Running a chiropractic practice today is nothing like it used to be. No more than 20 years ago, many chiropractors made their living by opening up a practice in their local town and helping their community with their back ailments.
Fast forward to today and chiropractors now have to wear ten other administrative hats to stay afloat.
Beyond running your practice and helping your patients (your main goal), you also have to figure out ways to navigate…
Hiring and maintaining staff
Printing and mailing patient statements
Communicating with insurance agencies
Submitting patient claims
Correcting and resubmitting patient denials
Rising inflation rates
Meeting and/or exceeding your revenue goals
Increased local competition
Standing out from the crowd of competitors
Although all of that seems pretty grim. Maintaining and/or starting a chiropractic practice is still a very viable business opportunity that can sustain your household. After all, the chiropractic market as a whole will have a $18.4 billion dollar valuation by 2030.
That’s great, but how can you maintain all of that? Well, what if I told you that embracing just one concept could crush the majority of the roadblocks to growth that I just mentioned?
Instilling chiropractic marketing strategies can single-handedly help you with arguably 5 of the issues I mentioned earlier. The three most blatant aspects of these strategies can help you increase your revenue, stand out from the competition, and increase your local presence. Meanwhile, marketing also helps with hiring and handling inflation due to revenue growth.
This all sounds great, but you can’t implement any strategies if you don’t know what they are. Luckily, we’ve come up with 15 chiropractic marketing ideas.
Table of Contents
Idea #1: Website Upgrade
The first chiropractic marketing idea I have for you deals with your website. This might honestly be the most important idea of this entire post.
For this section, though, you fall within 1 of 2 buckets. You either don’t have a website or you do.
If you don’t have a website, you need to make one as soon as possible. A website is a MUST for your practice.
You see, websites exist as a living, breathing brochure for your organization that people actively seek out information on.
Don’t believe me?
83% of patients use search engines to find a healthcare provider.
How could they possibly find your organization if they do a quick Google search and you don’t have a website to explain what you do?
The short answer: they wouldn’t.
Now, if you’re in the second bucket and you have a website. Congratulations, you’re ahead of the crowd. I’m not being facetious with that remark, either. You should genuinely pat yourself on the back.
Yet, having a website is only one aspect of this section. Your website needs to look modern and utilize optimization as well. 94% of users no longer trust outdated sites.
In other words, if your website hasn’t received an update in ten years or more it’s actually harming your reputation because it looks so outdated.
Idea #2: Local SEO Optimization
Now that we’ve established how important it is to have a website and ensure that it has an updated look to it, we can talk about how the content you put on your website could impact where your organization ranks in local searches.
You see, you can manipulate the content on your website so that it lands at the top for specific searches that your patients use. In the marketing world, we call this process search engine optimization (SEO).
The truth is that implementing SEO techniques and strategies presents a massive business opportunity for your organization. It’s such an opportunity for you, that this isn’t the last section that I’m going to mention to you.
So, what does the title of this chiropractic marketing idea mean? What is local SEO optimization?
It’s exactly as it sounds. You’re optimizing your website to land on search engine results for localized searches.
What’s a “localized search”?
Remember that statistic in the earlier section that established that your patients use the internet to find their next healthcare provider? Let’s think about the process that they work through.
If you were a patient looking for a chiropractor in your area. What would you search for? If it were me, I would search, “Chiropractor in Hudson, Ohio.”
This is what the top of the results page looks like after searching Google with that keyword past the map section. For location-specific keywords, this is often what you’ll see at the top.
Which one of those results would you click first? Likely the chiropractor listed at the top of that results page.
Your practice could land at the top of similar searches in your industry very easily! All you have to do is add the search phrases within your website. Add phrases like
“chiropractor in [your city]" or "back pain treatment [your city]." Then watch your rankings soar!
Idea #3: Educational Content
Becoming a licensed, professional chiropractor isn’t easy work. But you already know that.
You had to go through and learn a lot to get to where you are today. No one knows their way around the back or spine better than you. So, why not share some of your knowledge with your community?
There are a lot of chiropractors utilizing the internet as a means to generate content that puts them in the eyes of prospective patients.
How are they doing this?
They’re creating educational content and sharing it across the web. What kind of content are they creating?
Blog posts, videos and infographics are all valuable pieces of content that people seek out and, most importantly, learn from.
4 billion video views occur on Facebook every day. That statistic really puts the value of educational content into perspective.
I’m not saying that by creating educational content you’re going to see 4 billion patients walk through your doors. That would be naïve.
Instead, what I am saying is that you could very easily become the talk of your town if just one of your pieces of content receives a lot of local views.
Idea #4: Social Media Presence
The last chiropractic marketing idea slides right into this next one.
Your motivation for creating educational content should be the opportunity that exists with sharing it on social media. In other words, creating content is only one piece of the puzzle.
Where you share that content and how you do is the other aspect you need to and should keep in mind.
Let’s take a look at an example of a chiropractor who is active on social media. Dr. Rahim is a chiropractor located in Los Angeles, California. He also happens to have amassed a huge following on both Youtube and TikTok.
He creates videos of performing treatment on patients and shares them on social media. He has a Facebook as well.
With 1.5 million subscribers on Youtube, he’s looking at good odds
People find what you do on a daily basis fascinating. They might even find the cracking noises satisfying.
Why not record some patient sessions and post some of that content on the internet? A BIG word of caution, though. Make sure you receive the patient’s consent and get it in writing before you do any recording!
Idea #5: Email Marketing
Have you ever downloaded something off of a website by filling out a form before? Maybe it was a HIPAA-compliant training template or some sort of guide.
Either way, a couple of days after downloading the guide you needed you likely received an email from the company that owned that site. I guarantee that you have a a couple of these emails still laying around in your inbox (I certainly do).
We’ll talk about the value of creating content upgrades in an idea later. Before we get to that idea, though, its important to discuss the importance of email marketing.
Healthcare-related email marketing has a higher open and click-through rate than other industries.
Email marketing in the chiropractic space not only shows encouraging signs, but is also allowed.
Idea #6: Referral Program
Word-of-mouth marketing continues and forever will be the most effective form of marketing.
Why? It’s rooted in our human nature. We trust the recommendations of our friends and family.
I’m not just saying that, though, let’s look at the results from real studies.
Word-of-mouth marketing leads to five times more sales than paid advertising. That’s a pretty jarring statistic, especially when you can’t do anything on the internet, highway, or smart device without seeing a paid ad.
What if I told you that you could harness the power and effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing at your practice? To make things better, it’s also not super hard to implement.
Of course, what I’m referring to is establishing a referral program. Although that sounds difficult, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A referral program by a chiropractic office isn’t a new concept. In other words, all you have to do is a little bit of research and retooling.
Denton Sports Chiropractic ran a “Share The Care” referral program campaign in 2020. How it worked was simple.
If you asked about the program while at their office, you would receive referral cards. You would only need to put your name on the “Referred by” section and hand them out. The people that you handed those cards out to would need to fill out the “Referred to” section and keep it.
The “Referred to” patient would only need to bring the filled-out card to their next visit and then both you, as the referrer, and the “Referred to” patient received 10% off any cash service.
See how easy that is? Once you have a referral program established, make sure that you share it on social media to help spread the word.
Idea #7: Community Involvement
As a local chiropractic practice, you need to make sure that the community that surrounds you knows that you exist. In order for that to happen, you need to get involved with that community.
How can you achieve that? This is also easy to implement!
Get more involved in your local community by…
Participating in Local Events
Sponsor sports teams
Give presentations at your local school district(s)
Get a booth at your local farmers’ market
To reap the benefits of this marketing strategy, all you have to do is show up and be present!
Idea #8: Online Reviews and Testimonials
You’re likely already familiar with this next idea, or at least the functionality that spurred it.
Online reviews and testimonials have never been more important than within the last decade.
The truth is that 95% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. I know what you’re thinking, “That’s not fair, I don’t have control over that aspect of my practice and I can’t please everyone.” You’re correct on both aspects.
However, you CAN help influence reviews and bury the bad ones by actively encouraging your patients to leave them.
How do you do this? The most effective process is a lot like the referral program!
While you're wrapping up with a patient, you should establish a process where you prompt them to leave a review. This could either be in the actual treatment room or at the front desk right before they leave.
In most cases, your patient will be in a good mood while they’re leaving your practice. I mean, you did just help them alleviate their backache. Why not channel their good mood into helping your practice further with a review? You can further incentivize them by giving them a discount on your services!
Once you receive a positive review from a patient, be proactive and respond to it in a great way! A study by Yelp found that companies that respond receive 5% more reviews.
Just make sure that you’re not accidentally causing a HIPAA violation.
Idea #9: Online Webinars
Do you remember way back toward the beginning of this blog post when I mentioned the idea of creating educational content?
The content that you create doesn’t have to be static. We do live in the age of technology, after all.
What I mean by that is to create a presentation and host an online, live webinar!
Live content is all the rage right now and there are real benefits associated with doing it. The truth is that 80% of consumers prefer watching live brand videos instead of reading a blog post.
In other words, give the people what they want and host a live segment on a weekly or bi-weekly basis! The best part about hosting a live webinar is that you can record it. After you’ve finished the segment, take the recording and repurpose it as educational, ever-lasting content.
All of this doesn’t mean getting rid of idea #3. Do both and see your patient volume soar!
Idea #10: Collaboration with Other Healthcare Professionals
This next idea is a marketing and sales tactic as old as time. There are likely hundreds of other healthcare professionals within a 10-20 mile radius of your practice. You should network with them!
Networking with other healthcare professionals puts you at the forefront of their minds as a local chiropractor.
To put it simply, networking with them sets you up for patient referrals. If one of the other healthcare professionals you’ve built a professional relationship with has a patient who needs a chiropractor, you’ll be the first one that they mention.
26% of business professionals view networking as an essential aspect of finding new opportunities and business deals.
Yes, that statistic comes from the business world. However, you’re not immune to the practice of business techniques in the healthcare space. Doing so will only lead to more business.
Idea #11: Google Ads
I bet you didn’t think that it would take this long before I mentioned advertising as a helpful idea for you to implement at your practice.
When most people hear the word, “marketing”. They immediately think of advertising. It’s understandable as to why, it IS an important facet of marketing that leads to a lot of business. I mean, there’s a reason why Superbowl Ads are so expensive, right?
The reality is that advertising for a chiropractic practice is very different. In most cases, you’re not going to purchase ad time at your local news station. It’s expensive, and you can’t stretch your advertising budget as much as you need to when starting down this path.
Google Ads, on the other hand, is a completely different story. You see, Google Ads gives you complete control over who sees advertisements about your practice. They also happen to appear on the world’s most popular search engine.
Let’s say that you’re a chiropractor in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. That also happens to be a keyword that people search for seeking a chiropractor within that city. But, how much money would it cost you to run a Google Ad for that keyword?
The image above is a breakdown of the keyword we’re using for this example. There are a lot of numbers in the table, but you only need to focus on two for right now; volume and CPC. Volume represents the number of searches the keyword gets entered into Google on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, CPC stands for Cost-Per-Click. The dollar amount within this column represents the amount of money Google would charge you if you ran a Google Ad for that phrase and someone clicked on it.
In other words, for $7.96 per click you could buy yourself a ticket to the top of the results page on Google for the keyword, “chiropractor in cuyahoga falls”...which happens to receive 390 searches per month.
How much revenue would you receive with 390 more patients per month?
Idea #12: Content Upgrades
Ah yes, content. I’ve already mentioned it 2 other times now. How could I possibly continue mentioning it? Haven’t I said enough?
No.
There’s a phrase that marketers use often, “Content is king.” You might’ve even heard that before.
But let’s get back on track. How could you “upgrade” your content?
Let’s say you wrote a blog post entitled, “10 Exercises to Help Your Posture”. After a couple of months that blog post starts to rank and you’re seeing an increase in your traffic. Website traffic is great, but how do you identify who those people actually are?
What if you made an extension of the blog post as a resource called, “The Complete Posture Improvement Toolkit: Your 7-Day Action Plan”? You then took that resource and added it to the blog post behind a form that requires web visitors to enter their first name and last name.
Just like that, you’ll start to get some of your website traffic to convert and turn into potential clients!
Idea #13: Free Injury Screenings
You’ll probably nod in agreement with what I’m about to say. There are some people out there in dire need of chiropractic care, but they won’t ever come through your doors.
Maybe their hesitation to visit your practice isn’t a matter of stubbornness. It could be that they just aren’t familiar with your process and treatment exercises.
How do you get those folks onboard with your services?
Offering free injury screenings might be able to convince those folks that they need treatment from your practice.
Premier Rehabilitation teamed up with a local running shoe store, RunningLab, in Brighton, Missouri to provide a free injury screening event on July 20, 2023.
This is a perfect example of not only this marketing idea but also the aspect of networking and teaming up with local businesses.
Idea #14: Google My Business Posts
If you’re not familiar with Google’s “Google My Business” feature, the headline of this section probably doesn’t make much sense. I mean, it’s kind of an odd name, right? Like, “Google My Business”...ok? We both know that this is an important aspect by now.
However, Google My Business is actually a feature that every organization could take advantage of, yet not many do. Have you ever searched for a business on the world’s most popular search engine and seen some information about it generated on the right-hand side of the search results?
Let’s look at an example. If you googled the phrase, “hudson chiropractic wellness center”, your results page would look like this. On the right-hand side of the results is a nice call out that provides…
Pictures of the business
The business location
Patient reviews
The business phone number
The business address
A link to the business website
This call out is the Google My Business feature. The truth is, to leverage the patient review idea that I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to implement this feature (don’t worry, it’s very easy to set up).
Beyond existing as a centralized location for your business’ reviews, though, you can take your practice to the next level by actively posting within this section!
Unfortunately, Chiropractic Wellness Center of Hudson doesn’t utilize this aspect of their Google My Business account yet so I’ll have to switch the business used in this next example.
Barbara Oliver Jewelry uses this technique. Do you see in the bottom right corner the callouts associated with different pieces of jewelry the organization has?
This business is utilizing Google My Business post feature to share information about the products it has for sale. Talk about a no-brainer!
The truth is that this feature is ripe for the taking. Only 42% of businesses utilize this feature yet 74% of customers have more trust in businesses that use it.
That’s a massive opportunity!
Remember those promotions we went through? When you make an image for those promotions, post them here!
Idea #15: Charitable Initiatives
One of the most effective ways to get involved within your local community is through charity work…and people take notice of it.
Half of American consumers agree that they would switch to a company that supports a cause they believe in.
That statistic alone should give you enough motivation to seek a local charity and work with it. In doing so you’re not only working for a good cause but also getting more involved in your community.
Patients care about chiropractors who get involved!
Conclusion
We went through a lot in this blog post. I realize that some of the ideas meshed together, but that’s just the beauty of marketing.
You have to start somewhere, so choose an idea that we went through that you can stick to and fully commit to. Then introduce some of the other ideas slowly over time to scale your marketing strategy. Going this route would lead to gradual growth.
Of course, if you implement every idea listed here you’ll maximize your practice’s marketing growth potential. But, it’s not realistic to do it if you don’t have some help!
We provide marketing services to chiropractors for less than it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing person. Everything from website design to SEO and advertising!
