Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes
- New chiropractic competition.
- Ineffective management.
- Bad marketing.
- Weak economy.
All common reasons given for why many chiropractors have slid from prosperity to struggle over the last 36 months.
And, in many cases, there’s validity to each one.
However, none are the number one cause of why many, once thriving chiropractors, have been experiencing a steady decline in their monthly cash flow.
Jason Marrs, recognized expert in the area of pricing strategy, agrees.
“The number one cause of a business’s slide from success to failure to extinction over time is erosion of profit margin thanks to failed price strategy – not the advent of new competition, inability to get capital, or other reasons popularly believed in or offered as excuses.”
Did you get that?
“…erosion of profit margin thanks to failed price strategy…”
At this point, there’s no doubt, some chiropractors will tune out, thinking ‘erosion of profit margin’ and ‘failed price strategy’ are ideas that don’t apply to the DC.
Wrong. On both counts.
We can simply look at the cost of acquiring a new patient and the lifetime value of a patient to see profit margin in action in the chiropractic practice.
The greater the difference in lifetime value and acquisition costs, the greater the gross profit per patient.
In this example, alone, erosion in profit margin can occur for a number of reasons.
For one, as the price of media increases (i.e. postal rates, advertising fees, etc.) and the cost of acquiring a new patient goes up accordingly, you’re at risk of seeing an erosion in profit margin.
I say, “at risk of seeing an erosion”, because whether you do or do not depends on your ‘pricing strategy’.
A failed ‘pricing strategy’ is one that allows for erosion of profit in your practice.
A successful ‘pricing strategy’ is one that does not allow for erosion of profit.
Again, if the cost of media has increased (which it has) and the cost of acquiring a new patient has increased (which, for most, it has) how can you expect to see the same level of profit (and take-home pay) if you leave your pricing strategy the same?
You can’t.
[Side-note: this is why you should never look at your fees/pricing as static. But, instead should look at your overall pricing strategy as dynamic - evolving over time.]
This is how our most successful Millionaire Chiropractic Club Doctors look at their fees, pricing, etc.
And, if you believe in modeling success – as I do – it’s how you should also be looking at yours.
I have currently had a competitors internet marketing for about 6 months. I have gotten 2 emails from one established medicare patient. Pretty sad, that has cost me $1800 so far. My question for you- Surely by now and with your experience in the field of chiropractic marketing- you can tell me if internet marketing is worth the effort in a population of 8k in rural America. Do you have any docs that are in rural America knocking the bottom out of it with your program? If so I would appreciate hearing there responses. If not, well that will confirm my suspicions.
thanks
Dr. Joe,
I’m sure Todd will weigh in on this, but I have a fair amount of positive experience with internet marketing and I wanted to add my two cents. To begin with, there are numerous strategies that can be considered a part of the broad category of “internet marketing”, and not every strategy is suitable for every situation.
For example, in a rural area, there simply is not the search volume for search engine optimization of your practice website to generate a lot of new business. Free marketing strategies like Google Places may help a little (and free advertising is never a bad thing), but again, the search volume in a rural area is not likely to be sufficient to really “blow the doors off”. Basically, any strategy that requires a reasonably high volume of users to see your online content is not going to produce results that are all that exciting. I say use the free stuff and enjoy the small vistories you get from those, but stop spending money on anything that requires high volume to get results.
In situations like yours, I think you’d get the best results by using email and text messaging to increase visits from existing patients as well as help stimulate referrals. Specifically, a personally-written email newsletter that talks about your town, your patients, helpful health tips, etc., is likely to be read (unlike a “canned newsletter” you just insert your practice information on) and helps keep you at the top of your existing patients’ minds and make them more likely to come in more often and refer others. Make sure to include a call to action of some kind in each email for best results.
You can even get started with email marketing for free – icontact.com has a free account for up to 500 contacts (once you go over 500 people on your email list, they begin charging you to maintain the account, but their prices are pretty reasonable). Once you build up your email list, the main thing is to be consistent with communicating with your list (at least once per month, and if you have something interesting for them, don’t hesitate to email them more often).
Another strategy is to use text messaging for appointment reminders – they are faster and easier than phone calls, and can be timed to the minute, plus texts are typically read within an hour of being sent (unlike email or voicemail which may go unopened for days). Fewer missed appointments and last-minute cancellations means more business.
Anyway, I hope these suggestions help you, but in any event I recommend you stop spending money on search engine based marketing because the search volume is too low to pay off.
Good luck!
(Fantastic response and insights, Dr. George.)
Regarding your question, Dr. Joe:
It’s never a question of whether a chiropractor should or should not leverage the internet. It’s a question of how best to strategically use the internet for your situation.
While I agree with much of what Dr. George shared in his response, let me clarify a couple of points.
First, just because a tactic or strategy (i.e. Google Places) won’t be a home run for you, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. More often than not, the home runs won’t happen. Instead, the many base hit tactics, combined, will add up to a significant amount.
Second, regarding doing SEO for a chiropractic website servicing a small, rural community… it should absolutely be done. Because, odds are, there will be very little competition in the search engines. Allowing you to quickly, easily, and at virtual zero expense, grab many of the top spots on Google. Again, think – ‘many base hit tactics’.
Lastly, there are certain staple assets every chiropractor, regardless of geography, should have:
Direct response website
Condition-specific lead generation pages
Targeted email follow-up systems
Facebook Page
These are bare minimum today for a chiropractor.