Integrating Your Upper Cervical Message Into All of Your Marketing
February 10, 2009 by drhambrick
Filed under Principle #2: USP integration
Once you have an effective marketing message, or unique selling proposition, (USP) you must integrate that USP into any and every media that leaves your hands, or the hands of your employees. It is how you get the message about what you do out into the real world where patients and prospective patients see what makes you different.
This is very simple and straightforward, but essential to properly branding your practice.
With People
The first place you must integrate your USP is with all of the people in your practice. You, your employees, and anyone who represents what you do must understand what your practice’s USP is, and be able to project it to patients and prospective patients.
Your receptionist must be able to demonstrate your USP when they answer the phone. As an example, let’s use the USP I used in my practice. The phone rings, and the receptionist says: “Thank you for calling Hambrick Chiropractic, where we’re providing relief without any popping twisting turning or cracking.”
Now I know that sounds corny, and we never answered the phone that way, but you get the idea.
The important point is to make sure that all of your employees knows exactly why you’re in practice, and why a prospect should choose to do business with you versus any and all other chiropractors in your area.
With Literature
If your practice has promotional literature, such as brochures, information packets, etc. then you must have your USP prominently displayed and exposed on all of it. Of course, it must look natural, and not forced, and if your USP doesn’t naturally fit into your current literature, then you should revamp it. Websites would also fall into this category. And if you don’t have any literature… why not? If no one else in your industry is producing literature, then that’s all the more reason why you should.
With Business Cards
How many business cards have you been given in your life? Now how many of those have you kept? Now how many of those have you referenced more than once?
Business cards are a necessary evil. Everyone expects you to have one, and expects you to give them one, and those that have them love to pass them around like confetti hoping that one lands in the right hands and translates into business for them.
The truth is, your card is probably never going to be used, and if it is, it will probably only be used once and then filed away and forgotten about. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Business cards could potentially be valuable real estate for your marketing message. Your USP should be the first thing that stands out on your business card. That’s what is going to make people remember your card, there-by remembering you, and file it way for whenever they have use for whatever specific need your practice meets.
On a side note, your business cards should be used as a direct response device that collects leads for you by offering free information, or sending people to a website that will catch their information so you can then market directly to them.
That in my opinion is the most valuable use of a business card, but that’s for another time.
With Ads
Every ad that your clinic produces should prominently display your USP. It should be the focus of your ad. It should be the reason the ad exists… to spread the reason why people should do business with your company vs. any and all other options available to them.
A huge mistake that most practices make is creating an ad where there practice name and phone number is the headline. This is known as “institutional advertising” and is a notorious waste of advertising dollars. Institutional advertising never catches anyone’s eye unless they already know all about the company.
You must use expensive ad space to broadcast your USP. This is especially true for YellowPage ads. An ad is merely a printed form of a sales rep, and a sales rep would never call on someone and merely just say the business name and phone number in a loud voice without actually selling the prospect on becoming a client/customer/patient.
With Business Paperwork
This includes letter head, business forms, invoices, work-orders, even notepads that are used to write notes that might go home with your upper cervical patients. Waste no space, if there is some sort of paperwork that will leave your office, then find a way to integrate your USP into that paperwork. It doesn’t need to look awkward, but can easily and organically be integrated into the most business-like of papers.
On Hold Message
If you have an on-hold service that just plays music, then you are wasting valuable advertising space that could be explaining to everyone on hold why they should be doing business with you. This is very easy and cheap to do if you already have this system in place. You can have your USP professionally recorded, or record it in your own voice.
With Web Site
Your web site is merely another medium of communication with your patients and prospective patients, and your web site must convey your USP. Any emails as well should also have your USP integrated into them in some fashion.
There’s no point in having a compelling marketing message that differentiates you from all of the other practitioners in your area, if you aren’t broadcasting that message and making it clear and obvious why you’re different. Integrating your USP is a step that can not be skipped.
How To Manage Your List Of Upper Cervical Patients
February 10, 2009 by drhambrick
Filed under Principle #3: Patient Database
If you’re an upper cervical chiropractor, then there’s good news and bad news when it comes to properly managing your list of patients, and prospective patients.
The good news is, as a health-care professional, you more than likely already have your entire patient list in a database, do to the nature of the profession. Most doctors use some form of software to help with billing, and appointments and this software is usually compatible with keeping in contact with your patients to a certain degree.
The bad news is, this software is probably not very conducive to keeping in regular contact with your patients beyond sending them reminders, invoices, or birthday cards. Worst of all, they don’t usually give you a classification for someone who has been in contact with you, but has not yet decided to become a patient.
You need a software, that will allow you to classify patients and prospective patients into different categories.
You can never have too many categories because the more you refine your list down, the more you are speaking directly to whatever patient fits into whatever category.
Start off with just two categories: Patients; Prospective Patients. That’s the easiest to start with, and that will allow you to target your communication to each group individually.
You could make offers to your patients that would increase their visits with you, or would increase their referrals. You can make announcements about events that the office is holding, like “Patient Appreciation Day” or an open house, or a Christmas party, or a food drive, & etc. You could make offers to prospective patients, offering discounts on their first visit, free trials, & etc.
The point is, you want to send the right message to the right person at the right time. If you have your list in a database that then allows you to make these designation, you can make the job of getting the right message to the right person painless.
Other categories that you might consider:
- Patients who’ve not been in in 6 months
- Prospective patients with headaches
- Prospective patients with low back pain
- Prospective patients with high blood pressure
- Patients who’ve mentioned relatives who could use your services
- Patients from a particular income bracket
- Prospective patients from a particular income bracket
- Patients who’ve spent a certain amount of money with you in a 12 month period
- Patients who’ve referred a certain number of people to your clinic.
- And many more
You can never have too many categories. It’s all determined by how busy you want to keep yourself.
There are many pieces of software out in the market place that can help you segment your database as refined as you would like it to be.
One of the bare bones pieces of software that is good at doing this is Microsoft’s spread sheet software, Excel. You must program everything yourself though, and you must have a very good working knowledge of Excel in order to have it do all the things you need it to do, like printing address labels, envelopes, segment patients and prospective patients, etc.
Other programs include customer relation management software, or CRM software. Some examples of these include the web based, completely comprehensive Infusionsoft, to Act!, to the very simple and straightforward MyMailList.
All of these will allow you to categorize your list to meet your needs.
For more information, type “CRM Software” into your favorite search engine.
USP Creation: Putting It All Together
January 15, 2009 by drhambrick
Filed under 7 Principles of Shrewd Upper Cervical Marketing, Principle #1: USP, Upper Cervical Marketing
Now that you have all the data, it’s time to put it all together and craft a clear statement about how you’re unique, and why your patients should choose you.
Your USP should be written in about 90 words or less. It is the basis for all of your marketing.
It is the message that you are trying to convey to the masses, which is why it is the first step in this process.
A good USP helps you get more prospective patients; causes you to convert more prospective patients; causes your patients to do more business with you, and refer more of their family and friends to you.
To re-iterate, an effective USP, properly communicated to your patients and prospective patients, will cause an:
- Increase in prospects
- Increase in conversions of prospects to patients
- Increase in the amount of business your current patients do with you.
These are the only 3 ways any practice grows.
Some U.S.P. Examples
Dominos Pizza: “Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less… or it’s free.”
Federal Express: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there over night.”
From my chiropractic practice: “Providing relief without any popping, twisting, turning or cracking.”
Notice how with Dominos they don’t say they have the best pizza, or even good pizza, and
they don’t just say they will have your pizza to you ASAP.
Notice how FedEx doesn’t say they’ll get it to you faster than anyone else.
Notice how the chiropractic example doesn’t guarantee results, or say anything about being gentle, or good for the whole family.
The common denominator in all of these examples is specificity.
Be specific with your USP.
Rosser Reeves, who coined the phrase Unique Selling Proposition, said that an effective USP must do the following:
- The proposition must say to the prospective customer (patient): “Buy the product (service), and you will get this specific result.”
- The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not offer. It must
be unique. - The proposition must be so strong that it moves the masses.
Two things I might add is that an effective USP must also attract those who are a perfect fit for your practice, and repel those who are not a good fit for what you do.
For instance, (and this is very important if you’re an upper cervical doctor) there are those who are chiropractic patients simply because they love the crack and pop and release they feel when they receive a traditional adjustment. The USP above would repel that brand of patient. This is a good thing because it eliminates the possibility of that person being dissatisfied with an upper cervical adjustment.
Eliminating dissatisfaction from your patient base ensures that they’ll return to do more business with you, and will stimulate more referrals of their family and friends.
