Nowadays, millions of Americans rely more on holistic approaches such as acupuncture to experience complete body healing instead of merely solving a single symptom. In fact, the latest statistics reveal that roughly 11,623 acupuncture businesses exist across various states. Most likely, the numbers would continue to increase in the next few years.
As such, if you’re running an acupuncture clinic or if you’re an active practitioner, you will need to implement the right acupuncture marketing strategies. This step becomes extra critical to staying relevant and ensuring that you reach more patients in this increasingly competitive niche.
So, where do you start? What necessary steps do you need to take so you can expand your market? Learn more about these and more as we list our top 8 marketing tips for acupuncturists below.
More than 40 years have passed since acupuncture started getting traction in the healthcare industry. Each year, more and more patients feel interested in trying alternative medicine to deal with recurring pain or health issues. Even so, spreading awareness about acupuncture is still quite relevant today.
It gives patients and their loved ones insights into what they should expect from acupuncture therapy. It also shares a message of hope to those suffering from long-term conditions that acupuncture might be able to address.
Now, to do this successfully, you’ll need to tap into content marketing. With good quality and well-planned content, you can drive people to visit your website (if you already have one), interact with you on your social media pages and even reply to the email newsletters you send. It also helps you build your authority and gain your patient’s trust.
Here are some quick content marketing tips for acupuncture clinics and practitioners:
A website is a must-have for any business, regardless of the niche or industry. As more people turn to search engines to find answers to questions, it becomes crucial to have a website that provides them with what they need.
While you may argue that a social media page is more than enough for content distribution, a website offers more benefits. For starters, unlike your social media pages, you have complete control over your website. It also helps you to consolidate your content and ensure that they’re all organized and searchable.
In short, your website can quickly become your audience’s go-to platform to access valuable resources such as:
Your website can also double as a sales, marketing, and customer support tool. Many people see it as a sign of credibility as well.
Please take note that when you create a website, you’ll need to ensure that it converts. To do that, you can follow these website conversion tips:
We highly recommend building a website with a professional design firm. If you would like to partner with us on your website design or redesign click here. We focus on clarifying your message, reaching the right people, and building your business.
Search engine optimization or SEO is undoubtedly among the most vital acupuncture marketing tactics you’ll need to work on to boost site traffic. Basically, SEO refers to a set of techniques that helps a website appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). It has three respective areas that play a specific role in improving your online presence:
This aspect aims to build keyword relevance on each of the website pages. It allows you to optimize your website content for your target users and the different search engines (Google, Bing, etc.).
As the word suggests, off-page SEO is a group of practices that you do outside the website. These practices are essential in building your credibility as a source of information on acupuncture and holistic healthcare.
Technical SEO covers every technical aspect of a website. It includes the server speed, redirects, 404-page errors, coding errors, site structure, and sitemaps. All of these are essential to getting your pages crawled, indexed, and ranked for your target keyphrases.
There are website plugins like Yoast and RankMath that provide you with a list of guidelines in optimizing a website for search. Here are some of the fundamental SEO tips you can use on your website:
Learning what keywords patients use to know about acupuncture therapy will help you understand what specific types of content you need to produce. It also enables you to designate specific keywords for your web pages.
This applies to all webpages and blog posts you will publish. Doing so can help you encourage patients to click through your link when they find you on search.
This will help you understand the most crucial points you need to work on. SEO audits should be highly comprehensive. It should include a report on technical SEO issues, on-page SEO improvements, and link building opportunities for off-page SEO.
As you can see there is a lot to good search engine optimization (SEO). If you would like some help we can provide you with high quality search engine optimization services to help you attract more new patients consistently.
Millions of people look for directions online when they want to go to places like an acupuncture therapy clinic near them. Hence, you must ensure that your practice gets pulled up among your area's available listings. To do that, you’ll need to work on your Google My Business (GMB) listing.
Have you claimed your listing on GMB yet? Does your business even appear on Google Maps? The earlier you can claim or create your GMB listing, the better!
Once you have your GMB page ready, here’s what we recommend you should do:
Social media serves as their daily source of entertainment, news, and information for millions of people. On top of that, social media has become one of the main channels used for marketing businesses.
If you're not tapping into social media marketing (SMM) yet, you may be missing many opportunities to make meaningful connections with your potential patients. You can use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to spread awareness about natural healing through acupuncture. You can also use your channels for content distribution when you create new content on your site.
Other than that, here are other benefits of having an active social media page for your acupuncture clinic:
Videos are among the fastest and most effective ways you can connect with an audience. In a 3-to-5-minute span, you can deliver vital information that could drive action, like booking an acupuncture consultation or encouraging clinic visits.
Essentially, it’s similar to publishing a blog post. However, instead of using text, you use visual cues and animated graphics to pique your audience's interest.
If you’re not yet entirely convinced of the benefits of video marketing, here are some quick stats and facts:
There are many ways you can use video marketing for your acupuncture clinic. Here are some exciting and practical ideas you can try:
Many businesses are quick to jump to conclusions when hearing about paid ads. Some see it as expensive and ineffective. Others are too intimidated by the process alone. If this sounds familiar, then you should check out the stats on paid ads from Sprout Social and WebFX below:
Paid ads can provide you with fast results if you set up an effective campaign. It can aid you in boosting brand discovery so more patients know about your clinic. Pad advertisements also come in handy in amplifying your current acupuncture marketing efforts, especially on search engines and on social media.
Reputation management is critical to every online acupuncture marketing strategy. This is because many people look through online referrals and customer reviews when deciding about a business. In fact, marketing research shows that 50 percent of customers tend to question a local company's quality and credibility when they see negative reviews left by previous clients.
As a result, leading a proactive approach to managing negative feedback from unhappy patients must maintain your credibility. Here are some actionable steps for managing your online reputation:
Creating a sound and effective marketing plan for an acupuncture business requires a lot of work indeed! The entire process could take up a considerable chunk of your time and resources.
Thankfully, you don’t need to go through this journey alone. Instead of worrying about the technicalities of marketing your acupuncture business, you can focus on what you do best – providing relief, hope, and reassurance to your patients.
At Hope and Healing Solutions we are focused on helping holistic businesses throughout the world. We focus on helping you reach more people, especially those who are in dire need of your services.
By analyzing market data, checking out your industry competitors, and understanding the essential goals and KPIs you have for your practice, we can create and implement a customized acupuncture marketing approach.
Want to start amplifying your reach today? Get in touch with our team, and let’s begin planning the best approach in marketing your acupuncture business.
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right="" type="legacy"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="true" min_height="" hover_type="none" link="" border_sizes_top="" border_sizes_bottom="" border_sizes_left="" border_sizes_right="" first="true"][fusion_text]The world has been thrust into a very difficult place. Now more than ever, so many people are in need of hope and healing. These people are sick and suffering with conditions like vertigo, migraines, hormonal issues and more. And they have no idea that you exist...or that you can help! Helping sick and suffering people find hope and healing is what we do all day. every day and we've learned the most effective ways. So, here are the BEST ways to reach the right people who need you:
You can have the most wonderful website and online content, but if no one sees these things, they're useless. You're a health and wellness expert who positively changes lives, but do the people who need you even know you exist? Search Engine Optimization helps your website and your info get seen by the people searching for specific help. First, it's important to identify the most impactful keywords that will help you get on the map (literally).
The next step is to work on your on-site and off-site SEO so your site is seen by search engines as having authority in these areas. This way, there is a "bridge" that connects people who are sick and suffering to you and your practice. The end result is more traffic to your website and more new patients coming into your office.
Most of the time, people will check your online reputation before they even set foot in your office. They're looking for social proof: "Can I trust them? Are people like me getting the help they need?" When they get a resounding answer of "YES" to these questions, they are far more likely to take action and make an appointment. Conversely, if you have weak or poor reviews, this can actually push potential patients away.
By the way, your online reputation isn't just impacting your organic reach, but also your referral conversion too! It very well could be that you don't have MORE referrals because your social proof is a disconnect for the potential patient when they look you up online. Online reputation has been consistently one of the best ways to reach the right people who need you.
Another way to capture and provide social proof to prospective patients is through video testimonials. I know, it can be a pain to get patients to commit to recording one and take the time to set up and record. However, there is great power in the story of a changed life! Think about it...let's say there's someone struggling with hormone imbalance or migraines and you see a video of someone explaining how your expert service helped. This will resonate 5 times better than you merely explaining your process or technique.
Also, video testimonials can be shared to your social media platforms or inserted into email campaigns. Quite the useful tool. Even if you could record 1-2 video testimonials a month, within just a few months you'll have a video library of changed lives!
When it comes to the best ways to reach the right people who need you, your website is basically the hub for everything online. A custom health and wellness website that clearly shows who you are, what you do, and how to get help is a major step to convert website traffic into new patients. You have the freedom to pick and choose the message and content so people that find you online can connect with your message and take action.
The last thing you want is for a cheap looking or unsecured website turn potential patients away. Trust me, it happens all the time. People don't like feeling confused or feeling like your services are cheap because of how your website is (or isn't) set up.
Facebook ads continue to be one of the best ways to reach the right people who need you. With Facebook ads, you're able to get your content to be in front of your target market with a call-to-action that leads them to connect with you and your office. A good Facebook strategy with produce dozens of leads a month, giving you a system that produces consistent new patients and clients. Powerful. Another related point is that with your ads you can start capturing names and emails so you can follow up with the leads with email campaigns and direct contact.
There are people in your area who need your help, but have no idea that you exist. You have the solutions to their problems but they don't know you can help! Building bridges that connect these people to you is crucial when you truly want to reach your community with the life-changing services you offer. If you'd like help in doing this, find out how. Give us a call or click here to book a time to chat.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Blogging is STILL an important part of online marketing. 7 years ago when I started this digital marketing agency I was talking about the importance of blogging and that is still the case. In fact, based on recent research, 68% of marketers find blogging more effective than they did 2 years ago. However, as with all aspects of digital marketing, blogging has changed over the years so here is the most up-to-date information for 2020.
Blog posts help to improve your website, your search results, give you content for your social media posts, newsletters, and more. Creating original content for your website is a crucial part of what we do at Hope and Healing Solutions and what you should be doing if you are a do-it-yourselfer.
The first step in a successful health and wellness online marketing campaign is choosing your strategy and keywords. Next, you need to choose what to write a blog post about. But after you write a blog post the next step is to optimize it for Google and other search engines. You want to primarily write for people, not search engines but you also want to make it as easy as possible for Google to find the blog without keyword stuffing or other black hat search engine optimization tactics.
So here’s a checklist to follow for health and wellness blogs:
There are many other steps you can take in writing blog posts but these steps are the most important.
Quarterly contests can be an effective way to consistently improve your health and wellness marketing strategy for your business.
The goal of a quarterly contest is to provide a fun way to engage your customers and team around the acquisition of key pieces of social proof.
As I said in a previous blog post, social proof is the psychology that says if somebody else is using a product or service and getting results I will get results also.
There are several types of social proof that are crucial for a health and wellness business they include:
This type of social proof will dramatically improve the amount of business you receive online but will also improve your conversion of referrals.
When someone is considering your business because a friend or family member has recommended you one of the first things they do in today’s digital world is Google you (or look you up on Amazon if you have a physical product). This is when your online reputation becomes crucial. If you have positive social proof it is going to dramatically increase the likelihood of converting that referral to a paying customer.
So a quarterly contest is a great way to both increase your clients or customers now and later by increasing your social proof.
Here’s how to do it.
The first step is to make up your mind to do it and discuss it with your team in order to get them excited about how much fun it’s going to be.
The energy that you and your team bring to this contest will determine whether or not it is successful.
You want to have several weeks to brainstorm and plan for the launch of the contest.
Some of the specific aspects of the contest to brainstorm with your team include:
One of the really fun parts of doing a quarterly contest is having a grand prize or a grand prize and several other smaller prizes for the winners of the contest. If your contest has a theme you can try to unite your prizes with your theme or you can just give away some big-ticket items that you believe your clients or customers would be excited to win.
Here are some ideas:
Whether you choose just one grand prize or a grand prize with a few smaller prizes the key is choosing prizes that your patients would be excited about and you and your team will know that better than anyone else.
Along with raffle prizes you may also want to have some giveaways along the way during the contest. These can help keep people engaged for the full three months you are running the contest. This could be a weekly giveaway for a free massage or free appointment or bottle of supplements or whatever. The key again is to give something that is exciting to your clients or customers. You would frequently give this to the client or customer who accumulated the most raffle tickets or entries that week.
A raffle is usually the best format for this type of quarterly contest. In order to do the raffle you just need some raffle tickets and a large glass container to keep the raffle tickets in at your front desk in order to continue to remind people about the quarterly contest. You also will want to display your prizes in a prominent location in your office to keep the buzz going. You should assign a different amount of raffle tickets to different activities that patients would do during the quarter.
For instance:
If you do not have a physical location and you can do a similar type of raffle using a digital format to accumulate entries into the contest.
To promote this event internally you will want to create some key pieces of promotional material including:
You want to make sure that everyone involved with your business knows that this contest is happening. So you and your team should be talking consistently about the contest with every client or customer on every visit to your physical location or website.
You should also have posters, counter signs, and flyers around the business talking about the contest and the ways to accumulate entries. You can also send out a mailing to your patients with a postcard describing the contest.
Although this is primarily an internal promotional event you can certainly promote it externally as well including putting up posters on local bulletin boards or talking about this during community events you are doing including talks, screenings etc.
Digital promotion can be very effective for a quarterly contest. You want to focus your emails on prizes. Giveaway prizes, grand prizes, etc. You can send out a series of email blasts about once every other week for the first six weeks and then once a week for the second five weeks and then three email blasts in the last week to get as many entries as possible and during that last week before the big grand prize is given away. You would want to do a similar type of posting schedule to Facebook utilizing a flyer type picture that you can consistently post promoting the event on Facebook and other social networks such as Instagram, Pinterest etc.
If you do a consistent monthly email newsletter as we recommend you would also want to promote the contest within your newsletter every month during the quarter.
Some health and wellness businesses like to have a theme for each quarter and have their contest correspond with their theme.
For instance, some themes that I know have then done successfully include:
If you choose to do a theme then you can have all of your giveaways and prizes focused around that particular theme and you can also have events that are scheduled throughout the quarter related to that theme including in-office classes, walks, or other applicable events related to specific conditions such as having your team and patients participate in a Memory Walk for Alzheimer’s, etc.
The last and most important aspect of doing a fantastic quarterly contest is to have different members of your team take ownership of different aspects of the contest. Once you have brainstormed and laid out a plan for the contest each member of your team should have different responsibilities in order to execute the plan.
Some offices will do quarterly contests every quarter. Others will only do this once a year. But if you have never done a quarterly contest I highly recommend you plan and execute one to see how your business responds as it may be a game-changer for you when it comes to increasing your referrals and social proof which will have an impact on your business for years to come.
Whether you are an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a naturopath, a functional medicine doctor, or another health and wellness specialist you need a stellar online reputation.
Online reputation is improved through the power of social proof. Social proof is the psychology that says if somebody else is using a product or service and getting results I will get results also.
We see social proof all around us all the time. Every time that you have ever read an online review, heard a friend tell you about their experience with a product or service, or watched a video testimony social proof was at work.
It’s extremely effective and important for your health and wellness business.
As a health and wellness specialist, you offer a unique service to your community that helps many people that no one else can help. You have done hundreds of hours of postgraduate work to achieve a level of excellence that few if any do in your community.
But does your reputation online reflect the top professional that you are?
When a friend or family member tells someone to check you out and they Google your name do they see evidence of the standard of excellence you have in your office?
Having a positive online reputation that utilizes several social proof factors is extremely important in developing trust, credibility, and likability.
Here are a few examples of health and wellness businesses that are building a great online reputation and examples of those that are not.
Below is a client of ours who has made a commitment to her online reputation and when someone googles her name or her practice name you can see that they see an abundance of evidence that her practice is doing excellent work.
Her office has 140 reviews on Google. 39 reviews on Facebook and 9 reviews on yelp. You can also see based on the top listing that testimonials received on her website are prominently displayed in the search results.
This abundance of reviews is crucial for developing trust, credibility, and likability online.
Here is another professional who also is likely doing excellent work in their community but when you Google their name or their practice name you see this:
No reviews on their website, Google, etc. Their Google local listing is not optimized and does not even contain their business hours or website.
If someone was to find out about this Doctor from a friend or family member and Google her what they find is not going to increase their trust, credibility, and likability but instead, do exactly the opposite.
Facebook is another place where you have an opportunity to build a tremendous amount of trust, credibility, and likability. Positive social proof factors include videos, reviews, and whiteboard pictures.
Here are a few examples.
Doctor videos and video testimonials are tremendous ways to improve your online reputation. Here are some examples of of our clients Facebook video pages. You can see some of these videos have over 17,000 views. What a tremendous way to build trust, credibility, and likability.
Another great way to build social proof is by taking whiteboard success story pictures. Simply purchase a whiteboard and use it to write down client experiences and take a picture of them.
Here’s an example of one of our clients who has been utilizing this strategy effectively.
Another effective way to utilize Facebook is by building up your reviews and recommendations like this client of ours:
If you are not consistently investing in your online reputation than you are way behind the rest of the world. People are looking for social proof to make their decisions. This includes online reviews, video testimonials, and other ways to build trust, credibility, and likability.
If you would like to talk more about improving your online reputation give us a call at 1-800-217-0584.
You have unique and specialized ways to bring true health and wellness to those in your care. And getting results is key. Why would your marketing be any different? Knowing the answers to the top health and wellness marketing questions will help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Here are some answers to the most commonly asked questions:
We live in a day and age when the majority of people are actively online, including your ideal patient. Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, etc are all open doors to reach people who need your help. Basically, if your potential patients are online, you should be too.
Most people are going to check out your website prior to coming in to see you. Even those referred to your practice. Because of this, it's important to have a great looking website that represents you well. Also,from our research, about 70 percent of the health and wellness websites currently online are in need of revamping! A well-designed and engaging website that is specific to your niche will instantly differentiate you from the competition. Why not take advantage of that kind of opportunity?
When selecting someone for their physical health, most people will Google the office or practitioner's online reviews. If there are a low number of reviews (fewer than 20) or a low score (less than 4.5) the chances of them coming in to see you is substantially less. This is because your online reputation (i.e. Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc) actually goes beyond people's opinions.
Online reputation is a reflection of the trust and authority you have in the community.
More people look at Google reviews today than ever before! Also, did you know that your reviews will effect your SEO rankings as well? It's true, if you have a substantial and growing amount of 5 Star Google reviews your website will have a higher ranking for Google search results. So, online reputation is great to capture stories, build trust and authority, as well as help your SEO.
Any good marketing plan should be designed to fit YOU. First, define your goals. Second, define your budget. Third, identify your resources (you and your team). Lastly, determine if you should collaborate to come up with a plan or outsource some of your marketing. All that to say, the best marketing for you is the one that is congruent with who you are and what you do AND helps to hit your goals within your budget. If you'd like some assistance in designing your marketing plan, click here for a free resource.
Almost everyone would rather watch a short video than read an article. There's something about a video play button that makes people want to click on it. Given this dynamic, you're missing out if you don't have video on your website and social media. Also, since Google owns YouTube and most people use Google to search online, creating engaging and optimized videos will help your Google search rankings.
We recommend recording at least 2-3 videos/month. Don't feel like it has to be a super-professional production. You can use your smart phone, tripod, and a lapel mic for a short 90-120 second video. Keep it simple. Don't worry, you'll get more comfortable as time goes on. Also, consider delegating the video creation to someone on your team who may be better on camera. They may even be excited to do it!
No one wants to wait on results...just like your patients. Understandably, you want marketing results sooner than later. However, there are a number of variables that effect how long marketing takes to get you the sought after results. The key factors are: your marketing plan, your market, and your efforts.
A comprehensive health and wellness marketing plan that is designed specifically for you is a huge first step. Also, if your market is saturated it will take longer to get momentum versus a less competitive market. Lastly, your efforts are key. Remember the 3 C's: Commitment, Consistency, and Content (video and written). Based on these things, you'll see slower or faster results. Evert great marketing strategy will take you steps in the right direction.
For many health and wellness practices, budget can be tight so keeping overhead low is important. That being said, any marketing you do should have a solid ROI and more than pay for itself. Heck, even if your marketing efforts bring in a 2 to 1 return on investment, it's at least a win.
We recommend calculating your expected ROI as well as your breakeven point (how many new patients need to come in per month to pay for the marketing plan). Sure, some marketing can be a flop. However, a well-designed marketing plan that is congruent with who you are and what you do will take consistent steps in the right direction...bringing you the wins you're looking for.
Given all of the health and wellness marketing questions we've covered, maybe utilizing a marketing company would benefit you. You may not have the time, energy, or expertise that a professional marketing company possesses. At some point, allowing yourself to be able to focus on your patients is important for the growth of your business. We at Hope & Healing Solutions can help. If you would like to have a short conversation to see if there are any areas that make sense to explore further, give us a ring (800) 217-0584 or click here to set up a time. We're here to serve!
If you are a health and wellness practice such as a naturopath, acupuncturist, massage therapist, functional medicine doctor, chiropractor, homeopath, or another health professional you must have a marketing plan to be successful. The most successful health and wellness practices will combine 3 types of marketing in their plan:
These 3 types of marketing, when done effectively, will feed into each other and will give you a steady stream of high-quality new patients coming into your office throughout the year.
Overall, this type of marketing strategy will also help you retain the patients you have and reactivate inactive patients.
Online marketing when done effectively is both an internal marketing approach and an external marketing approach.
Implementing a comprehensive (and integrated) online marketing program can be very complicated and very time-consuming for you or your staff. For the cost of a part-time team member, we can help you implement a comprehensive and integrated online marketing program. To have a quick chat about your practice give us a call at 800-217-0584.
Once you have your online marketing figured out, next you'll want to brainstorm 2 internal events and 2 external events that you will be doing each month. Don't worry, they don't have to be these huge things that create a burden. Now let’s start with some internal events.
Internal marketing should all be focused on patient education and internal events in some way, shape, or form.
Patient education is the number one way that health professionals have been effectively generating new patients internally according to our practice surveys.
Regardless of your specialty, you'll want to make sure that you have an ongoing patient education process for your practice. Along with patient education, internal events are very important. One of our favorite internal events is a quarterly contest.
The first step is to make up your mind to do it and discuss it with your team in order to get them excited about how much fun it’s going to be.
The energy that you and your team bring to this contest will determine whether or not it is successful.
You want to have several weeks to brainstorm and plan for the launch of the contest.
Some of the specific aspects of the contest to brainstorm with your team include:
One of the really fun parts of doing a quarterly contest is having a grand prize or a grand prize and several other smaller prizes for the winners of the contest. If your contest has a theme you can try to unite your prizes with your theme or you can just give away some big-ticket items that you believe your patients would be excited to win.
Here are some ideas:
Whether you choose just one grand prize or a grand prize with a few smaller prizes the key is choosing prizes that your patients would be excited about and you and your team will know that better than anyone else.
Along with raffle prizes you may also want to have some giveaways along the way during the contest. These can help keep people engaged for the full three months you are running the contest. This could be a weekly giveaway for a free massage or free adjustments or a bottle of supplements or whatever. The key again is to give something that is exciting to your patients and fun. You would frequently give this to the patient who accumulated the most raffle tickets that week.
A raffle is usually the best format for this type of quarterly contest. In order to do the raffle you just need some raffle tickets and a large glass container to keep the raffle tickets in at your front desk in order to continue to remind people about the quarterly contest. You also will want to display your prizes in a prominent location in your office to keep the buzz going. You should assign a different amount of raffle tickets to different activities that patients would do during the quarter.
For instance:
To promote this event internally you will want to create some key pieces of promotional material including:
You want to make sure that everyone in your practice knows that this contest is happening. So you and your team should be talking consistently about the contest with every patient on every visit.
You should also have posters, counter and table signs and flyers around the practice talking about the contest and the ways to accumulate raffle tickets. You can also send out a mailing to your patients with a postcard describing the contest.
Although this is primarily an internal promotional event you can certainly promote it externally as well including putting up posters on local bulletin boards or talking about this during community events you are doing including talks, screenings, etc.
Digital promotion can be very effective for a quarterly contest. You can send out a series of email blasts about once every other week for the first six weeks and then once a week for the second five weeks and then three email blasts in the last week to get as many raffle tickets as possible and during that last week before the big grand prize is given away. You would want to do a similar type of posting schedule to Facebook utilizing a flyer type picture that you can consistently post promoting the event on Facebook and other social networks such as Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
If you do a consistent monthly email newsletter as we recommend you would also want to promote the contest within your newsletter every month during the quarter.
Some doctors like to have a theme for each quarter and have their contest correspond with their theme.
For instance, some themes that I know doctors have done successfully include:
If you choose to do a theme then you can have all of your giveaways and prizes focused around that particular theme and you can also have events that are scheduled throughout the quarter related to that theme. This can include in-office classes, walks, or other events related to specific conditions such as having your team and patients participate in a Memory Walk for Alzheimer’s, etc.
The last and most important aspect of doing a fantastic quarterly contest is to have different members of your team take ownership of different aspects of the contest. Once you have brainstormed and laid out a plan for the contest each member of your team should have different responsibilities in order to execute the plan.
Some offices will do quarterly contests every quarter. Others will only do this once a year. But if you have never done a quarterly contest I highly recommend you plan and execute one to see how your practice responds as it may be a game-changer for you and your practice when it comes to increasing your referrals and social proof which will have an impact on your practice for years to come.
Next, you'll want to decide what 2 external marketing outreach initiatives you will be implementing. One of the best external marketing outreaches I’ve seen over the past several years is what’s called the Ladies Night of Indulgence.
This outreach program is very effective at attracting more women into your practice. Women are the primary health care decision-makers for their families and it’s very important that you attract women into your practice consistently.
To learn how this program can work and see all the personalized items included, grab our Ladies Night of Indulgence execution plan.
If you decide to implement this external marketing outreach make sure you are thoroughly promoting this through your online marketing and email and social media formats along with your internal promotion. Failure to promote effectively could result in lesser results.
Another great external marketing outreach initiative to start is generating professional referrals from other health practitioners.
First, you should know we have a ton of great information about generating professional referrals on our upper cervical chiropractic blog and podcast.
Here are a couple of key resources:
Combining digital marketing, internal events and education, and external outreach is a powerful way to build a practice that can sustain challenges and thrive!
