Affordable Spinal Decompression Marketing in a Tough Economy

The economy is rough right now. Marketing Spinal Decompression Therapy to patients, particularly when this is a service not often covered by insurance, is getting more difficult by the day. For many practices the knee jerk reaction is to scale back on everything; including spinal decompression marketing. This can be a fatal mistake for a chiropractic practice, or for any healthcare practice offering spinal decompression.

You need to fight the urge to push that "panic button". You need to fight the instinct to save dollars by eliminating marketing and advertising. As scary as it might sound, during these tough times you actually need to maintain, or even increase, your marketing efforts!

You might be thinking to yourself, "Why would I want to spend more money on advertising when I have less money coming in?" The answer is obvious. When money gets tight, patients often cut back on care or drop out of care entirely. This is even more true with something that is often not covered by insurance, like spinal decompression therapy. You need more new patients to pick up the slack. You'll never get them without increasing your spinal decompression marketing efforts.

Now hold on, I said increase your spinal decompression marketing; I didn't necessarily say you had to spend more on it! You need to market smarter rather than simply throwing more money at the same old advertising campaign. Although it may sound difficult to believe, you can actually increase your spinal decompression marketing efforts without spending more money! In fact, if you really take the time to plan your marketing strategy wisely, you might even end up spending less!

Let's take at look at how it is possible to successfully market your spinal decompression services in a tough economy, without breaking the bank! I've broke this down into 10 easy to follow steps:

1. Analyze your Current Marketing.


2. Ditch the "Duds" and Keep the "Killers"!


3. Make Changes!


4. Look to the Internet my Friend!


5. Take Advantage of all the FREE Spinal Decompression Marketing Available.


6. Re-Acquaint Yourself with Internal Marketing.


7. Use the Power of the FREE DVD and Other Free "Stuff"


8. Ask Yourself, What Makes YOUR Decompression Practice so Special?


9. Get Ready to Spend a lot . . . of Time NOT Money!


10. Continually Monitor and Re-Evaluate your Efforts

Let's take a look at each step individually.

Step 1: Analyze your Current Marketing.

In this step you need to take a critical look at ALL of your current marketing efforts. Before you can successfully plan any changes to your marketing plan you need to know where you stand. You have to know where you are at before you know where you are going!

This step can be painful at times, but it is absolutely necessary for future marketing success. Take a look at how your various types of marketing are doing. Carefully examine your marketing budget and your 12 month marketing calendar. If you don't have any sort of marketing schedule NOW is the time to start.

Step 2: Ditch the "Duds" and Keep the "Killers"

Now that you have examined and evaluated your marketing efforts you need to act accordingly. Ditch the duds. Take whatever marketing isn't working and get rid of it. If that old stale local newspaper ad hasn't brought in a new spinal decompression patient in months, why would the next 3 months be any different? Stop throwing money at what isn't working and keep those killer ads. A killer ad is simply those ads that work! It is amazing how often we overlook something so obvious. If an ad isn't working we need to do SOMETHING with it, which brings us to step 3.

Step 3: Make Changes.

Now that we know what isn't working, we need to do SOMETHING about it. This something will depend on your marketing budget. At times we need to kill an ad and put that extra cash toward running what is showing a return on investment. Sometimes we just need to look at the ad and reformat it. Making some fresh changes is often all that is needed.

In my opinion making changes that fail is more desirable than simply letting a "dud" ad continue running unsuccessfully. If you make changes to an ad, or run an entirely new ad, at least you have made some effort. Odds are that new ad will get noticed. Even if the new advertising isn't effective at least you have learned something. Take notes, make changes, and keep moving!

Step 4: Look to the Internet my Friend.

The internet is really taking over as a dominant form of advertising and marketing. If you think you can survive against your competition while ignoring internet marketing you are dead wrong. The days of the local paper newspaper and hardcopy yellow page books will eventually be gone. This is probably not as far off in the future as most of us think! Although marketing decompression on the internet is a challenge, it is also vital for survival.

Internet marketing is a challenge because it is such a dynamic medium. Things are constantly changing and it is a real challenge to keep up and stand out among a sea of competitors. However, if you want to succeed it is a challenge you must continually meet.

If you don't market your spinal decompression practice on the internet regularly, you need to start NOW. If you already market on the internet then you need to DOUBLE your efforts now. Take your presence on the internet at make it KNOWN. This is not too difficult and often requires you invest little more than time. That's right, some of the most beneficial and effective internet marketing is absolutely free!

Step 5: Take Advantage of all the FREE Spinal Decompression Marketing Available.

There are a ton of opportunities for FREE spinal decompression marketing available that most doctors miss! In step four I praised the internet. Well here I go again. Open your eyes doctor! Have you paid attention to any newspapers, television shows, or radio broadcasts lately? I challenge you to go a single day without hearing something about MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Twitter, or one of the other hundreds of free social networking sites. These are opportunities to connect with colleagues, potential patients, and fellow businesses! These are opportunities you need to sieze!

Post a video of your practice on YouTube or MySpace. Create a short infomercial or introduction to spinal decompression video clip which you can also link to from your site's home page. Offer to ship a free spinal decompression DVD or free information kit.

Email marketing can be free as well. Write an e-book which you can offer for free to those who provide their email address. Offer a free monthly email newsletter on health topics to members of your community. The possibilities with the internet are seemingly endless and they often cost very little but a lot of time!

Not ready for internet advertising? Then take advantage of old fashioned free advertising. Get out in your community. Meet people and introduce yourself and your services. Establish yourself as a local authority on non-surgical relief of back pain. Write an article for the local newspaper. Hold free workshops and lectures on preventing and treating back pain.

These are just some of the FREE advertising available. When the marketing budget gets tighter you need to expand your mind, step out of your comfort zone, and take advantage of the free advertising you have available!

Step 6: Re-Acquaint Yourself with Internal Marketing.
We often get so focused on external marketing that we forget about marketing within our practice. The best source for new spinal decompression patients is often your existing practice members. Keep your patients happy and educated!

When you have happy patients who understand the benefits of spinal decompression, then you must encourage them to tell others. Try implementing patient testimonials in your spinal decompression advertising.

What are other methods of internal spinal decompression marketing? Hold free health care classes and spinal decompression information classes for existing patients. You might also pass out free spinal decompression brochures or loop an educational spinal decompression DVD in the waiting room. You can also pass out free flyers or leave a stack of free spinal decompression audio CDS on the checkout counter. We have products to assist you with all of this!

Other good ideas are holding frequent drawings or contests for existing patients. Holding annual or semi-annual patient appreciation days is also a great idea. With happy patients you will see many new spinal decompression patients as word spreads. This effect is often two-fold when you openly an actively ASK for referrals from your existing patients, so don't be shy!

Step 7: Use the Power of the FREE DVD and Other Free "Stuff".
People don't like to feel like they are being aggressively sold a product or service. We don't like pushy salesmen and neither do our patients. Offering a free spinal decompression informational DVD or free spinal decompression information kit is a great idea. This allows you to market your services in a non-aggressive but effective manner. More importantly, who doesn't enjoy getting something FREE? Advertise these free products in your ads and online!

Step 8: Ask Yourself, What Makes YOUR Decompression Practice so Special?
The truth is spinal decompression isn't all that uncommon anymore. If you don't have any immediate spinal decompression competition in your area your practice is the exception rather than the rule. Spinal decompression practices are popping up everywhere. You need to ask yourself the same thing patients will be wondering, "what makes YOUR practice so special?" Is it your low fees? Your experience? Is your main advantage late evening and weekend hours?

Once you have your answer, tell prospective patients about it in your advertising! If you can't come up with an answer then you need to MAKE your practice stand out. Maybe you need late evening or weekend hours. Perhaps lower fees are in order? Although these changes may not be fun at first they are often all that is needed to jump start your practice to the next level.

Step 9: Get Ready to Spend a lot . . . of Time NOT Money!
I won't lie to you, smart and affordable spinal decompression marketing is a lot of work. When you are trying to maintain or increase your spinal decompression marketing while spending less money you are going to need to put your working hat on. You'll need your thinking cap and a lot of other hats too!

To save money you are going to be wearing a lot of hats. You'll probably be designing, editing, and coordinating a lot of your own marketing. If you are new to social networking and other free online advertising there is a bit of a learning curve. It all requires a commitment of your attention and time, but the end result will be worth your effort! Don't worry, when things pick up and your hard work is rewarded with an influx of new spinal decompression patients you can always delegate a task to someone else.

Step 10: Continually Monitor and Re-Evaluate your Efforts.
You need to constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing. In a way you are starting all over again at step one. You should be analyzing your marketing no less than on a monthly basis. Make changes, keep what works, and change what doesn't!

There you have it: a 10 step crash course on affordable spinal decompression marketing in a bad economy. Now you have a basic understanding of how you can actually maintain or increase your spinal decompression marketing in a slow economy. Plan carefully and seize those often missed opportunities for free advertising. Hopefully you have come away from this article with some great tips and hints on successfully marketing your spinal decompression services. For even more help with affordable spinal decompression marketing and patient education, visit our site at: http://www.clinicallysignificantproductions.com. In the meantime get out there and start making the changes needed to market your very beneficial services to patients who need it ; without it costing you an arm and a leg!