Team 2; Bryan Bittner, Dave Johnson, Kyle Bergbower, Isaac Linstad, Joel Myers
ReplyDeleteSome marketing ideas that I have come up with are health talks to the local Sheriff's office and Police departments. I have already been invited to speak to the Sheriff's office employees on the affects of the equipment they wear and how it affects their posture. This will not cost me any money, and all I will have invested in it is my time. I will also use direct mailing to send out a advertisement offering a free consultation. I will also be advertising in the Christian Business Directory. To keep track of the money spent on these types of advertising and if it is beneficial to my practice, I will supply a spot on the intake form for new patients to write how they were referred in to the office. With the direct mailers with the coupon providing a free consultation, the coupons will be brought into the office for the consultation and keeping track of the revenue generated by the coupon could be tracked by each coupon provided. As for the advertising in the Christian Business directory or by the health talks given to the Sheriff's office and Police Departments, have a space provided on the intake for the patient to responded to how they were referred in. After finding this out you can then analyze the information to find out if the advertising is providing you with new revenue for your office. These are just a few ideas decided to apply when I open my office up after graduating.
Marketing strategies should be a necessary aspect of running a business. A business needs to be able to asses how they are being perceived and what populations you are reaching. I think that some aspects of direct mailing are useful but can become a waste of money if not well researched and planned out. I would like to use direct mailing for things like grand openings and events but not for promotional events. Internal marketing can be great within your office, it makes sense to me to target the patients in your office since they are the most likely to be interested anyway. I think that external marketing is vital to an office. People want to have businesses that are active in their communities and it gets you name out. One way I will track how my marketing dollars are being spent is by putting on my new patient forms how the patient heard about our clinic. Another way is to simply ask the patients if they have seen your ads and what they thought of it.
My preceptor doctor said that she has had no luck in any form of paper advertisement, including ads, and promotionals in our area. She also said that she did not have any luck with radio. She said that the biggest thing for her has been word of mouth.
Team 4: Andrea Forget-Schnowske, Ed Lozinski, Eddie Kaput, Alissa Fisher
ReplyDeleteAndrea - I plan on doing a grand opening event that will include participation, donations, and demonstrations from other community businesses as well as the local police and fire departments to help spread the word about my business and also for networking purposes. I also plan on using online and local publications to advertise (such as google, yellowpages, radish, etc), doing health talks at local gyms/businesses/schools to teach people how to live healthy and also about chiropractic. I also plan on offering rewards for patient referrals and plan on having my staff keep track of how people are finding out about our office. After tracking these tallies, I will be able to decide if I need to change my marketing strategies or even change my budget to incorporate different marketing strategies.
Ed - Other idea’s i would include for marketing is Social networking (myspace, facebook, etc.), it is cost effective (free). The clinic could have postings about spinal information (DDD, Subluxations, etc.) and this idea could even roll over to a local news paper were the clinic could include a informative article about health related topics. Another thought was to set up a local farmers market hosted by the clinic to bring extra revenue to the local community and indirectly the office by getting the word out about the clinic. The office could even set up a free spinal screening for potential patients. We could give out fliers at the spinal screening with a printout of their findings that has a “at time of service” discount and have that labeled with a number series to keep count.
Eddie - I would provide health talks at local gyms and businesses, become members of groups such as the local chamber of commerce and local BNI groups to become more ingrained in local community. Also, volunteering will not only benefits the people in the area, but is also a venue to meet members of the community. Other ideas would be to allow neighborhood groups (church, farming/gardening, associations) to use office meeting rooms to conduct business on the weekends (similar to using a local library), inform local print media and ask them to run a short article on the new business, help train or be a part of school/summer league sports for kids to help the children and advertise to their parents.
Alissa - My personal hobbies have included doing volunteer work as well as hiking and outdoor activities. I would volunteer my time with local organizations and I could offer informational talks on proper lifting techniques to volunteers of Habitat for Humanity or the best way to wear a backpack for hikers. I would introduce myself to the local businesses, become a regular customer, and ask if I could have permission to advertise my grand opening in those businesses, as well as leave my cards for customers, and invite the employee and owners to the event. After the official opening and making some revenue, I would include magnet mailers to those within a certain range surrounding the practice and further extend my reach into the surrounding community.
Group 22:Jeff Brown, William Chow, Jane Huh, JiYoung Kwon
ReplyDeleteWays to market to bring in revenue:
·Sign up as a provider for major insurance companies that accepts chiropractors. Have the insurance include the practice onto their online directory if available.
·Network with other health care professionals. I can refer patients and have them refer patients back to the practice.
·Hand out business cards, have employees hand out business cards as well.
·Create a website to market the practice: introduce the doctors, discuss the importance of chiropractic care, fee schedule, service and benefits, etc.
·Create a brochure to market the practice: discuss the importance of chiropractic care, the services and benefits the patients will receive, etc.
·Do speaking engagements for local groups about chiropractic and other important health talks.
Direct mailing will be used for the grand opening to generate awareness in the community for the new practice and to promote business, targeting residents and local businesses within a 25 mile radius of the area. Direct mailing will also be used for special promotions.
To know where the dollars are spent, on the initial intake form patients will be asked how they heard about the practice.
Group 24: Nate Deines, Chris Koziarski
ReplyDeleteWays to market:
1. Go to public events such as plays, concerts, or other community gatherings with business cards and hand them out as you mingle.
2. Have the local paper write an article about you being a new business in town including address, phone number, and your specialization.
3. Buy an ad in the yellow pages for visual attraction to your business as long as it is affordable.
4. Donate to local sports teams or youth activities that would be beneficially represented by that organization and have your name and brand on the t-shirts of the activity. For example supporting a youth soccer team or youth summer camp.
5. Have current patients hand out business cards to their family and friends.
6. Offer to give health talks to companies and their employees. Explain the benefits of healthy living to the employer, and then the benefits to the employees. There is often more than one way to look at the benefits from the different angles of the company. For example, the company wants to know that the workers will more likely have less sick days, but the workers will want to know that they will be happier and possibly make more money due to more production.
7. A direct mailing flier would be beneficial for first opening your doors, but after that, it doesn't make much sense to do that to us. The cost will outweigh the benefits.
The best way to calculate how well your advertisements are doing, is to just ask the new patients how they heard of you. From there you can decide which advertisements are working, and which aren't.
Team 6: Jamison Van Roekel, Daniel Martin, Matthew McCart, Karrie VanderSluis, Elizabeth Washak
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen so far on my preceptorship direct mailing has a somewhat limited effect. We primarily use it for conveying information and events to existing patients who are already a captive and receptive market, and in this regard it works well. We do not use it to attempt to attract new patients as the cost/effectiveness ratio has not proven to be cost effective in past efforts.
As far as internal marketing is concerned we use a large flatscreen tv and several other smaller displays that are all networked to a computer that displays slides with information about the practice, current promotions and events we have going on, and current topics in health and nutrition. External marketing is somewhat limited in a conventional sense in that we have a yellow pages ad, and that's about it. We also do alot of speaking engagements to small groups and businesses that generate a large amount of patients. All of these methods are used for a large, well-established practice. For starting a practice a more intentioned approach would likely be necessary; however I believe that small meetings and talks given at various community groups are also excellent opportunities for growing a new practice.
We have a section on our new patient intake form that asks how they heard of us. We record their responses to track where most of our patients come from and, so far as I've seen most of our new patients are referrals. Some have just seen the sign and come in. We'll oftentimes see a large jump in patients after giving a talk at an organization or business.
Group 18: Kiley Zimmerman Krysty Benhart-Martel, Chase L'heureux, Kevin Stanek, Maurice Woods.
ReplyDeleteExternal Marketing:
Direct mailers seem to be too costly for the return on the investment. Not many people trust direct mailers that are sent to every mailbox. In fact, most people probably just throw direct mailers away just like any other junk mail. Therefore, direct mailers are not an effective way to start marketing a practice.
The best way to market chiropractic is to get in front of people and tell the chiropractic story. When people see that you are genuine and want to help them, they are at least willing to give you a chance with their healthcare. There are many grass root type ways to get in front of people to talk to them:
1. Go from business to business and ask to speak to the manager, tell the manager that you want to do a chiropractic screening at there business as a service to their customers.
2. Volunteer to give a health "chiropractic" talk for local service groups.
3. Do chiropractic screenings at any place that has people that need to hear about chiropractic and cost nothing or very little for entry, such as:
a. Farmers markets
b. County Fairs
c. City Festivals
d. Health Fairs
Internal Marketing:
Have a flat screen TV that is connected to a computer. Run a slide show that can rotate continuously and constantly talk about chiropractic and what things chiropractic can help. Also, allow the slides to talk about upcoming practice events, city events, health facts, and anything else for people in the waiting room to talk to people outside of the practice.
Another internal marketing concept that is very simple, tell people that are getting great results to tell their friends and family about the practice and all it has done for them. Internal referrals are the best way to grow a practice.
On every new patient form, have the new patient state how they found out about the office. This will help you find out what marketing is working and what marketing is not. Also, it will allow you to write thank you notes to referrals from within and outside the practice.
I believe that Direct mailing may be limited in how much you get as an intake compared to what you spend to try and market using that technique as a new chiropractor. It may have a better result as an established doctor due to the fact that your name may be more known or that you may catch a past patients attention once more and they may return for care.
ReplyDeleteInternal marketing may have multiple benefits. The doctor I am precepting with uses multiple ways to internally market from books to pamphlets to video for patient education that may get the patient to realize someone in their own family may benefit so they can take that information home with them to bring in new patients for you.
The office I am in right now uses multiple sources of external marketing to try and reach out to the community. We just hosted a natural body building competition which was a huge success that brought in some new patients based off the show alone. He also sets up a stand for screening in the gym that his practice is connected to which is a way to bring in more patients. Reaching out to the community and sponsoring events that can involve the youth and providing community services is in my opinion a great way to not only represent yourself in the community but it gives the patient a sense that you care enough to do that which could alone be a reason they walk through your doorstep for an evaluation.
Volunteering for local school health events and sporting events could also be a good way to reach out to families. You can volunteer your services and make sure to have business cards that you can hand out.
Once all is said and done we have on our intake forms how the patient heard of the practice. This was we can tell if it was from a screening, from a community service we provided, a referral from one of the current patients, or from an ad that we have posted.
Developing a practice in a small town is different than developing a practice in a large city. Initially a few ads in the newspaper and a listing in the yellow pages are important to notify residents that you are starting a practice. To increase your visibility it is helpful to become a member of various clubs in town and to become involved in various community affairs. One example would be to sponsor a local sports team or become involved in Rotary or the United Way. The greatest source of new patients comes from patient referral. From my precept doctor’s experience, most patients come from referrals of satisfied patients; so if you give your patients good care, your practice will grow. Also, he said the trick is not getting them in the front door, it’s giving them satisfactory care.
ReplyDeleteTeam 14:Sydney Johnson, Alyssa Sollenberger, Brandon Evans, Christina Hall, Randy Belrichard
ReplyDeleteTeam 16: Kyle Bloch, Justin Bohn, Carolyn Kusek, Siri Leech, Jake Matrille
ReplyDeleteDirect mailing tends to be a win-lose situation in my opinion. On the one hand doctors send out a mailer to their (hopefully) specific target market in an attempt to draw in new patients. The mailers reach a large number of homes and a larger population; however, with each piece of mail sent out the risk exists of literally throwing money away. There is no guarantee that you what you send in the mail will be looked at by anyone let alone your target market. Personally, I do not review most of the mailers that come through my mail box; rather they just end up in the trash. I feel that there are much more effective means to soliciting your target patient base than a mailer.
I feel that the best way to market it by word of mouth, and we all know the power that it holds. Any time we receive poor service or products we tell everyone we know, same goes for when we receive outstanding services or products. It is the goods and service that are just ok that we do not hear about... what does that mean? It means we need to visionaries, be that OUTSTANDING service provider, be the best we can for our patients and give them the quality care that they seek. If you can be all that, I believe you will have no problems attaining new patients. I know some may be saying, well that is good in theory but how do you acquire your initial patients. I believe, and I am no expert so I can’t be certain, being involved in the community is largely effective. Community interactions in the months leading up to the opening of your practice or the beginning of your career as an associate doctor allow for name to circulate within a certain population. The more involved in the community and the more attention you pay to which events you are involved in can really help you focus and market yourself to your target population. This is the time and the beginning phases of branding yourself and the services you will provide. If the people don’t know you exist they cannot come to you. A person is much more memorable than a mailer.
So what do we do to get involved in our communities? I say look online to start. Search for local non-profit organizations, community health fairs, athletic events. Each of these options provides a network of people that you may not otherwise have available to you. The Red Ribbon Dinner gave me great insight into the importance of community ownership. As some of you may know I was in charge of organizing the volunteers this year for the annual HIV/AIDS Dinner held in January. Being a member of the committee allowed me to have access to a number of individuals throughout the community that had a wide variety of backgrounds. Some member were attorneys, some real estate agents, others work for the arsenal; all markets that are untapped by me because I normally would not have access to them. By volunteering and meeting these individuals I was able to show them my dedication and work ethics for a specific cause. I was able to create a memory with each one of them so that now when they think about chiropractic they start thinking of me. Another avenue to take is to get involved in your local PTA or Schools. Being part of the community and giving back shows that you take pride and ownership in what you do, not everyone makes time for that and when you do, people remember. Finally, holding health talks at your local gym is a great way to talk to health concise people about health… it is a no brainer. There are a plethora of opportunities available, you just have to find them and take advantage of them.
As far as internal marketing, I have no clue as to what would be good or bad. I will take all the suggestions that people have to offer.
I agree with Syndney, you need to distinguish between big markets and small markets. people in big marhkets get flooded with literally 100's of ad's / week. theres no way to stand out on paper.
ReplyDeleteROI on direct marketing is less than 1/10% (1/1000)
even with subliminal advertising techniques it only bring that number up to 6/1000.
the best way to market face to face business is face to face. word of mouth works, even when its your words and your mouth.
it's imperative to have a lead capture system in place. at a talk sell some thing so you can get people's contact innformation (books on health , health ptoducts related to your talk, etc. ) or a website people can read about you. people believe what they read more than what they hear.
you have to give to get. give free talks, or better yet, make the entry price a donation to a charity, people will feel like they are doing a good thing and associate you with being helpful. (think bake sale)
pleanty more where that came from, but to keep it breif. ... I'm out.