Simple Chiropractic Marketing Structure That Will Help You Grow Your Chiropractic Practice

Chiropractors like to tell people that they are “a chiropractor who does something different” or that they “aren’t like most chiropractors.” I’m not sure what percentage of chiropractors say they are different, but it could be the majority, which is funny if you think about it.

If EVERYONE is different, no one is different. Just something to think about.

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked.

The reality is that chiropractors are different. I know that from my time as a chiropractor and I know it because I’ve worked with hundreds of chiropractors over the last several years. When I create podcasts and in-depth trainings for chiropractors, I try to keep in mind that chiropractors have different practice styles, talents, and opportunities.

My goal has never been to populate the chiropractic profession with a bunch of little Dr. Jerry Kennedys. ONE of me is MORE than enough. That’s why I’ve always tried to focus on concepts and principles more than how I would specifically run a practice.

We live in a world today where chiropractors have a LOT of marketing options. Some chiropractors get overwhelmed by trying to do them all. Other chiropractors get overwhelmed so they don’t try to do any of them. Either extreme is a recipe for disaster.

To keep things simple and help chiropractors avoid marketing overwhelm, chiropractors should categorize their marketing into 3 categories: internal, external, and retention. Let me explain.

Internal Marketing
Internal marketing is when chiropractors use their existing patients to get more patients. Basically, we are talking about a referral-based practice.

Referral-based chiropractic practices are often considered the golden goose of chiropractic practices. Although, some referrals do “just happen” there are things that chiropractors can and should do to ensure that as many referrals happen as possible.

This is also true about online reviews, which is sort of like a modern-day referral. Some people leave reviews without being asked. Most people don’t. If you want more reviews and the benefits that come from them, you should have a system in place to get more reviews.

External Marketing
External marketing is when chiropractors reach out to people who are not existing patients in order to attract them into their practice. When chiropractors first get started, EVERYTHING is external marketing because new chiropractors don’t have many patients.

External marketing can be online or offline. External marketing can be cheap (shaking hands and kissing babies) or expensive (paying for marketing help). External marketing can be short-term or long-term. Generally speaking, there are external marketing options available to every chiropractor.

The important thing is that chiropractors have an external marketing strategy and that they focus on the external marketing that makes the most sense for their practice.

When chiropractors are new, they should focus on marketing that is affordable and fast. You don’t want to take big financial swings when you have an extremely limited budget. And you also don’t want to focus all your energy on long-term marketing, when you need patients NOW.

Once a chiropractor has some practice momentum, their external marketing often changes. They can afford to pay someone for help with Google ads. They can invest in chiropractic SEO which is a more long-term marketing strategy.

Regardless of whether you are just getting started or your practice has been around for 20 years, there need to be people in your local community who are finding out about your practice this month who didn’t know about your practice last month. Most of the time, that happens through some form of external marketing.

Retention Marketing
Retention marketing is like internal marketing in the sense that you are dealing with existing patients. But the goal of retention marketing is to make sure your patients follow through with their recommendations, and that you maintain the doctor-patient relationship for as long as possible.

I’m not at all advocating unnecessary care or patient manipulation tactics. However, people don’t understand chiropractic or how their body works. If left to their own devices, people will assume that chiropractic is only for acute care and the instant that they feel better, their body is completely better.

Chiropractors who are not proactive about retention will typically have a leaky-bucket practice. Patients rarely complete their initial recommendations. The chiropractor often doesn’t do a good job establishing a long-term relationship with their patients. The result is that people leave early and they rarely come back. That’s no good.

Conclusion
Chiropractors don’t have to go about marketing their practice the same as everyone else. In fact, they shouldn’t. Chiropractors are different…not just because they do different things within the practice itself, but because they are different people.

A chiropractor’s personality, talent, and opportunities will impact which marketing strategies make the most sense for them. Chiropractors who ignore those factors when making marketing decisions are doomed to struggle with their marketing.

In summary, chiropractors should have at least one marketing strategy in each of the 3 categories. Most successful chiropractors have multiple strategies in each of the 3 marketing categories.

Ignoring one or more categories will result in the chiropractor having marketing blindspots that will most likely keep them from reaching their practice goals.

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