If you don’t have a strategy – how to achieve a long-term or “big picture” goal – then how can you outline the tactics – the smaller steps – that will make your strategy a success? Your fourth-quarter practice strategy is perhaps the most important of the year, as it’s not just a strategy for the last quarter of the year, but also a deep dive into what the beginning of your next year should look like.
Another reason your Q4 strategy is so significant: unlike other times of the year, it includes multiple opportunities to make inroads with current and prospective patients due to economic and social factors – namely the holiday season. With that said, let’s examine a few of things you should focus on as you get ready to make the rest of 2024 – and the start of 2025 – as productive as possible for your practice.
Patient Education: Most patients don’t switch doctors unless they a) have a bad experience with one; b) move to a new location too distant from their current doctor; or c) change insurance and need a new in-network doctor. It’s your job to continually educate patients, current and prospective, on why you are their #1 choice.
Patient education can include what you post on your website and social media, email newsletters / alerts, Google search position – and even good-old snail mail. (It’s easy to delete an email without even looking beyond the subject line, but people still tend to look through / sort their regular mail, which means a greater opportunity to engage with your message / offer.)
Lead Generation: If you’re going to attract new patients, your marketing efforts can’t be haphazard (or nonexistent). Start by determining how much you want to spend and what you want to spend it on. Google Ads and Facebook Ads are among the easiest and most popular platforms these days when it comes to lead generation / tracking. You can set a budget, define your audience and determine your return on investment (ROI) for each prospective patient you ultimately convert.
Of course, you can also generate leads using email or snail-mail campaigns, health fairs, advertising in local newsletters / newspapers, and more. The key is figuring out how much each tactic will cost, how many people you’ll reach, and how to make it difficult to ignore your pitch.
Word of Mouth: Is your business on Yelp? Do you solicit / post reviews on your website? (Do you have a website? Some DCs still don’t.) One of the best ways to attract new patients is by letting loyal patients share their positive experiences. However, if you aren’t actively promoting this referral-generating tool, you’re overlooking a key method to bring new patients to your door.
Increasingly, people evaluate all businesses, not just chiropractic or health care, based on reviews and ratings. (Think about the last time you purchased something on Amazon or elsewhere; did it have fewer than 4-5 stars?) Cultivate your five-star rating as a compassionate, skilled expert … and watch the interest build exponentially.
Word-of-mouth marketing can also be as simple as emailing / mailing existing patients special offers for their friends, family and loved ones. (You can also make postcards or flyers and put a stack on the check-in desk and/or waiting room.) Let your loyal patients be your ambassadors to motivate the next new patient … and the next one … to embrace chiropractic.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t follow up on something we mentioned at the start – how Q4 strategizing is unique in that it encompasses the end-of-year holiday season. That said, you can use your various marketing channels (website, social media, newsletters / email, etc.) to keep patients informed on holiday offers, holiday hours, and even reasons why a visit to you may be particularly appropriate (stress relief is a big one).
And don’t discount the power of something as simple as the manner in which you / your staff treat people during this time of year. The seeds of goodwill you sow now will take root now and grow into next year and beyond. You and your team are your best free marketing tools, hands down.
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