Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
Digital marketing is evolving faster than ever, and as a chiropractor, you're not just a healthcare provider—you’re also the CEO and marketer of your practice. Without a solid grasp of marketing fundamentals, it's easy to fall for one-size-fits-all strategies that waste time and money.
Join us as we break down proven, cost-effective, and innovative marketing tactics designed specifically for chiropractors. From social media mastery to Google Ads that convert, we’ll equip you with the tools to attract more patients, build lasting relationships, and dominate your local market. Stay ahead, stay profitable, and take control of your practice’s growth!
Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
Lead Quality Crash: Why Meta Ads Fail and What to Do About It
Have your Facebook ads suddenly stopped delivering quality leads? You're not alone, and it's not your imagination. In this raw, tactical episode, we dive deep into the seismic shift happening with Meta advertising that's left practice owners frustrated and wondering where their marketing ROI went.
The problem isn't your ad creative or your offer – it's Meta's aggressive pivot to AI-driven ad delivery that's fundamentally changed how audiences are targeted. While leads still come in, they're increasingly disengaged, distracted, and overwhelmed by automation from countless businesses using identical follow-up tactics.
I break down exactly what's changed behind the scenes at Meta and why using AI-generated ad copy has created a feedback loop of "robotic English" that fails to connect with real humans. The harsh reality? 60-80% of today's Meta leads never book on the first touch, regardless of how compelling your offer is.
The solution requires a complete overhaul of your lead engagement strategy. You'll learn my battle-tested "Epic Nurture Sequence" that transforms lukewarm leads into patients through persistent, multi-channel follow-up. We cover exactly what to say in those crucial first 15 minutes after lead submission, how many calls your team should make (hint: it's probably 5x what you're doing now), and why doctor-recorded videos and voicemails are game-changers for building instant trust.
For practices feeling the squeeze of declining lead quality, this episode delivers actionable systems you can implement immediately to stay ahead of the curve. Whether you stick with Meta or pivot to Google ads, you'll understand exactly how to combat AI with AI while maintaining the human touch that converts disinterested scrollers into engaged patients.
Stay competitive in Q3 2024 with these proven strategies from someone who's in the trenches with you, running ads and optimizing conversions for practices nationwide. Your marketing ROI depends on it.
- Join Marketing 101 for Chiropractors Facebook Group here
- Learn more at EnricoD.com
- Book a free discovery call with Enrico to level up your business
If you're frustrated that your meta ads are not converting anymore, you got to listen up to this podcast. It's probably not your ads, it's your lead engagement strategy. We've talked about this over and over and over again. Today we're diving into how to generate higher quality leads and, more importantly, how to get those leads to actually respond and show up in your office, and you're probably going to have to shift to Google. This day has come and I knew it was coming.
Speaker 1:This year has been weird. If you've noticed and you run your own ads, if you notice that lead quality has been sucking. The last probably Q2, especially this quarter two has sucked. Q1 was the beginning of it. Well, I've been digging deep these last six weeks trying to figure out what's going on behind the scenes in meta and last year they so dependently put all their eggs in one basket with AI and what that means for them is they're letting AI tools on the back end, on the algorithm side, dictate and determine what ad copy and pictures and videos. They're reading everything. They're looking at your picture, they're looking at your overlay text, they're looking at your ad copy and they're auto-scribing your video too. So they're downloading the text from your video and everything that you say and the AI is like I know what to do. I'm going to send it out to everybody and unfortunately it's not narrowed down your targeting. So your audience is just not good anymore.
Speaker 1:As you were running ads, I've been running ads for seven or eight years now in my location for my office and the ads just keep getting better. Honestly, up until 2024, the ads were just getting better. I would just set up a new ad and leads would come in. The cost per lead has been going up each year. I think that's just because of demand and supply and just the cost of doing that and more people getting into the market and meta just charging more. That's all fine, but the truth is meta ads have gotten worse. We have to listen up to this. They still work, but volume doesn't equal value.
Speaker 1:Unless there's a system to nurture the leads, you're going to have to get into your own. You're going to have to combat AI with AI and this is where we're at and I knew we're at and I've been building the lead spine CRM. I've been talking about this. It's finally going to go here. We're testing it with a few clinics and making sure they like it and giving us some feedback to just get more engagement using chat bots and AI and quick responders and more valued questions for people and just pre-qualifying them through AI, which is super cool, like asking the questions have you been, you know? Have you seen other chiropractors before? Have you seen other medical professionals for this before? Do you have any recent MRIs? Like filling out and just getting more questions?
Speaker 1:So the more questions people ask through engagement, not just sending them a form with 10 questions, it's like hi Mary's like hi Mary, thanks for signing up for our $99 new special. Do we have the right person? Is this Mary? You get something. Next question I hope we have the right person. Is this Mary? Like two minutes later? If so, would you like to book an appointment and just trying to get some type of engagement through text first? That's the easiest way. Of course, the emails go out as well. Hey, click this button to book an appointment. Click here to look at our website and book there. Yada, yada, yada, but then using more engagement and hopefully getting something a yes in there.
Speaker 1:Before you get a, do not respond anymore. Then, once they get into that, now the AI bot can do its thing respond anymore Then, once they get into that. Now the AI bot can do its thing and it's designed to be a hard sell to be, to just go in there and not quit until it sells. So as soon as it gets a response, it opens up a lot of things legally. It opens up a communication Avenue with them and then, uh, for non-spamming, for anti-spamming, and then they can get in it.
Speaker 1:But anyways, I'm going into the behind the scenes here, but we have to get these people engaged and that's what's going on, and you're having a tough time, more than ever, getting engagement. You call, you leave voicemails, no one's getting back, no text response. The lead quality has gone down and there's nothing you can really do because the targeting interests have disappeared. The meta has changed the targeting machine and learning. Now it's all AI based. So you're going to have to do a lot of custom and lookalike audiences to get around this. So let's dive into that.
Speaker 1:People don't just click and book anymore. They need guidance. The average lead today is distracted, skeptical, busy and, honestly, maybe not even needing to see your ad. So when you're doing a Cairo promo or a weight loss promo, these are popular promos. I call them Everyone's kind of like yeah, I could probably use that. And you know the Y strap adjustment video. They're like Ooh, I could use that and they they click on it. Did you know the the people who do the Y strap I forget what it's called, um, that I've worked with their ads get so many views and their YouTube views get so many views.
Speaker 1:One of the highest ones is that type of ASMR type videos. They get a lot, but their number one frustration is like man, we can barely convert any of these. We can't even get them into the office for an appointment when we used to two years ago. So even them with the popular videos are noticing the same thing. A lot of people are like, oh, that's cool, so if you have a cool ad, see, this is where we were going about six months ago. A lot of the digital agencies are like man, we got to get better video. We got to get professional video. We got like video commercials going for these people and for a small blip it kind of worked where they were getting an increase in traffic, views and conversions. The conversions actually went up. This was probably mid 2024.
Speaker 1:Now you're spending all this time shooting like commercial esque videos and the leads are not any better than just showing it from your iPhone. So what do we do? What do we do? Where are we at with all this? Save your time, save your money. Continue doing what you do.
Speaker 1:The AI machine is listening. It's, it's you know a lot. They're noticing this, it's just just they're going to take time to get it better. And we have to fight AI with AI. The problem that we're doing is think about us. Let's just pretend we all speak English, right? Every one of us that's listening to this. English is our primary language. We communicate in English, back and forth in human English, right. And what's happening is behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:The tech world is now using AI, and AI is taking all the information it can from the web and making it robotic. It's like robotic English. So now they're speaking robotic English. If you ever wrote, if you say AI to write a paragraph, you can tell that's not a human. You can tell that's not your tone, it's getting better, but you can tell it's not you compared to how you would write that paragraph. So AI has a robotic English, and now what we have been doing, unfortunately, is using AI to create ad copy.
Speaker 1:I think this is the problem. The last probably year people go on chat, create an awesome $99 chiropractic promo that includes x-rays first, adjustment this, this and this, and putting it into the ad copy. So AI has been learning robotic English this whole time and now its target audience is not human English, it's robotic English and there's no robots in your area. Does that make sense? They're humans. They want to get human response. So then the response that you do get from them, or the leads that maybe do give the information, are building an audience that's incorrect. We're almost shooting ourselves in the foot running ads right now. It's unfortunate.
Speaker 1:So what we have to do is, when I say, fight AI with AI is create a good ad copy written by you in your clinic's tone, your tone, start there, no more copy and pasting. You can get the idea, the template from ChatGPT, but then, when you go to put it into your ad copy, take out the emojis, just use text and make it. You have to write it. You have to write it as if you were speaking Very direct and you may even want to go into some specific things about what you do in your office the technique, the Gonstead technique, removing, correcting subluxation, the philosophy, science and art of chiropractic. You might want to be putting this stuff in your ads, because not only are we wanting to train AI for the future, we also may catch better leads with that type of ad copy Make sense. So that's number one.
Speaker 1:The market has shifted from attention grabbing to connection building, and you're not going to do this with ChatGPT. You're just not going to do this with ChatGPT Another. Get into it later. But are we onto something here? You guys see what's? Do you guys feel this? Do you feel what's happening with the ad? It's super frustrating because not only do I run it from my practice, but I run it for a lot of other practices across the country and we are all we are frustrated. This is everyone's getting frustrated. We end up spending more money trying to convert and what we need to do is work on the inside. So targeted hook when we're creating these ads. Let's go with the ads. What makes a powerful ad? Let's go through this really quick. I know we've done a ton of this stuff with this, but there's been a little bit shift. So those of you that listen to this podcast are staying ahead of the curve. Right, that's my goal with this podcast is to stay ahead. So when things do shift like this. You can make the shifts first. This is the whole point.
Speaker 1:Call out the pain point or desire Tired of low back pain, slowing you down. That's how you start your ads. That wasn't ChatGPT that did that. That was you Tired of low back pain, holding you back. Avoid generic stuff. We help families stay healthy. That doesn't really get much people's attention. Clear offer $47 new patient exam this week only. We have to have a limit this week only. First 15 people to sign, ends June 30th 2025 in the description down there, and then all you have to do is remember on July 1st to go in there and change it Tap book, send message, claim voucher and ensure mobile friendly journey wherever you send them to Mobile friendly.
Speaker 1:85% of people are doing this on their phone and then add video testimonials or explainer reels as the real ad in there as well. Have you guys tried that in your ad sets where you do the videos, you do the pictures, maybe two and two, then you add one. That's a real customization You'll notice this recently on Facebook ads is when you go in there they're like, hey, the crop or the aspect ratio of this video doesn't fit the real system. We suggest creating an ad for reels, then what you do is upload the same video and you say, yes, let's do that. It creates a new ad underneath your ad sets and you call it reels video and then you put it in there and now the customization is going to be for reels. You'll realize this is going to be your number one impressions distribution and probably lead generator. Is that ad Just the way it is now? It's all skewed. I'm trying to figure it out, just like you guys. I don't work for meta. I'm not Zuckerberg, all right.
Speaker 1:The real problem, which has been probably the last two years, the real problem with all these leads, is at the very beginning it was just so shooting fish in a barrel with Facebook ads. It was like the lead came in. You responded like wow, you responded so quick. You guys are amazing. I'd love to book an appointment. There was engagement. Now there isn't.
Speaker 1:So the real problem is that 60 to 80% of leads in meta never book on the first touch. So you're like my ads don't work. They don't work. 80% of people don't do anything. Well, yeah, they saw an offer on social media and they're like yeah, how many of you hit the interested button on events?
Speaker 1:My wife is notorious for this interested, interested, interested, local events, kids, this, uh follow up in the park, ice cream in the in the pond, you know all this stuff. And like yeah, yeah, and they click interested. We never go to any of them. But yeah, she's the issue with all that, right, the interested, interested, interested. So it shows up on my Facebook feed Uh's interested in, christine's interested in.
Speaker 1:I'm like really, are you truly interested in that? So that's what people are doing with your ads. They're like interested, yeah, I'll fill out the form. Maybe I'll get a notification later when I'm ready. Hello, they just gave you the marketing. They're like, yeah, here, here's my info, but I'm not coming in this week. I may not come in next week. What are you going to do to get me in a month and a half from now? And then you're like nothing, I'm not going to do anything because you're a crappy weed. See what's happening.
Speaker 1:So the true colors of Facebook ads is now transparent. We know that these are cold people, cold leads, that are maybe not interested in chiropractic right now, but the fact that they gave you their information, like if you're truly not interested, you're like oh, chiropractor quack, you're just going to scroll by. Why would you fill out the form? You wouldn't even click on it, you wouldn't even like it. You may actually leave a negative comment on it. You may go on there and be like you guys are quacks and leave a comment. You get these all the time and you move on, but they're not filling out your forms, they're not giving you their information. So the ones that do are 1% interested in what you do. You got to remember that Leads don't convert because they're ignored or get generic, slow responses.
Speaker 1:Guess what your automation's doing that? All the other businesses' automations are doing the exact same thing. They fill up something on Facebook. Guess what? You're not the only person that sends them a quick text response saying thanks for signing up. The auto insurance companies are doing it. The health insurance companies are doing it, chick-fil-a is doing it.
Speaker 1:If you hit the submit form, it says on the bottom and yours do too they have to check two boxes saying I allow you to market to me and I allow you to send SMS information to me. It's automatic on Facebook lead form and it's got to be there for your website lead form. So as soon as you do it, boom, now you're allowed to market to them. So everyone's been doing this forever. So what makes you different? Nothing, oh, but my texts are better. They're funny. It's not better, it's the same thing. They're still going to ignore you. You're just going to be a funny ignored.
Speaker 1:So the immediate response of what follow-up should look like is the immediate response use still use autoresponders, dms emails, text within seconds, like the confirmation has to be there. If you don't have that within a few seconds of them doing that, they don't. It's now so normal. People don't have that within a few seconds of them doing that. It's now so normal. People don't even know if they submitted properly. They'll hit the lead form and they'll wait two seconds like oh, did I do that right? Did it go anywhere? We're goldfish now. People are goldfish because of tech. You got eight seconds, that's it. Let them know we've got your request. We're going to reach out Something like that.
Speaker 1:Something. Thanks for signing up. This is your next steps. I like that actually. Thanks for signing up, sally. You got your $49 voucher to come see us. Stay tuned for your next steps. I like that. I'm going to do that. Stay tuned for your next steps. I wonder how the response is going to be.
Speaker 1:And then, like 10 seconds later they get the next text. Here's what you need to do you can either call, reply to this text or click here to book an appointment. Wait 30 seconds. Did you get that last text? Did you book your appointment? I don't know. Let me figure it out first before I put it on the podcast Human touch fast. You got to be fast. Five to 15 minutes. Personal call or text like immediately, immediately.
Speaker 1:This is where you use AI that call. Maybe you got a chat bot that calls them, rings calls, leaves a voicemail, right. If they're not responding to text and they're not responding to the messages, then sending them a voice call, they're probably not going to pick up, they're going to see unknown number and it's going to go to voicemail. Your AI bot call manual system is going to be fantastic and you can actually record in your voice as the doctor. Hey there, this is Dr Enrico from Full Life Chiropractic. Thanks for reaching out to us with that offer you saw on Facebook and Instagram. We're just reaching out to help you book your first appointment. If you have any questions, again, this is Dr Enrico. You will be seeing me at Full Life Chiropractic when you do book your appointment. So if you have any questions, please call this number 813-428, and give them your actual office number and I'll hop on a call with you and answer any questions you need. Just ask for Dr Enrico.
Speaker 1:Guys, I mean now, are you, are you? Um? You're competing with the insurance companies. You're competing with the auto insurance. You're competing with the health insurance. They're calling, they have, they have literal call centers that still have humans calling. Right, some of them have been using automation calls for a long time. You get those two from. You know the health. You got to play the game, you got to play the game. Or else I say get out of Facebook, get out of it, get out of meta ads, get out of this. You just can't. You can't handle the leads, you just can't. And you got to be true with yourself because this is part of your budget. If you're paying for Facebook ads plus a digital agency, save that money.
Speaker 1:And now let's get into Google ads and now really customize that. Now, if you have ambitions of getting 20 new patients, it's not going to happen on Google ads. It's just not going to happen. There's no budget you can put towards it. That's reasonable for a chiropractic office to generate that consistently every month. Say I'm going to get 240 new patients this year by spending this much money on Google ads. You will not, because SEO and natural organic reach overlaps your Google Ads spend so just naturally, people searching for you, for your name, your office or chiropractor near me from the organic search are going to end up clicking on your ad search. So you're going to see a lot of the organic. The five, six, seven patients you get each month from Google are now going to see a lot of the organic. The five, six, seven patients you get each month from Google are now going to be paid Google people. Then the rest of your ad spend is hopefully going to capture some more and most of us are doing both strategies at the same time.
Speaker 1:Anyways, meta and Facebook or in Google. I'm getting off touch. Okay, scripts, hey, sorry, you're interested? Now the lead nurture sequence. I've created something for all my clients the epic nurture sequence. This one tries to engage them as much as we possibly can with texts and emails and reminders over seven to 14 days, and then mine goes six months and then loops. So there's a two week automation sequence that happens for the first seven days using the bot text-heavy couple emails, then week two week, eight through 14, it's now going to be email-heavy and a couple texts, and then it moves into emails, educational tips, success stories these things all build trust. We use high-level and our CRMs now, which is absolutely great, and then when you want to boost response rates with your ads at the end here. So then we now got the long-term nurture sequence.
Speaker 1:And then here is the three big rules. If you're going to keep doing Facebook ads, this is what you need to start today Speed, fix the response times. The responders have to be in under 15 minutes. You have to reach out to them five times in under 15 minutes and have for better conversations in those 15 minutes. Use a multi-channel follow-up Text, email, phone, not just one. You got to do all of them.
Speaker 1:Then you have to have an internal system, and many chiropractic offices fail at this. You have to have two phone calls, the and many chiropractic offices fail at this. You have to have two phone calls the day the lead comes in. As long as it's office hours, after office hours, it's okay. You start that rule the next day when you get into office. Two the first day morning, afternoon, call them twice. You're going to leave two voicemails from your office staff on there. Then for the rest of the week it's one phone call every day at least, as the system is still going on, that seven day automated system. So we have the internal one.
Speaker 1:So you're making six or seven phone calls the first week. Does your team do this? Be honest with yourselves, go up to your team and be like guys, I know you follow up with these leads. Are you making seven calls? This is where it becomes out of control. If you're getting one, two, three leads per day, five, 10, 15 leads per week, times seven, 35, 70, 105 calls per week Per week, now this starts to add up because then on week two your team has to follow up from all those calls they did last week, maybe once or twice this week, plus the new 15 leads that come in this week. So now we got 205. No, no, we got another 105 calls this week, plus 15 other calls, and this just starts to compound. You're an office like mine with seven years. Yeah, you let a lot of these leads kind of trickle away, and that's the issue. And now we're paying for it. Imagine if you did something with all of those leads saved them somewhere, nurtured them and then engaging questions.
Speaker 1:So it's got to be better than thanks for signing up. It's got to be. Are you ready to book? What are you hoping we can help with? Have you tried anything that hasn't worked? Don't be afraid to call Voicemail with your voice. Instant trust boost we talked about that. Right, there's ways to use this. Train the front desk staff to engage, not just schedule. Let's get you in before that pain worsens.
Speaker 1:My CA say that. Oh, I'm sorry to hear. That Doesn't sound pleasant at all. Let's get you in before anything gets worse. How's tomorrow? Look, use urgency. We're filling up fast Our mornings or afternoons. Better for you this week. Let's see what we have for you Good and then confirm the appointment.
Speaker 1:You confirm the appointment, they get a text. They get an email confirmation and what else? A video or another. Call voicemail from them saying we'll send you a short video so you know exactly what to expect. And it's the doctor. Hey, it's Dr Rico, full Life Chiropractic. I'm so excited to help you on your appointment.
Speaker 1:When you come into our office, here's a couple of things to expect have your paperwork done and ready. I like to review this before you even come in so I get to know you and your concerns right away. Once you come in, wear comfortable clothing because we're going to do some scanning. Remove any major jewelry, thick chains, big earrings or anything like that because we're going to take some x-rays and just make sure you're comfortable during that day. Once you come in, we'll take care of the rest. You're in great hands. See you soon. That's the video and you send it to them and then that's it.
Speaker 1:So we have ads. Great ads generate interest. Great systems create new patients. You have to remember this. For ad success, you have to have good creative plus consistent follow-up Good creative plus consistent follow-up Plus consistent follow-up Plus consistent follow-up Plus consistent follow-up Plus consistent follow-up Plus consistent follow-up plus consistent follow-up plus consistent follow-up. I'm not a robot. I didn't glitch. I did that seven times for you on purpose.
Speaker 1:If you're not converting leads, focus on humanizing and systemizing your follow-up. That's the strategy, folks. That's what we're going to be for Q3 this year. If you do this, you're going to be ahead of the curve. You're going to bump up your conversions. You're going to stop being frustrated. You're going to get a few more new patients, which will make sense to continue spending money and doing your advertising and maybe even hanging on to your digital agency.
Speaker 1:If not, I know what you're going to do You're going to fire a digital agency and you're going to try something else later, which you're just in a hamster wheel of constant frustration. On that I hear you, and the difference between me and everyone else is I'm in it with you. I run my practices. I'm in there every day. I'm doing the same thing. You are trying to deal with the same frustrations. Try those things. Leave me some feedback, ask any questions. Info at EnricoDcom. I love to answer all that stuff and stay tuned for anything.
Speaker 1:If you need a robust CRM, lead Spine is going to be there for you. You can reach out to me. You can sign up 197 bucks a month. It's yours, it's going to be custom built. You and I get to work through phone, chat, email, whatever you want to build things that are custom for you, you're going to have to shoot the video.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome to ABC Chiropractic. This is Dr Jeff. You're going to have to do that. I can't do that for you, so we'll show you how to put that in there. Your automations you're going to customize your email sequences. Your team's going to do this. It takes about 30 days on and off with some guidance. Then you've got a robust chiro-specific CRM that's going to work into infinity to nurture all your leads. So as you build all these leads, you've got email lists and all these things going forever that are saved forever. You can download them, put them into your office EHR or your MailChimp or whatever you want to do there, or you can just leave it and let it do its thing. That's efficient marketing. We also use Google Ads and then we funnel those in as well and we do all that stuff for you. That's the way to build a successful marketing campaign. Have a great week. Keep doing what you're doing.
