If you’ve run Facebook Ads for your practice to try and generate new patients, then you likely know the struggle of dealing with terrible lead quality.
You have probably experienced:
If this sounds familiar, know that you’re not alone.
And that’s because you’ve probably been sold the wrong expectation of how to use social media to grow your practice. There’s probably a guru out there that set this expectation that running a new patient special campaign is going to pull in all the patients you can dream of. The reality is that this doesn’t work.
People don’t go to Facebook to look for a Chiropractor.
Facebook is a “social media”, not a search engine. If you want to pull in people already looking for a Chiropractor, you should make sure you have a strong Google program to help you dominate the search results on Google. But people go on Facebook because they want to engage with their friends, see photos of family, and post about their dogs.
Consistently pushing your “offer” down their throats is only going to attract the tire-kickers that want a good deal. These leads are typically not actually invested in their health and not looking to make a long-term commitment. They are online couponers that saw something interesting at a good price. These are not the patients you’re looking for and not the leads that will ultimately grow your practice in the long run.
If you look at a normal sales funnel, you can correlate your “New Patient Special” ads with the last steps that lead to a conversion. The problem is that you’re completely skipping over the activities that fill up the funnel with quality candidates in the first place.
The majority of people are not even aware of what you do. There are people driving by your office every day that need your care but they don’t even know it. We first have to make them aware of what you do. Teach them about all the ways you can help them and show them how powerful Chiropractic care can be. Educate first to drive awareness and authority so you can fill your funnel.
You have to rethink how you use Facebook to grow your practice. Instead of using the platform to constantly drive leads, use it as a place to build your authority in your community. Use the platform to connect with people, build awareness of your name and brand, and build rapport with them.
Once you have built that authority and following of people who know, like, and trust you, that’s when you pull them in with your offer.
We reference this as the “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” strategy, coined by Gary Vaynerchuk’s book on social media strategy. First you “Jab, Jab, Jab” with educational content. Once you’ve established rapport and trust, you “Right Hook” with the offer that brings them in and converts them to lifelong patients.
The most powerful way to build an audience with patients online is to provide education. Specifically education on the symptoms and treatments you work on every day at your office. People are driving by your office every single day that need your care but they just don’t know what you do. So start educating them on all the amazing things that you’re helping patients with.
By pushing out educational material you are doing several things that are going to position you to win on social media.
The first problem is that so many people are in the dark about what it is you actually do and how you can help them live healthier lives. If everyone knew the power of Chiropractic, you wouldn’t need any marketing program at all because patients would be flooding in your door effortlessly. The education you provide is going to drive the demand for healthier living.
Your content is going to help people, rather they become patients or not, be more educated about their health and things they can do and pay attention to in order to live healthier lives. Giving tips and tricks to dealing with everyday symptoms is giving value to people dealing with these issues either now or in the future. Give the value upfront and don’t expect anything in return and you’ll earn the trust of those around you.
Your goal should be the local “celebrity” of chiropractic. When people in your community are seeing your content show up in their feed, you’re establishing a strong presence and creating awareness of who you are and what you do. As more people become aware of you, you’ll establish this local authority status and be the “go-to” resource for health care support.
You are demonstrating expertise and adding credibility to your practice as a Chiropractor. People don’t want to be sold to. Today they want authentic brands that they can trust and believe in. Your education content positions you as an expert who patients know, like and trust.
This content will get people into your funnel by starting at the awareness stage. Get people “in the know” with your educational content.
Patient education will have a major impact on your success. Your best patients are the ones that are educated about the things that you do, so focus on educating your community on all the things you see every day.
The best way to create educational content is with videos. Get yourself in front of the camera and talk to them about the things you do. On social media people have short attention spans, so you usually want your videos around 1 – 3 minutes long, so these are quick hitters that give valuable information in digestible chunks. In your videos, give them something useful that is preferable actionable that they can take away right away.
Come up with a list of the most common issues you deal with and start giving value to your community through video.
It might be intimidating to get in front of the camera and record yourself. We created another video creation guide that gives you all the tools you need to make your video recording easy and effective while still being high quality.
These videos allow you to get your face in front of people and start building that rapport with them. Establishing that relationship is the first step in building that following.
Promote these videos with ad spend. Posting them on your Facebook page is not enough because that only shows to people who already follow you. You want these videos to reach new people that don’t know you yet. So put some money behind them to promote it via a Facebook Ad. Once someone watches your videos, you can retarget them. Add them to a remarketing audience that you can hit with even more content.
Maybe they watch 50% of the first video and get added to your remarketing audience. Then next week you hit them again with another video about a different topic. Then the week after that you hit them again with another video. Then the week after that maybe it’s a blog article. Keep feeding them education. Keep yourself active in their newsfeed. Jab, Jab, Jab.
All of the sudden, these people have seen 3, 4, 5+ pieces of content that they’ve engaged with. You’ll have built an audience of people that have seen you over and over again with a bunch of content that has provided them value and education. They now know who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Plus, if they are engaging in your content, you know that they have some level of interest. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have engaged in the first place.
Now you have a warm audience. They have:
You now have an established relationship and rapport with these people that have consumed your content. Now is the perfect time for the “Right Hook” where you invite them in for care. This is when you make them an offer with your new patient special.
Since these people have already become familiar with you and trust you because of the value you brought to them, they are much more open to receiving care from you. They also have some type of interest level because they’ve been watching your videos, reading your articles, and visiting your website. So the likelihood of them actually booking an appointment, showing up for care, and being committed to the treatment plan is significantly higher. These people have been warmed up and are much further along in the decision-making process for getting help with their health.
The patients that come in because they became educated are also going to be your best patients. These are the patients that you want to see in your office every day. On top of that, you don’t have to “sell” yourself as hard because these patients are already bought in and educated on what you do. They are already ready to go. You can get away from being a chiropractic salesperson and instead be the chiropractic doctor you were meant to be.
Use Lead Generation and Message Ads on Facebook to push your offer in front of your warmed-up audience. They are going to recognize you and be more open to what you have to offer since you’ve already built a relationship with them through your valuable content.
This strategy is not easy, and it does take time. You’re likely going to see an increase in “cost-per-lead” and it’s going to take longer for these large volumes of leads to flow in consistently, but it will be worth it in the long ru. The leads you receive will be significantly better quality and the appointments that are booked will convert to long-term care a lot easier than the tire-kickers you’re used to seeing.
Facebook advertising works with the right strategy. Rethink how you approach social media and use it in the way it was designed to. You’ll reap the benefits in the long haul and be thankful you make the adjustments in your strategy.
If you need help executing with your Facebook Ads, or any other digital channels to get new patients in your door, we’re here for you.
Nick is the Founder of CHIROBASIX, a marketing agency that specializes in helping Chiropractors dominate their local markets and drive new patient acquisition.
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