8 Economical Marketing Ideas

Thu Jan 09 2025

Summary

Modern Chiropractic Mastery: Episode 8 - Economical Marketing Ideas

Release Date: January 9, 2025
Host: Dr. Kevin Christie

Introduction

In Episode 8 of Modern Chiropractic Mastery, Dr. Kevin Christie delves into eight economical marketing ideas tailored specifically for chiropractors looking to grow their practices without incurring hefty expenses. Drawing from a presentation delivered to a state association, Dr. Christie offers actionable strategies that blend modern marketing techniques with ethical practices, ensuring chiropractors can effectively reach and retain their patient base.

Background and Context

At the outset, Dr. Christie provides context for the episode, explaining that the content originates from a presentation conducted for a state association. This initiative aims to equip chiropractors with essential marketing skills through a complimentary academy funded by the association. He emphasizes the importance of practice growth coaching, highlighting a unique offering where coaching and marketing are seamlessly integrated. This comprehensive approach ensures that chiropractors receive support not only in marketing but also in areas like communication, finances, and overall business strategy.

Key Announcements:

Coaching Services: Dr. Christie introduces a coaching program that combines practice growth coaching with "marketing done for you," providing a problem-solving team that includes marketing account coordinators and coaches.
Upcoming Webinar: He announces a webinar titled "The Essential Marketing Blueprint for Evidence-Based Chiropractors" scheduled for January 10, 2025, aimed at helping chiropractors achieve their growth goals through actionable marketing strategies.

Eight Economical Marketing Ideas

Dr. Christie outlines eight cost-effective marketing strategies, providing detailed insights and practical tips for each. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of these ideas:

1. Email Marketing

Timestamp: 10:00

Email marketing emerges as a cornerstone strategy due to its affordability and effectiveness. Dr. Christie advocates for weekly content emails that focus on educational content, positioning chiropractors as valuable resources in their patients' inboxes.

Key Points:

Consistency is Crucial: Weekly emails keep chiropractors top-of-mind, fostering patient reactivation and generating referrals.

"Weekly content emails... help you stay top of mind with your patients." – Dr. Kevin Christie (10:05)
Content Strategy: Emails should predominantly feature educational content rather than solely promotional material to maintain engagement and prevent unsubscribes.
Tools & Execution: Platforms like Mailchimp are recommended for their affordability and ease of use. Designing a consistent template with a professional banner and clear scheduling information enhances readability and reinforces branding.

Best Practices:

Avoid infrequent email blasts (e.g., quarterly updates) which are less effective.
Incorporate blog content directly into emails to keep readers engaged without redirecting them to external websites.

2. Video Marketing

Timestamp: 15:30

Video marketing is highlighted as a dynamic tool for patient education and engagement. Dr. Christie emphasizes the versatility of video content across various platforms, including YouTube, websites, Instagram, and Facebook.

Key Points:

Parasocial Relationships: Videos help build a sense of familiarity and trust, making patients feel connected to the chiropractor.

"It's like if Brad Pitt walked in, you'd feel like you knew him because of all the video." – Dr. Kevin Christie (15:45)
Content Ideas: Creating condition-specific videos (e.g., treating back pain, sports injuries) enhances SEO and provides valuable information to patients.
Accessibility: Modern smartphones and affordable equipment like lapel mics make video production accessible for most practices.

Strategy Development:

Decide on video formats (e.g., short Instagram reels vs. longer YouTube tutorials) based on target audience and platform.
Incorporate video content into the practice’s overall marketing strategy to maximize reach and impact.

3. Instagram Reels

Timestamp: 22:10

Instagram Reels are presented as an effective method for reaching and engaging patients, capitalizing on the popularity of short-form video content.

Key Points:

Short-Form Content: Reels under 90 seconds are ideal for capturing attention quickly and effectively.
Competitive Edge: With platforms like TikTok influencing content trends, Reels offer a way to stay relevant and competitive.

Implementation Tips:

Develop a consistent posting schedule to maintain visibility.
Utilize the academy’s resources, including training on creating compelling Reels, to enhance content quality and engagement.

Success Stories: Dr. Christie shares examples of chiropractors who have successfully grown their practices through strategic use of Instagram Reels, highlighting increased patient followings and enhanced community presence.

4. Text Message Campaigns

Timestamp: 28:50

Text message marketing is introduced as a powerful tool for direct patient communication, offering higher engagement rates compared to traditional emails.

Key Points:

Bulk Messaging Platforms: Utilize services that facilitate bulk texting, ensuring messages are professional and compliant with regulations.
Content Variety: Campaigns can include appointment reminders, promotional offers, and health tips, keeping patients informed and engaged.

Advantages:

Higher Open Rates: Text messages are typically read within minutes, providing timely communication.
Opt-Out Flexibility: Patients can easily unsubscribe, maintaining a respectful and non-intrusive relationship.

Best Practices:

Schedule monthly or quarterly campaigns to maintain consistent contact without overwhelming patients.
Incorporate scripting from the academy to craft effective and engaging messages.

5. Allied Health Network

Timestamp: 35:20

Building a robust allied health network is emphasized as a strategy for fostering referrals and expanding professional connections within the healthcare community.

Key Points:

Referral System: Establishing a network of trusted health and performance professionals ensures that patients receive comprehensive care referrals.
Relationship Building: Proactively reaching out to specialists (e.g., orthopedic surgeons, acupuncturists) to introduce oneself and request referrals enhances trust and collaboration.

Implementation Steps:

Utilize the provided dashboard to identify potential referral partners across various specialties and performance domains.
Initiate contact by highlighting mutual benefits and the value of a collaborative referral network.

Outcome: A well-established allied health network not only benefits patients through integrated care but also increases referral traffic to the chiropractor’s practice.

6. Patient Appreciation Days

Timestamp: 41:15

Patient appreciation events are highlighted as a means to strengthen patient relationships and foster loyalty within the practice community.

Key Points:

Event Planning: Organize events a few times a year to show gratitude, which can include workshops, free consultations, or social gatherings.
Customization: Tailor appreciation days to suit the practice’s unique patient demographics and preferences.

Benefits:

Enhances patient satisfaction and retention.
Encourages word-of-mouth referrals as patients share their positive experiences.

Advice: Dr. Christie suggests utilizing the community outreach planner and related lessons in the academy to effectively plan and execute successful patient appreciation events.

7. Community Outreach

Timestamp: 47:00

Engaging with the local community through outreach programs is presented as a strategic method for building credibility and increasing visibility.

Key Points:

Types of Outreach: Participate in events, conduct workshops, engage in public speaking, and attend local marketing meetings to establish presence.
Credibility Enhancement: Active community involvement positions chiropractors as trusted health experts, fostering trust and attracting new patients.

Implementation Tips:

Leverage resources from the academy, including the community outreach planner, to design impactful and relevant outreach initiatives.
Focus on activities that highlight expertise and provide tangible value to the community.

Impact: Effective community outreach leads to increased brand recognition, stronger community ties, and a steady influx of new patients.

8. Website and Search Connection

Timestamp: 52:40

Optimizing the practice’s online presence is crucial for attracting and converting potential patients through organic search.

Key Points:

SEO Optimization: Ensure the website includes condition-specific pages, blogs, and videos to improve search engine rankings.
Compelling Messaging: The website should not merely serve as an online brochure but should engage visitors and compel them to schedule appointments.
Google Business Profile: Maintain an active and visually appealing Google Business profile with high-quality images and regular posts to enhance local search visibility.

Best Practices:

Incorporate effective SEO strategies to drive organic traffic without relying solely on paid advertisements.
Regularly update website content to keep it fresh and relevant, ensuring continued engagement and improved search rankings.

Dr. Christie's Insight: While he advocates for economical marketing strategies, Dr. Christie acknowledges the value of paid ads such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. However, he underscores that combining both paid and organic strategies yields the best marketing outcomes.

Conclusion

In wrapping up the episode, Dr. Kevin Christie reiterates the importance of a comprehensive and economical marketing plan. By implementing the eight strategies discussed—email marketing, video marketing, Instagram Reels, text message campaigns, allied health networking, patient appreciation days, community outreach, and website optimization—chiropractors can achieve sustainable growth without substantial financial investment.

He encourages listeners to explore the Modern Chiropractic Marketing Academy for deeper dives into each strategy, providing additional resources, training modules, and support to ensure successful implementation. Dr. Christie’s commitment to ethical and effective marketing empowers chiropractors to build thriving practices that prioritize patient care and community engagement.

For those interested in further enhancing their marketing efforts, Dr. Christie invites them to visit modernchiropracticmarketing.com to learn more about coaching services and available resources designed to propel their practices to new heights.

Notable Quotes:

"Weekly content emails... help you stay top of mind with your patients." – Dr. Kevin Christie (10:05)
"It's like if Brad Pitt walked in, you'd feel like you knew him because of all the video." – Dr. Kevin Christie (15:45)

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key points, discussions, and actionable insights shared by Dr. Kevin Christie in Episode 8 of Modern Chiropractic Mastery, providing chiropractors with valuable strategies to enhance their marketing efforts sustainably and ethically.

Loading summary...

Transcript

Dr. Kevin Christie (0:01)

Hey chiropractors. Welcome to Modern Chiropractic Mastery with your host, Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing business and professional growth with some of the leading experts in the industry. All right, a little bit of housekeeping before we dive into eight economical marketing ideas for you as we hit 2025. And just, just a little bit of a background of this lesson. It's actually the audio from a presentation that we did for a state association. We actually have a state association that contracts us to help their members with their marketing and develop a nice academy for them. And so all of their state members get this for free and the state association foots that bill. So if you have a state association that could be interested in this or you are on the board or anything like that, and you think the chiropractors in your state could benefit from a marketing academy to help them compete and grow in their practice, just reach out to us, go to our website, fill out a form and we can help you out. And this is the audio from one of those lessons that we do each month for their membership. Second is, you know, it's January, it's early January of 2025. This is the time to really start considering coaching for your practice. And not just it's not practice management. We have a unique offering where we do all things practice growth coaching, but also marketing done for you as well. And that way you are not only getting great advice on everything from communication to finances to marketing to business, we basically plug our team onto yours and everything from a marketing account coordinator to a coach to group coaching other members. And really you are now you kind of have a problem solving team as well. And so check that out. You can go to modernchiropracticmarketing.com and fill out the form there and schedule a call if you need some help in growing your practice. Ethically, we're here to help you out. We've got multiple coaches, we've got multiple marketing account coordinators, we've got a team that can really help you grow. And then lastly tomorrow, if you're listening to this, on Thursday the 9th, on Friday the 10th, we will have our first webinar. We're going to start doing webinars for our members and really try to provide a lot of value for you. And this one is going to be on January 10, the essential marketing Blueprint for Evidence Based Chiropractors. It's going to be at 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific on January 10, 2025. And you're going to have me going on a webinar to really help you achieve your growth goals. And we're going to give you a ton of value in that. So check that out. You can just go to the Show Notes to find that information on there. The URL is www.sites.modernchiropracticmarketing.com, but it's easy enough for you to go to the Show Notes and click on that and reserve your spot to attend this webinar tomorrow. All right, without further ado, here is the audio from a presentation, a video presentation that I did on eight Economical Marketing ideas. All right, there's a lot of different things you can do to market your practice, but what are some of the economical marketing ideas that you can do to grow your practice? And luckily there's a lot of them and we're going to cover those today. And let's start right out of the gates with email marketing. I think it's one of the best things you can do and many chiropractors aren't doing it. I recommend weekly content emails, like educational based emails to your patients. You're educating them on what you know and you become a resource in their inbox on health related information. And that helps you stay top of mind with your patients. And you'll get a lot more reactivations and even referrals if you're emailing your patients weekly, if you think weekly's too much, it's not. But if you want to go every other week, that's fine. But the practices that do like a quarterly email or an email when they have to close their practice because of the snowstorm or something like that is not going to suffice. And so things like mailchimp is a great service you can utilize, very, very affordable. And it's actually free up to a certain amount of audience members on your email list. But it's a really good way of doing it. You know, design a nice banner image, have the scheduling information at the bottom of the email. You know, just design a nice template email where you just plug in new information and it does not have to be too hard. You can do an occasional promotion in practice updates, there's nothing wrong with that. But when that's all of your emails, only promotions and practice updates, it's not going to be effective. And then you'll think email marketing doesn't work. And if they don't want to be emailed, they just unsubscribe. It's not not hard. No one gets offended because of that. It's a really great reactivation Strategy as I mentioned. And you can also onboard new patients with email. And then lastly, keep them in the email. If you put a blog in the email, just have them read the whole blog within the body of the email. Don't send them out to the website to read it, just keep them into the email. And we've got lessons in the academy about more depth of email marketing, but this is a phenomenal and very economical way to grow your practice. Let's take a break from today's episode and announce our first sponsor. This is going to be Propel Marketing and Design. I've known Darcy Sullivan for years. We've worked hand in hand on my websites. I don't trust anybody else to do this search engine optimization. She does a great job. There's so much to it. A lot of the lingo and the words are beyond my comprehension. But it's just amazing work that she does. And if you're really going to get results with Google, you have to sure your website is SEO optimized and I really don't want you doing it yourself as a chiropractor. So you just have to have this type of stuff done. And if you're looking to get more organic online traffic that pulls in new patients, Propel Marketing and Design is currently offering chiropractors who listen to this podcast a free SEO website review. The free review will help you uncover methods that will improve your website and boost your search engine visibility. Head over to propelyourcompany.com chiropractor and schedule your free SEO website review. You won't regret it. She gets great results. Your website needs this. Your search results need this. Head on over there to propelyourcompany.com chiropractor to get your free SEO website review. Video marketing. Video marketing is really good. And whether you use those videos to put them on YouTube, put em on your website, educate patients and send it to them based on certain things they need. Put it on your Instagram, Facebook. You can get a lot of economical value out of video marketing. It's gonna create that parasocial effect. And that just means it's like they feel like they know you and you may not know them. It's like if Brad Pitt walked in you'd feel like you knew him because of all the video. The relationship you've had with them watching on video for the last 30 years. That's called the parasocial effect where you feel like you know them, they don't know you, but the video does a great job of your community. And your patient base feeling like they know you as the doctor and what you know. Think about certain video projects, right? Like condition pages you can do. You know, if you treat 25 different conditions, you could have different pages on your website for each condition and you could do a video on those conditions. How you evaluate and treat that and certain things that you do for that particular condition is going to help with your SEO. So think about projects. It could be services, it could be topics like, you know, pickleball. It could be, you know, it's golf season, you could do video projects on around golf injuries. Video equipment is super easy now. If you have a smartphone, you're good, you can get a lapel mic and that works out. But the video equipment is super easy now and then just think about the video strategy that you want to do. Is your video strategy going to be short Instagram reels that are like 90 seconds or less? Are you going to do try to focus on YouTube length? Are you just going to do video to educate your patient base? Think about the different strategy strategies. And again, in the academy we have video marketing lessons. So check those out. Our kind of our point of our call today is just to teach you to build the build an economical marketing plan and then you can access some of the resources that are already in the academy if you need to do a deep dive into email marketing or video marketing or Instagram reels, right? So this is a really good way of gaining traction. And we put two Instagram reel trainings in the academy for you to look at. And Instagram is. They are really, really trying to focus on Instagram. Reels are kind of competing with TikTok. And so the reels again is gonna be 90 seconds or less on the video and then you post it as a reel. Not a post on Instagram, not a story. So you got post stories reels. This is reels. Watch the tutorials in there. The I we're seeing a lot of chiropractors growing their practice through Instagram reels. Okay? And they're also getting their patients to follow their Instagram. So when they do post on there, they are staying top of mind with their patients through IG reels. So a big one. Let's take a short break for one of our great sponsors, Track Stat. It is a new type of software plugin for your EHR that combines patient communication, marketing automation and statistics with patient and employee tracking. Built by chiropractors for chiropractors. It shows your team what to focus on each day. See patient visit habits Missing information unpaid bills insurance collection Visit average and more great visibility of data so you can focus on filling your office with your best patients. When you can see what your staff and patients are doing or not doing and take action accordingly, your profits naturally grow. Take track stat for a test drive in your office with our free trial. Not a techie. No problem. We can help. To get started on your free trial, visit trackstat.org and watch the demo that is trackstat.org Text message campaigns There's a lot of softwares out there now. This isn't you texting from your phone to them. This is a bulk text messaging campaigns. And again we have a whole breakdown of that in the academy with even scripting in there and what you can do. And there's certain platforms now obviously review a which is now Aloha. I don't have any vested interest in that. There's also tracks that does it. There's Trust Driven care that does it. You might have some other services that do it, but it but essentially it's doing monthly and quarterly text message campaigns to your patients or promotional texts through certain services you've added. And it's a great way to get into your patients. And again now it's 2024 going into 2025. People are used to getting texts from the businesses that they service now and if they don't, again, those services allow them to easily unsubscribe. They're not going to get mad at you and you're going to get a lot more ROI from this than you are patients being mad at you. It's just we do it, we've been doing it for two years now and don't have complaints. We just have some people that unsubscribe from it just like they would in email. Very economical way of reaching your patients. Next is your allied health network. And this is a phenomenal way of, of marketing and getting out of the community for health providers and performance related folks like okay, so a health provider would be your orthopedic surgeon or your acupuncturist and it runs the gamut from there, all your specialties. And then the performance would be something like the personal trainer, the golf teaching professional, the tennis coach, the pitching coach, the running coach. You know, there's a lot of people in the performance world that you'd want to connect with. And I'm just going to give you an overview of it because again like I mentioned, all these have lessons specifically for this in the academy but you want to a have a world class Referral system for your patients. Right. That's part of being a doctor, is if a patient comes in, I need a good massage therapist. You have a good referral for that. I need a primary care doctor. You got a good referral from them. I need a functional medicine doctor. You got a referral for them. Do you have a tennis coach? Yes, I do. Right. So part of your job, in my opinion is to have a world class referral network. And then the second you can actually leverage this idea is to connect with other people. Let's say you look at you, you go on your dashboard that we provide for you and it's got all the different things you could have as far as specialties or performance people. And you say, you know what? I don't have a foot and ankle specialist, I need one. But I do have a knee shoulder orthopedist that I'm friendly with. I'm going to contact that doctor, that's the knee shoulder ortho and say, who's the best foot and ankle doctor in the area? He or she's going to give you that information. You're going to call that office. Hey, no. Orthopedist Dr. John Smith is recommending that I connect with your foot and ankle specialist here, Dr. Sally, and said you're the best. I'm trying to build a world class referral network for my practice. I don't have a good foot and ankle specialist. Is there a time I could stop by and introduce myself and get some information from your practice? And this is one example how you can then leverage contacts to build out your allied health network and not only refer to them, but build relationships with them to hopefully they refer to you. Next is just patient appreciation days. These are always really good to throw those in a couple times a year and you can dive into the nuts and bolts of that. But I definitely recommend patient appreciation days and there's many ways you can slice those. Community outreach, right? You gotta get out in the community and there's a lot of ways you can do it that are very economical. Events, workshops, public speaking, MD marketing meetings, you name it. You want to be doing some credibility enhancing community outreach. And we have a whole community outreach planner in the dashboard. We have a community outreach lesson in the academy, so check out those. Okay, let's take a short break from today's episode to tell you about the best decision I've made in my clinic in the last 10 years. And that has been adding shockwave therapy to our clinic. The outcomes have been really impressive. Certain conditions we were struggling with in the past. We're now seeing results with with the Shockwave therapy for that. And second of all, the ROI has been really good. You know, when you make a big investment in something, you want to see a return. And we're seeing that return in clinical outcomes and in our investment and that's been really nice to see. I chose Keenest Medical for four reasons. One is the technology is top notch. You have to have great technology. There's a lot out there that isn't quite up to snuff. The second thing is, is they have a really good clinical training. They have an exclusive partnership with Academy of Shockwave Excellence so that you can become clinically proficient in Shockwave. You do need to get skilled at it. I think that's a big differentiator between practices that are getting great results and seeing the ROI is they have a great clinical aspect to that as well. So you want to get trained appropriately. Third is they have in house service team for all of your technical support, which is key when you're investing in a machine like this. And then lastly they have a very in depth marketing and business support for you so that you can launch this into your practice effectively, that you can get that ROI on it, that you can get the clinical outcomes. And they also have really good financing options if you need that. So go to kinasmedical.com k I n a s medical.com mention MCM podcast and receive a free Shockwave in practice book with a purchase of a unit. So that's kinasmedical.com K I N A S medical.com and mention MCM podcast. And then lastly is website and search connection. You want to make sure your website has condition pages on there like we discussed services pages on there. That's going to help your SEO. Blogs on your website are going to help your search engine SEO, search engine optimization or Google Search essentially. Videos on your website is going to help with that. Make sure your website has really good messaging so they find your website. They're compelled to come into your practice. It's your website shouldn't just be an online business card, it should compel them. You want to have good Google reviews in many of them. That's going to be economical marketing. Great pictures on your Google Business profile. So when people search that and they find it and see your Google Business Profile, they see all the great images of you, your team, your office, all the things you got. I want you to think of your Google Business profile as a second website and then you should be posting on your Google business profile as well. That's going to really help you with your overall search engine. So if you do a great job of organic search, which is this right here, you're going to get good marketing without having to spend ad dollars on Google Ads. And so let me stop share that. I'm not against spending money on marketing. I think practices need to do more of that, whether it's Google Ads, Facebook ads, direct mail, MD lunches and things of that nature. But depending on the, you know, scenario you're in, maybe you're limited on that. These are the economical ways you can do it. Or frankly, if you're spending money on all the other things too, you should be doing the economical ones also. And that comprehensive approach is going to allow you to great get great marketing results without spending too much money. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode and if you want to make the shift from busy, broke and broken to time free and cash confident or you just want to continue with the exponential growth, check us out@modernchiropracticmarketing.com look at the MCM Mastery tab, watch the short video on there and check out what we are doing now for evidence Informed Chiropractors we are equal parts coaching and marketing done for you. Yes, you shoot some videos, we help you with campaign strategies and ideas and really become a thought leader in your community. You shoot those videos, you send them to us, we produce, edit and brand them to you, then we distribute them through all of your channels. We also take them and we turn it into one good blog per month. And every other month we have Darcy Sullivan producing a robust blog with a topic that you pick from her database to help with your SEO. So we essentially become your content marketing agency to make sure your practice is always having ethical, elegant content marketing to help grow your practice. On the coaching side, we also help you with everything from marketing ideas to business communications, finances, anything, practice growth and really try to help prevent you from being stuck on that island. And we hold you accountable. We have a great group of doctors that are just doing amazing things and we look forward to help you out to take that next step in your practice. So again, check us out@modernchiropracticmarketing.com and learn.