Communication is a central part of how we function. You all know the importance of communicating properly with your patients in clinic, however, so many people glaze over the importance of communicating properly and effectively with the masses when marketing your clinic. In advertising, the words you choose to use will drastically affect your results. Even with a few small tweaks, you may see a much greater response to your marketing. Read this article, action one point and watch the results improve.
Talk to people’s pain points
I will start with a controversial one … pain. Whether you are a holistic or mechanistic practitioner, it is indisputable that the majority of patient journeys start because they are experiencing some kind of pain or discomfort. It is simple, it’s human nature not to act unless there is pressure, pain=pressure=action. Selling the idea of reducing pain is much easier than the idea of improved overall ‘health’ and lifestyle (especially given the ASA restrictions we must comply with). At Halsa, we see ourselves as a holistic practice, but all our front-end advertisement centres around pain. Once our clients are through the front door, we then begin the educational process around chiropractic and the positive impacts it can have beyond pain.
Avoid using jargon
Chiropractors have all spent years in education and a lot of money on fancy tools and toys that they cannot wait to tell everyone about, and who can blame them right!? However, it is essential to know when the right and wrong time is to talk about these. To the majority of the population a ROF is an onomatopoeia used to describe a dog’s bark, traction is a word used only when describing tires and a sEMG machine sounds like an off-brand refrigerator. Try to avoid using technical terms, abbreviations, or specific names for specialist equipment. Instead, explain what everything does/is in a ‘literal’ way that everyone understands. E.g. don’t say ‘ROF’, but instead say ‘Report of findings – A detailed look at our findings where the chiropractor will go through your results and advise the best care for you.’. As a general rule, aim for good English, but at a level that a 13-year-old could understand. Just be careful not to come across condescending, as that will not do you any favours!
Phone a friend
A great way to gauge if your advertising is appropriate to the masses, is to get a friend to look it over for you. Avoid asking other chiropractors, CA’s or anyone who already has an in-depth understanding of chiropractic. I think one of the most valuable assets me and Jack brought with us to Halsa was actually our lack of chiropractic knowledge. This allowed us to view chiropractic from an ‘outside perspective’, which made it easy for us to write copy that catered to people who have very little understanding of the profession. If you have been in the profession a number of years, it is very hard to see it from the perspective of someone completely new, so getting an outside perspective is essential to writing good copy that will speak to a wider audience.
Educate
Education is an essential part of the chiropractic profession. Unfortunately, through no fault of your own, chiropractic has been vilified for years. This has led to a widely negative perception of chiropractors. Although this is not fair, it is something we must deal with and overcome. The only way to do this is through education. If you want to appeal to the masses, you need to make the masses understand what you do. Speaking from experience, before joining Halsa I had no idea what chiropractic was beyond cracking backs. I would have been very sceptical about going, especially given the prices, and would have likely only came across it if I had a painful back and was looking for ‘alternative treatments’. That’s the honest truth! The thing I was missing, was education. If you focus some of your time and attention on educating your local audience on what chiropractic is and what results it can have, you will immediately see an increase in interest. We all know that the prices of chiropractic are 100% justified because we understand the reasoning, but you need to justify this to your audience if you expect them to part ways with their hard-earned cash, whether you like it or not.
Discard your peer’s opinions
Chiropractic might be one of the most judgemental professions I have been exposed to! Although in some ways it is good as it creates an element of competition as everyone holds each other to such a high standard. It also has the opposite effect of holding people back from doing what is best for their business, due to the fear of being judged by their peers. For many chiropractors, chiropractic is their passion but also their livelihood and it’s their patients that allow them to pay their bills and provide for their families, NOT THEIR PEERS. Our goal in chiropractic should be to spread the word and get as many people to experience chiropractic care as possible. If that means you need to talk about pain, then talk about pain, if that means you have to risk ‘looking silly’ by recording educational videos on Facebook, then do it! The results will be this, your business will grow, you will become more abundant, you will help more people, you will be happier and ultimately help the chiropractic profession grow.
Be relatable
When speaking to the masses, any ego needs to be left at the door and you need to be willing to be vulnerable. Most chiropractors operate on a local level within single cities, towns or villages. That means it is very important to come across friendly and relatable in your communication to create a positive public perception. Facebook and email communication tends to be more conversational and if you can build your brand up to be the ‘friendly neighbourhood chiropractor’ who is not only skilled, but also has their own life/personality, you will likely out compete your competitors and see many more patients as a result of referrals.
Every word mattersIn advertising, every word matters. In our current, fast paced society, there is no time for waffle. This has led to incredibly short attention spans, especially when browsing social media. This means, from a marketing standpoint, we need to make sure our words, and time in front of our audience, count. That means carefully selecting every word or phrase you use, asking yourself, what purpose does this serve? On a recent tech call to our inner circle members I break down the text we use in our adverts and exactly what purpose each section serves. So next time you write an advert or prepare a script for a video, read your work over several times, making sure every word has a purpose and cut out any unneeded waffle.
Love and Light,
Ry
