Shared by: George Youssef:
george@chirosuccess.com

Chiropractic Marketing Success Newsletter Issue #44

"Making Summer Time the Busy Time"

    Well, summer's almost here again.  It's actually pretty funny, 
some doctors I've spoken with tell me that summer is the 
slowest time of year for them... and others tell me it's their best 
time. And from what I could see, there isn't much of a 
difference in the geography or operations of the doctors who 
have a busy summer vs. those who have a slow summer.  

    I'm guessing that it has more to do with perception and 
expectation than it does anything else.  So if you've traditionally 
had a slow summer, then right now is the time to decide that 
this will no longer be acceptable.

    I'm not kidding!  If you want the summer season to be your 
busy season, then you can make it happen... and I'll show you 
how to do it right here.

    But before we go in depth, I want you to remove the 
mentality that summer is slow, that people are too busy enjoying 
the weather to come in, or that too many people are on 
vacation and miss appointments.

    Yeah, this all may be true to one degree or another.  But you 
know what?  We can either focus on the problems, or on the 
solutions.  And I for one would rather focus on the solutions.  
So let's get started.

    I'm going to share with you one of my cardinal rules - when 
things are going slow, that's when I work twice as hard.  To 
me, this has always been common sense.  If things are going 
slow, this is the time for me to kick some butt so that I can pick 
up the pace again.

    Strangely enough though, I see too many business owners 
that just sit on their butts and do nothing when they have no 
customers, or in your case patients.  They just sit down, play on 
their computers, and wait for business to pick up again.

    I tend to look at those people like they have three eyes.  If 
things aren't going your way by themselves, then you make 
them go your way through your actions.

    So if things are slow for you in the summer, I want you to sit 
down and make a list of 5-10 things that you can do to pick up 
business.  Do this either right now, or after you're done reading 
this newsletter - just make sure you WRITE IT DOWN.

    Can't think of any ideas?  Well, here are some suggestions...

1)  Do a patient appreciation day - send a letter to all your 
active AND inactive patients and invite them to a patient 
appreciation day where they'll receive a complimentary exam 
and adjustment if they've been patients in the past.  And also 
offer to give a complimentary exam for all their friends and 
family members who come to the patient appreciation day.  
Also mention that there will be balloons, food, refreshment, and 
door prizes.  Make it into a fun, big event.  One doctor using 
this strategy got 40 new patients in one day!  And this doesn't 
mention the added boost in moral and excitement for him and 
his entire staff.

2)  Reactivate Inactive Patients - Send out a letter to all your 
inactive patients offering them a complimentary exam and 
adjustment.  For an improvement in response by 200% - 500%, 
have an assistant follow up on the letter with a phone call.

3)  Advertise - Run advertisements in your local paper.  
Advertising can be a very effective method for getting new 
patients.  Just make sure you test out on a small basis to make 
sure the ad works before spending too much money running 
the same ad over and over when it's not working for you.

4)  Start a PR campaign - Compile a list of all the newspapers, 
TV stations, radio stations, and other media sources in your 
area, and send them a press release about your practice on a 
weekly basis.

5)  Prepare Your Marketing Plan - When business is slow, 
that's the perfect opportunity to design your marketing plan for 
the entire year.  Decide what practice-building strategies you're 
going to use, when you're going to use them, and how they're 
going to be used.  Then create a schedule for implementing 
these strategies.

6)  Use Your imagination - There are literally thousands of 
things you can do to boost your practice in a slow period.  Just 
use your imagination.  And if you can't think of any, or if you 
want more strategies, then you might consider ordering the 
Complete Chiropractic Marketing Program.  This program has 
dozens of strategies and promotional pieces that you can use 
to grow your practice.  For more information, go to  
http://www.chirosuccess.com/special/chirocourse-chiroads.html

    Anyway, the ideas I shared with you here should get your 
brain jogging.  Just make sure you implement at least one or 
two new practice-building strategies, and soon you'll be turning 
the summer season into the busiest time of year!

-------