George Youssef .. george@chirosuccess.com
Chiropractic Marketing Success
http://www.chirosuccess.com

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"Creating the Ultimate Anniversary Celebration"

    If you've been in practice for more than a few months, then 
pretty soon you will be hitting your anniversary date.  
Regardless of whether this will be your first celebration, or your 
twentieth, with proper planning, this event could be one of the 
most effective in terms of new patients.

    Before we get into that though, I want you to think back to 
your last anniversary celebration.  Well, if you're like most 
chiropractors I've spoken to, then probably one of the following 
situations occurred...

1) You did nothing, and treated the anniversary as you would 
any other day.

2) You put on a little party, expecting tons of people to come, 
and very few people, if any, showed up.

    If you fit into the second situation, don't despair.  There are 
strategies to go about creating an anniversary celebration that 
will have your office full of prospective patients.  And if you fit 
into the first situation, then what are you waiting for?  The next 
anniversary of your practice, make use of what you are about 
to learn here, and prepare to have a blast!

    Before we discuss the appropriate steps to take in order to 
have a successful anniversary celebration, first let's discuss 
why you would even want to have a celebration.  In fact, so 
many doctors automatically assume that they either should or 
should not have a celebration, that they never even stop to 
consider what benefits they might acquire.  So here's a brief list:

1) Reward current patients - By throwing a celebration, you're 
basically rewarding your patients for choosing you as their 
chiropractor.  So make sure they have fun, and they'll come 
back to you way after their initial symptom is taken care of.

2) Acquire new patients - By using some of the strategies we'll 
talk about in a minute, you can use this opportunity to generate 
new patients.

3) Reactivate inactive patients - Let's face it, the easiest 
patient to get is someone who's been to you in the past.  An 
anniversary celebration can be an excellent opportunity to 
reactivate some of these patients.  We'll discuss this later on.

4) Generate excitement within your staff - Hey, parties are 
exciting, and excitement is contagious.  So look at this 
celebration as a way to energize your staff's batteries and get 
them pumped up.

5) Pat yourself on the back - Hey, you've made it this far.  I 
think you'll agree with me that you deserve to pat yourself on 
the back.  So celebrate my friend, and congratulations!

    Okay, now that we know WHY you should throw an 
anniversary celebration, the next step before we get into 
promoting the celebration, is to discuss what you should do 
during this celebration.

    Basically, you want to have this be a party atmosphere.  So 
you'll want to have food and refreshments (pizza, soda, and 
cake usually are appropriate), as well as balloons and things of 
that nature - things you would normally have in a party.

    Also, you might want to have something entertaining for the 
little kids, so they'll have fun as well (and so they won't prevent 
the parents from enjoying themselves).  In addition, many 
doctors like to give away door prizes like a bike or a television.  
While these aren't necessary, they do build up the excitement 
and make the situation more fun.

    During this celebration, in addition to having fun, you can 
provide complimentary adjustments to current patients, and 
complimentary exams to prospective and inactive patients.  Of 
course, depending on turnout, you may not have enough time 
to do a full exam for all the new patients.  If that's the case, 
then you can do a mini-exam, and have your CA schedule 
those prospective patients to come for a full exam later on in 
the week.

    The celebration can also be an excellent opportunity to give 
a 10-15 minute talk about chiropractic and health, and to hand 
out patient education brochures and literature.

    Okay, so we've discussed the benefit of an anniversary 
celebration, and what to do during this celebration.  Now, let's 
discuss how to make it into a huge turnout, and how to 
produce the most new patients from it.

    There are several ways to promote this event.  Here are a 
few suggestions you can utilize:

1) Current patients - To promote this event to current patients, 
you can hand out flyers when they come to your office, tell 
them in person when you see them, send them a letter, or have 
someone in your practice call them at home to remind them.  A 
combination of these is most effective.  You will probably want 
to offer them a complimentary exam and adjustment, and 
mention to them to bring their friends and family, and that the 
friends and family will receive a complimentary exam.

2) Inactive patients - An anniversary celebration is an excellent 
opportunity to reactivate inactive patients.  You'll want to send 
a direct mail letter to all your inactive patients, regardless of the 
length of time since they have last came to see you.  In the 
letter you'll want to mention that you haven't seen them in a 
while, that you hope they're doing well, and that you're having 
an anniversary celebration and you would love for them to 
come.  Mention to them that you'll have a complimentary exam 
ready for them, and that there'll be food, refreshments, and 
door prizes.  You can also offer them to bring their friends and 
family members... Hey, you might as well kill two birds with one 
stone - reactivate inactive patients and generate new patients 
out of the same letter!  For maximum results, have someone 
from your office call up the inactive patients a week later to 
confirm that they received the letter and to get confirmation of 
their attendance.

3) Advertising - Hey, if you want to make this event big, then 
you'll also want to look outside of your practice to get the most 
exposure.  Consider running a newspaper advertisement about 
your anniversary celebration.  Mention all the fun attendees will 
have, in addition to the food and refreshment.  Plus, you can 
mention that you'll hold a 15 minute health class.  Make sure 
you tell the readers to call and reserve their attendance, 
otherwise the advertisement will probably be ineffective.

4) Publicity - You can use this opportunity to get some publicity 
for your practice.  Just compile a list of the media outlets in your 
area (i.e. newspapers, radio and TV stations, etc.) and send 
them a press release about your anniversary celebration, and 
all the wonderful things that will happen during that event.

    Just remember, the four strategies above are only ideas.  If 
you use them, you'll get great results.  But I'll bet that if you 
think about it a little, you'll probably come up with even more 
ideas.  Also, a basic strategy like the one outlined in this 
newsletter can also be used for a grand opening celebration, 
so use your imagination and have fun!

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