The Art of Advertising| from a dude who researches this stuff to exhaustion

This is written in a blog format. Sometimes you can view this as a journal of sorts to expel my knowledge into an article for all to read.

We are here to talk about the art of advertising. How in the world am I remotely qualified to talk about this? I started a successful business at age 22, which last 4 years before I had to go back to school. I have won numerous innovation awards with multiple companies. In 1 year time frame I have grown my practice 5,700%. So yes, you can scroll right past or listen up. I'll separate this into a couple different categories: quality of product/service, social media, on the road advertising, and outside the box. If you feel so inclined to comment, do so. Also, I always encourage you to visit my clinic website to see some of the thing I have added

Quality of Product/Service

A great bussiness has a great product/service. When creating this, think of the type of demographic within your area. Are they young/old, upper class/middle class/lower class. What is the number one profession? Do they understand wellness? The type of product you offer has to match the demographic you are seeking out. I can not be a sports chiropractor in an area that is mostly sedentary individuals.

Do not divert from the quality of product! I see this problem so many times. You start of your business and you see no one the first couple months. You get very gimmicky and offer discounts and post way to much useless free content to the web. What you are doing is devaluing your service for the future. If you are not successful in the first 3 months do not worry. Look at the customer reviews and feedback you are provided. In the first 3 months of opening my clinic I had a total of 10 patients. Those 10 patients provided me 5 more patients and wrote 8 positive reviews on 3 different social media platforms.

Social Media

If you are not well versed in social media you are losing out on a ton of potential. The future for businesses is virtual. This is not a bad thing! You can have a larger impact at a lower cost. Everyone says referrals are the best way to grow a business. Well referrals are also the most expensive. To produce a referral you need to produce a quality product for an extended period of time, have that person tell their friend and then for their friend to take an action. Somewhere along that train the momentum falls and usually ends with "oh okay I'll check into that persons (insert business here)."

In order to be succesful with social media you have to convey your feeling across a digitial platform to the point where a person goes "I would like to buy that product". A couple of quick pointers: be enthusiastic, use high quality pictures, create action. Create action is something I started to find out early on. A picture of an obect gains lower traction compared to a person performing an action. Demonstrate your service and seek family members for honest feedback. The way you see your product will be different then how other view your product on social media.

On the road advertising

No more giveaways, no more raffles. These are a huge waste of time. I have talked to multiple businesses and I even fell into the deep dark depths of free giveaways. The conversation rate is absolutely horrible. All it does is presents you with a pool of people that want something free. Normal conversion rate for cold calling is something like 1 in 100. Think about the conversation rate of an email list. That has to be worse with the spam filters. So stop doing the spin the wheel to win. Waste of time!

What works is demonstrations. Get someone excited. Offer a service as a donation. In the beginning I scheduled 2-3 different events a week. I set up my tent, had my business cards, had my sign. The best advertising was at a cycling event and a American Red Cross walk offering free pre and post stretching. I also set up foam rollers and bands for event participants to use at their convenience. Figure out how you can showcase your services/products, and eliminate the wheel of prizes.

Outside the Box

Bottom line: you have to stand out. Do not be afraid to think out of the box. If you check out my website you will find numerous displays of this. From the mayday button, to work station analysis, to corporate wellness programs. Each service was carefully selected and created based on evaluating the needs of the demographic.

Take home points:

1. Do not divert from your core values (this means I better not see your service on Groupon)
2. Social Media is the future of free advertising (so grab a book on it and read)
3. Know your client base
4. Cheap giveaways are crap (thank you for the pen! No, I will decide on your quality of service based on how well the pen writes)
5. Be different. My favorite saying to debunk is "why recreate the wheel". My answer is always "if we didn't recreate the wheel we would all be driving around like Fred Flinstone"

Always Moving Forward,

Dr. Daniel Eichner DC, LAT, ATC

www.forwardmotionchiropractic.com

Owner/Chiropractor/Athletic Trainer

Email: [email protected]