“Internet marketing” is an abused and misused term most popularly and inaccurately recognized as a THE WAY to build a business these days.
As a result, many Chiropractors will waste a lot of time and money learning and executing this (very often) “FREE” medium.
So, why is this bad?
How much time do you have?
I can talk for hours of how it has done more harm than good but since we don’t have that much time, I’ll give you an abbreviated list of reasons…
- Makes marketers lazy – When you have to pay for marketing, you are wiser about how you go about it. You test, you track, you tweak. But when it’s free or nearly free, you put less thought into what you are doing. You are more about volume of message than its quality or how well it matches the pre-existing wants and demands of the marketplace.
- Makes marketers cheap – Because many online marketing opportunities have a low entry price, markets shy away from other media that may actually perform better. In many cases, you’re not saving money but spending more per patient in time, energy, and dollars.
- Consumers now expect “free” – They value less what they pay for because of how much they can access for free…without having to give anything in return like their name, address, phone number, etc..
- This makes your “cost per quality lead” go up and your “conversion rates” go down. That’s not necessarily a deal breaker for a mass marketer but could be deadly for a local business.
- You get ripped off – You are an easy target. Internet scam artists tell you what you want to hear about “internet marketing”…and it sounds so good, so fun, and so cheap that you go for it. As a result, you waste months—maybe years—and come out of it skeptical of all types of marketing. So you do nothing.
- You end up forgetting what marketing really is…because everything is marketing: your look, your actions, the name of your practice, what you say and don’t say, how you position what you do, and yes, how you attract patients, keep patients, and stimulate referrals.
Marketing is a very valuable skill. That is why ChiroTrust goes beyond doing the heavy lifting for its members…We explain to members what we do and why we do it so that they understand the underlying principles behind it and make better decisions for themselves and their patients.
