Yellow Page Advertising For Chiropractors
The Yellow Pages is one of the few places that I know of that a business owner pays money to be placed right in the midst of their competition. Now think about that for a minute. How come you, as a business owner are so willing to pay money to be put in the sea of competition?
Do you have a good answer? Your answer probably sounds something like this, because I have to, my competition is doing it. Great answer, but what makes you think you’ll get the business over your competitor? Here is a better answer: when people are ready to buy and have no one to turn to they turn to the Yellow Pages. Therefore, go ahead and advertise in the Yellow Pages of you local phone directory.
However, here are a couple of cautions to be aware of before you do.
- Do not let the Yellow Page people design your ad for you. Think about it, these graphic artists are given who knows how many ads a day that they have to design. They really don’t have a lot of time to focus on your ad. (Look in the Yellow Pages right now under chiropractic, I bet I’m safe to say they all look pretty much the same.)
- Think about your headline. This is what should capture the attention of the prospective client. Hint: this should not be your company name (however, again I’m safe to say that is how the majority have done it).
- Be creative and different. How are you going to set yourself apart in the sea of competition? What makes you unique? Why should I pick you out from the competition?
Let me give you an example. Replace your name and logo with one of your competitors. Can you or anyone else tell the difference? The other day I was looking thought the Yellow Pages in the chiropractic section, guess what? They all looked the same. It did not matter whose name or logo I put in the ad, I could not tell the difference.
They all took credit cards; they all accepted insurance and they all dealt with injuries. Ninety percent used the company name as a headline. There was one that was slightly different; they based their ad on being the lowest price. Now that is a subject for a different blog. However, my guess is they get the most response, not because of the low price, but because of being different.
Your goal is to have your ad jump off the page. How do you get that to happen? Here is an idea. Have a compelling headline that will not only get your readers attention but will draw them into the ad. Sorry, your company name is not going to do that.
What are you about? To learn more about writing headlines go to the super market checkout stand and look at the magazines, they are masters at writing headlines to get attention. Once the reader is in your ad give them a reason to choose you (buy from you) now. Sorry, “bonded and insured” won’t do it.
Keep the general stuff for the bottom of the ad if you use it at all. The real key is if you look like everyone else it will go in through one eye and out the other (so to speak), without ever making an impression in the consumer’s mind. You have got to stand out and set yourself apart.
Do your Yellow Pages advertising correctly and you can dominate that media. Do it wrong and you throw money down the drain year in and year out. The choice is yours.
d. Now that you have invested your money in the Yellow Pages track your calls to see how many new patients you get from your ad. Is the return on investment worth it? If the ad cost you $1,000 and you only brought in $500 from it, why keep doing it?
This goes for all of your advertising and marketing. You must know if you are getting a good return on each and every advertisement or marketing piece you send out. If not you need to figure out why and correct it or stop doing it.
National Health Care Shocker
I could not believe what I heard when I woke up and turned on the news. The Senate was scheduled to debate a $1.5 trillion (yes, that is with a T) bill to pay for Nationalized (or whatever you want to call it) health care system. Just a couple of weeks ago they were telling us it would be a mere $600 billion. How in the world did this multiply by 2.5 times in that short period?
I’m not going to get into rather I believe in this or not. (Although I will let you know I called the White House, my senators, and congressman to let them know.) I’m not going to try to change your mind either way. Not even going to talk about where they have plans of coming up with this money, except for one idea which will affect you.
Let’s look at how it could affect your practice. I have talked to some DC’s that are very nervous about this country going down this road. They believe it will put them out of business. And it will, if you do not adapt and change with the circumstance. I believe those that run and hide will go out of business. But, on the other hand, I think those that ask good questions such as, “How can I profit from this change?” can make out like never before.
One of the genius ways that our government has plans of paying for this program is by restricting care. Now I don’t know what your definition of that is and I sure don’t have any clue of what they mean by it. I do know that I have friends that have lived in Canada and they have told me when Canadian citizens with money need to see a doctor they come to the US and pay cash for it.
Now that I think about it, if you watch the news you’ll hear stories of many leaders and celebrities of other counties that have nationalized medicine end up coming to the US. Where are we going to go? If there is someplace, what if we don’t have the money to travel to that county? This is where the entrepreneurial spirit kicks in.
If you are a DC, I personally believe that with the current trends in preventative health care you can step in and help the common person. Patients that are looking for prevention pay cash and visit more often. They are looking for ways to stay out of the medical doctors’ offices and hospitals. I personally have not seen or taken a family member to an MD for over ten years.
My DC is my personal physician. Why shouldn’t he be, he has helped me beat my health problems that the MD’s told me were “incurable” and I’d just have to learn to live with them. Why not step into that role and start educating the general public on how you can help them other than just spinal manipulation. If you don’t know how, learn now. Become the answer for those “restrictive care” situations.