If you're a chiropractor for any length of time, at some point you'll be hit up by some company that says,
“We'll run Facebook ads to get you hundreds of new clients”
The focus is really on the Facebook ads.
But what nobody seems to focus on, what nobody tells you is the ads are the easy part.
It's not hard to get somebody to click a link on Facebook.
What's really hard is to physically get somebody standing in your office.
Now, the good news for most chiropractors is: if they're physically in your office, there's way higher than a 90% conversion rate.
If that person shows up for an appointment, there's a 90% chance you're going to get them as a long-term client. It might even be higher than that.
But you gotta get them there.
So if you just post a Facebook ad that says,
“Hey, we're running this special offer, show up to our office to sign up.”
And if you had 1,000 people click that ad, I'd be shocked if one person came in. I just don't think that anybody's going to go from seeing a Facebook ad to physically standing in your office on their own accord unless you're giving away free money or something.
What nobody talks about is the follow-up. There's a lot of follow-up that needs to occur.
So let's say that person clicks the link. If you're getting clicks, then you're in the first step of the process, but you shouldn't stop there.
Well, from that point on, we want to start a conversation with them. How do we do that?
Well, we need to
- collect some information
- and have a method of getting ahold of them.
If you leave it up to Facebook, they might provide you their email address. But again, is email really the best thing to do there if you want to have a conversation?
Text message or, even better, a phone call would beat out email at that point.
The downside to all this – and I've screwed this up a lot – is if you run ads, people click, and then you don't follow with them.
In this case, it's not that you don't get them as patients. It's that now the feeling a lot those potential clients get is they don't like your company because your company doesn't follow up.
Therefore, it's not “maybe they'll do business in the future.”
It's: they definitely won't do business with you in the future.
That's not a good place to be.
I would say it's rare that Facebook ads don't work. What usually doesn't work is the follow-up system or lack thereof afterwards.
Now I want to give you a few tips about the steps you should take when building that conversation.
There's a step before the first step, which is setting up an ad that is able to somehow capture their mobile phone number.
You should always have the ability to send them a text.
Now, let's say you're putting out an ad with a guide to stretching for runners. They click on the ad that says “download our guide”
To get their number right off the bat, you can say:
“Would you like it sent immediately to your phone?”
If they say yes, you're opening a window for much more personal communication. Then they immediately get a text with a link saying “download your guide right here.”
So they're staying on Facebook until they get a text, which is also on their screen. It's a very fast way of going.
Once they get that guide to stretching, you want to set a timer for three to five minutes that alerts you to call them.
When you call them, there are a few ways you can start a deeper conversation. It can be as simple as:
“Hey, I noticed that you clicked to get the guide. Were you able to download it?“
Or “Hey, I noticed that you downloaded our guide to stretching for runners.
How often do you run?
And did you have any questions about the stretches?
Did you download this because you currently have pain or some other reason?”
If the person responds affirmatively, you can go on to offer your services:
“Oh, well, that's interesting.
We do this special evaluation for runners to see what their injuries are and help them avoid pain.
Would you like an evaluation?“
The perfect results are not going to happen with every single one of your calls, but one or two times out of 10 you get people who actually want your services.
That stretching guide is just the common ground you guys could both share.
And if you do get that new patient, you probably want to hit them from every media you can.
Make sure it's not strange for them to have a communication with you in all these different media.
Make sure that you text them early on.
Make sure you call them early on.
It wouldn't be bad to send them a thank you card or a letter after those first couple of visits, just to make sure that they recognize mail coming from you as well.
That way, the communication won't seem weird halfway through their relationship with you.