For over two years, Dynamic Chiropractic has kept DCs informed about the latest research on chiropractic and wellness via the monthly newsletter Chiropractic Research Review (CRR). About 27,000 DCs receive the CRR, thanks mostly to the desire of the NCMIC Insurance Company to keep their policyholders up-to-date and help them be more successful.
Published in conjunction with the CRR is To Your Health (TYH), a monthly research review written to educate and inform your patients and potential patients. Over 22,000 copies of TYH are mailed every month.
People visiting Dynamic Chiropractic's website (http://www.chiroweb.com) began asking if an e-mail version of TYH was available. To meet that request for chiropractic and general health information, the editorial staff improvised, manually sending out TYH via e-mail while the necessary automation software was being developed. Photographs and graphics were soon added to the e-mail newsletters as part of the software program. Patients who now receive the bi-weekly e-mail newsletter from their DCs also get information about the doctor, along with the doctor's photo.
For those patients and consumers who may have trouble receiving graphics in their e-mail, the program provides a link to a dynamically-generated web page that features the same information on the doctor, his/her practice and the newsletter, complete with photographs and graphics.
This e-mail newsletter program is a powerful educational and referral tool. The doctor's patients and potential patients receive the To Your Health e-mail newsletter (Sample). Those people can then forward it to family, friends and co-workers. All those individuals are thus referred to the sponsoring doctor of chiropractic.
There is no reason why the chiropractic profession can't educate millions of people around the world about the benefits of chiropractic, since this program allows participating DCs to send their e-mail newsletter to an unlimited number of patients and potential patients.
We sent the first automated e-mail newsletter to 1,333 consumer subscribers and 260 patients. Of the 1,686 DCs on the program, only a few had already gathered their patients' e-mail addresses; the rest are quickly adding them to their e-mail address book.
Of the participating DCs, 691 (41%) received at least one referral to a subscribing consumer in their community. Because we don't yet have these in all areas of the U.S., the remaining consumers were sent a newsletter without a chiropractic referral. As more DCs join the program, these consumers will be referred to them, with those subscribing to To Your Health referred to their local DC.
While this is a modest beginning, it will grow dramatically as more DCs send these newsletters to their patients, who in turn forward them to others. Imagine 60,000 doctors of chiropractic each sending 200 e-mail newsletters once every two weeks. If just 10% of those were forwarded only once, the chiropractic message could reach over 13 million people! This would go a long way toward educating the public about the values of chiropractic and wellness.
The program is available to all doctors of chiropractic at an extremely low rate. NCMIC policyholders can expect to receive a special information packet on this program over the next month or so. This will include discounts made possible through an arrangement with NCMIC. If you have questions or wish additional information, please call toll free: 1-888-352-8180.
