Here’s a fantastic interview with Matt Cutts, one of Google’s search engineers. Matt explains how to boost your chiropractic website in Google rankings- which will drive new patients to your practice. These free chiropractic marketing tips are fantastic!
Having a great chiropractic website is the first step to your online marketing program. The second step is great search engine optimization so that your patients can find your website. But the next step can be the most challenging: Getting site visitors to give you a call to make an appointment.
Here are some things to consider when trying to improve your conversion rate:
Facebook is an invaluable web-marketing tool with remarkable potential for both success and failure. Among Social Media applications, Facebook is the 600 pound gorilla. Your goal is to direct that power into a cohesive, successful, targeted marketing campaign. Most folks bumble around, tripping over themselves and doing more harm to their company than good. Follow my advice and you’ll be off to a good start…here’s a step-by-step guide for developing a targeted audience.
Step One:
Know your target! If you don’t know who you’re looking for, how can you look? Sit down and write down who, exactly, your ideal audience is. How old are they? What are their professions? Where do they live? Start specific- you can always broaden your audience later.
Step Two:
Sharpen your arrow! Review your website, Facebook, and blog content and make sure it’s written for your target audience. You can’t catch a shark if you’re fishing with turnips. If the content conflicts with your ideal audience, you either need to rewrite the content or shift your sights to a different demographic.
Step Three:
Track your prey! Time to log-in to Facebook and get the creativity flowing. Facebook’s search engine is deceptively simple. You’re probably wondering “how the heck am I going to find 30 year post-graduate marketing associates in the San Diego area when there aren’t any options for that?” The answer is: you’ve gotta be tricky! Although you can’t select those specific fields, you can search “marketing associate,” and then specify “in San Diego,” and then “graduates of Berkley.” Chances are, you’ll have several pages of folks! Imagine, it’s that easy to find and connect to highly targeted niche audiences!
Step Four:
Throw your spear! Now you’re going to start adding friends. This is a very delicate procedure- you don’t wan to ruin your businesses credibility by spamming. I suggest adding 20-50 people per day. When they accept your friend invitation, don’t rush into selling them anything. Seriously, don’t. How would you like it if someone came up to you at a cocktail party and started pushing a used car on you before even saying hello? Treat Facebook just like a cocktail party. Get to know people, offer solutions to their problems, be a source of information. Your most valuable resource online is your credibility.
Step Five:
Heading home! Ultimately, your success or failure with social media depends on three things: the quality of your product, your social etiquette, and the time you invest. If any of these are lacking, you’ll probably flop. Just remember to keep your ducks in a row and follow your steps!
Happy hunting,
-Rod Campbell
Marketing Director
Chirohosting.com
In this article, I’ll outline the three most valuable aspects of online marketing and then I’ll give you advice on how to utilize them. Consumers are looking for these three things:
Without any of these components, you won’t be successful online. Let’s break them down:
Community:
Amazon.com’s success was due to one feature: community involvement. This simple function launched Amazon into a multi-billion dollar company. Why? Because it fulfilled a primal human need. Amazon didn’t create a webstore, it created a community of active participants who find value not only in products, but also in each other. Effectively, Amazon encouraged their customers to evangelize each other about their great products.
Education:
You can have the best product in the world but if nobody knows about it- it won’t sell. You have two options: waste thousands of dollars on broad advertising OR invest in engaging and educating a small community. I recommend the second option. Why? Education is a valuable resource – people will become rabidly loyal if you provide it for them.
Value:
Today, no matter what industry you’re in, there are typically dozens of people providing the same service. You need to distinguish yourself; special offers, one-time deals, and flashy advertising won’t cut it. It’s imperative that you provide something that your competition doesn’t.
Solutions:
Blog – And blog often! Every time you run across an interesting article or piece of information, share it! Don’t get caught up on perfect grammar or eloquence, just write. If you take five minutes a day to write a quick article – you’ll have a vast library of information for your patients within a few months. Pretty soon your blog will draw its own traffic and your patients will recommend it to their friends. Your credibility will explode, your patients will appreciate your service, and your writing will even improve! (P.S. allow commentary, people will ask questions and create a mini-community)
Facebook – It gives your business a face, lets you publish new content within seconds, is remarkably easy to set-up, and gives you access to over 100 million people. It takes no time at all for you to develop a loyal base of several hundred followers, each of whom has the potential to refer dozens of people to your practice. Best of all, it’s free! Here’s some advice: don’t just add friends and post advertisements. Take the time to say hello to people and thank them for adding you as a friend. It’s amazing how much goodwill this generates and how rapidly it attracts patients.
Twitter – I recommend investing in a smartphone. They’re easy to use and they make social media marketing remarkably easy. If you combine a smartphone with Twitter, you can update your social media content from anywhere- except the movie theatre or your anniversary dinner. This application is easy to use and can dramatically amplify your marketing success. Twitter is also free! (P.S. don’t spam. “Stop by for a free adjustment today” is okay…just don’t post it every day, that’s annoying)
Interactive Websites – Consider adding an “ask the doctor” function to your website. This allows potential patients to send you quick questions and gives you the opportunity to give recommendations, schedule an evaluation, and begin a conversation. We’ve just added this feature to our new websites and it works incredibly well!
Hopefully this article was helpful. If you have any questions about social media, send me an email at Rod@Chirohosting.com or give us a call at 1(800)295-3346. I’m always happy to answer questions or help you strategize.
Some interesting issues in the world of chiropractic marketing, as guru Ben Cummings is taking some flak for his suggestion for chiropractors to provide reviews to other chiropractors who use his service. Here are some articles on this topic:
The Crummy Chiropractic Scheme
Review Solicitation – Dumb and Dumber
These blog articles cover the issues with this tactic clearly: this kind of cheating the system WILL be discovered, and the last thing you need to do is get your website banned by Google Maps!
Here’s a much smarter, ethical approach to chiropractic marketing online:
It should be obvious that the best way to build a healthy practice is through ethical techniques, but I guess not.
Do you pick up the free news magazines in the racks outside of your grocery store? Most people do. These free publications often provide news that is missed by the daily newspaper. Specialty publications are packed full of information about health, car care and other topics. The question is: Why aren’t you advertising in these publications? The advantages are many:
When looking for a smaller publication, you may find one that focuses on health care. This is an excellent opportunity for you to target your advertising dollars.
While many people think radio is a lost medium, in many cities and towns the local radio station is their source for news and information. Radio does not require the listener to be actively engaged like television or newspaper. All you have to do is listen. How can you tap into this viable market without spending a lot of money?
Most radio stations are streamed live on the Internet, giving you a worldwide audience. And if you don’t want to commit to a station, consider online radio. This is another way to give you worldwide exposure.
Everyone has a favorite charity or cause. In most cases, they give money or volunteer their time. Partnering with a charity is a great way to draw attention to your chiropractic office. Here are some ways to help your community and get your picture in the paper:
To some, using charities and causes for marketing exposure may seem shallow. But look at it this way, you would have donated anyway. Getting the good public relations is just a bonus!
When you’re putting together your chiropractic website, it can be challenging to come up with original content. You might find yourself tempted to “borrow” material from another website.
Don’t. Just don’t. And here’s why:
Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter — and the Internet has exacerbated this problem. The fact is, when someone visits your website, you have about three seconds to convince them to stay and look around.
Getting Started