Savvy chiropractors love the fall season.
Why?
It’s simple: there are more promotional opportunities during September, October, and November than there are during any other span of time during the year.
Chiropractors with a bit of marketing acumen ‒ or chiropractors who have hired a top-notch marketing company ‒ have an unparalleled opportunity to attract new patients.
And you know the best part?
Your competitors probably won’t be doing any of this stuff.
Most small businesses don’t take advantage of seasonal promotional opportunities ‒ so you’ll be free to attract more business without bumping heads with the other chiropractors in your area.
So, what are the best chiropractic marketing ideas for fall? Here are 6 of the most effective chiropractic marketing ideas for fall:
Let’s break down each of these with a little bit more strategy and details behind them so you can really have an amazing fall in your practice!
Here’s the truth: holiday promotions work. They turn heads and get new patients in the door.
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They work because everyone is already paying attention to the upcoming holidays. When your business holds a holiday promotion, you’re attaching your brand to something that people are already thinking about. This makes it easier to grab attention and get more people to think about booking an appointment.
One of the best things about marketing in the fall is the number of popular holidays you can leverage for promotional purposes. Labor Day, Halloween, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving are four of the most popular American holidays ‒ and they all occur during the fall season.
If you’d like to hold a holiday promotion but are stuck on the specifics, here are a couple of ideas:
Create a holiday-themed promotional popup on your website
This will require a bit of web design-savvy but a Thanksgiving or Halloween-themed popup with an enticing offer ‒ possibly a free adjustment in the week leading up to the holiday ‒ will definitely bring in new patients.
Send out holiday-themed emails
If you have an email list that you send regular newsletters and offers to, you can use this to your advantage by sending out emails with themes related to upcoming holidays.
You don’t have to get all fancy with the design or anything ‒ you could just relay some related chiropractic facts. Facts about the skeleton in the weeks leading up to Halloween would be a good example. You could also talk about why you should be thankful for good chiropractic care in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.
Fall is typically chock full of festivals, concerts, and other exciting community events. Sponsoring or advertising at one of these local events can build awareness of your brand in the community.
The main benefit of supporting local events is that everyone who attends lives close enough to be considered a potential customer. Locals who need a chiropractor might consider calling to book an appointment, while former patients might be reminded of your existence and give you a call.
If you do sponsor a local event, you need to implement some form of lead generation. One way to do this is by setting up a booth and gathering the names and email addresses of anyone who is interested in chiropractic care. You can then add these people to your email list and send them a series of introductory messages.
While advertising locally in a physical manner (as opposed to online advertising) might seem outdated, it does provide quite a few tangible benefits:
Decorating your office to fit the fall season is an easy way to get some attention on social media.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or intense ‒ a few well-placed autumn-themed decorations should be plenty. When you share the post, use some hashtags specific to your locality to increase your chances of attracting new patients.
Social media is a key part of any effective marketing strategy. And as Instagram has the highest engagement rates of all social media platforms, it’s definitely the one you should be targeting most.
One of the best ways to utilize the fall season in your Instagram marketing strategy is to hold a season-themed or holiday-themed photo contest.
Ask your patients to take a picture of something related to the season or one of the holidays. The contest winners will win something ‒ many chiropractic businesses offer a free family adjustment, but you’re welcome to come up with your own prize if you don’t want to offer that.
If you’re not sure about the kind of picture to have people take, here are a few ideas:
Once you pick the type of photo, tell your patients and social media followers to upload their pictures to Instagram. Also, create a custom hashtag for them to use ‒ something like #[YourOfficeName]PhotoContest would work well.
Running a contest like this has a couple of tangible benefits.
First of all, your patients will spread awareness of your business amongst their network of friends and followers. Many of the people who see these posts will be local to your area, immediately making them prospective new patients. Some might even be intrigued by the contest and inquire about how they can enter themselves.
The contest will also generate buzz and excitement amongst your current base of patients. These are the people who will actually be participating, and the increased awareness of your business might also lead some to get adjusted on a more frequent basis.
As far as announcing the contest goes, sending out an email blast and a social media post are both good ideas. However, one of the best ways to encourage participation is to tell patients about it when they come into the office. Don’t be too forceful, just mention that you’re holding a photo contest on Instagram and that they can win a free appointment (or another prize) if they participate.
Depending on how aggressive you want to be in your marketing strategy, you could offer a prize to everyone who posts a photo with the hashtag. While this will certainly increase participation, you need to be careful if the prize you’re offering is a free adjustment ‒ you might have a hard time fitting all of the non-paying visits into your schedule.
Fall is one of the most active times of the year for youth sports. Soccer, football, and basketball ‒ three of the most popular sports on the planet ‒ are all typically played during fall.
Sponsoring one of these teams is a great way to get your chiropractic business in front of hundreds of prospective patients local to your area. Sponsoring a team will also help in building your brand as an active contributor to the community, which will make all of these potential patients think more positively about you and your office.
Unfortunately, not all youth leagues allow team sponsorship. If you’re not sure whether your local leagues allow this, call up the organizers and ask.
Holding a back-to-school promotion is an effective way to get families in to see you. This usually takes the form of a free visit for all kids going back to school in the fall.
One of the main benefits of this promotion is that parents will have to bring their kids in to take advantage of the free adjustment. Many will end up scheduling an appointment for themselves, making this an easy way to bring additional patients through the door.
To increase the reach of your promotion, you can use targeted Facebook ads to get your promotion in front of the parents of schoolchildren in your area. If you’re unfamiliar with how Facebook marketing works, my comprehensive guide on Facebook Marketing for Chiropractors will tell you all you need to know.
