The 4 Pillars Of Your Practice’s Online Presence
Does your online presence match the level of care you provide in your practice?
From working with some incredible chiropractors, I have seen first-hand the amount of work that goes into running a practice and not surprisingly, producing content, managing social media and creating email sequences often has to take a back seat.
But remember this: your online presence is one of the most important factors in how your community and potential patients view both you and your practice. It’s the first impression they have before you’ve even met.
My name is Lee Laughton, I’m the owner of Blitz Digital Media, and in this article I want to share with you the 4 areas we focus on as a Media Agency that works solely with chiropractors, why you should be focussed on these areas, and why breaking my back was the best thing that ever happened to me!
What Are The 4 Pillars?
1. Acquisition
Would you like a constant flow of new patients? Silly question? Well, here’s one that’s not so silly: Do you know your perfect patient avatar (PPA)?
“What is a Perfect Patient Avatar?” I hear you say.
A PPA is a detailed profile of your ideal patient. This is crucial to working out exactly how you can help that patient and where they spend most of their time online. You may have more than one PPA depending on your specialist areas but you definitely need to know at least one.
These days, no matter what the age and demographic of your PPA, they are likely spending a lot of their time online. That’s just the world we live in.
Once you have your PPA or PPA’s figured out, you’re in a much better position to begin showing them content and offers that resonate with them in the places you know they are spending their time online.
High quality social media ads are hands down the best way in the current climate to inform, educate and ensure a constant flow of new patients in to your practice.
Knowing your PPA will tell you where to place these ads. A 25 year old male suffering with a sports injury is not spending his time in the same place as the elderly lady who’s suffering with osteoarthritis. But you better believe that they’re both spending their time online somewhere.
2. Nurturing
Once you’ve acquired your new patient the work doesn’t stop there, and it doesn’t stop in your practice either.
Your patients need to know they are cared for digitally just as well as they are both mentally and physically when they visit to you for adjustments and advice.
Perfectly timed emails and text messages to check in on your patients along their journey, and to bring them advice and value in between sessions does just this, and no, I’m not talking about appointment reminders.
Judy sees your ad on social, has been in touch with the front desk and her new patient assessment is booked. She now needs to know exactly what to expect. I know from my own experience as a chiropractic patient, the thought of someone cracking your neck can be daunting and even a little scary when you know nothing about chiropractic.
An onboarding sequence is perfect for this, being in constant contact with your new patients while they settle in to care is vital, emails in this series can include:
· What happens at your initial assessment
· Welcome to the practice
· Pre and Post R.O.F emails
· Patient testimonials
· Informative video series
· And more
These emails reassure, inform and even entertain throughout the patients first 1-3 months and builds more of a relationship, making them feel cared for, comfortable and at ease when they next come in to the practice.
Emails are also a great way for sharing your blog posts and updating your patients both in and out of care on what’s been happening in your practice. Your patients like to see behind the curtain and feel like they are a part of a community.
Speaking of which, Pillar number 3 is…
3. Community Building
By offering patients a view into your practice, perhaps even your own health journey or personal anecdotes, and giving them a platform to share their personal stories and connect with each other is paramount to building your community.
Community building is vital to growing your practice and the engagement you have online, helping make the decision to return to your practice and recommend you to friends and family an easy one.
The best places to build your community is on Facebook and Instagram or if you’re good in front of the camera which I know a lot of you chiropractors are, then YouTube is a great place to provide value and create a real community amongst your followers.
By building fans of your practice, you won’t need to ‘sell’ them on anything – word spreads, your expertise speaks for itself, and your community backs the great work that you do. This creates ambassadors for your brand that will share your content with their friends and family time and again.
And yes, your practice is a brand. Let’s discuss this further.
4. Branding or Identity
Your branding is your identity, both online and in the real world.
Before a visitor reads a single word on your page, they have already judged you on the style and layout. The old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply when it comes to your website. Attention spans are sadly, shorter than ever and all it takes is a poor choice of colour pallet or a badly designed logo to turn people away from your site.
I started this journey as a graphic designer so this part is very close to my heart. The colours you choose, the spacing in your logo and the documents you hand to your patients on their first visit and progress exams leaves a lasting impression.
People likely won’t consciously think about this (unless they’re obsessed with this kind of thing, like me), but subconsciously, they will appreciate the clean look of a well-designed form or logo and the professional level of your content will reassure them they are in good hands… Literally.
Does your branding portray the caring, friendly atmosphere that you have in your practice? Or could it use a bit of attention, maybe to bring it in to the 21st century.
Take a look at some brands you admire and see how they are doing things, but don’t use the same logo as every other chiropractor out there, and try to make yourself unique in your branding.
People will notice.
Conclusion
I truly hope you got some value from this article, and it’s given you some food for thought when it comes to planning and executing the work you do online.
Chiropractic has made such a huge difference to my life and I’m so pleased to be able to give back to the industry by using the skills and knowledge I have acquired over the last 6 years of running online businesses to introduce people to the great work you do.
In 2017, I fractured 5 vertebrae from T8-T12 while living in Thailand. I went to the hospital there where they gave me a lot of pain killers and sent me on my way. I then got the same treatment when I visited the hospitals here in the UK.
Luckily, A friend of mine recommended I go to my local chiropractor, Epoch Lincoln, where it’s safe to say my life was changed forever. I still go every other week just to keep myself aligned and give my body the best chance to tackle anything that comes my way.
3 years after my first visit and I’m in the best health of my life, I am pain free and am now able to help people discover chiropractic every day, which brings me immense fulfilment.
That is why, breaking my back was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. If I hadn’t had that accident in Thailand, I may have never discovered chiropractic.
Because we work closely with the UCA, we’re offering free audits to all members. This involves me going through your online presence and giving in depth feedback and suggestions in a free 30 minute phone call. There is no obligation to work with us. It’s just a bonus for being a UCA member.
Our mission here at Blitz, is to introduce chiropractic to 1 million people. If you would like to help us achieve this, or you have any questions about the things I’ve covered in this article, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can complete a contact form on our website www.blitzdm.com. Ask me anything you want and I will do my very best to help you.
You will also find links to our social media and YouTube channel, where I go into these topics in much more detail and even show you step by step how to set a lot of them up.
Have a wonderful day and thank you for all that you do.
Lee Laughton