On February 28th we will be awarding a free marketing program valued at $1,000 to one of our subscribers. To be eligible all you need to do is be an active subscriber to The Spinal Column.

The winning doctor will be announced in the March issue of this newsletter.

Congratulations to Jeffrey Arnel!

Jeffrey Arnel is our $1,000 marketing package winner for January. Jeffrey Arnel, please contact Sonia at Metro Marketing by Monday, February 28th. To be eligible to win for February, just sign up for our newsletter and look at it when it arrives in your inbox. It's that easy to win a $1,000 marketing package.

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Each month we will give you a proven marketing tip or program that, if done right, will work for you. Collect, read and use all 36 of them over the next three years and you will have put together an effective powerful marketing program to help grow your chiropractic practice.

Last issue’s idea: Become The Community Expert

This month’s idea: Staying in Touch...Forever

Out of touch … out of mind. Once someone visits your office for whatever reason, you want to stay in touch with them effectively forever.

Please don’t take anything or anyone for granted.

Don’t assume your past patients are coming back or that your existing ones will be referring people to you.

You need to stay in touch – be an invited guest not an annoying pest – and gain the respect and trust of your marketing community.

If you do it, do it right. Very few (close to none) small business owners do it and even less do it right.

Your stay-in-touch program needs to be a structured one, not one done when you or your staff remember, has the time or are desperate for office visits.

It needs to be executed every month, every week, every day … 365 days a year.

First step is creation of the database. Capturing the information you will need to effectively stay in touch.

If we are simply going to be mailing the same thing to everyone then a simple name and address will do.

If, however, we want to be even more effective, then we want to build a database not simply a mailing list.

What goes into a database? Basically any information that will help you ‘talk’ to them more effectively.

Chiropractic and health needs … medical interests … hobbies, ages of children … community interests … food preferences … the list is endless and, of course, will include their history with you as a patient.

Once you’ve started to collect this database (the process never ends in new additions and updates of existing ones) and put it into an off-the-shelf database management program such as ACT or Goldmine, you need to start laying out a plan on how you will be using this valuable information.

There is a lot to consider.

How often are we going to stay in touch? How are we staying in touch? Postcard? Letter? Brochure? Newsletter? Data sheets? What exactly will we be saying each time?

Of course, the program can be a blended one such as 6 holiday cards … a monthly newsletter and 4 personalized letters a year or any other combination you want.

The key is consistency and quality of content.

You are most likely reading this newsletter – The Spinal Column – because you have (a) read previous issues, (b) know it’s published monthly, and (c) find it of value and interest. If not, you would have stopped reading it long ago.

The same applies to you.

The more valuable the information, the more personalized the information, the more consistent and dependable the information, the more effective the program will be.

Canned, off-the-shelf material (where you purchase a preprinted newsletter and slap your name on it) is better than nothing, but not really very good or effective.

Ask your database for referrals (effectively, of course) by using the WIIFM maxim of what’s in it for me. Invite them to information-packed (non-commercial, self-serving) workshops and seminars. Send them a holiday greeting with a personal note at the appropriate time. Invite them back if you haven’t seen them in a while. Send them a newsletter that they actually look forward to getting and reading.

Then you need to set a schedule at least six months if not a year in advance and work it backwards.

To get a newsletter out 90 days from today, as an example, what do you need to do today, tomorrow and every day thereafter?

It will not happen by itself and it definitely will not happen if you don’t structure and plan the time.

A lot of work? You betcha. But you will have more revisits, more new patients, more referrals than you could ever imagine.

Remember, you don’t need to do all the work (or any of it for that matter) yourself.

You just need to make the financial investment commitment and put the train in motion.

Once you start and you see the dollar return for dollar invested you will never want to stop.

Want to discuss? Feel free to call me at 1-800-696-7788, ext. 112.

Each month we will give you a ready-to-use letter that can be used to help promote your practice.

A professional copywriter would charge you anywhere from $150 to $350 to write you a marketing letter, but as a subscriber to The Spinal Column you get it for free.

This month’s letter: Staying in Touch

Free downloadable copy

Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader

To grow your practice your professional marketing skills are as important as your chiropractic knowledge, maybe even more so.

Our March 15th launch date is fast approaching and you are about to lose your zip code forever.

Only one chiropractor in each zip code.