059- 3 Essential Free Tools You Need to Grow in 2017

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Evidence Based Chiropractor. I am Jeff Langmaid and today we are gonna talk about the three essential chiropractic growth hacking strategies you need for your practice in 2017. So growth hacking sounds like a technical term. It sounds very Silicon Valley ish, But we're gonna break it down, make it very, very simple and make sure that you, at the end of this video or audio, whichever way you're listening to it, that you have three, three tools to get your practice going and really to take things to the next level in 2017. And yes, there's gonna be three tools and all three will be free and you are missing out if you're not using some form of them. So growth hacking is very technical, it's a trendy term out in Silicon Valley and certainly with startup community. But what it really means is finding simple and efficient ways to, to grow, to build your audience, to build your practice, or to build whatever it is that you are growing, your tribe essentially. And there are a couple strategies that I see chiropractors missing on time and time again that are very well established, very well replicated and something that we just are not doing. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about those three items today. And number one on that list, chiropractic growth hacking. Three tools. Number one is a tool and I'm gonna say spec brands, but you can go multiple directions with these items. Do not be brand focused, be product focused. And with that, number one, I'm going to talk about a product called Sumome S U m o m e.com and basically what Sumome does is it is a lead generation tool. So I would ask you, how many people do you have visiting your website each month, each quarter, each year? It could be 50 people, it could be 100 people, it could be a thing, thousand people or more. And my number one question is how many of those people are giving you their email address? How many are coming in to learn more about your practice? Ultimately, and not necessarily as a patient yet, but as a prospective patient, if they visit your website, there is something there that they are after and you need to make sure that you are absolutely collecting at least 5%, ideally 10% of those individuals email addresses so you can follow up with valuable content and positions, your practice and what sumome does. It's a multidimensional product and I recommend that you check it out and I'll put the link here in the notes as well. But really what it does is it allows you to collect those email addresses through what's called a lead magnet. So for instance, you're gonna know your practice better than myself. If your practice deals with back pain, maybe it deals with optimal wellness. Whatever the case may be, people are seeking you out for a reason. And if you develop a tool, a system, a free report or guide that' what's called a lead magnet. And how you deliver that typically is through a exchange reciprocity, making sure that you collect their email address, the individual visiting your website and then in turn you are divvying out that piece of content, your value add to them. And Sumome is a product that makes that very easy. Through a series of welcome mats popups. There are a variety of tools under the hood that really allow you to level up your ability to gain and build a tribe. And kind of going right in with that. Number two on our list today is really an email delivery tool. I know a ton of chiropractors out there. They have great EHRs, great EMRs and fantastic software. But they have absolutely terrible follow up software and it absolutely is killing now. One of the best tools, I used it for years. I've since moved on to a little bit of a more robust tool but it was free tool that is super simple, super easy and likely integrates with with your ehr. Already would be a system like mailchimp. Mailchimp is an email delivery tool that allows great segmentation. It allows the ability to get tons of great statistics and really automate that email process. So you can probably already start to see where these things come together. First you wanna have something of value that you can add to the people that are visiting your website. You give them that in exchange for their email address. But you don't want the conversation to end there. So that's when it automatically put into your email tool like a mailchimp, an aweber convertkit. There are a variety of tools out there that then allow you to systematize and automate your follow up for long term success. So if they sign up and let's say for the sake of this that they get a free report on the five secrets to how to overcome back pain. Well, what you might follow up with after that is some value adds in regard to what you offered. So from there you might follow up with the sequence about items where they can get over their back pain, whatever the sequence is. If you use a tool like Mailchimp, AWeber, ConvertKit, there are a ton of email solutions out there, but you need to have one that is dedicated and separate from your EHR system. There are far too many chiropractors out there that are emailing from their Gmail account or whatever the case may be. And they're not gonna get, you're not gonna get as good of follow up, you're not gonna get that automation, you're not gonna continue the conversation with those prospect. In retrospect, we went to two items so far. Number one is make sure that you are making the reciprocity, getting the exchange with a lead magnet using Sumo Me or leadpages or something of that nature. If you're able to exchange an email for a piece of value add for a piece of content, that gives you the ability to start the conversation with those prospective patients. And again, if you have 5, 10, 15, 50, 100 or 1,000 people coming to your website, you want to make sure that you are continuing the conversation with those people who are interested in what you do as a chiropractor. And from there that follow up can be absolutely automated very easily, very quickly through an email solution tool such as a Mailchimp, an AWeber, a ConvertKit, Infusionsoft, et cetera. There are tons of them out there. I'll list a few in the notes here after we finish up, but you absolutely need to make sure that your tool, your lead magnet, fits right in with those tools. And number three, ultimately is kind of a tool that combines this all together. One of my favorites is Basecamp by Jason Freed. Basecamp. And again, I'll put that in the notes. But what Basecamp is, is a project management tool. This might sound familiar to a few chiropractors out there, but certainly, you know, chiropractic offices have a lot going on. Sometimes there might be a front desk staff member in charge of the marketing, somebody might be doing the visits. You have MRI reps, you have patients. And these things are just run, quite frankly, terribly in most chiropractic offices. But what a project management tool allows you to do. And Basecamp 3 actually allows a complete free version, full featured, free version of their tool. But what it allows, that project management software allows you to do is coordinate these tasks through tasks, through dates, through notes, and through responsibilities to everybody that works in your office. Even if some of the work is done remote through a va, a virtual assistant, or you have teams, maybe on, maybe, maybe not an Elance or a Fiverr, but you have somebody where you have them on a retainer, maybe a marketing system, they're able to access into a Basecamp type tool and update you on the progress. It totally, totally will make your office much, much more efficient in terms of running lean in terms of your marketing spend. And it's gonna save you a ton of time and money. And that's where a project management tool comes into play. You might have an office manager with 1000 sticky notes all over his or but I can guarantee you that if you use a free project management piece of software and there are tons of free ones out there, you're going to find that you run a better, tighter ship and it's going to translate into more patients coming into your office. And that's what this is all about. Growth, hacking. Again, it is all about making sure you are being lean and efficient towards reaching your goals or expectations. With most chiropractic offices, the first step is people need to know who you are. You need to start building your tribe. And again, the best way to build a tribe is to offer something of value to those individuals. And the best way to do that is through a free report guide, what we'd call a lead magnet. And you have to exchange that value for that email address. And Sumome is a fantastic product in order to do that. Number two, those emails go right into your automation sequences. Mailchimp, ConvertKit, AWeber, Constant Contact, plenty of these, these software solutions have free versions and it's going to kill. It's going to be way better than your EHR or emailing directly from Gmail. You want those stats, you want that automated follow up because it makes things way easier on your marketing team. And number three, to keep all of those systems and processes clean and to keep them well delineated amongst you and your staff, a project management tool like Basecamp is going to just be the crux of the operation. When you can task, when you can date and when you can converse with your team in an online setting, it's gonna make things way easier. There's gonna be tons of less waste and you might even reduce your purchasing of post it notes being placed all over the place. And another interesting little hack with that, if you're using a project management tool, it doesn't just have to be for marketing and tech based stuff. You might have some insurance checkpoints, you might have some things like that built right into management tool. And again, Basecamp is an awesome free solution. But when you build all of your items, your marketing your team approach your quarterly events, Maybe your patient fronted events into an automated email sequence with great lead capture and great lead generation on the front end, automation on the back end, and a project management tool to wrap it all up. You will absolutely see great growth. You'll see dynamic growth in your practice in 2017 and beyond. So if you are not using any of those tools, check out the notes in just a few minutes. I'm gonna make sure I get all those links down in the notes. If you have any questions or concerns, I invite you to email me directly. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com or certainly in the Notes as well. If you're already using one of these tools, let me know what you think of it. I'd love to know what you think. And until next week, doc, I hope you have a great week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive practice development@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office. We look forward to providing you with more dynamic communication tools for immediate growth right here on the Evidence Based Chiropractor.

Sam.