How Chiropractors Can Use Healthcare Market Research To Grow Their Practice

It is reported that the healthcare industry collectively spends $30 billion on marketing each year. Most chiropractors spend about $15,000 pr year- so that means we need to be creative with our approach!

It is not always easy to explain complex medical and chiropractic concepts to the public using traditional marketing techniques.

Read on as we explain the best ways to leverage healthcare market research for the benefit of your practice.

Conversational Marketing 

Many experts have begun to dismiss traditional marketing methods as too one-sided.

They claim that the idea of broadcasting a carefully tailored message from a billboard or television is borderline propagandistic.

They suggest treating marketing as a conversation. The idea is that you communicate with potential patients as if they were sitting before you.

This approach fosters trust and respect. When dealing with healthcare products, this is especially important.

People with medical issues need to believe what you tell them. They also need to believe that you care about them and that you're not just trying to line your pockets.

If you can use research findings in this way, your marketing budget will be far better spent.

Know-How to Back Up Your Claims

Patients might not understand everything you do, or why you do it. However, many of them are quite adept at catching out doctors who don't understand what they say themselves.

When acting on new market research, consider why you're doing it. Make sure you can justify your course of treatment to a patient if they make inquiries of you.

Improving the quality of your care is the best marketing strategy you can employ.

If you leave most of your patients in a better condition than you found them in, word of mouth will grow your business.

Consider Your Medium of Communication

Social media is the most important means of communication for many people nowadays, especially younger adults.

Where suitable, therefore, make use of it. Use Facebook posts or YouTube videos to communicate with your patients. Break down difficult concepts so that those without medical expertise have a better chance of understanding them.

If you become adept at this type of communication, you can even start to build an online community. As well as increasing the traffic to your practice, it will also open up other moneymaking avenues.

Using Healthcare Market Research to Your Advantage

There are many ways to grow your medical practice. However, using healthcare market research to inform your expansion will allow you to achieve your business goals in a way that is beneficial to your patients.

If you're a chiropractor and you're interested in securing more referrals from doctors, join our program today.

Building Your Tribe- by Beau Pierce of Circle of Docs

As a Doctor of Chiropractic we should always be looking for ways to grow our practice and make our personal brand synonymous with the words authority and trust.

One way to aide in accomplishing this is to have a great working relationship with other medical professionals. What was once generally perceived as an easy task of, “Just pick up the phone and call them” can turn quickly into a daunting situation. 

Here are strategies to help build your tribe of medical professionals in your local community.

1. Be a “Real” Person

If you want to reach other doctors, act like them. Simple right? Hardly

Contrary to perceived belief, medical doctors are living and breathing people. Yes, their ideas for how to best care for a patient may be slightly differing from ours, but at the core we are still all on the same team. 

A lot of people turn into robots when they get in front of other “doctors” and freeze up or become the “holier than thou” doctor.

Don’t be that guy or girl.

You can be different:

• Talk like a real person (even if it means breaking a few grammatical rules).
• Be accessible. Answer your phone when they call, respond back to emails promptly and send over detailed notes about the patients you share. 

Just don’t be someone you’re not. Be you and amazing stuff will happen.

2. Be Relevant

People don’t care about what matters to you; they care about what matters to them. If you want to attract more doctors, you need to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about how you can help them and their practice.

One thing I see Chiropractors do is immediately try to “talk shop” to the other doctor the day they meet them. 

Stop!  

They do not care. Why? 

Because the word “chiropractic” holds no relevancy in their minds… yet

Remember: MD’s are taught to find a problem, prescribe, and fix it.  Words like low back pain, neck pain, headache, etc are what these doctors associate with “chiropractic”. Be relevant in their terms and then let the conversation flow.  

Eventually you will be able to go into the history of Chiropractic, show them a presentation on chiropractic and channel your inner BJ Palmer, but not at first.

The first thing you should be doing is figuring out how to help them. Be their best marketer. Send them patients, answer any questions they toss your way and be a cheerleader for their practice.

Over- the top generosity is the best marketing you’ll ever do. Nothing builds an audience faster than freely giving without expectation

3. Create a Bond

In the words of former Navy Seal, Marcus Luttrell, “Bonds are created in times of Adversity”.  If you are working with another doctor by managing a case, use this “Adversity” to build a bond with that doctor and his/her staff. 

Perform!  

Do a great job caring for that patient and then follow up with that doctor. Forge that bond further by sending over your detailed notes and pick up the phone and have conversation about your care plan.  Show them that you are responsible for the patient and want to work with them further. 

4. Make them a Super Star

Everyone loves to see their name in “lights”.  Highlight the doctor. Write a blog post about them and their practice. Grab your iphone and do a quick interview with them on camera. Perhaps even create a page on your website for “affiliations” and put their practice logo and a snippet about them.  Make them a Super Star.

 When you make your practice about other people, they’ll make it about you.

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Dr. Beau Pierce is the Founder of CircleofDocs, the online network for the Chiropractic Profession. His expertise in digital community building paired with his medical background has catapulted him to be a in demand speaker and lecturer. His Chiropractic practice is located in Santa Maria, California and where he resides with his wife and two children.

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor has assisted hundreds of chiropractors around the globe build interdisciplinary referral relationships.

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Highlighting the Adjustment- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Highlighting the adjustment is a foundational aspect of The Evidence Based Chiropractor.  Journals such as SPINE, the British Medical Journal, JMPT, the Annals of Internal Medicine, etc. have all produced research in support of the chiropractic adjustment.  Chiropractic is a distinct and unique health care profession which, in my opinion, needs nothing "added" to it.  However, we are in dire need of increasing our market utilization by highlighting our primary advantage... the chiropractic adjustment.  

Chiropractors in the past could not actively promote the adjustment due to a lack of research.  Throughout the years this may have contributed to our desire to include other modalities in our offices'.  However, now we have a deep and vast base of research which we can draw from and promote.  In a previous post I broke down the numbers and estimated that implementation of a interdisciplinary outreach system should be able to be accomplished with roughly a hour of staff time per month.  The Evidence Based Chiropractor was founded to help facilitate this process, increasing our market utilization and ultimately creating more opportunities for chiropractors to practice worldwide.  And, it is all done in an effort to honor the act of the chiropractic adjustment. 

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-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the fastest growing chiropractic marketing group in the profession.  We are dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is proven, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.