Posts Tagged ‘ Chiropractic email marketing ’

10 Tips to Streamline Your Chiropractic Patient Testimonial Videos

Like any other aspect of your Chiropractic practice, you need to streamline your Video Chiropractic Patient Testimonial process. A video patient testimonial is a highly valuable marketing tool, but obtaining it shouldn’t disrupt patient flow and other activities within your practice. Let’s look at 10 easy ways we can make the process more efficient.

1. Delegate Responsibility: Decide who will be responsible for the patient testimonial process. It’s usually a good idea to have one or two people trained and educated on the entire process. These individuals should be the only ones filming the testimonials etc. Having specific individuals responsible for the process leads to consistency and efficiency. Having 2 individuals well versed in the process allows for life to continue on in the event a staff member is ill or otherwise absent from the practice.

2. Determine who will be approached: Not every patient is going to be a candidate for a video Chiropractic patient testimonial. The ideal candidate is a happy and long term member of your practice who’s been through the acute stage of care and has decided to stay with your practice for wellness or maintenance care. A patient with an outgoing personality is always a plus as well.

Be sure to sit down in a meeting with your staff and discuss the importance of knowing who to approach.

3. Determine WHEN to approach patients: Once you and your staff have defined the right type of patient to approach, you need to discuss when, and when not, to request a testimonial from them.

If a patient is going through personal tragedy (such as a death or divorce), experiencing an acute flare up of their condition, or just disputed a bill with your office then NOW is not a good time to be asking for a testimonial from them. Knowing WHEN to ask is probably just as important to know who to ask.

4. Keep records: Make a notation of which patients have already supplied, or declined to supply, a testimonial. It’s certainly acceptable to “try again” with a reluctant patient at a later point but don’t be too pushy. Repeatedly badgering reluctant patients or constantly asking patients who’ve already supplied a testimonial is going to offend and alienate your patients.

5. Come up with a script: You need a plan and direction for the entire patient testimonial process. One great way to do this is to develop scripts. These don’t necessarily have to be rigid scripts followed verbatim by staff. Simply give your staff an idea of how they should approach patients, a general idea of what to say, and plan out the ideal patient testimonial process. If you don’t like the idea of a “script” consider this an outline or guide for the entire process.

The most important aspect of your patient testimonial script is going to be how it guides the flow of tasks. Concern yourself less with telling staff what to say and more with guiding them on the order you’d like things performed. Your script should outline where patients are taken to complete testimonial release forms and how the patient is guided through the entire process.

6. Decide on a length: Decide on a desired length for each testimonial. In general one to two minutes is usually ample time for a patient to get their point across. Anything longer runs the risk of losing the attention of the audience. Of course you can vary your requirements as you see fit, but defining a soft cap on testimonial length can streamline the process and keep patients from rambling.

Determining a limit on the length of time required of the practice to obtain patient testimonials is another great way to keep things moving efficiently. In general the entire process shouldn’t take any more than 5 or 10 minutes. Let your staff know what you expect of them.

7. X marks the spot: If you’ve decided to set aside a dedicated location for your testimonials you can further expedite the process by marking where patients sit or stand, and where cameras and lighting should be placed. Taping an “X” on the spot you want the patient is a great way to speed up positioning and camera adjustments.

You can take further actions such as permanently mounting lighting in place or mounting a camera on a tripod and preventing it from being bumped out of position.

8. Be professional: While many practices have a very loose and fun atmosphere, you should maintain a great deal of professionalism in the video testimonial process. Maintaining this professionalism will help prevent staff from going “off track” with friendly and talkative patients and will result in higher quality testimonials.

9. Thank your patient!: Be sure to thank patients for taking time to provide their testimonial. Following up with a “thank you” post card in the mail is a great way to express your gratitude.

10. Practice: Although it seems a little weird, you need to practice the entire process a few times before approaching patients. Getting together with staff and going through a few dry runs is a great way to make sure everyone understands the process and procedures. Take a lunch hour one day and run through the process with some mock patients.

These are 10 simple tips to maximize the efficiency of your video Chiropractic patient testimonial process. You and your patients are very busy. Keeping the entire process running smoothly and quickly will keep your practice and your patients happy. It also increases the likelihood that other patients will participate once they see it is quick and painless.

So now that we’ve covered the advantages and disadvantages of the Chiropractic video patient testimonial, let’s look at how you can get started.

What  exactly do you need to get started?

1. A Digital Camcorder or Mini-Cam. You may have an older tape style camcorder that you can hook up to a computer, but it will not work as well. It will require more steps to convert the video, and the video quality will be pretty terrible compared to modern digital and HD quality.

Digital is definitely the way to go here. I highly recommend a HD (high definition) camcorder. If you can’t, or won’t, afford a full blown camcorder you can purchase one of the smaller mini or pocket camcorders which are now available in HD. I’d recommend at least 720p HD quality but 1080p is better yet. You can find one of these smaller mini camcorders at your local superstore, office store, electronics store, and dozens of sites all over the internet. You can easily find one in the $100-$150 range.

One great place to start your digital HD camcorder shopping is at Amazon.com. They are probably the most trusted online store and a great source for some good deals on a huge variety of products. Use the search box below to search for digital camcorders or anything else you’re interested in. Chances are they have it!

2.  A Computer: You’re going to need to own, or at least have regular access to, a computer or laptop capable of handling some basic video editing tasks. You need the computer to access, edit, and upload the video files.  Processing, transcoding, and working with video files can be a pretty resource hogging task, so I recommend a newer computer and not the 9 year old dust box in the basement!

Minimum computer requirements will vary greatly depending on just how crazy you want to be with your video editing.   Newer Intel dual core processors, at least 160-250 GB of hard drive storage space, and 2.0 GB of memory are a decent starting point capable of handling the medium to basic video editing needs of the typical Chiropractor.

This is just  my personal opinion, but I highly recommend HP brand computers. Every HP I’ve owned has been extremely reliable. I still have one that has seen heavy daily use for 8 years!

If you are looking to purchase a laptop for your video editing, I’d highly recommend Toshiba laptops.  I’ve never owned anything else and have never had any issues. Check out some of their great deals currently available at the link below:

3. Video Editing Software: Some sort of video editing software is recommend but not absolutely required. Many of the digital camcorders come with some sort of very basic software to allow you to clip or crop out portions of your clips and combine different clips.   Many new computers also include free basic video editing software which may be enough for your needs.  These  may be all you need to get started if you don’t have the need or desire to make many custom edits to your videos.

Some of the more high quality third party video editing programs will allow you to add post production polishing touches like adding text over your video, adding background music and overlaying logos and other special effects.

4. A Clean, Attractive, and Well Lit Area for Filming. Many Chiropractors elect to dedicate a small room, or corner of a room, solely for the purposes of shooting patient testimonials. A sort of “mini studio” if you will. I think it is a great idea. Having your chiropractic video patient testimonials all shot in the same attractive area gives a sense of unity to your testimonials and looks very professional.

If you have a busy practice I highly recommend filming your video patient testimonials away from the action. Although you may be tempted to want to show how great your practice is, all of the foot traffic and patients performing active rehab exercises in the background is distracting. I’ve seen many great chiropractic video patient testimonials ruined by staff repeatedly walking in and out of frame, patients checking in and out, and other distractions.

It’s all a distracting mess that takes away from the happy patient telling the public about their success with your practice. Don’t let the procedures of your practice take away from the patient’s message. Besides, you can always shoot another video  dedicated to showing all of your practice action in detail!

5. A Website:
Although a website isn’t an absolute necessity it gives a great place to post your videos, and more importantly, more information about you and your practice.

6. A Free YouTube Account: Hosting video on YouTube is free and a MUST. It’s simply the most popular video site and allows you to create your own channel to host your videos. It’s a site with millions of members and you need to be using it to promote your videos and your practice.

7. Other Free Social Media Accounts. Once videos are posted on YouTube and/or your website or blog you need to promote them. You can link to and spread the word about your videos on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and more. Many of these sites also allow you to post your videos there as well.

8. Procedures. Like any other part of your practice you need to come up with a general game plan for your Chiropractic video patient testimonials.  Having a game plan for patient testimonials will make for higher quality and more efficient procedures.

9. Patient Permission. Many Doctors of Chiropractic overlook this. The fact is you should be getting written permission and a release form from patients. You need to be specifically getting permission to use their testimonials in your marketing. Asking them verbally isn’t enough. Some doctors choose to simply ask and get the release verbally on video at the beginning of the testimonial. While this is certainly better than not documenting the fact that you asked, I still recommend some sort of patient release form.  We’ll be posting a free sample form template soon!

10. Time and Creativity. Like anything else worthwhile; filming, editing, uploading, and promoting Chiropractic patient testimonials takes time.  You need to be willing to devote the time and effort to make your efforts successful.

11. A Written Alternative. While many of your patients are outgoing media hounds willing to jump at the chance of being on camera and potentially on TV or the internet, some are not. For a multitude of reasons many patients are camera shy and prefer to not give a video testimonial. Offer these patients a form to provide a written testimonial. A glowing written testimonial is better than none at all!

Are you running proactive or reactive Chiropractic internet marketing?

Chances are you’ve probably never even thought about it. Marketing is marketing right? Your attitude and approach to your Chiropractic marketing can have just as significant of an impact on it’s success as the marketing content itself.

Due to the daily time demands of a Chiropractic practice, many Doctors of Chiropractic simply run their marketing with a reactive approach. What the heck is reactive Chiropractic marketing? In the most simple terms it is when a Chiropractic marketing strategy simply reacts in response to changes.  While reacting to changes in a market is an important aspect of any marketing  program, it can’t be the sole foundation for your advertising efforts.

Don’t get me wrong, you definitely need to react to change.  You need to analyze ROI and the effectiveness of your marketing.  No one is telling you NOT to respond to change. The problem is most Chiropractors work exclusively in reactive marketing mindset. They develop tunnel vision and break things down to a black and white world consisting of one problem and one solution.   This leads to marketing that is two steps behind and can be devastating to your Chiropractic success.

Let me give you some quick examples. Let’s say you run a newspaper ad. It runs for one or two weeks with minimal results. Due to the expense and the dismal results you pull the plug on your newspaper marketing because it “doesn’t work”.

Another example can be seen with the current state of our economy in America. All across the country times are tough and things are slow. Many practices are reacting to this by simply scaling back or eliminating much of their advertising to control costs.

While the above examples may seem like perfectly acceptable ways to react to a situation, they are not proactive solutions. In actuality they are simple responses made with little thought about the future of your Chiropractic success.  At best they are short term solutions.

So what’s the difference between proactive and reactive Chiropractic marketing?  As we discussed before, reactive marketing is simply taking a black and white approach to your advertising.  You see a problem and pick an easy solution. This creates quick fixes and limited opportunity for growth. It’s patching a hole, slapping a band-aid on the situation, and waiting for success to find you.

Proactive Chiropractic marketing takes things to the next step. While it may be necessary to apply a short term fix, proactive Chiropractors are constantly thinking outside of the box. They are always looking for alternative solutions, ways to create opportunities, anticipating changes, and always thinking about the long term.

Proactive Chiropractic marketing avoids the easy knee jerk reaction to a situation.  Rather than canceling that failing newspaper ad, the proactive Chiropractor is more likely to spend time making changes to it until they find what works.  Instead of cutting back on their advertising budget during a slow economy, a proactive  practice will stay the course or even increase their advertising budget. If current advertising isn’t creating the desired results, the proactive Chiropractic practice tries new and creative marketing techniques to create success.

Are you running proactive Chiropractic marketing? Or are you simply going with the flow and reacting to change after the fact? While reactive Chiropractic marketing may work in the here and now, it can actually be a barrier to your long term success .  Now is the time to take a critical look at your Chiropractic marketing.  Stop reacting  and start creating the  success you desire!

Pause for a moment and imagine what BJ Palmer would have done with the power of the internet. Envision the Chiropractic marketing tactics he would have employed if he had access to the entire world via instant electronic communication. Can you even fathom what BJ would have done with YouTube and Facebook? Can you imagine the insane SEO domination campaigns Dr. Palmer would have waged!? What I wouldn’t give to read BJ Palmer’s Official Blog! Just imagine what he could have accomplished with access to millions of people with a few clicks of the mouse or some simple keystrokes.

My point here is the vast majority of the Chiropractic profession is missing the boat. I’m amazed how many practices still don’t have a website. I’m even more amazed how many practices are content with using the same website they had designed in the mid 1990s. I’m probably just as puzzled and perplexed by the large number of Chiropractors who simply dismiss web 2.0 and social media as a passing fad.

Many Chiropractors are happy to dismiss the internet and social media as unimportant, a waste of time, or a passing fad. If that was true would huge corporations and fortune 500 companies like Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, or Boeing even bother with a Twitter account or websites?

Wal-Mart, by the way, currently has no less than 15 official Twitter accounts and profiles in use to promote the U.S. side of their business alone! I haven’t even touched on how many major corporations and huge companies have blogs, or facebook accounts. That all seems like a lot of time, effort, and money to invest if social media and the internet aren’t beneficial forms of marketing!

Even those Chiropractic practices with a website and accounts on most of the main social media sites probably aren’t using these tools to their full potential. Chiropractic internet and social media marketing is a dynamic and immensely powerful tool if used correctly. However, a stale website or social media profile that sits without attention or updates for months are essentially as useless as no internet presence at all.

With the internet and social media, we have at our disposal the most powerful marketing and patient education venue we’ve seen in our lifetime. Ask yourself if you are using these opportunities to their full potential. What would BJ do? Would he sit on his hands and let these amazing opportunities pass him by? Would he half halfheartedly fumble together a website or blog, leaving it sit without attention, and call it good?

I’m confident BJ Palmer would tap into the immense reach and power of the internet and social media and take it to the next level. Not only would he fully utilize all of the Chiropractic internet marketing opportunities available, he would create revolutionary new opportunities for himself and our profession. BJ Palmer would have used the internet and social media to promote Chiropractic care across the globe and he would have done it in bold new ways amazing even by today’s standards.

Are you using the unique opportunities provided to you with the internet and modern technology? Are you seizing the moment and fully immersing your Chiropractic marketing plan in the internet and social media pool? If you aren’t, NOW is the time to start. If you ARE doing something, now is the time to step up and double your efforts! Yes, keeping up with the constantly changing demands of Chiropractic internet marketing is a challenge, but it’s a challenge worth meeting.

BJ was fond of the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise”. Would his attitude be any different toward Chiropractic internet marketing? The opportunities are there, we all just need to spend more time seizing them and less time making excuses.

-”Nuff said”

Now that we’ve created your email list settings it’s time to add your email addresses.  Before we get started we need to discuss what email addresses you can use in your MailChimp list.  MailChimp has a great article explaining what you can and can’t use. You can read that list here and I would NOT begin my first Chiropractic email marketing campaign without reading it.  It’s required reading!

On the most basic level you may only use email addresses the owner has specifically  granted you permission to use.  If you’ve bought the email address, pulled it from a website, or otherwise found or paid for the email address you can NOT use it.  In fact, you probably can’t even use a patient’s email address if you they gave it you on your patient intake forms.

Why not?  More than likely you never specifically stated what you would be using their email address for, and more importantly you never asked for permission to use it.  If you did, you’re fine.  However, if the patient simply entered their email address in a space on your intake forms you can’t start sending email marketing without specifically obtaining permission to do so.  Don’t panic because there’s a solution. You simply need to get permission to use the email address.  This can be accomplished with our opt in forms we’ll create later, or even a permission form incorporated within your practice. More about all of that in a future post. For now let’s see how you can begin adding email addresses to your empty list.

One of the fastest ways to import email addresses is if you are lucky enough to already have them in a Microsoft Excel file or a comma separated or tab delimited .txt file. If you do, you can simply use the “import” function or just cut and paste the email addresses from Excel. The MailChimp.com import function allows you to import your existing email address list from sources above and also from places like Google Contacts, Eventbrite, Capsule, Highrise and other sites.

To use the import function simply log into your MailChimp account, select the “Lists” tab and then under your desired list simply click on the “import” link.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have an email list setup in one of the formats discussed already, you’ll have to manually enter your email addresses. It’s a little more time consuming if you have a lot of email addresses but there’s really not a way around it. To manually enter email addresses into your MailChimp list do the following. First log in to your MailChimp.com account and click on the “Lists” tab. Next, under your desired email list click on the “add people” link. You’ll then be taken to a screen to allow you enter an email address along with the option of entering the person’s first and last name. Notice the warning that you must have permission to use the person’s email address!

Since you’ll no doubt be acquiring email addresses manually via your practice intake forms and other sources, I recommend creating a database file if you have access to Excel or a similar program. If you don’t have Excel, OpenOffice.org might be a free alternative. If you have Microsoft Office, or something comparable to the Excel program, I highly recommend you create a simple file to store all your manually acquired email addresses.

A simple one column file to store the email address would be fine. You can also create a more complex file, simply create a separate column for each additional information field you would like to keep track of (One for patient first name, last name, address, phone number etc). This file would then be a database of your manually acquired email addresses. Provided you have specifically obtained permission to use these addresses, you would then simply import them or cut and paste the list into your MailChimp list on a regular basis.

One of the cool things about MailChimp is it will automatically catch any duplicate addresses and help you automatically clean your email address list when you import or add new email addresses!

There you have it! You can now begin building your chiropractic email marketing list. In our next post we’ll create our email newsletter opt-in forms. These forms are great because they’ll automatically add your new members who subscribe to your email newsletter using these forms! In the meantime start creating those lists and database files!

Your new MailChimp email address list is setup to store a member’s first and last name, and email address by default.  If you want to store more information about your chiropractic email list members, such as their mailing address of phone number, you’ll need to add a data field to your list and create some additional merge tags. Don’t worry because MailChimp.com makes the entire process ridiculously simple.

If you aren’t already logged in, log in to your MailChimp account.  From your dashboard click on the “lists” tab. Next you’ll see all the lists you’ve created. Under the list you’d like to add fields for, place your mouse cursor over the link labeled “settings” next to a wrench icon. In the dropdown menu click on “fields and merge tags”.

You should now be at the screen below which will allow you to add data fields. You can choose to add fields to store patient addresses, phone numbers, images, dates, and more.

Click the “Add Field” button next to the green plus sign.  A list of choices will pop up.  Click the choice that corresponds to the type of field you want to add. For example the patient’s address or phone number. You should see your existing default fields (email address, last name, and first name) and then the new field you just added at the bottom.  Now click in the box that says “untitled” and change the name to a name the you will easily identify. If you just added a phone field type “Phone” etc.

The column labeled “Required?” and the last column dealing with merge tags effect things like your sign up forms you’ll create later.  If you wish to make a field required check the box next to that field.  A new subscriber will now be required to provide that information to successfully subscribe to your email list. For example, if you added a phone number field and checked the “Required?” box, everyone signing up to your email list using your MailChimp sign up form will now be required to provide a phone number to complete their sign up.

In the final column labeled: “Stick this tag in your content:” you can set up merge tags that will help automatically merge data into your content.  Don’t worry because it sounds more complicated than it is.  Basically merge tags are tags used to tell software where to automatically insert data from your email list.  Merge tags automatically store your new subscribers in your email list  and also can be used to automatically insert their name and other information into emails and other areas.

In the final column you can enter a name for the Merge Tag for the new field you just added.   This will come in handy when creating sign up forms and other content.  You can leave the default name like “MERGE3″ as is or create a more easily identifiable name such as PHONE or ADDRESS. This will be used later when we create your email list opt-in, or subscribe, forms.

That’s all there is to it! You can continue adding additional data fields or proceed if you’re satisfied.  Click here to go to Part 8: Adding your email addresses.

-Dr. James

*All screenshots above are from MailChimp.com and are used with permission.  MailChimp was created by The Rocket Science Group  © 2001-2010. All rights reserved.

We created your free MailChimp account in our last post.  Now let’s take a few minutes and create an email list.  Log in to your MailChimp account.  In  your dashboard area notice the “lists” tab.  Click the “lists” tab and then the “Create New List” button on the left hand side.  You’ll be taken to a screen to begin entering information for your list.

Start by entering a name for your list in the “list name” field.  This is basically just a name to help you identify this list if you create more than one list.  This name won’t appear in your emails.

Next, add a name for the “default from” name.  This is the name that will appear in the “From” portion of your email recipient’s email in-box. This doesn’t have to be an email address.  It can be “Doctor Smith”, or “Anytown Chiropractic”.

For the “default reply-to email” enter your email address you’d like the email reader to send any of their replies to.  If your reader clicks “reply” to reply to your message their email will be sent to the email address you provide here.  Keep in mind your reader will see this email address so use a business, professional, or non-private email address.

Next, you’ll choose a “default subject” for your emails.  The subject line is a brief overview your email recipient will see in their email in-box next to the “From” section.  The subject line often determines whether your email gets deleted, read, or marked as spam (junk mail), so choose carefully.  You can choose a unique subject line with every email you send but I recommend choosing a generic email subject line here.  If  you forget to change the subject line when you send your email this subject line appears as the default.  I recommend  something like “Mainstreet Chiropractic Newsletter” or similar.

In the next section you can enter a short message to include in your emails to remind your subscribers how they ended up on your mailing list.

You’ll then enter your Chiropractic practice information: Name, address, phone number etc.  This is pre-filled with the information you provided at sign up so you may not need to change anything.  Since this information will be listed at the bottom of each email you send, make sure it’s correct.

Check the next 2 boxes if you want to be notified via email when someone subscribes (using sign up forms we’ll create later) or unsubscribes from your email list. Click the final box to allow your subscribers to choose which format of email they’d like to receive.

Here’s a screenshot to help you visualize the entire process.  Click on the image to open a larger version in a new window:

Finally,  click the “save” button and you’ll be taken to a confirmation page asking you what you’d like to do next.

You’ve now created your first email list!  I know what you’re thinking. “This isn’t much of an email list!”  Think of this more as a database or email list template.  You’ve just created the framework to which we’ll add the actual email addresses and other information to.

Although we’re mainly concerned with email addresses, your MailChimp email address list can store other information about your patients and subscribers.  We simply have to tell it to do so.  By default your email list is set up with the ability to store each  subscriber’s’ email address, last name, and first name.  If you’d like your email list to store more information, such as mailing addresses and phone numbers, we need to add some data fields and create some merge tags.  We’ll cover that in part 7.  If you just want to start adding your email addresses, skip ahead to part 8 of this series.

-Dr. James

*All screenshots above are from MailChimp.com and are used with permission.  MailChimp was created by The Rocket Science Group  © 2001-2010. All rights reserved.

Now that I’ve told you how helpful MailChimp.com can be for your Chiropractic email marketing, let’s set up your account and first email marketing campaign.  Don’t worry because setting up your account is just as easy as everything else on the site.  With that in mind, let’s get started!

The first step is to go to MailChimp.com.  Click the “Signup Free” button in the top right corner.  You’ll be transferred to the first signup page. Enter your email address you wish to be contacted at, choose a username (spaces are not allowed), and a password of at least 6 characters.  Notice that at least one of the characters in your password must be a number or other special “non-letter” character.

Now simply click the “Create My Account” button. If all went correctly you’re brought to the “Thanks for signing up!” page.

Notice that you’ll be asked to check the email inbox of the email address you just listed in the sign up process.  This email contains a link that you must click to activate and confirm your MailChimp account.  If you have any issues with the link not working you might need to click a message in your email software to allow you to click the link.  Look for a something similar to “view all content and links”, “Enable links” or similar.  If all else fails, simply type or copy and paste the website address from the email into your internet web browser’s address bar.

This link will take you to a page asking you to verify you’re human.  This is to ensure your account isn’t an auto generated account completed by a spammer or other ill intentioned individual.  Simply type the words located in the captcha box and click the “Confirm Signup” box.  See the example screenshot below.  You’ll then be taken directly to the MailChimp.com sign in page.  Simply enter your username and password and click “Login”.

You’ll then be taken to the “Let’s get started” page.  This is where you begin setting up the details of your account.  This is done for setup and not something you’ll need to do every time you log in.  The process is all very self explanatory but we’ll run through the steps here quickly.

Enter your name (I recommend the Doctor of Chiropractic’s name here since he or she is ultimately the one responsible for all advertising), business address, and other pertinent account details here.  This information will be listed at the bottom of each email you send to comply with CAN-SPAM laws, so make sure you double check everything for accuracy.

Click the “Next” button and you’ll be asked to list your business name, website address if applicable, and to choose a category that best applies to your business.  I  personally use the “Medical, Dental and Healthcare”  category. MailChimp uses this information to show you how your email marketing efforts stand up to other email marketing in the same industry.

Next you’ll choose a “Security question” and answer.  You may be required to correctly answer your security question  to verify your identity if MailChimp notices something fishy with your account.  With that in mind keep the question something only you would know and also something you’ll easily remember.  For example, your Father’s middle name, mother’s maiden name etc.  Make a note of the exact spelling you use for your answer and keep the information, along with your MailChimp log in information, in a safe place.

At the bottom of the screen you are now asked to select which plan you want to start with.

If your list has less 500 email address and you’ll be sending less than 3000 monthly emails you can start with the “Forever Free” plan.  The only limitations of the Forever Free plan are a list size of less than 500, a maximum of 3,000 monthly sends, and a small “MailChimp” affiliate badge or logo be placed at the bottom of your emails. Paid plans remove the “MailChimp” badge and increase list size and monthly send limits.  Unless you have an immediate need to send to 500 or more email addresses, I’d start out with the free plan.  Simply click the green “Pick Plan” button under your choice.  Once you make your selection you’ll be transferred to your account’s main “Dashboard”.

The dashboard is where you’ll begin all of your MailChimp activities.  The first thing you’ll need to do is setup your new email list and then add or import the email addresses you’ll be sending to.  We’ll tackle these tasks in our next posts.  In the meantime you can take advantage of all the fantastic “how to” articles and instructional videos available for free from MailChimp.  Simply log into your account and scroll down toward the middle of the page and explore the “Learning Center” area of your dashboard.

This area is packed full of tutorials that can explain things better than ever could.

Gather up those email addresses because we’ll begin building your MailChimp email marketing list next time! Until then, keep spreading the word of Chiropractic!

-Dr. James

*All screenshots above are from MailChimp.com and are used with permission.  MailChimp was created by The Rocket Science Group  © 2001-2010. All rights reserved.

A few years ago I was like many D.C.s.   I knew I wanted to implement Chiropractic email newsletters and marketing.  After all, I had been obtaining email addresses and permission to use them on my patient intake forms for a long time. I was doing nothing with the information.  I also wanted to make sure it did it all legally and ethically.

So one afternoon I sat down to figure out exactly what was required of me.  I was quickly sickened when I read all I had to do to simply maintain avoid allegations of spam abuse.  Here I was with all these email addresses, patients interested in being contacted, and I had no time to deal with figuring out how to do it all.  Paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for me wasn’t an option either.

Then one day when searching the internet for a solution I stumbled across MailChimp.com.  After seeing I could try it out for free for an unlimited amount of time I decided it was worth a shot.  After spending a few minutes setting up my first chiropractic email marketing campaign I was hooked!  Let’s take a look at why I think the site is so amazing.

Here are just a few things MailChimp.com can help you do:

• Create and Manage your Chiropractic email marketing list.
  

Create your list with MailChimp.com.  The site will allow you to create as many lists of email addresses as you’d like.  You can manually type in your email addresses, import them from an existing excel or similar file, or even allow you to create your own custom branded online sign-up/opt in and unsubscribe forms that automatically add subscribers.  These forms can feature your own logos and color choices.

You can easily set up auto responders to work with your forms as well.

Another great feature is the fact that MailChimp.com pretty much manages all of your email list management functions on autopilot.  If someone unsubscribes they’re automatically removed from the list.  If an email address “bounces” or is otherwise found to be undeliverable the address is removed.  If an email address’s owner never opens your emails they’re eventually cleaned from the list.  All of this without your input and for free!  Of course you can change many settings as you see fit as well.

• Design attractive HTML Chiropractic email marketing campaigns.

If you have no idea what HTML is, have no fear.  It’s basically a form of coding to make websites and pretty emails.  Without it you have plain boring text only emails.  With it you can make amazingly beautiful and effective design layouts.  If you have no HTML knowledge it doesn’t matter, because MailChimp has tons of awesome and FREE templates to use.  If you know a little or a lot of HTML go nuts because they make it all ridiculously simple.  Even better they use HTML that actually works and actually gets delivered to your readers.  You can even preview it all and send test emails before you send the final product.

• Track your campaign and monitor its effectiveness.

MailChimp provides unbelieveable analytical reports to monitor the effectiveness of your chiropractic email marketing.  Find out if any email addresses bounced or where undeliverable, see who opened your newsletter, and even which links are getting clicked on.

• Archive your Chiropractic email marketing.

MailChimp creates a webpage version of every newsletter or Chiropractic Email marketing campaign you’ve sent.  Now you can save all of your email marketing for future reference and as is required of many states.

• Integrate your Chiropractic email marketing with Social Media sites like Twitter

Have MailChimp auto update social media sites when you publish your new newsletter!  This is a great way to generate new readers.

• Conduct Chiropractic email marketing that is free/affordable, ethical, and legal

The first time you set up your mailing list MailChimp guides you through setting up the information you need to include in your newsletter to comply with best practices and anti-spam regulations.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s available for FREE to the casual user with little computer knowledge!  If you are tech savvy there are many other tools that do things even I don’t fully understand.  Spring for one of the affordable paid services and who knows what you can achieve!

Yes I said FREE. Not a FREE 30 Day Trial. MailChimp.com offers a “Forever Free” pricing option.  Of course there’s a minor catch, you are limited to an email subscriber list size of 500 members with a limit of 3,000 email sends a month.  This would allow you to send 6 emails to 500 email addresses every month.  Obviously this free service is going to meet the needs of many Chiropractic practices for a while!

That’s the only catch to the free service.  I can tell you from experience if you ever outgrow the free service you’ll no doubt be so impressed you’ll have no problems paying stepping up to the next level which is only $15 a month.  If you have higher volume needs or want a “pay as you go” option they offer that as well.  So head on over to MailChimp.com today you’ll be glad you did.  With their forever free program you can take the site’s features through a test run as long as you like so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

In our next part of this series I’ll walk you through setting up your first Chiropractic email marketing campaign with MailChimp.com and point you to some other email marketing sites in the unlikely event you aren’t happy with MailChimp.  Until next time, thanks for reading!

-Dr. James

Last time we spent a few minutes exploring just a handful of  ideas to get you started with your Chiropractic email marketing.   It should be obvious that there is a great deal of potential there. In just a few minutes we discussed dozens of ways email marketing can be used to promote Chiropractic and your practice.  Now you’re probably wondering, if Chiropractic email marketing is so fantastic, why aren’t all Doctors of Chiropractic using it in their practice?

The obvious answers are the perceived level of difficulty, lack of knowledge and experience, and plain old lack of time.  Most Chiropractors simply don’t know how to do any of this on their own.  Even if they did, they lack the time it would normally require to set it all up effectively.

Most doctors know you can’t simply throw some plain text into an email program, call it a newsletter, and send it out expecting results.  An attractive HTML email with photos, images, and links to websites of interest are all vital.  Knowing how to design and code an html email correctly, make it attractive, and also ensure it is deliverable are simply not skills the average Chiropractor possesses.

Most streetwise chiropractor’s also know, as with any form of Chiropractic advertising,  you have to be careful about email marketing.  Anti-spam regulations have made legal email marketing a much more involved process than it was 5 or 10 years ago.   You must have permission to use a person’s email (and be able to prove it) to avoid accusations of spam and abuse.  In addition,  you must  manage and update email lists with subscribe and unsubscribe forms and options.  To comply with Chiropractic board requirements in many states you also have to maintain a written record of the advertising you sent.  That’s just the start of it!  It’s no wonder many Chiropractors shy away from email marketing  with the attitude that it’s beyond their capabilities.

What if there were a web-based program that made Chiropractic email marketing a breeze? What if it automated 95% of the process and made it all as simple as ordering something online? Imagine designing an attractive html email with no coding knowledge.  Imagine creating and managing email lists on the fly.  Try and visualize the value of a site that could create all of your email list sign up and unsubscribe forms with the click of a mouse button.  Imagine tracking the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns: seeing who opened it, which links were clicked and more. Well such a site does exist!   Now imagine if all of this was offered free of charge.  Well it is!

If you have a desire to enter the world of chiropractic email marketing then there is no better way to do it than with free help!  Let me introduce you to a little site called MailChimp.com.  Don’t let the funny name fool you, this site is no joke!  MailChimp is an amazing website to help you create and manage your own email marketing campaigns.  It has an amazingly simple WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) style interface to help you set up and design your Chiropractic email marketing.  Perhaps better than the dozens of hours it will save you is the fact that it’s absolutely free for lite and beginning users.  Not a free trial…FOREVER FREE as long as you manage a list of under 500 subscribers and send less than 3,000 emails a month!

If you can’t tell by now, I’m in love with it! I’ll briefly discuss how I came across MailChimp and what makes it so great in my next post.  After that I’ll even walk you through setting up your first email marketing campaign.  In the meantime, if you just can’t wait, head on over to MailChimp.com and check them out.  I’m off for a banana break!