Referrals: Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors

Highlights

• Social media marketing for chiropractors — particularly social media reviews — can be a prime source of referrals for chiropractic practices.
• Reviews are used by increasing numbers of consumers to evaluate and choose goods and services.
• Attracting social media reviews is a low-cost form of advertising, particularly when the process is automated.
• Because social media reviews are targeted at those looking for the services you provide, they are especially effective at bringing in new patients.
• CT Engage can help practices gain positive reviews on the most popular social media sites, including Google Business, Facebook, and Yelp.

Referrals are an important source of new patients for any chiropractic clinic, and some of your best new patients are likely to come from referrals. For a current patient to refer you to a friend or family member, they need to have a high level of satisfaction with your practice to drive social media reviews.

It follows that if you want referrals, you need to provide high-quality services and make sure that what you’re doing is meeting your current patients’ needs.

Referrals are a form of marketing for chiropractors that works well.

Effective ways to encourage referrals include:

• Asking patients directly to refer others to you
• Providing incentives for referrals
• Having a card or other materials that patients can give to friends and family members

Social Media Referrals

While these are all good ways to bring in new patients, using social media can be even more effective. When a patient mentions you on their social media page or shares a post from your page, some or all of their friends, coaches, and/or colleagues will see it, depending on the algorithms used.

People spend an average of two hours and 27 minutes per day on social media networks and messaging. And one thing many people like to do is respond to a problem posted by a friend by recommending a product or service that has worked for them.

You can encourage your patients to share information about your practice online by posting interesting information on your social media channels. You could also offer contests or giveaways that ask entrants to share the post to their personal social media pages.

All of this amounts to potentially hundreds of people seeing each recommendation for your practice. And the best part? Much of it happens passively, with no effort from you or your staff.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors

The benefits of this type of social media campaign for small and medium businesses are numerous. Social media is cost effective compared to other forms of marketing, like print, radio, or television ads. The low cost allows small and medium businesses to compete with larger businesses on a more level playing field.

Social media marketing is also more targeted than other forms of marketing. It allows you to direct your messaging specifically to individuals who are likely to have a need for the services you provide.

You don’t need millions of people to see your posts — only the right people. Soliciting social media reviews is one of the most effective ways to find them.[

The Role of Reviews on Social Media

As social media grew from a simple interface to encourage interaction to a way to promote products and services, reviews became a part of the process. Today, according to a 2022 survey, 93 percent of consumers say online reviews influenced their purchasing decisions, and 87 percent say they read online reviews for local businesses in 2020.

What’s more, 72 percent of consumers have written a review for a local business.

Social media reviews represent a rich opportunity to raise brand awareness and build trust, but that’s not all. Before a potential patient contacts your practice, odds are they’ve looked at online reviews first to satisfy their quality criteria and find answers to specific questions.

For instance, someone who is looking for a chiropractor who uses acupuncture could read reviews to find out if you provide that service. Other information that reviews can provide includes whether you accept insurance, offer evening hours, or are available for emergencies.

People will look at both positive and negative reviews. Negative reviews will cost your practice money, so it’s important to respond to them with an offer to talk personally and resolve the issue. If you are able to resolve it, the issue becomes an opportunity to position your practice as caring and responsive to the needs of your patients.

Social media reviews also improve your site’s search rankings on Google, which increasingly values external and third-party reviews as more authentic. Social media plugins are available for your website that will show a compilation of reviews from your various pages, which will help with your site’s SEO.

This means more people will find your site, and after reading positive reviews, will be more likely to become patients.

There is much to gain and little to lose from social media marketing, including the use of reviews. Creating and maintaining social media pages takes some time and effort, but it is time and effort well spent in the referrals it will generate for your practice.

Reviews, Referrals, and CT Engage

As the most-referred chiropractic software with more than half of customers referred by a friend or coach, ChiroTouch understands the importance of referrals to your chiropractic practice and the role that patient engagement plays.

ChiroTouch’s patient communication tool, CT Engage, can make patient communication easier and more streamlined — without losing the human element. Send messages via email or text, however your patients prefer to communicate with you.

CT Engage automatically reminds patients of their appointments, thereby reducing no-shows. This gives more patients the opportunity to complete their care plans and get great results, which can encourage them to tell more people about you.

CT Engage will also help you maintain a positive reputation online, which can lead to more referrals and improved Google search results. Send prompts to your patients asking them to leave you a review, which will help to spread the word about your practice online.

The tool pays for itself with time savings and the new patients it can bring to your practice.

Sample Referral Campaign

Here’s an example of a request that can be used in a referral campaign using CT Engage:

Dear [Patient Name],

Thank you for being a regular patient of [Chiropractic Practice Name]. If you are happy with our services, please consider leaving a review on our Google Business page,Facebook, or Yelp to help us reach more people.

Leave a review by [Date], and we will enter you into a drawing to win a free acupuncture session or chiropractic adjustment.

Thanks for your help in making our practice better meet the needs of our community!

Sincerely,

[Chiropractic Practice Name]

With CT Engage as the backbone, social media referral campaigns are easy, effective, and best of all, automated.Let’s talk about how ChiroTouch can make it happen for your practice.