Chiropractor’s Marketing Guide In 2020 – 9 Content Tips That Work (Posting Videos, Blogging, Podcasting)

Chiropractor’s Marketing Guide In 2020 – 9 Content Tips That Work (Posting Videos, Blogging, Podcasting)

“I get plenty of leads but it doesn’t turn into much.”  I hear this almost every day when I do Strategy Sessions with my fellow Chiropractors.  These frustrated Doctors are on a call with me because they are hoping for something different than what they have been doing.  They know they should be “marketing online” but they don’t really know what that means and all they ever hear from the Facebook gurus, who are really just 24 year old kids that bought a course on how to run Facebook ads for local businesses for $1997 that one time, is to run a CRAZY offer for a $21 first visit.  In their heart they know they should be doing more but no one really tells them what that is and that one friend from Chiropractic school seems to be killing it with their Facebook ads. 

On these calls I explain to them what I call the Online Marketing Matrix.  It states that there are two kinds of online platforms and two kinds of marketing that Chiropractors should be focused on.  The platforms are attention based and search based. The attention based platforms are the ones where people spend their time within their personal news feed being delivered content that they have curated with people or businesses they like or follow and paid ads.  These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The search based platforms are where people go to get their questions answered or look for specific things. This is mainly Google and YouTube.

Here is the Online Marketing Matrix and some of the different examples Chiropractors should focus on.

For all of the platforms, you can implement strategies around both types of marketing.  Those are lead generation and content marketing. Lead generation is what most Chiropractors think of when they think of online marketing.  This is usually paid advertising where you are trying to get a lead or a patient. Facebook offer ads and Google ads are commonly used examples of these.  Content marketing is where you are using one of the three types of content (video, text or audio) to deliver information to your target market with no real call to action.  The purpose of this is to provide value to your ideal patient and to begin to build trust with that person.

Why is it that there are SO many “marketing agencies’ ‘ telling Chiropractors that they should be running Facebook ads?  Where did they all come from? Five years ago there was no real done for you marketing out there that specialize in Chiropractic.  I could talk about this all day but basically a cottage industry of online entrepreneurs began selling courses on how to run Facebook ads and some of them were specifically around how to run Facebook ads for local businesses.  The way this works is they teach them how to make an ad, run traffic to that ad on Facebook, pick a niche to focus on and sell to that niche. For $1,997 you are now a business owner. Some of these people that bought these courses, legitimately now run multi million dollar a year businesses off of just that.  Makes that $200K in student loans a little harder to look at huh?

Chiropractors are a perfect target (some would say mark) for these people because we are easy to identify and find.  We all went to Chiropractic school. We all know lots of other Chiropractors. We are all in Facebook groups together.  Most of us say we are Chiropractors on Facebook. Chiropractic clinics are normally Doctor owned and operated businesses meaning it is easy to identify the ultimate decision maker.  This is why you get so many friend requests from marketing people.

So these agencies are now armed with the knowledge of how to run an ad on Facebook and their niche and they all tend to find their little pocket of Doctors willing to give it a shot.  But because all they know is how to run a first visit special ad that is what every Chiropractor is doing.

The GOOD is that sometimes they work.  Typically the discount special ad will work for 3-6 months before it starts to decrease in effectiveness.  In some areas it lasts longer. In other areas it is shorter.

The BAD is that because there are so many people selling this idea to Chiropractors, and there are enough success stories, that now everyone is doing it.  I see towns of 50,000 people that will have 7 offices running basically the same ad.  24 months ago it was rare for more than one office to be running ads but that is how fast it has metastasized.  So not only is there more competition amongst Chiropractors but other local business niches were chosen by the people who bought the courses and they are running the same type of ad for all of the gyms, karate studios, and dentists in town.  People’s news feeds are becoming polluted with terribly produced, bottom of the funnel, Groupon style ads. That means they are interacting less with the ads which leads to more expensive leads.

The UGLY is that I believe these ads can cause long term negative brand equity for your practice if this is all anyone ever sees from you.  When every time they go onto social media they see you severely discounting your services with no value added to help counter balance that you will start to be seen as exactly that, a discount Chiropractor.  I believe Facebook offer ads should play a role in your online marketing strategy but it shouldn’t be 100% of it. Maybe more like 10%.

When you run a Facebook ad for a discounted first visit or you run Google ads to people looking for a Chiropractor you are competing for the already converted in a zero sum game.  The people looking for a Chiropractor have already decided that they need a Chiropractor. When they go to Google it is like 10 years ago when people opened up the yellow pages to the Chiropractor section.  They were going to call someone so it better be you. That is why the yellow pages were so easy to get a positive ROI from back in the day. You paid for the biggest ad, put a tracking phone number in the ad and kept track of how much was collected off of each call.  

Facebook is like the newspaper, TV or radio when I started in practice.  You could put your ad in places where people were spending their time and attention.  This was a little different than the yellow pages because people weren’t watching TV or listening to the radio to find a Chiropractor but if you were able to make your offer enough times you might get someone to take action.  Most of these ads were similar to the Facebook ads you see today. An offer to come into the office. These attention based platforms have the same issue as the intentional based ones in that people who are taking advantage of the offer are people who already believe Chiropractic is the solution to their problem.

Content marketing, whether it is videos on social media, blog posts on your website or a local podcast, can begin to educate people on the problems they have and the solutions you provide.  You can begin to create patients out of thin air, and in turn change the entire trajectory of a person’s life.

Let’s say there is a woman named Mary that lives one mile from your practice.  Mary gets debilitating migraines three times a week. She has to lay in a dark room for hours.  Her kids feel neglected. Her husband is feeling the strain of having to do everything. She has to take days off of work because of it so her job is in jeopardy.  She isn’t able to do the things that bring her joy for fear a migraine may unexpectedly set in. She has been suffering for years now. She has NO idea Chiropractic could help.  She either hasn’t been told or maybe she asked her MD and she told her that it wouldn’t help. But one day, as she is scrolling through Facebook she sees a video with a bold headline that says “How To Eliminate Migraines Without Drugs”.  She stops and watches the three and a half minute video from a Chiropractor who has an office a mile away. It makes total sense to her. She wonders why no one had ever told her this before. Mary can now look up that Chiropractor online.  Maybe watch more videos. Read more blogs. What happens next? Mary doesn’t then go to Google and let the search engine decide who she should call. If she decides that she should give Chiropractic a try she is 99.9% of the time going to call the Doctor she saw on that video.

This is the beauty of Chiropractic.  We have the truth. Explaining the subluxation and how the adjustment is the only thing that will fix that makes sense to people.  We all explain that to people one on one. Content marketing allows you to use the modern marketing methods to communicate that message in a much more scalable way.

I believe that video is the most impactful way to deliver natural health care information to your community.  Potential patients can not only learn new information but they can begin to know, like and trust you at the same time. Unfortunately, it is the content that is the most difficult for people to make, for lots of different reasons.  Here are the three tips I think will help you get started or will help you optimize what you are already doing:

Blogs are great content pieces because they will help you show up when people are searching for solutions on Google in the future.  They also last much longer than videos on social do. Once they are on your website they are available for Google to show in search results.  Videos on social media get buried in your news feed once you’ve stopped putting money behind them. Blogs help your website to be seen as more relevant than your competition’s because you are creating new content for them to show.  This can help with your Google Maps placement and overall website ranking. Here are the three tips I think will help you make your blog strategy more effective:

Audio is the most overlooked piece of the content marketing puzzle.  People love consuming content passively and audio is the only format that you can do that with.  Podcasts are exploding in popularity and they are some of the easiest pieces of content to make. Now, I am not sure that a local Chiropractor talking about Chiropractic is going to hit #1 on the charts any time soon but you can use a podcast to start to build your network and be seen as an expert in your community.

Your community needs you now more than ever.  You aren’t competing with other Chiropractors in your town when you create content.  You are educating people that may have no idea that Chiropractic could help them. You are competing against them doing nothing or worse, trying to medicate their way out of pain.  If you make creating content less about you and more about the people you are trying to serve it will become that much easier. If B.J. had the tools of communication we have today or if all of us worked to spread the message as hard as he did using those tools Chiropractic would be at a 90% utilization rate instead of 10%.  People are dying. They need the information we have. It is your responsibility to get it to them. If you have any questions for me please reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram at drnicksilveri or email me at [email protected].

Would you like an online marketing strategy that makes you THE expert in your area?