Welcome to the technology corner for this month. In a recent issue we addressed the significance of email and especially video email marketing. In this article we want to expand on that idea and give you tips on how to set up your master email lead list.

We all see monthly or weekly email advertisements from popular retailers marketing product specials ranging from computers to furniture and even airline flights. These are businesses that spend millions in print media and TV advertising. Now these organizations have become experts in email advertising. We can create a “chiropractic recipe for success” in email marketing and lead generation by simply observing what these companies are doing and why they are doing it.

Simply stated, email is the most affordable form of advertising today. Companies are now shifting advertising campaign money and expending energy developing their prospecting email lists. Have you ever noticed that some retailers will ask for your postal code and email address every time you purchase something? Especially when you make an online order, an email address is obligatory. Businesses are able to generate a huge email database from what we call warm leads. These are clients that are already using their products or services or have enquired about their products. Email lists are bought by some organizations but they would be classed as cold leads. Why would you want to buy a list and advertise health products or services to someone that isn’t and may never be health conscious?

There are rules and regulations related to buying an emailing lists. Before you spend your hard earned cash on cold leads, do your homework. As chiropractors, we have so many possibillities to collect warm leads to create an email wave in your community. Only a small group of chiropractors are doing it so be the first in your community to master the internet via email. Let me tell you about some of these gems that so few chiropractors are tapping into.

In order to build a chiropractic community awareness and promote their practice, a good number of chiropractors do outside talks or outreach events. You should be gaining valuable email addresses at all of these events. For example, if you do a screening, the possible new patient is interested enough in your service to stop and participate in the screening. Many times we are disappointed that they didn’t accept your offer for a discounted examination. What you do with that name will make all the difference in the world. Most chiropractors at best will send them a letter or a newsletter. If they weren’t interested then what makes you think they’re going to respond to a letter in the next two weeks? In order to keep that lead viable you need to stay in constant contact with them every single month until they do one of two things; sign up or ask you to stop sending them information.

The key is sending them suitable information that is communicated with cutting edge technology sent right to their home. We live in a world that is spending most of their leisure time watching TV, movies and surfing the internet and email. If you don’t have a big advertising budget you need to communicate with them via email. A great video email campaign will not only keep you in front of your warm leads it will help you change them into new patients.

If you’re interested in a product but not ready to buy it could take months before you decide to make that decision and buy that item. The same concept applies to healthcare especially if they are in tune with crisis care. Potential patients might comprehend the whole concept of wellness as of yet, and until they have a crisis they might not be ready to use your chiropractic services. What happens if you lose contact with that warm lead and they have a health problem and decide to try chiropractic eight month or a year down the road? They might come to see you but your chances increase exponentially if you have been in contact with them over the previous months.

Collecting emails at screenings, corporate talks and outside events is a fantastic way to grow your database of warm leads, but what if your practice style is driven mostly by internal marketing? Let them know you’re beginning a new patient education initiative that involves email and they are going to be forwarded high quality cutting edge videos on the chiropractic lifestyle that arrive in their inbox. If you communicate the importance of helping you forward these emails to friends and family you create a viral component to your email which is another topic in itself.

Asking your patients for emails is another great way to get hundreds of emails. Generate a huge buzz over a draw you’re going to have. The more email names they provide the more times their name is entered into the draw to win a brilliant prize. By simply having a draw in your clinic, imagine how many emails you’re going to gain. You can take it one step further and have your patients email their friends information introducing your new video email plan. What a way to reach out into your community to spread the word about the chiropractic lifestyle and what an even better way to convert those leads to new patients.

For Chiropractic Software visit Atlas Chiropractic System

In your tech corner this month we are reviewing plenty of ways to grow practices using ‘viral marketing’ through technology and email. What exactly do we mean by ‘viral marketing’?

Everyone is now familiar with YouTube’s way of uploading, linking and searching for videos. It’s a straightforward concept that started off with people sharing videos on various subjects for fun or entertainment and it spreads through the internet like a replicating virus does. Ultimately it has become a way for businesses to share videos on the products or services that they offer. An international presence or a product that can be purchased or ordered online is needed to be successful in this type of viral marketing.

What are some of the advantages of using this type of technology to develop your practice and advertise chiropractic? Provided they are positive videos that explain the concept of chiropractic and boost the chiropractic wellness position, videos will do a fantastic job to improve the concept of chiropractic in the general public. That said, the probability of someone local searching chiropractic on YouTube, finding your particular clinic and then booking an appointment is slim to none.

Outside the confines of a practice, how does one begin using the internet and email for external marketing? There are many programs currently using email technology with auto responders to explain and keep the communication lines open with potential clients. There are however, flaws to these systems; the doctor is responsible for initially making the content to show potential patients, or they often use out-dated newsletter email techniques. We must remember that we live in a high-tech, video driven world with high expectations.

When was the last time you had a newsletter via email from Coca-Cola or Pepsi? These are companies that spend millions in video-based advertising. Quite simply, when it comes to influencing the public, video is the way to go! The amount of time and money that they spend on marketing is what keeps these businesses at the top. Yes, they have the finances to spend on costly endorsements and expensive TV advertising. A single chiropractic clinic has limited marketing fund, and our associations are not spending millions to advance chiropractic in the public eye (and if they are it’s on a small local scale). We need to seek creative ways to teach people using 21^st century technology and techniques that work, at a reasonable price point that any chiropractor can afford.

Although newsletters and mailings can still be inherently useful, as a profession, we must accept newer technologies of patient education. People are used to being entertained and our new generation prefers visually-based methods of education. The concept of newsletters is to inform patients, and their friends and family members, on chiropractic. The hope or payoff is that when they have a health issue, they might come in and see you as a result of receiving your monthly newsletter, however the return on investment is VERY limited.

Let’s go back and explore the idea of video technology and the YouTube idea.

Are you posting videos on your website? Or better yet, do you even have a website? High quality videos that fully show the concept of chiropractic and the wellness lifestyle should be uploaded on the website of any clinic seeking to increase its income potential. Additionally, videos enticing viewers to seek chiropractic care for various health-related issues such as headaches, low back pain and neck pain could also be broadcast. Chiropractic videos are a useful way to educate the public at large and bring your website into the 21^st century. Services do exist that take this one step further and allow doctors to send emails on their websites by sending the potential lead a video email with a coupon or offer to come into their practice for a consultation. People are plugged into the internet and when they are looking for services they often do a Google search to locate the closest chiropractic office. A powerful and enticing website with superb video and video email lead generation will have that edge that places your clinic above the rest.

Why re-invent the wheel? Rather than try to create your own, find a business that has set up superb high quality videos that will stream on your website seamlessly and effortlessly. With their distinct messages let these videos, act to passively draw potential new patients through your door. In our next issue we will talk about video email automation.

For Chiropractic Software visit Atlas Chiropractic System