December 2005
Vol. 2, Issue 6
The Spinal Column

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services
Contest Winner: Congratulations Kevin Segal
To Grow: Time Management: "If Only I Had the Time I
bulletCould Do So Much More"
Marketing Idea of the Month #18: Rifle vs. Shotgun
Advertising. Why Newspaper Ads Are Not For You
Letter of the Month
Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Network

 

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services

On December 31st we will be awarding a free marketing program valued at $1,000 to one of our subscribers. To be eligible all you need to do is be an active subscriber to The Spinal Column.

The winning doctor will be announced in the January issue of this newsletter.

Congratulations to Kevin Segal!

Kevin Segal is our $1,000 marketing package winner for November. Kevin Segal, please contact Sonia at Metro Marketing by Wednesday, January 3rd, 2006. To be eligible to win for December, just sign up for our newsletter and look at it when it arrives in your in box. It's that easy to win a $1,000 marketing package.

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To Grow: Time Management: "If Only I Had the Time I Could Do So Much More"

Some of us are more educated than others. Some of us have more ambition and more drive than others. We don’t all have the same amount of money in the bank.

But when it comes to time, we are all playing by the same rules with no unfair advantage.

24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 365 days in most years for a total of 8,760 hours in a year.

That’s how many hours you have, I have and everyone else has.

So the difference is in how we spend those hours and how we manage or rather mismanage our precious time.

We all know what needs to get done, be it in business or our personal lives.

We just don’t have the time. Or do we? We can’t fix the problem (find the time) until we identify the problem.

Where are the hours in the day going? Where are the time robbers?

How you are spending your time is something we have to first determine before we can free up time for what you know needs to get done.

Think you know how you are spending your day? Think again.

Yes, you may know the big picture such as how many patients you saw yesterday. But do you really know where every 15-minute block of time went from the time you got up in the morning until you laid your head on the pillow at night?

Most likely not.

Here’s a simple exercise that can, or rather will, change your life forever.

It’s something you may want your office staff to do as well. Or anyone else in your life who ‘just doesn’t have enough hours in the day’.

Just take a blank sheet of paper and divide it into 15-minute grid boxes.

Across the top of the sheet mark the days Sunday through Saturday. Down the left side margin, break up your day into 15-minute blocks of time from when you get up until you go to bed.

As an example, if you get up at 7 a.m. and go to bed at 11 p.m. you will have 7 columns across the top (days in the week) and 64 15-minute sections along the left side.

448 (64 times 7) 15-minute boxes of time. Okay, you may need two sheets of paper.

Now what you need to do is quite simple. For the next 2 weeks – 14 days – every 15 minutes record specifically what you did in the previous 15 minutes.

The more specific you are the more effective this exercise will be in changing your life forever.

Details, details, details. Write small if you have to but don’t generalize.

Don’t do anything until the 14 days of recording your activities in 15-minute blocks is done.

Now the fun, interesting and eye-opening part of the activity.

Go back and carefully read each of the 15-minute blocks.

Start grouping them together.

Okay, how many hours in a day or week did you: Watch TV … read a newspaper or magazine … commute to work … do paperwork … see patients … eat … socialize in the office and out … work on a hobby … spend time with a loved one … help your children with their homework?

Get the idea? Let’s group the top 15 to 20 activities and see the total time we are spending in each area.

Boy are you going to be surprised!

As a matter of fact, before you even start the recording process see if you can guess how you spend your 112 (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.) waking hours in a week.

Now compare your estimate to the real number.

See a difference? I guarantee you that you will. I don’t care who you are unless you are a 1 in 10,000 fluke you are ‘wasting’ anywhere from 20% to 50% of your time on either activities that could just as easily be done by someone else or those that really need not be done at all.

Many years ago I was taught that if someone else who is earning less per hour than you are could be doing what you are doing then they should be doing the chore not you.

Think about that for a minute.

Look at your two-week summary. What could others be doing for you? What could you bunch together and do more effectively to save time? What could simply be thrown overboard?

Personal note: When I realized (through the same exercise) that I was spending 2 hours per day watching the news learning nothing of value (even the weather forecast was wrong more times than not) and just getting depressed (about the world) or scared about a local fire or shooting, I came to the conclusion, that since I couldn’t manufacture more time, I could make better use of the two hours with all the “must do projects but ain’t got the time” list that was growing.

If I ever jettison the four daily newspapers I read along with the no less than 15 monthly magazines (and when it’s all over what have I learned, how will it improve my life or the life of my loved ones) I will have hours upon hours to work on my dreams … my goals … my day to day needs.

So the bad news is there are 24 hours in a day. Always has been. Always will be.

We all start with the same ball of clay (24 hours in a day).

You are wasting 20% to 50% of your waking hours.

You can find out how, when, where by doing the simple two-week exercise we just outlined.

You will then have time to do all the things you know need to get done. All the things you tell yourself would get done if you ‘only had the time’.

Or will they? Maybe a “lack of time” is just a smokescreen excuse.

We’ll find out very shortly.

If a day or two goes by and you haven’t started this time log tracking, then I think it’s time you had a good long hard talk with yourself to find out the real reason why you don’t want to tackle that all important “Things to Do” list.

Start today or you most likely never will.

Marketing Idea of the Month #18: Rifle vs. Shotgun Advertising. Why Newspaper Ads Are Not For You!

Each month we will give you a proven marketing tip or program that, if done right, will work for you. Collect, read and use all 36 of them over the next three years and you will have put together an effective powerful marketing program to help grow your chiropractic practice.

Last issue’s idea:Selling Benefits Not Features

This month’s idea: Rifle vs. Shotgun Advertising. Why Newspaper Ads Are Not For You!

A famous corporate executive once said ”Half of all the money my company spends on advertising is a total waste. The problem is I don’t know which half”.

So true. So true. So true.

Rifle vs. Shotgun.

A large corporation can afford to waste up to 50% of their marketing and advertising dollars and still be profitable.

That’s not the case for you. And even if you are ‘profitable’, why waste money if you need not?

When you have a huge budget you can afford to spray your message (shotgun) in all different directions knowing that some of them will hit the target (the customer or client).

Billboards … TV … Radio … Newspapers … Magazines … the Internet … Direct Mail. The list of ways to spend your money is almost limitless.

Why spend advertising dollars in a newspaper when 90% of its readers never have and never will visit a chiropractor?

For every $1,000 you spend $900 is being wasted on non-interested readers.

Those are not very good odds. The same is true for most other media available to you.

What percent of people passing a billboard will ever visit a chiropractor?

Again, over 90% of your investment is falling on deaf ears or blind eyes.

If you must advertise in a newspaper for reasons unknown to me, then at least try to improve your odds.

Run only in the health section knowing that the readers who read the health section or column are more likely than the run of the press readers to care about their health.

Try to target your message to a specific page even if you have to pay a premium for the spot.

If I were selling tickets to sporting events I think we all know what section I’d be running my ads in.

First you need to establish a budget. Then start with what’s going to give you the best return on investment and work your way down the ladder.

At the top of the ladder would be making sure my present patients love me. What else could I be doing to make sure they never left? I’d be asking myself that question every day.

Referrals would be next. If every one of my existing patients got me one new patient – wow, my practice would double.

Now that’s a great place to spend advertising/marketing dollars. Getting referrals.

Past patients. Let’s get them back or at least find out why they stopped coming. Great return on investment here so let’s allocate dollars to this area as well.

Continue working your way down the ladder only going to the next less cost effective ‘media’ when you have exhausted ideas for the most effective one. Newspapers are good for food stores (everyone eats).

But if you agree that 90% of your community will never see the inside of a chiropractic office regardless of what you do, then why do you continue to waste 90% of your hard-earned money ‘talking’ to people who will never be interested?

Take the rifle approach. Make every ‘shot’ count. Make every dollar expenditure cost effective. Start thinking about ROI (return on investment).

What percent of the audience you will be reaching will ever see the inside of a chiropractic office?

If the answer is not a high one, move on to something far more cost effective.

P.S. I need not have to remind you that Metro Marketing’s new patient program where we find for you 20 to 100 new potential patients should be at the very top of your marketing ladder and budget. Why? It’s very simple. You only pay for new prospective patients who come in to your office.

No waste. No shotgun approach.

As close to rifle marketing as you can get. We deliver or you don’t pay. Call 800-696-7788 ext. 248 for details.

Letter of the Month

Each month we will give you a ready-to-use letter that can be used to help promote your practice.

A professional copywriter would charge you anywhere from $150 to $350 to write you a marketing letter, but as a subscriber to The Spinal Column you get it for free.

Don't forget to check out all the back issues and letters of the month as well.

This month’s letter: Letter to Lapsed Patients

Free downloadable copy

Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader

To grow your practice your professional marketing skills are as important as your chiropractic knowledge, maybe even more so.



Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Referral Network

We are excited to announce the successful launch of
ChiroCommunity.com, with a phenomenal response
from chiropractors all across the United States!

Don't let your competitor "lock you out" of your zip code!
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Remember, only one chiropractor in each zip code.

Publisher: The Spinal Column
Director: 800 696 7788, ext. 112
E-Mail: larry@chirometromarketing.com
 

P.S. If you would like information on our test drive new patient programs with a 100% money-back guarantee (if we don’t deliver) call us at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.

P.P.S. We now have a new program that pre-qualifies the patients we send you. They must have a treatable condition and insurance or a job.

Call for details at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.

 


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©2005 Metro Marketing, Inc.

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