Now that you have defined your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and you have analyzed the market and the competition, and you have determined your practice location and target market, you’re ready to prepare your comprehensive plan for marketing your practice during the first year.

Your plan will be developed in two areas: internal marketing and external marketing. External marketing is what you do outside the office to bring patients in, and internal marketing is what you do in the office to keep your patients, once you have brought them in. Internal and external marketing are equally important, so you will need a balance of both. All of your marketing activities should be tied to your USP (what your practice is about) and your target market (the specific type of patient you want to attract).

For both types of marketing, you’ll need a combination of procedures that you consistently do, and special events, which keep your marketing lively and interesting. Procedures are the bedrock of your marketing plan; they are the things you do every day, every week, every month. Internal procedures include all of your customer service, phone scripts, sending birthday cards, new patient procedures, and patient routines (like having a patient rest before or after getting adjusted). External procedures are regular advertising and promotion, such as your yellow pages ad, an ad in the local high school newspaper every month, or a regular radio broadcast.

Special events are geared toward creating excitement about your practice in the community and maintaining patient loyalty. Examples of internal special events are patient appreciation day or a special chiropractic day that is celebrated in the office. External special events bring you publicity, like a grand opening, participation in Kids Day America, or county fair booth.

What we’re saying is that you need a combination of:

• Internal and External special events — once a quarter, alternating between internal and external.
• Internal and External procedures, which you set up as systems.

Before you start on the actual marketing plan, don’t forget that you will need to attach an expected cost to each item. The costs will be included in your estimates of expenses each month in your business plan.

Here is a suggested plan for creating your first year marketing plan.

1. Decide on the internal procedures you want to implement in your office. Consider these three areas:

• Patient protocols — first day, report of findings, every-visit routines;
• Patient retention activities — birthday cards, acknowledgement of referrals, health care classes;
• Customer service activities — phone scripts, front desk procedures, interactions with patients.

2. Determine the external procedures that would be the best fit with your USP. If you have a family practice, for example, consider what local newspapers or radio stations might be read or viewed by that group.

You should always include a Yellow Page ad as an external procedure — how large or small will depend on your budget and your viewpoint on these ads.

3. Map out four special events for the first year — one each quarter — alternating between internal and external. Start with a grand opening in the second or third month after you open.

Since this is an external event, schedule a second, internal event sometime about three months later. Then determine another external event, and finally an internal event. None of these has to be huge or expensive. Just get them in your thoughts so you can start working on them.

Of course you can change your mind, and you can certainly add activities, but what you want is a fairly clear picture of your marketing for the first year, so you can begin to budget for them and plan out each one, in order to quickly attract and retain patients.

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