Q:  "Where do you draw the line between giving too much in depth detail on a subject and not giving the, 'Oh, you should just drink more water' scenario?"

There's a critical balance, here to be sure.  You certainly don't want to just give them a bunch of fluffy junk that doesn't really result in anything, but at the same time, you aren't there to give them a degree either.

You have to be careful. What you do want to do is give them

Q:  I'm considering bringing speakers in to present on topics of interest after surveying my current patients on their topics of interest. Do you have any ideas, feedback, or thoughts?

Q:  How many internal marketing programs should be going on at one time and how many external marketing events can I do per month

The answer is you should have as many internal marketing programs going on at one time that you can handle that fits into your plan for your ideal practice and which does not negatively affect your personal quality of life.

You'll have your weekly new patient orientation and perhaps your outside talks.  In addition,

Q:  How much should my marketing budget be?

This is a great business question. Most chiropractors don't even consider themselves 'in business', but rather as simple servants.  Well, I have news for you...

Q:  How did you go about setting up and marketing your outside talks for your practice?

First of all, I had my staff set up and market most of my talks. There are dozens of ways to do it.

Q:  What do you think is the best way to market in 2009?

The best way to market right now is

Q:  Did you advertise for specific conditions?

This is a really tricky question. It belongs here, it belongs in philosophy, but did I advertise for specific conditions? I guess the answer is yes. I did a lot of Ritalin workshops for ADD and ADHD. I did a lot of ear infection workshops. I did some stress related workshops and ones on how to raise a healthy drug free family.

Did I advertise back pain?

Q:  External marketing becomes very expensive very quickly. I'd like to have more media exposure. I'm a Creating Wellness Center and I'd like more people to know about it. I'm having a hard time devoting time to this task. I've contacted local editors of the papers over the past two years but it really hasnít materialized.

Again we find ourselves with a question about 'time issues'. If you don't have time to do it, that means you're not budgeting your time effectively or you don't have enough people helping you. If it's lack of help, you have to do a cost calculation. What is it costing you to not have someone else handling the small things so you can handle the big things?

Q:  Marketing funds dry up really quick when you first start out. Any new ideas for marketing? I don't like to give my services away. About three times a year I do food drives or charity events, donations in exchange for adjustments. I do internal referrals. I'm wondering if you have anything that really stands out and made a noticeable difference.

That's a big question and I'll do my best to answer it but I cover it in much more detail within the member modules in the Epic Practice when we talk about external and internal different marketing strategies.

The number one strategy is quite obvious, but it's new to most chiropractors.