Tactical Practice Marketing
By: Dr. Timothy J. Gay, DC 
In practices throughout the country the consensus is that most external marketing is not working as well as it used to. If you are using the same types of marketing that you have used in the past five years your marketing strategies are at least fifty percent less effective than they were when you started. Sure you can throw money into some kind of advertising piece when your practice has become inconsistent (a nice way of saying dropped). Usually we see practices that use marketing and advertising as a last minute add-on in their practices giving away their services in order to lure potential patients into their offices making their true services invisible.
Many doctors are discounting or giving their services away to build their practices and wonder why the patients either can’t afford the services or don’t see the value in them. Stop trying to build your practice on discounting or giving away you’re most valuable practice assets. People will come to your office based on your results, products, services and fair pricing based on value.
You must have a consistent plan of action on a monthly basis for your advertising and marketing. Include marketing themes and tactics to go along with it or you will continue to look for the marketing home runs that will wear out as soon as everyone else starts using it. Right now in practice the simplest most effective way to create a great practice is through relationship building and remarkable services. I know that you have heard this before and understand that this concept is one of the many hidden practice building factors that is taken for granted. It is much easier and less expensive to keep the patients you have than to go out and find new ones. There are 4 types of patients that are available for you to market your practice to.
1) Potential Patient: this is the patient that you have never met or has little or no idea what you have to offer or what type of services you provide. Generally someone that, if influenced through marketing or advertising, may consider you as their chiropractor.
2) New Patient: This patient has a higher likely hood of becoming a long term patient based on your ability to establish a relationship and create a remarkable service.
3) Loyal Patients: This is the patient that you should focus on; ask questions about how to improve your practice by attracting more of this type of patient to the office. This is the patient that will volunteer to help on various practice marketing projects that need an extra set of hands. Target market these patients because they are the ones that already have an understanding of your services and like what you provide.
4) Former Patients: This is the patient that had an experience at your office and had their expectations met but the experience was not that notable. This is a patient that needs to be brought back into the loop by continuing to utilize information and newsletters to update them on current events in your office.
Remarkable marketing is a plan to make your practice stand out. Things that you may take for granted in your office that are really worth noticing. You are the director of patient services in your office and if you aren’t then who is?
Give patients more incentives to use the services that you provide. Your techniques, services, staff members, office atmosphere, attitudes, and many other factors that you need to think of should all be made remarkable and marketable in your practice.
Practice distribution is a part of internal marketing that is used to involve your patients in helping you market your practice to their friends, families, and coworkers. This type of marketing is less expensive and more effective than more costly blanket marketing. Pamphlets, information about the practice, doctor curriculum vitae, educational information about health conditions, practice current events, changes taking place in the office and so on help to stimulate the relationship and all the excitement happening in your office.
The old saying goes that "boring will always lead to failure in marketing", so create an interest in your practice and your services. Look for patient volunteer marketing projects to get connected with at a community level. Have a focus group for your younger patients to see what they can do to contribute to building your practice in the future. The bottom line to tactical practice marketing is not being fearful and hoping that it will happen on its own. Believe me it is easier to work with people that are willing to help you in your practice to internally build than to try educate and find willing people from the outside market that know very little about what you have to offer. Your patients are likely to tell others about how remarkable you are. All you have to do is give them the chance.
Dr. Timothy J. Gay is a thirty-plus year veteran of Chiropractic health and wellness. Dr. Gay is the founder of Ultimate Practice, as well as an international speaker, an author, and has numerous CD and video products for the chiropractic profession. A highly respected and nationally recognized speaker, he holds many seminars around the country on a variety of topics.
Dr. Gay can be reached at
1(866) 797-8366, or e-mail us at ultimatepractice@ultimatepractice.com. For more information on Ultimate Practice, visit their website at www.ultimatepractice.com
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
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