How to Attract Profitable Patients

Before you balk at our headline, it’s not about the money. It’s always about people. It just happens that the right thing to do can also be the most profitable thing to do. Consider that your patients can represent two sides of the same coin: there are consumers who are looking for and willing to pay for results, but they also happen to benefit the most and find the most value in those results.

You deserve high-quality patients—the ones who love you and your practice, pay what you ask (on time) without trying to haggle with you, and refer you to other ideal patients.

You’re strategically attracting a love fest. A profitable one.

Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Patient

There are many advantages to identifying and attracting your ideal patients.  Here are just a few:

• They take less energy from you; indeed, they often energize you.
• It costs less to market to them.
• It takes less time to persuade them your practice is right for them.
• It’s easier to attract them and serve them overall.
• It provides focus for your practice development and your marketing.
• You can charge ideal patients a premium for your offerings.

It’s pretty simple to identify your ideal patient. Just brainstorm with your team about your favorite patients. Who do you love to see coming through the door? Now what do all these patients have in common? It may be the kind of services they come in for. It could be the fact they are always referring you to friends and family.

Take note of their attitudes. Do they really respect the service and knowledge you have to offer? Do they respect and value your time? Do they follow your advice so that they get great results? Now take a look at the demographics of these favorite patients. Are they all twenty-something college students? Are they mothers or fathers? Grandparents? Maybe they have the sort of hobby or job that makes them need your services. In general, you want to attract people you love to have around every day.

When you market to your ideal patient, you’re going to use messaging that addresses their concerns and what’s most important to them. When you identify your ideal patient, your messages, illustrations and the kind of marketing you use will all cater to that ideal patient’s persona. If you pick up any marketing book, there will undoubtedly be a chapter on identifying the best kind of customers for your business. One of our favorites is “The Pumpkin Plan” by Mike Michalowicz. It doesn’t matter which process you use. Just create a good picture of your perfect patient and make sure your staff participates and is aware of your marketing efforts.

Step 2: Create Services Your Ideal Patient Will Love

Once you’ve identified your ideal patient, you want to double-check you are offering services that they will love. Brainstorm with your staff on this question. Maybe they’ve heard some suggestions along the way. However, don’t try to be all things to all people. Not all suggestions are great ideas. What you are doing here is an exercise to define anything missing that you think your ideal patients would love. You might want to create and launch a new kind of package that increases the number of dollars spent per visit AND the value that you provide to each patient. Bundling gives your patients the opportunity to enjoy more services in one stop and receive more comprehensive care. Click here to read our article about launching a new product or service.

Many chiropractors develop a signature workshop for themselves. It should be on a topic of great interest to your ideal patient but also something you are passionate about. When you have developed the signature workshop you can deliver it upon request at local area businesses. See our article about joint ventures for more information on this strategy. A signature workshop can also be turned into a webinar or home study course that you can sell along with other products. This kind of product can create passive income for you. Otherwise known as “making money while you sleep.”

Step 3: Marketing to Attract Profitable Patients

Your marketing message and other content will be dictated by what’s important to your ideal patient. It’s important to know who you are speaking to, not only to attract your ideal patients, but to resist the temptation of attracting the wrong patients. Your exercise in Step #1 will help creative people like graphic artists, web designers and copywriters create marketing materials that resonate with your ideal patient. Don’t be afraid of alienating prospects who do not fit into your ideal patient picture. Non-ideal patients won’t spend as much with you or remain customers as long as ideal patients will.

We wrote a guide about several marketing dos and don’ts for our newsletter subscribers. If you are a newsletter subscriber and haven’t downloaded this guide, email Steve and ask him for a copy. If you’re not yet a newsletter subscriber, go to our homepage, sign up for our newsletter, and you’ll immediately get the guide.

Here are some of the best ways to market for profitable patients:

Ask for referrals from your current ideal patients: Your ideal patients tend to hang out with others just like them and are your best source of referrals. Remember when we asked what your ideal patients having common? If it is a certain sport or type of work, they likely hang out with many other people who play or work exactly like they do.

Ask for testimonials from your current ideal patients: Ideal patients say things in their testimonials that will resonate with strangers who happen upon them on your website. Video testimonials are even better! You can post testimonials on your website, social media and also on your ChiroTV Network channel. (Yes, this is a shameless plug and it’s not the last one.)

Promote all your services:  Your ideal patients need to know about everything you can help them with. They already love and trust you, so make it easy for them to access wellness wherever they need it in life. Their friends and family may also have different needs than they do, and they won’t know you can help unless they are informed.

When you’re aiming to build a family wellness practice for life, the needs of your ideal patients will doubtlessly change with time. Make sure you communicate with them about these needs and develop services if they make sense. Select your key and most profitable services and focus on each one of them for a time in your marketing. Make sure you feature each of them on your website, social media and of course as different segments or slides on your ChiroTV Network channel. (That’s the last shameless plug, we promise.  Although if you are already a subscriber, it’s just a friendly reminder of the power of your multitasking marketing tool!)

Check out resources about marketing to the affluent: Sometimes, your best and most profitable patients will also be the most affluent. As you know, wellness services are rarely covered by insurance and are most often offered on a cash basis. Which is one reason they’re so attractive for chiropractic practices to incorporate into their business models. It does take a certain amount of disposable income to frequent a wellness practice. There are many books written on the subject. Our favorite is Dan Kennedy’s “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent.”

There you have it. Just our highlights for attracting profitable patients and helping you grow the family wellness center of your dreams. If you have any questions about how to set up your ChiroTV Network system to accomplish any of these suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us.