These days, it’s assumed that as long as your chiropractic practice is present on social media has a waiting room full of patients that you’re doing well.
Not so. The true test of success lies in, for starters, practice branding and reputation management, and that takes time and effort. Check out these common marketing mistakes that you could be making as well as the fixes to help turn them into positives.
1. Missing out on promoting patient benefits for the sake of promoting your service menu.
As tempting as it may seem to simply list your menu of services for your patients, doing so can be seen as cold and impersonal. And it is.Go ahead and provide your complete service menu, but make it relatable and “alive” by having patient testimonials for several of those services (in print or as a live video loop in your waiting room).
Another option is to provide a dedicated section of your website that addresses your services with bulleted lists that explain their benefits underneath the explanation of what each service entails
2. Ignoring your online reputation.
If you (or your staff) do not monitor and maintain as spotless an online reputation as possible, any libelous or otherwise negative information will stick around and potentially damage your reputation and success.
To alleviate this threat, make sure you regularly search your practice on a search engine to scour all the comments. For some practices, a once-a-week search is adequate, while others might find a daily search works better for their patient volume. Address any patient questions, problems, concerns or complaints as soon as they are detected; and do so in a courteous and professional manner.
Remember that your responses will also be visible to potential patients; and while you may not be able to please everyone all of the time, a lot can be assuaged with kindness and professionalism.
3. Missing out on response opportunities.
If your website offers enticing marketing but your social media does not, that’s a problem. Tied into this is the lost opportunity of giving patients a response deadline. Whatever you’re marketing, whether it’s a new treatment protocol, treatment device, increased office hours and availability, you need to include that across all your marketing efforts, not just one. And included in that product or service saturation a deadline to respond.
If you’re targeting a discounted treatment protocol, make sure it appears on your website, social media, printed collateral and word-of-mouth plus any other marketing practices you have in place. If you don’t have time to print media collateral, make sure your staff relays information verbally to your patients. The overall message should be irresistible and time-sensitive.
4. Letting your website stagnate.
It’s not enough to have a practice website. You must constantly update the information on that website. Patients and potential patients will quickly tire of websites that have broken links, old FAQs and galleries, and an overall unattended look.
First of all, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, invest in hiring someone to update your site so it hits multiple platforms. There are also many website hosting platforms that offer thousands of affordable, pre-programmed website templates that let you drag-and-drop custom components and publish your new site in hours-or minutes.
It’s never too late to identify and correct any marketing mistakes your practice is suffering from. Investing in the time and staff needed to optimize marketing efforts will benefit your profits and minimize your losses.
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