In July 2006, Lynne Sullivan, DC, marked a milestone—20 years in practice. In the first quarter of 2006, she marked another milestone: She added 100 new patients to her patient roster.

Sullivan aggressively markets her skills and her practice, Sullivan Chiropractic Health Center, to various patient and referral sources around her Pleasanton, Calif, base. Last year, the practice saw 307 new patients, with 80% of them coming as referrals from patients, staff, and other health care professionals.

But her marketing success has not come without high-powered assistance. In late 2005, she hired a chiropractic marketing company to help her promote her practice.

High-Powered Marketing
Sullivan has long understood the need for a good marketing program. She used newsletters, her Web site, telephone directories, referrals, and membership in the chamber of commerce to build her patient base over the years. But this standard fusillade of marketing tactics suddenly ceased working. “And I couldn’t tell you why they weren’t working,” she says.

In addition, after several years ending a sideline career as a public speaker, she had found that her patient base had shrunk. “My cheese moved, but I couldn’t find it,” Sullivan jokes, referencing the best-selling self-help book, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD. “Now, I’m focused back on my practice.”

Sullivan, who completes a yearly, detailed analysis of her practice, decided that she needed some assistance. This is when the professional marketing company entered the picture. The company helps chiropractors market to referral sources and patients, using many of the same techniques that Sullivan had been relying on. This was not lost on Sullivan’s staff, one of whom commented that the company suggested that the practice do much the same thing that it was already doing. Sullivan’s response: “That’s true, but they’re doing it at a higher level.”

The company has been able to set up speaking engagements and meetings that were beyond the capability and scope of the practice. “They are able to get me into places that I’m not capable of going,” Sullivan says.

Though Sullivan and her staff attempted to arrange events on their own, the amount of time needed to do so made this impractical. “If I was going to do marketing on my own, I couldn’t figure out how I was going to care for all the patients,” she says.

The company has more than delivered on its promises, Sullivan says, saving her time and getting results. For instance, the company guarantees three external events per month—presentations and the like—but with nine events in June 2006 and five in July 2006, it has exceeded even Sullivan’s expectations.

The company has also helped to arrange numerous referral lunches with the area’s top doctors and personal-injury attorneys, dramatically increasing her referral base from this group. She has even netted professional referral sources with patients in hand sight unseen through the materials the company has sent out on her behalf. The external events have also paid off well.

At a recent YMCA-sponsored healthy kids fair appearance—which was arranged by the marketing company—Sullivan scored a major coup. She gained the director of the YMCA as a patient and has been allowed to display her practice literature at the YMCA. She has also become the group’s official chiropractor.

Sullivan has upcoming presentations arranged at the local senior center and will be the keynote speaker at a nutritional conference that will be held in the Pleasanton area later in the year.

The goal, as with all these presentations, is to make Sullivan the top-of-the-mind chiropractor when potential patients and referral sources think of chiropractic care.

In addition to external events, Sullivan also holds internal events in her office and invites the public to attend.

These events, like the external ones, are fully supported by the marketing company, which helps to design and distribute flyers and prepare professional research-based PowerPoint presentations. “They make it real easy,” Sullivan says.

The company also provides several other services that make Sullivan’s life easier by building on the top-of-the-mind concept. Once per month, the company updates its Web site with a research-based article. The company also sends out a monthly electronic newsletter on Sullivan’s behalf. And the company is not only focused on new and current patients. It has a reactivation program, and Sullivan makes follow-up phone calls to former patients.

Sullivan meets with her marketing account manager regularly to review the plan for the practice’s continued growth.

One of the few things that Sullivan does not do is external advertising; instead, she relies solely on referrals and presentations to build her practice.

But professional marketing is only part of Sullivan’s multipronged attack on the market. She also engages, with the marketing company’s help, in the oldest form of practice building: word-of-mouth referrals.

Word of Mouth
Every month, the marketing company posts a research-based article on its Web site and is downloaded by the doctor for the patients, but the article is not left to linger. As part of the marketing plan, Sullivan writes a question related to it on a white board in the adjusting rooms of her office. One of the most recent article topics addressed the use of chiropractic and fertility. Following from that, Sullivan wrote a simple, enigmatic question on the board: “Want kids?” The hope is that a patient will ask a question about the question.

If the patient does ask, Sullivan will provide a handout—typically, a copy of the article. Sullivan asks another question: “Who do you know that [in this case] is having fertility problems?”

If the patient does know someone, Sullivan will capture the friend’s name and phone number. A few days later, she will call this potential patient and offer a complimentary exam. (The patient only has to pay for x-rays.) Using this method, Sullivan has substantially increased her patient base.

  Sullivan has engaged in other patient-friendly marketing methods for several years that continue to work. Every spring, she distributes seeds to her patients. The packaging is labeled “help our practice grow.” The intention is for the patient to plant the flowers and think about the practice when the flowers bloom. One year, Sullivan handed out sunflowers. Several months later, one of her patients proudly handed her a photo of his sunflower crop.

Sullivan uses her Web site to full effect. In addition to the newsletter, the site includes a “patient of the month” feature in which a particular patient’s photo and story—in their own words—are posted. The site also features patients whom potential clients can contact via telephone about their experiences with Sullivan.

In addition, Sullivan has continued her twice-monthly new-patient orientation seminars and the practice’s summer Wellness Club party.

But patient referrals and personal contact are only one aspect of Sullivan’s referral efforts. She has taken the referral process one step further, creating a reciprocal organization that is benefiting everyone  concerned.

Wellness Board
Sullivan helped form the Tri-Valley Wellness Board in January 2006. The group, which consists of 12 members from across several health-related disciplines, meets monthly; rotating between member offices. In addition to Sullivan, there is a psychologist, a hypnotherapist, an acupuncturist, a yoga instructor, the director of a local child care organization, the director of the YMCA, and the owner of the Life Renewal Center, among others.

Members are each responsible for one external event per year. The group helps to build referrals passively—they all have brochures from one another’s practice or business prominently displayed in their offices—or actively, by recommending patients or customers in search of member services. Sullivan takes the relationship with her fellow board members seriously.

“I try to refer as much as possible to them,” she says.

In addition to brochures, Sullivan also provides her referral sources with referral pads—another way that helps keep her name at the top of their minds. The pads include all of her business information. Referring physicians receive both an initial report and regular progress reports from Sullivan about their patients.

This multipronged marketing attack has produced the business boom that Sullivan enjoys today. “By doing all of these things, there’s a snowball effect,” she says.

Year-End Report
Sullivan has been producing the year-end report for years. The idea came from a patient, a marketing executive, who asked her simply, “Where’s your year-end report?” after she described her marketing efforts.

Sullivan contacted a major soft drink company and requested one of its year-end reports. She has been producing a multinational corporation-inspired one ever since.

The report is an analysis of every aspect of the business, including the number of new patients, the effectiveness of the practice’s retention efforts, how well it did collecting revenue, and return on investment. For instance, each new patient generates about $1,500 in revenue—so an event that costs the practice $2,000 to produce but nets only one new patient is considered a failure.

The report includes input from the entire team. Sullivan and her staff walk through the office and note any problems with the physical area, from equipment to the paint on the walls. She also works with the team to develop goals and rewards for the year.

The upcoming year’s marketing plan is based on the results of the analysis.

The formula has allowed Sullivan to adapt when her own efforts began to falter and she needed help rebuilding her practice. This marketing plan has also allowed Sullivan to do something other than being a full-time marketer. “Now, I’m just busy being a chiropractor,” she says.

C.A. Wolski is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.