There is a key marketing concept I always drive home to my clients: external marketing efforts (like search marketing and social media) come after you’ve maximized internal marketing efforts. In fact, if you’re investing in external marketing without first having a strategically designed website in place, you risk wasting time and money.

IS YOUR WEBSITE WORKING? FOUR STRATEGIC QUESTIONS

According to studies, you have three to five seconds to capture the attention of a visitor to your site. Consider the following:

1. Does your website support and even facilitate your brand management efforts?
2. Does your website offer the appropriate level of communications messaging?
3. Does your website allow for proper engagement opportunities?
4. Does your website allow people to move to the next level of involvement?

If you answered “no” (or don’t even have a website yet), keep reading. I’m going to show you why the right website is vital to your practice in today’s online world. Then I’ll address how a correctly designed website maximizes the six key elements of a successful internal marketing program. I’ll share specific, proven ideas that will optimize your website and maximize your marketing efforts.

Branding

One of the biggest problems with websites today is a lack of branding. Remember that your brand is ‘the collective perception of those that come in contact with you.’ Your brand is the most valuable asset you own. Do not doubt the power of brands.

Because websites are becoming one of the primary ways consumers judge you, your website is a key component in that branding concept.  There are many components to creating a powerful brand but most important is congruency. Are the crucial messages, images, colors, words, and behaviors that you send out to your audiences congruent with each other? If not, you’re diluting your brand.

Communications

Second, it is vital you speak with a voice that fits your audience. The copy for your website should address how people read online—which is not the same as regular reading. Your copy should be shorter and written in a simple, quick rhythm. Audio and video clips also enhance readability. Be careful, however, of photos for ‘photos sake’. Images must have specific purposes. It may help to add a photo caption so there are no doubts of the photo’s purpose. Remember, many consumers expect photos to be clickable items that take them somewhere else.

Most importantly, understand your audience. If you want to influence Mrs. Smith, you must see the world through Mrs. Smith’s eyes and speak her language. Also, the words and information that you share with your patients may not be the same as with a new visitor, so be aware what pages of your website are likely to be visited by whom and for what purpose.

Proper Engagement

Third, offer appropriate opportunities for your audience to get involved. Website experts tell us that people want interaction. Interactive opportunities—the ability to post comments, to request free information, to take online quizzes, etc.—increase the likelihood of a successful website.

Next Level of Involvement

Fourth is the concept of the “next step” in the consumer decision-making process. Every one of your visitors—whether an active, inactive, or prospective patient—is at a certain stage of involvement with you.  An effective website encourages visitors to ‘move to their next step’ in terms of their relationship with you.

THE SIX KEY ELEMENTS OF INTERNAL MARKETING

Now that we’ve covered these four basic strategies, lets go deeper by exploring how a website serves the six key elements of internal marketing:

• customer service
• patient communications
• education
• retention  & reactivation
• referrals, and
• internal events

1) Customer Service

The key element of customer service is the exchange of value. That is, if someone pays you $40 for a visit, do they feel they received more than their $40 worth? The more value they feel they receive, the better your customer service.

Your website is a fantastic way to add value to the services you provide. Giving patients the ability to schedule their appointments online is one example. Registering for events online is another value-added service. I know of highly successful doctors that place exercise or rehab videos on their websites. Another client records and posts his audio lectures and makes them available to his patients online.

During the last consumer focus group I recently conducted, consumers said a well-written blog would be a value-added service, especially if they had the ability to comment or ask the doctor a question. Ordering supplements online (as simple as creating an online form for patients to submit their orders via email and then having your staff place the order) could also be considered a value-added service. There are limitless ways to add value with your website.

2) Internal Communications

When I say internal communications, I’m referring to both the messages that you deliver and the system that delivers them. You must have clear, congruent messages in each of five categories: your brand message, your educational message, your referral message, your next step message, and what I like to call your boilerplate or general communications.

You may have great messages, but if no one hears them, it’s wasted effort. Your website is an unparalleled internal communications tool. Once you train your patients to visit your website often and show them how to utilize it properly, it becomes indispensable for all your communications.

• Education: your blog, your recorded patient education presentations, your podcasts, and any how to’s are all more likely to be visited, read, and remembered when you teach, train, and guide via your website.
• Branding: the more your current patients utilize the site, the more they will be reminded of and notice the congruency in your colors and your messaging.
• Referrals: you can post a ‘send to a friend’ widget or button.
• General communications: upcoming health talks, new hours, new supplements, supplement of the month, recipe of the month, etc.
• E-Newsletter: you can enhance the utilization of your e-newsletter and at the same time, train patients to use your website if your e-newsletter links back to key messages on your website.
• Ask-the-doctor: another communications concept that works well is a feature whereby website visitors can ask questions that may enhance their relationship with the doctor. Your website could also offer ‘patient only’ private portals where your patients may be able to engage with each other.

3) Patient Education

Available technology is grossly under-utilized by most health care providers when it comes to patient education. There are so many obvious benefits of using a website for patient education! Here’s one example: you can inform your patients online about an upcoming lecture, provide information about the event, allow them to register online, and then provide access to online recordings and transcripts after the lecture.

4) Retention & Reactivation

Let’s talk retention. If you follow the strategies I’ve outlined already, your retention is going to improve drastically. Your website can play a major role in patient satisfaction and loyalty by enhancing perceived value, improving communications, enhancing education, providing interaction, and so on.

An e-newsletter that links back to your website is an effective way to reach inactive patients. The key to reactivation is two-fold: first, give them opportunities to get re-engaged and secondly, give them the opportunity to see, hear, and read your messages.

5) Referrals

Many doctors don’t realize a website is a perfect way to encourage referrals. Have you ever considered the risk a patient takes when they recommend you to someone they know?  Telling their friends to visit your website, however, is quite safe. It can also be risky and uncomfortable for a referral to visit an unknown doctor. The opportunity for an anonymous virtual visit removes hesitancy and risk for everyone.

Online contests or drawings can be a way to increase both patient and referral traffic to your website. One of my clients sponsored a monthly online quiz and drawing for a purification and weight loss program. He not only made it available to his patients but asked them to encourage their friends to participate, generating a large number of new prospects.

Internal Events

Sixth, don’t forget about internal events. Your website facilitates your ability to hold successful events. Begin by announcing an event via your e-newsletter, point them to your website for more information, and allow them to register online.  Simple.

GOT WEBSITE?

I’ve been doing research and marketing for the chiropractic profession for 21 years now. I’ve seen many trends come and go, but I can honestly say the Internet is changing the landscape of how chiropractors find, retain, and serve their patients. Every successful doctor must understand that in this plugged-in and online world, a successful internal marketing strategy revolves around a well designed website.

Your patients are talking to you, but are you listening? They’re attempting to communicate. They’re trying to give you insights into how you can enhance your marketing and grow your practice.  Are you taking advantage of what they are trying to tell you? Or are you missing a powerful opportunity?

Traditionally, understanding patients and their motives has been done through marketing research. But marketing research can be expensive. For example, a basic patient satisfaction survey sent via postal mail could cost you as much as $25-$30,000.

Strategic Listening

So what do you do? One solution to better understanding your target audience, without the expense and hassle of marketing research, is to create a strategic listening program that provides great benefit, without the cost of traditional marketing research.

A strategic listening program can be fairly simple, inexpensive, and powerful. You may be surprised by how much of this you are already doing. By considering the following four areas of ‘listening’, you can easily create your own strategic listening program.

1. Personal observation
2. Current metrics
3. Traditional marketing research
4. Technology analytics

Personal Observation

You, your staff, your family, and your neighbors have hundreds, if not thousands, of one-on-one contacts with patients and prospective patients on a regular basis. Each and every contact you have with your target audience is an opportunity to capture valuable marketing information. But are you capturing it?

Think about it. Each employee was listening to and recording hundreds to thousands of customer feedback interactions. Liistening to your target audience and making decisions based on their feedback!  It really is that simple.

That’s the power of ongoing listening. By systematizing the items that you or your team see, hear, or read, you’ll be amazed at what you learn about your patients and their perspectives of your services.

Improving personal observations does not have to be complicated for you or your staff. Keep an index card in every adjusting room or even in your pocket. Have your staff keep one with them at all times. The magic begins when people start recording information as they see it. It may be:

• o Questions that your patients ask,
• o Comments patients make, both verbal and non-verbal, or
• o Things you see, read, or hear from media outlets

If you get in the habit of gathering all the information your employees have been collecting and discussing the things that your team is ‘observing’, you’ll start developing a culture of listening. Go a step further and reward, even if just with positive reinforcement, those employees that capture the most insightful information and you could be on your way to unleashing the power of strategic listening.

The bottom line is that personal observation is not hard, doesn’t cost a dime, and can provide valuable information to enhance your clinic marketing efforts. Just think of all the things your patients are trying to tell you that you’re missing out on!

Practice Metrics

Practice metrics are the quantifiable data that you capture in your regular business processes. Everybody has them. Successful chiropractors gain incredible advantages by finding, utilizing, and eventually interpreting their metrics for marketing advantage.

The most obvious metrics are the traditional practice management numbers you’ve all been taught: patient visit average, new patients, case visit average, etc. But depending on your practice, there are a lot of other metrics that could be beneficial to your marketing efforts. There are hundreds of metrics you could use. For example:

• Your zip code ratios may have significant impact on your marketing choices,
• Your patient demographics, such as age, may also provide valuable insight about how to deliver marketing messages, and
• Your patient employment and education levels can influence the words you use and the message you send.

Even more powerful are practice metrics that you add to your information gathering process to specifically improve or enhance your communications, advertising, and marketing. Some of these metrics may be additional demographic information that you decide to capture, but it could also be psychographic information.

Psychographic information is the information that provides insight into the personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles of your customers and prospects. These metrics are rarely included in the information chiropractors gather from patients. But, if you can figure out how and when to capture psychographic information, you’ll find that it may be even more valuable than traditional demographic information in regards to your marketing efforts.

For example, one chiropractor includes information about individual and family activities in his new patient protocol. This information, such as activities the family participates in, radio and TV station viewership, and newspaper readership can provide not only information that may help guide the marketing efforts, but also allow the practice to speak the language of their audience—this equates to powerful marketing communications.

Traditional Marketing Research

To understand how to incorporate traditional marketing research into your strategic listening plan, we first need to review a few basics of marketing research. There are two types of marketing research: primary and secondary.

Primary research is that which you conduct yourself, while secondary research is that which somebody else conducts.  A key component of a strategic listening program can be secondary research.  You may not realize it, but there are many information-gathering efforts going on in your community, in your state, or even within your profession that you may be able to access.

While secondary research obviously does not address you specifically, there is a lot of valuable information you can gain. In most situations, this information is free or very affordable.  A few ways you can find secondary research data:

• Ask your Chamber of Commerce for any consumer data that may be available for your market area.
• Ask local TV stations about possible TOMA, or Top of Mind Awareness, studies they may have conducted.
• Check with websites such as www.freedemographics.com for data based on the U.S. Census.

Primary research is marketing research efforts that you undertake to gather information for your private use. There are two types of primary research, quantitative and qualitative.

Surveys are great for quantifying and benchmarking information. For example, a patient satisfaction survey done once a year can provide a great metric for your performance that you can compare annually for trends. With the availability of electronic e-mail surveys from sites such as Constant Contact and Zoomerang, these surveys are now easy to do and in many cases free.

You can simplify and expedite quantitative methods is by creating a question of the week or question of the month. Depending on the frequency of contact with your patients, you can receive a lot of information in a short amount of time by doing so.

You can also electronically capture data by incorporating your ‘Question of the Week or Month’ into your customer e-newsletter or offering a poll on the front of your website.  All of these are ways to listen to your audience that are sometimes much less expensive, less intrusive, and easier to implement than a complete survey, but may tell you much more.

In contrast to quantitative methods, qualitative efforts are those where you gain further insight about the feelings and attitudes of your target audience through open-ended or subjective methods.  Examples of qualitative research are focus groups and in-depth interviews.

In-depth interviews are a wonderful process to gain insight of a broad, unquantifiable nature. You can conduct these interviews yourself, or you can hire a trained marketing person. Either way, the thing I love about in-depth interviews is that conducting 12-20 interviews can provide a clear direction or even general consensus from the targeted group you’ve interviewed.

I also find that in-depth interviews are a wonderful way of deepening a relationship with select audiences.  For example, if you conduct in-depth interviews with your leading referral sources, not only will you gain relevant useful information to help you improve your referral efforts, but you may also find that their willingness and commitment to referring patients to you is enhanced.

Focus groups are similar in that they can be a key component of your strategic listening efforts, don’t have to be expensive and you can conduct these sessions yourself, and can provide valuable insight to your information gathering.

If you consider that a focus groups is nothing more than a group discussion with patients or prospective patients, and that any information you hear is simply a piece of the total story—and don’t jump to conclusions, then conducting focus groups can be extremely valuable.

Internet Technology

Remember that Internet technology can also be a great ‘listening’ device. Website analytics, feedback on social media sites, and electronic patient feedback forms can all benefit your strategic listening efforts at a very low cost and low time and energy cost to you.  If you can capture any metrics automatically using technology, do so!  It will increase the validity of your data and make your life easier.

Make sure that these electronic metrics are part of your strategic listening efforts. Consider the topics you include in your e-newsletters as mini-marketing research efforts. Include four or five short articles in your e-newsletter and then track the click-throughs on your e-mail tracking system to see where your customers’ or prospective customers’ interests lie. Or place three articles on the front page of your website, and track which are most appealing to your website visitors.

Again, these are all elements that when considered as individual parts of your practice may not mean much, but when put together as part of a strategic, comprehensive listening approach can provide insight into your patients’ needs, problems, and opinions.  In the end, that knowledge is valuable marketing information that you can use to enhance and grow your practice to the benefit of your current and future patients.

Best of all, you can incorporate many of these concepts at no, or little, cost and as a regular part of your marketing management efforts.

by Juan Nodarse

Those that forcast, or try to predict the future, generally do so based on research, or information gathered from keeping an ear to the ground. We conduct various marketing research surveys and coupled with the direct work we do for doctors, and my over twenty years in the profession, allow me to forecast what the year could look like for the profession.

‘It was the worst of times; it was the best of times’ is an oft-used phrase, but it will definitely hold true for the chiropractic profession in 2011. While managed care and the economy conspire to hold many down, a number of doctors and companies will continue to perform very, very well despite of the world surrounding them.

This statement not only sets the tone for the rest of this article, but hopefully causes everyone to ask ‘why’? Why is it that while managed care and the economy are widespread, it seems to be affecting some doctors more than others? The answer may lay in these 10 predictions.

1. More and more doctors will opt for attempts at cash style practices, at least in partial. Some will succeed and some will not. The ones that succeed will in large do so because of the marketing groundwork they’ve established before making the switch.

Doctors that are well established in their communities, continuing to be involved and active participants in those communities will find it easier to make the switch. If they have built a solid brand, with a high trust factor, that switch will tend to go more smoothly. And if they have followed good internal marketing principles by providing exceptional service, communicating or telling their story clearly and succintly, and providing a high level of patient education, they will find that barriers such as not accepting insurance will not be as dauting.

2. More and more chiropractors will incorporate nutrition into their practices. Some because it is a great transition into a cash practice [see above]. Others because they don’t see their adjustments holding as well as they once did. And yet others now see the natural fit between chiropractic and nutrition.

But more and more doctors are understanding the marketing principle of ‘seeing the world through the eyes of their audiences’. And audiences want nutrition incorporated into their health care. Doctors that recognize this open the door to the potential to reach a higher number of prospective patients. They build greater patient retention and loyalty by being able to help address some of the major ills facing society: diabetes, hormonal issues, stress, fatigue, and digestive problems. And they begin incorporating cash principles into their practices.

3. Technology will take an even greater role in the chiropractic practice of 2011 than ever before. Whether it be comprehensive software programs that truly help to automate, systematize electronic health records, record keeping and billing, and patient education, or the trend to improve a more reproducible adjustment with computerized adjusting systems, it is rare to find a successful practice that has not explored and implemented various levels of technology.

On the marketing front custom websites, Search Engine Optimization and more automated marketing systems will become more and more prevalant. From the ability to communicate easier, to deliver more dynamic and accesible patient education, in addition to simply reducing the time and costs that it takes to create marketing materials, technology in marketing is quickly becoming a ‘matter of life’ as opposed to an extravagance. And don’t forget, consumers see technology—when properly incorporated into a ‘high-touch’ environment as a more scientific and believable component of health care.

4. Integrated practice will seem to prosper and flourish beyond what single doctor practices can achieve. Integrated practices seem to be a logical next step. Providers such as naturopaths, acupuncturists, nutritionists, and massage therapists will either be added competition, or valuable assests.

The variety of service providers under the same roof will increase the population that you can reach and serve. By hiring or partnering with other cash providers you make it easier to explain and eduate consumers about cash billing expectations. The variety of providers also create a much more diverse marketing team to reach and engage your communities.

5. Referrals from Dentists and Medical Doctors will increase. At least for those doctors that recognize that the position that they take, or the brand that they establish in their community will go a long ways in how everyone, including the allopathic medical community will see them.

Those that establish a credible brand, build a following, integrate themeselves in their communities, begin developing a diverse team of other health care professionals, and communicate honestly, openly, and professionally with the allopathic community, will find themselves being more highly accepted and recognized.

6. Anti-aging will create opportunities for those ready to address this growing market demographic. Where you live, whether you are an insurnace or a cash practice will vary how you can take advantage of this opportunity. But the opportunity is there for those that prepare to properly take advantage of it.

Whether you are serving a blue collar, cash-strapped patient-base, or a wealthier, cash-rich one, being prepared with the services, products and practice parameters necessary, the fact is that the Baby Boomer generation is coming, and chiropractors prepared to serve them, will do better than those that are not prepared.

7. Chiropractors will recognize that Social Media is not a Silver Bullet. But rather it is another marketing opportunity that will greatly change and evolve over the next few years. Unlike those that are selling Social Media programs and solutions as the ‘end-be-all’, savvy chiropractors will recognize that social media is simply getting involved in a new and different community.

The technology may allow you to reach many more people more easily, but the principles of how you interact and communicate with them won’t vary from what has worked on a face to face basis. You will still need to work hard, you will need to show a great level of respect, to listen, and to learn how to lead and pull people rather than pushing them into something they may not be ready for. Social Media is not for everyone. Or at best, not in the same way. Doctors that understand the principles Social Media marketing represent, will be able to apply this technology in more rational and appropriate manners to fit their individual situation.

8. Internal Marketing will gain recognition as the foundation for all good marketing efforts. As the economy and the hassles with Managed Care affect practices, and as chiropractors move to add new, potentially confusing services and products, the realization will strike that by maximizing internal marketing you will best affect the growth and success of your practice.

9. Branding will become the marketing powerhouse of the year. Given what we’ve noted above: more cash intentions, new products and services, additional health care providers, an aging-population, all will require improved communications, service, and education.

A well-established brand will increase your credibility, the believability of your story, and the acceptance of what you have to offer. Even better news, building a successful brand does not require a large investement, new technology, or a long time to see results. In some cases you will notice results immediately. And it may be as easy as deciding who you are—and the ‘walking that walk’.

Again, think of what we’ve presented and shared above. Understanding the ‘It Depends’ principle of marketing that indicates that every single one of you is unique and that the best solutions for you will depend on you, your practice, and your community’s unique differences. Consider that:

• By understanding your strengths and weaknesses you will better address the coming opportunities and threats.
• By listening to the needs of your target audience you will better be able to stratgically make the changes, or maintain the status quo,  necessary to not only survive, but to also thrive.
• With the marketing principle of testing and evolving you will could address your situation in small steps to lessen the risk and experience how people will react to the changes you are making.

No, nobody can truly predict the future. But the ‘trends’ we predicted above are there for your taking, should you decide to do so. And it is always better to address and control your destiny, rather than to allow the future to dictate your success.

Sidebar

If you don’t have a sense of humor, DON’T READ THIS!  However, if you have the ability to enjoy life and can poke a little fun at yourself, then here are three predictions we make with our tongue firmly planted in our cheek.

Prediction number one. You will be contacted by a new chiropractic marketing service that will promise to get you all the patients that you need. This service, will claim to use a proprietary technology or technique, will do it all for you. All you will have to do is sit back and watch your practice grow. It will be expensive. Many will try it. Most of those that do will not see significant results. And in a couple of years, you won’t hear about this wunderkind company anymore.

Prediction number two. A practice management firm will start aggressively marketing around guaranteed growth, thousands of new patients, and money back guarantee. It will offer testimonials from client colleagues that have seen incredible growth as they aggressively see new patients. Yet, when you see these doctor friends at conferences a year later, you will discover that they are already with another management firm, as none of their practice growing tactics led to sustainable growth over time.

Prediction number three. A slick sales person will take an already existing chiropractic product, repackage it, and create a motivational dog and pony show around it. Some of your colleagues will pay  hundreds, if not thousands of more dollars than what they would pay for a comparable product. This new company will generate a lot of buzz, including some controversy. And after the public relations machine has generated enough sales for their next-big-thing, they will go out of business before you know it.

President, The Marketing Advantage

“It Depends.” Two simple words, but most business people are unaware of the impact of these two words on marketing efforts.  Allow me to explain why I tell clients these two words are so crucial to marketing.

REAL marketing is a process focused on understanding your strengths and weaknesses in order to overcome problems and take advantage of opportunities. Each situation is unique; every segment is different. And yes, each business should market their products in the manner that best fits their needs.

While there are marketing principles that are a given and even proven, the application of these principles to the advantage of each business may be approached in many different ways. There is no one way to successfully market your business or product, and anyone that tells you so or tries to sell you that ‘silver bullet’ or ‘one-stop solution’ is either lying or letting you know they don’t understand how REAL marketing works.

The following ten examples help to explain why “It Depends” is so important:

1. Your attitude. The success of your marketing depends on your attitude. Successful marketers recognize that marketing is evolutionary and they never quit learning. They realize that when they quit learning the world around them changes dramatically, and they may be left in the dust.

2. Your work ethic. Don’t fall for the ‘easy’ sales pitch. Unlike what some may lead you to believe, marketing is not easy. There are no silver bullets. The success of your marketing efforts will depend on how hard you work at it. This is why the benefits and the rewards are significant.

3. Your vision. Without vision nothing happens. Marketing depends on a vision to provide direction and guidance.  Being unrealistic in your vision may lead you down the wrong path. On the other hand, if you’re not visionary enough, you may limit yourself. Your vision should be uniquely yours, based on you and your situation, not someone else’s.

4. Your strengths and weaknesses. At its basic core, marketing is about taking advantage of your strengths and overcoming your weaknesses. But real marketers also know that not everybody is the same. The strategies and tactics you implements may differ depending on your strengths or weaknesses.

5. Your resources. We’d all like to have an unlimited budget to do as we please, unfortunately most of us don’t. Your marketing efforts may depend on what you can afford to do or not do.

6. Your brand. Every doctor has a brand. Your brand is, ‘the collective perception of those who come in contact with you.’ That perception is a combination of your personal brand, business brand, and brand perception towards your offering. Your ability to influence your audiences will greatly depend on the congruency of your brand and will determine the success of your efforts.

7. How long you’ve been in practice. The marketing needs of a new business are very different than those of an established one. One solution does not fit all. The most applicable strategies will vary depending on the status of your business.

8. Your goals. Some companies want immediate growth. Others would like to focus on market share. REAL marketers know that success can be defined in many different ways. Your success is dependent on what you desire.

9. Your segment. Every segment is different. There is no guarantee that what works for one will work for another; what works for a product may not work for a service. Depending on your audience’s perception about you, your product, your brand, and your ability to ‘brand’ yourself uniquely and properly, your success could be greatly impacted.

10. Your competitors. Some segments have large numbers of competitors. Some of those are well established with a great reputation. Some are great marketers. The appropriate marketing strategies for your situation and the results you can expect may depend on your competition.

Do you see my point? Which marketing strategies or tactics you choose depend on a number of variables. By taking a REAL marketing approach and applying the principles of marketing to your specific situation, you can experience greater success, and best of all, success that is uniquely yours, so you can modify or change it as needed. You can build a successful company that fits you and your unique strengths by following the REAL principles of marketing.