Hidden secrets on market share.

What’s wrong with this picture?

1. Chiropractic health care is the answer to our health care crisis.

2. Chiropractic is the answer that goes to the root of the problem of disease and illness.

3. Chiropractic is safe, non-invasive, and costs less than any other alternative.

Yet, Chiropractic health care commands only 10% of the market share. Do you ever ask yourself why you are not reaching that 90%? It is the unending frustration that Chiropractors everywhere are dealing with. “I put money into marketing. . .and nothing is working.” Well there is a good reason that you are having a hard time with marketing. Marketing is a tough game of precision. Just like chiropractic, it is a balancing act between art and science. Similar to the fact that anyone can make bones move, (a car accident can move bones) it takes a chiropractor to finesse them in just the right position for a patient to achieve optimal health. The same goes for professional marketing, it is the ability to finesse not just make motion.

Of all the materials and strategies I see out there, there aren’t many options for chiropractors that employ solid marketing principles, which have mainstreamed other health care disciplines. In fact they do the opposite. . .they drive people away. They violate the basic knowledge of human communication, and some are just out right lies from unscrupulous individuals just wanting to pad their bottom line at your expense.

How to Reach the 90% Step one- So the first step is to get a good solid message. Ask yourself, “What are people buying?” And build all your materials around the message. It is not a good idea to piece-meal your marketing materials. They should all work together. For example, at Educate for Health, we choose one topic for the month and build all the materials around that message. So that the core message gets enough frequency in a variety of materials to stick in the minds of people. We start with in-office graphics.

Message - Talk to the market in terms that they use to frame their worldview. People only care about themselves and what you can do for them. Putting someone on a table showing an adjustment is the antithesis of effective selling. If they are a chiropractic patient this image is tolerably acceptable. If they are a newcomer to chiropractic, they have just had a picture of a 1600 century torture table indelibly burned into their minds. It communicates a loss of control. Not an effective message for reaching the 90%.

Keep the message patient-centered - The “Make the Doctor a Star” theory is something that makes the doctor feel good, however, it doesn’t do much for anyone else. Let me qualify this statement. It has a potential to work if you put a price point in there which has the dangerous side effect of turning you into a commodity. I’m not saying leave yourself totally out of ads. But definitely make that the secondary focus not the main event. Service marketing is all about relationships, but the time to cement that doctor patient relationship is the next step after getting them in the door. Speak to the patient’s needs and you always have universal appeal.

Article Copyright 2007 Educate for Health, LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.

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