When it comes to marketing, you never want to rely on just one fishing pole in the water.
For example, I’ve seen chiropractors who had nothing but personal injury patients. And when the personal injury laws changed in their state, they just had nothing.
To be insulated from any change in your marketing environment, you need to have multiple poles in the water.
So let’s cover five of the more common sources of new patients. If you harness these, they will create a flood of new business consistently.
Source #1: Your Current Clients
This first source includes your inactive and past clients as well. The hardest part of implementing this source is simply being creative enough with your offering. I’ve seen this done in a number of different ways.
One example is to put on a Patient Appreciation Day (PAD). I’ve seen this done in different healthcare professions. Unfortunately, it’s usually executed poorly and with little energy.
You should remember that your client base is a gold mine. So be sure to put a lot of energy into this event.
This should be done as a quarterly, bi-annual, or annual event. To make it festive, decorate the office with a theme that will add to the atmosphere and increase client participation—think Luau Lifesavers or Fall into Health.
Or you can call it an Ambassador Program. Basically, you’re inviting your clients to refer their (1) friends, (2) family, (3) coworkers, and (4) neighbors.
For two days your current clientele will be able to bring in their friends for an introductory offer or a sampler of your services.
For example, the sampler may be a checkup or even a gentle thoracic treatment. Something that showcases your finesse and skill but not necessarily a full service.
Overall, this is a hands-on and face-to-face referral campaign.
That’s New Client Source #1 because it’s one of the best sources. PADs usually have the highest show percentage and the highest start and purchase percentages.
And the people that come in will turn out to be some of your best clients and be the most likely clients to refer even more people to your services in the future.
Speak to a Growth Consultant Today!
Source #2: Promotional Programs
New Client Source #2 is doing promotional programs with other groups. These promotional programs rank super-high because you control them, and they can provide you with a lot of new traffic.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say a local high school’s girl volleyball team needs to raise funds to go to volleyball camp.
So you put together a gift certificate for an introductory service at your office that they will be able to sell to raise their funds. The amazing thing about this, and the thing that will inspire the team, is that they will get to keep 100% of the proceeds!
That’s a huge win for them. The win for your office is that they are going to provide you with all the leads of people who were interested in coming to your office because they bought the certificate.
You simply need someone to run the program and follow up. This is usually their coach, assistant coach, teacher, principal, scout leader, eagle scout, and so forth.
And guess who is actually selling those certificates? It’s not the kids, it’s the parents!
And those parents are taking them to work and selling to their coworkers, to their loved ones—family and friends—and, possibly, even to their neighbors.
With this type of promotional program, you’re tapping into different demographics that you may have never been able to tap into before and creating your own viral campaign.
Another promotional program is working with nonprofits. At The Business Academy, we have a particular nonprofit program we recommend to our clients. This nonprofit does all the promotion and receives all the donations.
However, you get all the leads, and they’re happy to be coming into your office because of the goodwill you created for the nonprofit.
Depending on your area’s population, some nonprofits can have up to 100,000 local contacts which they have immediate access to! All you would need to do is provide them all the promotional content—the artwork, the offer and the benefits it offers the non-profit.
You would never ever be able to get that kind of access anywhere else!
We train our clients and their marketers how to carry out the steps to implement the programs of these first two sources. If you implement them, you’ll have two more poles in the water! Call us if you need help.
I hope these first two have given you some ideas. In a few days, I will post the article covering three more poles!
Hopefully, you can use them to catch your limit!
