Friday, January 22, 2010

Word of Mouth Marketing For Your Chiropractic Practice

By Frank Gordon

Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is probably the most powerful type of marketing a chiropractic practice can utilize but it is not always fully understood. Word of mouth marketing is the marketing of your practice by individuals to other individuals. Unlike traditional marketing where an advertising message is created to reach the masses, word of mouth marketing involves individual messages communicated from one individual to another one.
WOM can take many forms such as:
· Personal blogging where individual posts messages about your practice;
· Viral marketing such as is the case where an Internet video gains popularity and it viewed by thousands of people;
· Other consumer generated media such as posts within user forums and comments placed on other websites;
· Referrals where one or more individuals recommend chiropractic practice to individuals.
Here are several tips to make WOM effective:
1. Make sure you provide exceptional service to your current patients and, ideally, that you have developed a memorable "brand" for your practice. If your reputation is not stellar, word of mouth marketing can be a huge detriment. It has been said that if one person has a bad experience they will tell then others. A bad reputation is very difficult to repair.
2. Identify key influencers who can spread the positive word about your practice. Key influencers are people who have lots of contacts they communicate on a regular basis. For example, this would usually include key community leaders.
3. Make it easy for people to speak about you. Put some suggested wording together for how people can describe your practice. This is important because often people find it difficult to describe you or their experiences or knowledge about your practice.
4. Share interesting stories about your practice- talking points that would create interest in your practice. You might consider this as "priming the pump" to get people talking about you and about your practice.
5. Actively participate in a charitable cause in your community. This will help to differentiate you from other chiropractic practices in your community and will provide another "talking point" for word of mouth marketing.
6. Encourage others to talk about you. Explain that you build your practice by "word of mouth" and that if others are having positive experiences with you that they "spread the word" about their experiences.
7. Distribute your marketing material in locations which will cause others to talk about you. For example, provide copies of news articles about you to new patients coming to your practice.
8. Consider using social media marketing to add "buzz" on the Internet for those in your local community. If planned and executed and maintained properly social media marketing can expand your "word of mouth" program- in this case "word by Internet."
Word of mouth marketing can be a powerful marketing approach for your practice if implemented correctly and consistently applied. Consider word of mouth marketing for your practice today!
Billing Precision, LLC, is a leading-edge chiropractic office profitability management solution. Its all-in-one Internet-based system includes accountable and transparent billing service, state-of-art touch-screen SOAP notes, advanced patient scheduling, and real-time monitoring for compliance and audit exposure. Billing Precision's unique value stems from its ability to level the playing field with payers and get chiropractors paid in full and on time by capitalizing on modern Internet technology and billing network effect. More at http://www.chiropracticbillingprecision.com

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