What’s the best way to generate 30 new patients per month?
Tap into the law of averages.
I have developed quite a few ways to generate significant patient flow using high probability methods. In this article, I’m going to discuss one highly successful and proven ways to generate serious patient flow that has stood the test of time but could be considered by some to be outside the box in approach.
What am I talking about?
Running a Chiropractic Infomercial!
This method is rarely used by doctors because it is a new idea for them. It also requires you to break through some comfort zones. But this method has proven very successful and effective.
“You’ve got to be kidding. An infomercial to get patients?”
Now hold on. Before you call me crazy give me the gift of an open mind here. You see for some reason a doctor is more likely to spend a few thousand dollars running a bunch of 30 second TV commercials then they are to run a 30 minute TV-show style practice infomercial that could generate substantially more patients for about the same cost.
Why is that? It is because the TV infomercial has gotten a bad rap. The Practice Infomercial is one of the most reliable and inexpensive forms of mass marketing that exists for you. Inexpensive in terms of bang for the buck.
I know what you’re thinking.
I can’t see myself running a television infomercial. Aren’t those things for selling knives?
Let’s set those misconceptions aside.
The reason the Chiropractic Infomercial works so well is for the same reason that giving community lectures works.
Imagine if you could package your proven lecture and instead of presenting it for 20 people at the rotary club, you could present it for thousands of people at once.
That’s what a chiropractic infomercial really is.
Imagine the impact of 5,000 people hearing all about how you can help them?
We could both agree that the law of averages would insure us a certain percentage of patients.
The power of the Chiropractic Infomercial is you get to give a complete educational lecture to thousands of people for less than it costs for billboard advertising. If you dare to give this a try, I can assure you that your odds of success are high and you will become a mini-celebrity amongst your patients and in your town.
The value of a strong questionnaire design when complemented by the task of high quality sample development is not fully appreciated. Often these two essential building blocks of market research are relegated to the back of the line on research projects.
Research Axiom One: You can never fully recover from a poorly written questionnaire.
• No manipulation of the variables, regardless of how cleverly done
• No amount of analysis, regardless of how brilliant
• No degree of insightful interpretation, regardless of intellectual prowess
Nothing can save you from a poor research foundation. The building will collapse like a house of cards!
If there is one part of the research process that I know, it is questionnaire design. It is a task repeatedly given insufficient time and attention. Clients and research professional alike often underestimate the time it will take to develop a truly well structured and concise instrument.
What amazes me most? Project leaders relegate this task to a status depicted by the attitude of: “Once the questionnaire is done we can get on with the important stuff, like analysis and reporting.” The assumption that analysis work is the essence of the research and the expectation that interpreting the results is where the mastery of research ultimately lies is a mystery to me.
Have we not pounded the concept of garbage-in garbage-out into our heads? Can new internet tools substitute for critical thinking and the hard work of aligning the research instrument to the purpose of the study to answer the business questions that sponsors paid to learn?
If this seems like a bit of a rant, well I guess I am guilty. My own research-on-research including the use of a 25-point questionnaire audit system has shown me that even well healed researchers are less diligent about quality than one would hope. Research is not only science it is a craft [perhaps an art] and if the proper fundamentals are not applied the product is less than artful.
I will end this part of my ranting with an analogy [but don't be surprised to hear more on this topic]. If you have not studied and then practiced writing poetry, would you expect to publish a book of poems simply because your marketing department asked you to? Designing a good quality research instrument probably takes less talent than being a good poet, but it’s close.
Wait, not so fast, we are not done, there is another mistake from which you cannot fully recover. A poor questionnaire design is one possible fatal mistake, but not the only one. Good solid sample development is also necessary. Here is another Research Axiom worth your consideration.
Research Axiom Two: You can never fully recover from a sample that lacks validity; and once again:
• No manipulation of the variables, regardless of how cleverly done
• No amount of analysis, regardless of how brilliant
• No degree of insightful interpretation, regardless of intellectual prowess
Nothing can save you from a poorly developed sample!
The value of sample development is also underappreciated, as are the skills related to creating a valid sample. Project managers, research analysts, and all those who lose sleep over the quality of the sample sources they have available and who work hard to provide the best possible sample for each research project they conduct, are worth their weight in gold.
With numerous challenges to good sample development always hovering over us, if the research team conducting the study does not pay close attention to this critically important task the chances of deriving useful results are likely to diminish rapidly. One of the worst situations to be in, is standing in front of a room full of executives and presenting the research implications when from off in the far corner an executive vice president (EVP) asks you, “Are you sure about that finding? Who were these respondents? They don’t appear to have any knowledge about the market or our products.”
If you can definitively reply, “We believe the respondents in this sample are qualified” and then give a crisp response about the quality control (QC) steps used to verify the validity of the sample, you have saved the day. If on the other hand, you hesitate and cannot defend the validity of the sample, you have lost your audience – there is nothing more they want to hear from you because in their minds the voice of the respondents do not reflect the people they are trying to reach – the day ends badly.
If you do not care about the quality of the research you conduct, well shame on you, but at least recognize that a sample of good quality is a necessity for self-preservation – enough said.
Strategy – and marketing strategy in particular – is one of the most overused phrases in business. But when crafted correctly, your marketing strategy provides powerful direction to your business. For small businesses in particular, a well defined marketing strategy can be the difference between increased profitability and overspending.
When defining your marketing strategy, it is important to be clear on some key points:
1) Your marketing strategy is NOT your business strategy. No matter how big or small your business, you should have strategies (HOW you are going to achieve your overall business objectives) that relate to finance, operations, legal, sales, etc – not just marketing.
2) Everything you do isn’t marketing. This is a common mistake that many small businesses make. Your marketing strategy specifically defines how you are going to spend your time/resources to differentiate your company and products from the competition. Each strategy should be actionable (via various tactics), measurable, and designed to reach your overall business goals. Make sure that your marketing plan is robust, but remember that you need to have time/resources to allocate outside of your marketing plan.
3) Marketing is not sales. I have written an entire article on The Difference Between Sales and Marketing. But as a reminder here – specifically for small businesses – there are many tactical things that you can and should do to close a sale. Let’s face it – if you only spend your time doing brand building instead of selling, you won’t be around for long enough for anyone to care about the brand. But ensure that your marketing takes a longer term view, focusing on building sustainable competitive advantages in addition to short term financial goals.
4) Keep your marketing strategy high-level enough to vary your tactics. For example, one element of your strategy might be to leverage PR to build awareness. That high-level strategy gives you all the guidance you need to then build a workplan of tactics and evaluate the individual tactics without changing your strategy.
5) Most importantly, your marketing strategy not only tells you what you are going to do – it also tells you what you are not going to do. This is one of the most common mistakes that small businesses and entrepreneurs make. They establish their marketing strategy, and yet when a new opportunity comes along that isn’t part of that strategy, they pursue it anyway. And maybe, that is the right decision. But if so, make sure to go back and change your strategy. Because the purpose of your marketing strategy is to decide HOW you are going to spend your time/resources. When it is complete, you should feel confident that you have the time and money to execute that plan. If you pursue each new “shiny object” that isn’t part of your marketing strategy – you will quickly get stretched too thin, likely overspending and reducing your profitability even while possibly increasing your top line sales.
Clear strategy – both overall business strategy and marketing strategy – are critical underpinnings to a successful business of any size. For small businesses, remembering what to include in each, and using them to manage your time and resources, can give you the edge you need to be more competitive and beat the odds.
The UK is in one of the longest recessions in history with 6% of economic output lost. Despite quantitative easing banks still are not lending to smaller businesses. An estimate of nearly 30,000 businesses closed in 2009 and we are still not out of the woods yet. As a business, if you have made it this far, that is great news. You may have seen some of your competitors fail, lessening the competition in the market. This means even though the market share may be less, you have a bigger slice of it. In the end it will be the strong companies that will survive. The ones that are easy to adapt to a crisis and probably will be strong for years to come.
Despite the continued economic conditions it is still essential to market your company effectively. A company without effective marketing will not continue to thrive. You may need to lessen the budget and keep the areas that are the most effective. Cutting the budget altogether may be a big mistake. A company that is not actively getting new business will not grow. As existing customers drop off, your client base will diminish, meaning that to stop marketing all together could be a fatal mistake.
This means the marketing that you do needs to have more punch. Successful marketing needs to be targeted; making sure all you budget is spent in the right market. It needs to be long lasting; so the budget is not all spent in a 30 second radio commercial. It should engage your target audience so they notice your brand and know how to contact you. Lastly it needs to have an impact on your target audience; you need to give them a reason why they should come to you and not to one of your competitors.
This may sound like a tall order from any marketing strategy but I am about to reveal the one method that contains all of these aspects. This method is adopted by almost all the most successful companies in the world and now the internet has become so widely used this method is now even easier to deploy for your company. The answer lies in promotional merchandise.
Promotional merchandise is when a product branded with your logo and possibly company details is given to your target audience. You can choose from 1000’s of different products that may reflect your company or the audience. This is much more effective that any other form of advertising as everybody loves a freebie. You can choose exactly who you want to give the items to and these products are taken in to the home or office of those very people. Promotional merchandise does not have to be expensive. There are products on the market from 8p. I know of no other advertising method that starts from this value.
You can also use this method to reward your existing clients in the form of corporate gifts. This not only does this reinforce your brand, keeping it at the forefront of your clients mind but it can work in being rewarded with loyalty and an enticement to buy more of your companies services.
