Chiropractic Marketing 101: What You Need to Thrive Online
Chiropractic marketing is an essential tool for generating regular leads and paying customers in your clinic. Long gone are the days when you just threw an ad in a local newspaper or simply made sure your number was available in the yellow pages. Nowadays, chiropractic competition is fierce and you need to use the best marketing strategies possible to find your target market and generate income. Today, we will dive into how the landscape of chiropractic marketing has changed over the past few decades and what you can do to maximize your marketing budget to get high quality paying customers in your door.
It All Starts with a Website
The most basic step in your marketing scheme should be building a high quality website. Some chiropractors wonder if being listed on websites like Google or Yelp or having a business page on social media platforms like Facebook is enough. The simple answer is no. You want a website that showcases your clinic’s unique values, personality and accomplishments. A well designed website will have your potential customer feeling like you’re speaking directly to them (making them totally thrilled that they finally found the chiropractor they need to reach their health goals).
A website can be as complicated or simple as you want it to be when getting started. Unfortunately, boring and bland website templates can come across as impersonal and leave potential customers searching elsewhere. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum some companies get carried away and try to cram way too much in their website- making it feel cluttered and hard to follow.
Website Essentials
Let’s review a quick list of all the website essentials you need to build a website that “wows” your visitors:
- Inviting and consistent design. There should be a nice flow among each of the pages on your website. It should be fast loading and easy to navigate so that a visitor can quickly find what they’re looking for. The second a user feels confused or frustrated, there’s a high chance they will leave your website and never return. Inatsed, you want them to lose track of time as they explore every corner of the website and what you have to offer!
- Testimonials. No matter how beautiful your website is or how great your accomplishments are, some people are drawn to what is known as “social proof.” They want to hear about success stories from people just like them and see how their lives have been changed forever by your expertise. For some people, this makes it easier for them to understand the benefits of what you’re offering and why they should take action soon to improve their quality of life.
- A clear call to action. A shiny website is great, but only if your customer clearly knows how to take the next step. This may seem obvious. However, if a call to action isn’t explicitly stated on your website you may be losing more customers than you realize. For example, if you want a website visitor to call your clinic to schedule a consultation or book an appointment through an online portal- this should be stated very clearly with a well contrasted and easy to find button.
- Showcase your skills. You can’t expect to design a website that caters to every person in your area looking for a chiropractor. Plus, you probably don’t want to work with all of them anyways. Being very clear about your niche and specialities on your website will help the right people navigate their way to your clinic. Everyone else? They’re not your customers and you don’t need to worry about them!
Feeling overwhelmed? MyChiroPractice has you covered. We can help you build a custom website that fits your exact needs and helps you generate the income you want. For more information, you can click here. (FYI: This is a perfect example of a clear call to action!).
Next, Build Your Authority and Customer Base
If you build a nice website, people will find their way to it. Right? Unfortunately, this common idea is very wrong. Just like designing your website, there is a lot of strategy behind getting your page actually seen by the right people. One of your primary goals with your website should be to achieve high visibility and rank as high as possible on search engines like Google (for your niche market and/or location) and social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. However, there are a lot of ways to “fast track” your visibility with the use of paid ads as well. We will dive into the basics of both options here.
The Organic Way
There are a ton of great benefits to building authority on websites like Google. However, it’s important to mention that this type of strategy is intended for long term growth over months or even years. If you produce high quality content consistently though, this is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to continually generate a steady stream of new visitors to your website that are looking for the content that you offer.
For your website, here are the basics to cover for organically and consistently growing your traffic sources:
-
- Utilize social media platforms. Frequently posting high quality relevant content in your niche can be used on social media to pique people’s interest enough to go directly to your website. Once they’re on your website, your clear call to actions will help them take the next step.
- Blogging. Keeping up a blog is an excellent long term strategy that doesn’t take a significant amount of time or money to keep up, even if you end up hiring a writer and editor for your articles. Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) is an excellent strategy for building authority on Google. Consistent published posts, using something called a sitemap, being a guest poster on other people’s websites in your niche, using relevant keywords, and providing useful information are the basics needed for boosting your Google rankings.
- Write a book. Whether you write a book that is free or low cost, this is also an excellent way to establish your authority and help people trust you as a provider. Write a short guide about a specific topic that primes a reader for the next step in the customer process- scheduling an appointment with a professional like you. Do some research or ask your current customers about what their biggest health concerns or pain points are to get an idea of what topic would be most relevant and useful to your market.
The Paid Way
Many chiropractors are tempted to go straight to paid ads. However, putting more money into your marketing doesn’t necessarily mean more customers unless you have a sound strategy. Plus, putting all your eggs in one basket (like a paid ad) can backfire quickly. Thus, we recommend diversifying your marketing strategy between paid and organic growth to make sure you are maximizing your website’s potential.
When it comes to generating paid traffic, here are a few basics to get you started.
-
- Choose your platform. You can advertise to potential customers practically anywhere these days. Thus, choose one or two platforms where your customers tend to hang out. Options include Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Each platform has their pros and cons so you will want to experiment or consult with a marketing expert to make the best choice.
- Build a marketing funnel. Before you can start advertising, you will want to decide on the “how.” There are so many ways to catch your customer’s attention these days and you will want to choose a way that stands out in a large sea of advertising noise. For example, you can go as simple as designing an ad that tells your customers to book a consultation. However, this tends to convert lower than other options. Higher converting options include creating a relevant quiz funnel or designing some type of lead magnet or resource that people want to review. Honestly, if you have the budget this aspect of paid marketing is best left to the experts.
- Build your email list. Regardless of how you choose to start paid advertising, make sure there is an easy way for your potential customers to give you their email (bonus points if you make it enticing with a newsletter or lead magnet). This way, even if a person isn’t quite ready to commit to coming into your clinic for treatment, you can keep them in the loop of clinic happenings so that when they are ready they know exactly where they are going to go. That’s the beauty of an email list- it’s a pool of current and potential customers just waiting to be converted.
Did you know that MyChiroPractice specialized in helping you design a Google Ads campaign? We also have designed “done for you” social media templates that you can use to capture your audience’s attention without starting from scratch each time you login to your accounts.
Time to Get Started
You are now equipped with all the basics for getting continuous high quality patients in your clinic. At first glance, it may seem like there’s a lot to do and too much to understand. Thankfully, there are experts that specialize in chiropractic marketing, like our entire team at MyChiroPractice, that can help you tackle these steps and will provide you with an excellent return on investment. Just like you wouldn’t want any Joe Shmoe doing chiropractic adjustments, don’t leave your marketing to chance with someone that isn’t a professional. Once you tap into the knowledge of an expert marketer, the sky’s the limit.