By Freddie Ulan, DC, CCN, Founder, Ulan Nutritional Systems

Why is nutrition the key to otherwise unresolving chiropractic cases, today more than ever?

I believe it’s because malnutrition has become the norm rather than the exception. Dr. Royal Lee identified the problem more than half a century ago:

“We have drifted into this deplorable position of national malnutrition quite inadvertently. It is the result of scientific research with the objective of finding the best ways to create foods that are non-perishable that can be made by mass production methods in central factories, and distributed so cheaply that they can sweep all local competition from the market.”

The truth of Dr. Lee’s provocative statement may not have been self-evident in the 1950s, but today it is indisputable. In the mad rush for ever-greater shelf life and speed of preparation, nutritional considerations have been swept aside in today’s supermarkets, or at best, relegated to the “Greenwise” shelf. The toxin-induced subluxations D.D. Palmer warned about 100 years ago are far more prevalent than even he could have foreseen.

I know whereof I speak. In my own case, the best chiropractic adjustments available could not arrest the precipitous decline of my health in 1991, let alone reverse it. To save my own life, I had to accelerate the advance of clinical nutrition beyond what the pioneers of the subject had achieved.

I was unable even to continue in practice until I recovered my own health sufficiently, with the help of a colleague implementing my new techniques, which I called Nutrition Response Testing.

Today, I am delighted to say that over 500 practitioners have attained a level of clinical mastery surpassing what I was able to achieve in my own practice in the 1990s. A few elected to specialize in nutrition almost exclusively, but a great many more have achieved a balance of chiropractic and nutrition in smoothly integrated, stress-free (and largely insurance-free) practices.

Many of these chiropractors were interviewed during our December, 2014 Symposium to discover the common denominators that enable these integrated chiropractic/Nutrition Response Testing practices to function so smoothly. Six of their stories have been chosen to appear in this issue.

by Daniele Lattanzi, CEO, Ulan Nutritional Systems

There are as many different types of practices as their are practitioners–even within the nutritional field or in the world of chiropractic, you know how different personalities can be. Those differences in personality can be part of your individual strength, with your brand development and with you naming it correctly–so that you can bring in more patients looking for solutions just like what you offer.

It isn’t just about knowing your strengths and weaknesses, though that can be part of it, it really is about developing your practice brand.

So here is a simple guide to get you started, developing the brand for your nutritional or chiropractic clinic.

Terms to Know

When it comes to marketing and branding (and advertising) the terms can get run together or incorrectly used. So first, what are branding and brand marketing?

• Branding – Derived from the term used for a name or a symbol for a company (its brand), branding has come to mean any distinction specific to a company or organization–it includes logo, design, symbols or products (like the Nike swish or their style of shoes), but it also includes the idea or thoughts associated with a company.
• Brand marketing – Using strategies of branding to push forward or promote the idea of your company, is brand marketing. All marketing should fit your brand, but brand marketing is specifically getting your brand better known and understood.

Know Thyself

On the temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece, the writer Pausanias is credited with having inscribed the maxim, “know thyself.”

Indeed, the first step in nutritional branding is to understand what you do. What sets you apart? Whom do you best serve? It helps to identify the qualities shared by the patients you have helped the most. It can be obvious, like a specific demographic (children, women, the elderly, whomever you most serve), or more subtle, such as great success with individuals dealing with allergies or digestive issues.

Whatever you find that your patients and success stories most have in common, is probably the key to your brand.

Meet Them on Their Turf

Once you have identified who you best serve, you need to figure out how to approach more people like that. It’s not as straight-forward as hanging up a sign that says, “Everyone with chronic headaches, come see me,” but it’s not that far off, either.

Have your signage, paperwork, employee dress, level of service, workshops, tone of your external communications–everything!–fit your brand, and meet your potential patients on their turf.

The brand that suits you sums up what you do well. The marketing that fits will communicate that, and to the people with whom you resonate.

Enlist Your Patients

Sometimes it takes an outsider to see you as you really are. If you are redesigning a logo, planning workshops, participating in a health fair–anything!–ask your patients for input, particularly those patients whom you have identified as being the type you best serve, and the type you’d like to see more of. If your messaging doesn’t seem quite right, they will often know before you do.

You’re not really asking your patients for design input, you are asking them, “Which sign would make you want to find out more?” “Which workshop would you most want to attend?” “Where could I go to meet more patients, like yourself, that I could help?” You may get direct referrals, or other opportunities to identify and market your brand.

Stay the Course

Brands also become better known with longevity–that Coca-Cola logo looks the same in any language. So identify who you serve, meet more people like them, and persist.

You’ll soon be broadly known as a healer!

Daniele Lattanzi

Practice Management & Digital Marketing Expert | Helping private practitioners grow their dream practice

by Daniele Lattanzi

Out of all of your advertising, marketing and networking efforts to grow a practice, the most important piece of the puzzle is word-of-mouth referrals. That’s because approximately 85 percent of small business new customers come from word of mouth. In many healthcare settings, the rates can be even higher.

Here are 5 ways to capitalize on the potential of word of mouth, launch a successful referral campaign, and reach more new patients than ever.

Start Within

If you want to change the world, start with yourself. Those words of wisdom have been said many ways. Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Even Michael Jackson said, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.”

We aren’t necessarily talking about changing the entire world, but we are talking about improving the lives of others, reaching more people, and that can, indeed, have a positive impact on the world. More immediately, we are talking about generating word-of-mouth business; for that, we may need to change ourselves.

People who are “satisfied” or “moderately satisfied” are unlikely to refer. Patients who are completely blown away by your level of care, are the ones who will refer their friends and family to you.

To do that, make sure you are giving excellent service, a welcoming environment, and addressing the reasons a patient came to see you in the first place. All of the improvement in the world can mean virtually nothing, if you have not addressed the patient’s biggest area (or areas) of concern.

So start within–outstanding results yields referrals.

Get Your Team on Board

The next step to generate lots of great referrals is to get your team on board. Even if you are in an office of two people, you both need to be on board! A coordinated team effort will help you:

• Keep it focused, so that you get results.
• Keep each other motivated, since you’ll likely do many “asks” for every referral obtained.
• Stay coordinated, so you aren’t asking the same few people over and over, making patients feel uncomfortable.

Make it a Game

When you and your team are on board, play two games: an internal one and an outwardly facing game. Internally, what is your target? How will you and your team keep track, and what reward do you want to go for when you meet a certain number? The game could be new patient referrals, or it could be something that comes as a result of more referrals, such as a certain number of patient visits in a week or a specific gross income.

(If you are not already, make sure you are keeping track of these kinds of key practice statistics–you can’t win a game if you don’t know your targets and how far you have come!)

Then determine your outwardly-facing game, for patients who play the word-of-mouth game. What will you offer them? A discounted evaluation for their friends? A discount on a service for them? A prize? Ideally, your game should also have a cumulative effect–better reward for more referred new patients.

Offer a “Buy Now”

You don’t want your game to last forever, so also be sure to offer an incentive to make something happen right now (like a free referral week, but other times are just discounted). Having a “buy now,” that then repeats later, might create ebbs and tides in new patient inflow, but it also lets you grow to accommodate the influx, while keeping the reward imminent. This is a great part of UNS Marketing Solution’s strategy

Keep Going

Button for Word-of-mouth referral program

Grow, stabilize, and grow some more. Keep word-of-mouth games going, and you’ll grow and keep going.

Daniele Lattanzi

CEO, Ulan Nutritional Systems

Practice Management & Digital Marketing Expert | Helping private practitioners grow their dream practice

Reputation can make or break a business.

American business magnate, Warren Buffett, said it best:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Just ask Hollywood stars and politicians.

Just look around and find national or local companies that got burned by a bad review that went viral on social media and you’ll see that business is either struggling or closing its doors.

Utilities, airlines, and cable companies are some of the worst affected.

But unfortunately, health providers are following closely.

If you think you’ll never get a bad review on your business, think again. Even while providing your best service possible, you’ll still see a small number of people complaining about the smallest details they found wrong when they visited you.

Be prepared to deal with those, especially with Google, Yelp and Facebook reviews.

To get this under control, you need to set up a review system that can give you control of what’s being said about you and your business online.

Think about a review system service as a reputation management tool for your office.

The following five points make up a good reputation management system:

1. It sends an email and text message review request to the patient, so he/she can write an honest review either on Google (preferred), Yelp or Facebook.
2. It monitors and scans the internet 24/7 to see what people (patients, disgruntled employees, competitors and even fake reviews) are writing about and what reviews they are leaving, not only on other websites, but practically everywhere on the internet where reviews are accepted.What it does is that it scans all other review websites for you. This way, you’ll see what’s happening “behind the scenes”.
3. It gives the practice an opportunity to answer, in a specific way, on both good and bad reviews, so other people can see you’re active and paying attention to people’s concerns.
4. It gives Google what it wants: fresh content from real people and active participation. This helps Google create a better experience for those using their search engine.
5. You can get up to 5 times more reviews with this system. That alone gives you an edge over your competitors.

The more positive, five-star reviews, the more inclined people feel to do business with you.

That, in a nutshell, is what a good reputation management system is all about.

To set up a system like this in your practice, email us at info@unsmarketing.com or call us at (866) 418-4801 and we’ll help you get started.

Or if you prefer, contact us here: https://www.unsmarketing.com/contact/