Why The Way You FEEL About Marketing Your Chiropractic Practice Matters
Does marketing your chiropractic practice feel super easy and wonderful for you?
If you’re like most women chiropractors, the answer is a strong “heck no.”
In fact, if you’re like most women in chiropractic, you find marketing your practice to be confusing, exhausting, and downright UGH.
I recently polled women in the Aligned Chiro Marketing FB group to ask how the word “marketing” makes them feel.
I think I worded the question like this: “in one word, when you think about marketing right now, how do you feel?”
In the responses, I could see a pattern.
Women who have been in Aligned Women for a year or two replied with words like “optimistic” and “pumped” and “boom” and even “relieved.”
Conversely, women who aren’t in the Aligned Women program said things like this:
“Confused”
“Frustrated”
“Hopeless”
“Overwhelmed”
So, of course I noticed that women DCs in Aligned Women chose words that were more positive and women that aren’t in our program chose words that were more negative.
I’m making a big fat assumption here that part of the reason Aligned Women members have a positive association with the word “marketing” is because our program does such a wonderful job of empowering them, building their confidence and teaching them how to market.
But… I’d be a jerk if I tried to take all the credit and didn’t also tell you that I think a part of the difference is that… women in our program are simply women who are committed to personal and professional growth.
In other words, once they have the right community of support, they’re just innately the type of women who are going to be successful.
And, by the way, if you’re reading this right now and you were one of the people who replied to that question–and your one-word about how you feel about marketing had a negative connotation–I’m not blasting you.
I don’t want you to feel like I’m saying you’re clearly NOT a person who’s committed to her personal and professional growth. Or that you’re somehow a ding-dong for not feel super jazzed about marketing right now.
Just hear me when I say this to you, as it’s said with tons of love:
if you don’t feel good about marketing your practice, aren’t doing it consistently, aren’t effective at it, and all of this matters because you aren’t a millionaire yet, this is an indication that you’ve got some inner work to do.
There are phases of life when it’s just not time to dig in and heal the wounds that are holding us back.
If and when you’re ready to do the inner work and reach new levels of success in your life, in your practice and for your family, you’ll do this work inside of Aligned Women.
Now, going back to where I was going with this informal poll…
I suppose my super-scientific research could lead us to the conclusion that having a community of support that really GETS you–
And understands why you don’t particularly enjoy taking more nights and weekends away from your family to stand at spinal screenings or talks–
Is a key indicator that you’ll feel more positive about marketing your chiropractic practice.
Some would say… the way you “feeeeeeeeeeel” about marketing is irrelevant and that I’m making something out of nothing.
I beg to differ! Here’s why:
When you feel sleazy, salesy or just plain gross about putting yourself (and your practice) out there, what do you think the effect is?
Do you think that if you feel bad about what you do for marketing, that it’s going to work well?
Furthermore, if you feel bad about marketing, guess what happens next….
YOU.
STOP.
DOING IT.
And if you stop “doing” marketing, it’s certainly not going to work. #duh
Here’s the thing….
Our mentors tell us to do spinal screenings, chair massages, host dinner talks, and go door-to-door.
These things maybe (sort of) worked 30 years ago.
Times have changed.
And then, when you go back to that mentor and say, “Doc, this just doesn’t seem to be working for me and I don’t even like doing it.”
What’s the response you get???
“You need to just work harder.”
“Put in the work, and the reward will come in 7-10 years.”
“You need to sacrifice more time away from your kids if you want to have a successful practice. You just can’t have both.”
None of this advice works for you. All of it leaves you feeling like a loser.
What those mentors aren’t tell you is:
The way you FEEL about marketing MATTERS.
It matters.
So, if:
-
Doing the dinner talks, the spinal screenings, the health fairs and the chamber events feels ineffective at best
-
You’re not really put much energy into marketing your practice at all because you just don’t know what to do and don’t have any ideas
…here’s what to do next.
First, realize that if you own a practice, you ARE a marketer.
There’s no way around it. To grow your business, you’re going to have to align yourself
with marketing somehow, someway.
Next, heal the wounds.
If your underlying story is that it’s not ok to put yourself out there, that it’s unsafe to be seen, and that you’re afraid of what people will say about you, it’s time to create a new story.
Lastly, learn what marketing really is.
It’s not about selling, swindling, or stealing money from people. It’s about building trust with people. It’s about connecting with them.
There are a ton of Aligned resources that will help you learn how to consistently market your practice without feeling bad about it.
Perhaps our top resource is the Aligned Chiro Marketing Free 5-Day Course for Chiropractors. You can sign up now for this course here. (www.alignedchiromarketing.com)
If you listen to The Aligned Women Podcast, hopefully you’ve heard one of the many episodes there about making marketing your chiropractic practice easier, less confusing, and more efficient so that marketing doesn’t take you away from your family more.
If you haven’t, then here are some suggestions on which episodes you should add to your must-listen list:
120: 5 Things to Stop Doing for Marketing
118: the Real Reason You don’t Like Marketing
117: The Top 3 Mistakes Women In Chiropractic Make In Marketing
104: Why Your Family Needs to Know Who Your Ideal Patient Is
95: How To Make A Marketing Plan For a New Practice
91: [On-Air Coaching] Attracting More of Your Ideal Patients
70: What Do I Do When My Patients Drain Me?
60: How To Determine Your Ideal Patient
47: Content Strategies To Grow Your Business (And Not Drive You Crazy)
23: Developing The Know, Like & Trust Factor To Reach More of Your Ideal Patients