With Live Face On Web, you can have an image of an actual person pop out of the screen and welcome your website visitor.  What you do is, you go on the site, select your desired model [...]]]> If you are looking too add some pizzazz to your website, consider Live Face On Web.

With Live Face On Web, you can have an image of an actual person pop out of the screen and welcome your website visitor.  What you do is, you go on the site, select your desired model (spokesperson), and email the script you want this spokesperson to say.  The company videotapes your spokesperson at their location, converts the video into javascript (a programming language read by internet browsers), and embeds it into your website.

Now, I am not aware of any conversion studies that show the effectiveness of Live Face On Web, but whenever I see a site that has it, I think it adds a nice, interactive touch.  Most websites are boring and static; the virtual assistant does a great job of attracting the visitor’s attention.  It’s a perfect way to get your most important message across to your website visitors.

Here are some scripts I thought of off the top of my head, that you can have your website’s virtual spokesmodel say:

• “Hello, and thanks for visiting!  If you are experiencing neck or back pain, we can help.  This month we are holding a New Patient Special of $49 for an exam, x-rays, and initial treatment.  Make sure to call the number in the upper right corner to set up your appointment.”
• “Welcome to Jones Chiropractic.  Please view our Welcome Video to acquaint yourself with the services we offer.  We have new patient appointments available this and next week, so make sure to call us so we can help.”

I’m sure you can think of some good ones, too, that apply specifically to your practice.  Remember, the message should be short, coherent (no way to be confusing), and have a call to action (tell the visitor what to do next).

Live Face on Web–Give it a try!

Dan Perez DC

Why?  [...]]]> If you haven’t noticed, many people are abandoning the old hard copy Yellow Pages and are doing their business searches online.  They are either using an online directory like Yellowpages.com, using an internet search engine like Google, Yahoo Search, or Bing; or are using a social media site like Yelp.com, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Craigslist.

Why?  Because these days people spend a lot of time on the internet because  it offers many conveniences.  People are paying their bills online, shopping online, doing price comparisons, researching products and services, and even finding their future spouses online.  Who knows what’s next?

Chiropractors as business people sometimes are slow to keep up with marketing trends, and this is understandable– there are a lot of issues to deal with when running a chiropractic business.  They’re like a big oil tanker chugging along, then trying to make a 90 degree turn into port.  Such big vessels need to travel a whole mile in the same direction after the rudder is turned, before they start turning due to their mass and inertia.  Are you one of these ships?  Doing the same kinds of marketing you did in the 1980s, like free chicken dinners and spinal care class?

After you read this post, Google the phrase “[your city or neighborhood]chiropractors” and see what listings come up.  If you live in Atlanta, Google “Atlanta chiropractors.”  If you’re not on the first page, you are missing a lot of potential patients.  The chiropractor listings you see at the top are taking them away from you– ouch!

So what do you do?  You make sure your website is search engine optimized.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is the tedious process of doing things to make your website rank high for your business’ keywords.  It’s very time consuming, but rewarding.  Get a #1 or #2 listing for your main keyword, and you don’t have to deal with expensive directory listings and Google AdWords pay per click ads.  It  becomes free traffic, which has tremendous value.

I made an SEO ebook especially for small business owners that explains all the techniques I use to get a top ranked website (Google San Francisco Chiropractor).  It’s written in plain English, is easy to understand, and is very concise.  All you have to do is follow the steps, and you can’t lose.  In actuality, it should be very easy to get the #1 or #2 position for your main keywords because speaking in terms of search engine results, there are not too many listings for [city]chiropractor or variations of it.

If you spend a couple hundred bucks on a website but it isn’t listed on the first page in Google, then it might as well be invisible.  Most people looking for businesses make their selection from the first page.

-high insurance deductibles

-low re-imbursements

-utilization review bullies

I’m talking about the way people get their information.   The last couple of years have witnessed a huge paradigm shift in the way our society stays informed– for worse and for better.  If [...]]]> Fellow chiropractors, times are a-changing.  And I don’t mean the stuff you already know:

-high insurance deductibles

-low re-imbursements

-utilization review bullies

I’m talking about the way people get their information.   The last couple of years have witnessed a huge paradigm shift in the way our society stays informed– for worse and for better.  If you’re thinking the Internet, you’ve got it.

Don’t think you are immune to it, or you’ll be making a big mistake.  It’s important to understand the ramifications the internet has on the practice of chiropractic.  It’s a watershed moment that is forever changing the way we communicate.   Basically, a story on the internet can spread virally all over the world hours before it is featured on a major television news station.  Can you think of a couple of ways that can affect your business?  Sure you can.

Here and now, in 2009, I advise all chiropractors to focus their energy on  communicating  their services online.  And I don’t mean just getting a canned website and hoping for the best.  That’s not the way you run your physical business, so it’s not the way to run the online representative of your business.  Think of your website as an extension of your business and tend to it the same way you tend to your clinic:

1.  Content:  make it clear to your website visitors what you are offering.  Write it yourself– it will have deeper meaning and sound less canned.

2.  Marketing:  make sure that your website encourages visitors to submit their email addresses.  Offer something in return (free massage, 50% off coupon, etc.); it’s that important!  Make sure that your index page tells them to Call for an Appointment (call to action).

3.  Management:  Continually tweak, trim, and sharpen your website.  A truly effective website is a work in progress– constantly evolving for the better.  You can add a video library, research articles validating chiropractic, forms, and so on– even audio messages from you that play automatically.

Chiropractic is at a crossroads.  Many chiropractors are closing their offices; chiropractic college enrollment is down.  As an industry, our growth curve is on the decline.  And I’m sure part of this is due to our industry’s lack of cohesiveness and “each man for his own” attitude.

The purpose of Chiropractic Rescue Plan is to help chiropractors adapt to our rapidly changing society and thrive in the years to come.  We have something valuable to give, and we need to make sure we stay relevant and visible in the public eye.    I shall lay out the foundation of the plan  in the posts to come.