Do you want more patients for your acupuncture practice? It all boils down to how you market your acupuncture services to your community. If you know how to market, you’ll do fine. If you don’t, you will struggle. It is really as simple as this.

Here are 3 proven strategies to market your acupuncture practice effectively. Implement these consistently and you should enjoy great success.

1. Creating a website that is search engine optimized, has a blog, and has audio and /or video. You need to ride the wave of these cutting edge internet marketing tools in order to capture a lot of your prospective audience via the internet. Having a plain old website just won’t do anymore. You need all of the above and you need an opt in form to collect names and emails for lead generation.

2. Set up one targeted lecture in your community each and every month. Give talks to support groups, churches, schools, gyms, and so on. As long as you do it well, this is a proven method to get people in the door.

3. Align yourself with other practitioners in your area. Establish a mutual referral system with a chiropractor, psychologist, massage therapist, and naturopath. Make sure you have a good team around you to refer to and you will see it come back to you as well.

I hope you take action and follow these 3 steps to building your dream acupuncture practice. If you’ll notice these are all low cost or no cost marketing strategies. You don’t need to dump a ton of money into advertising. These methods tend to be more effective and are much cheaper.

We all know that the economy is in a state of turmoil and that many small business owners are feeling the pinch. As an acupuncturist, chiropractor, or therapist you may have noticed that things have slowed down in the past few weeks for your practice. The phone is ringing less and some of your loyal clients are having to cancel for now.

Inevitably, this will lead to dwindling cash flow. And, for the average practitioner it’s stressful and unsettling.

Meanwhile, there are still many practitioners out there doing great and enjoying a lucrative and busy practice. They are the ones saying, ‘what recession??’

They seem to transcend all of the conventional anxiety about the stock market and the bad news about the economy.

So, what is it that separates these two groups, the one that is struggling and fearful from the one that is thriving?

Technical skills? Office location? Lower fees?
Actually it’s none of the above.

Really, the ony thing that separates these two groups is…. how consistently and aggressively their practices are being marketed.

The high volume clinics are the ones who understand just how essential marketing is for their practice. It’s the engine that drives their practice growth. More than anything else, it is what enables their practice to thrive.

So, the biggest mistake you can make is…

Cutting your marketing budget when your practice revenue decreases.

This is the time when you need to be more creative, savvy, and skillful than ever before to hit your target market with exactly what they need to hear in order to attract them to your practice. Don’t put a stranglehold on your marketing budget or the other activities that will directly lead to greater revenue and profits.

Continue to invest in marketing strategies that are proven to bring a good ROI, which in this day and age continue to move toward the internet. I would highly recommend that you invest a substantial amount of your marketing budget into building a website that is head and shoulders above your competition and is loaded with all the latest tools that will enable your audience to be blown away by the power of your message.

People are absolutely still searching for your services. But they are more selective and they only want to go to practitioners who are the best of the best. Your marketing should position you in this way. You need to be the practitioner who exudes an energetic and tangible sense of generosity and expansion during this time. Don’t just act like another stressed out person; be a role model to your community and show them how you can help them with their anxiety and stress around the economy. If you put your marketing dollars into this endeavor, you will find that it pays you back tenfold.
Kevin Doherty

You’re going to be seeing some big changes on the Dream Practice website in the near future. You see, I’ve had somewhat of a revelation lately that has inspired me to take a different direction. Up to this point, a lot of my focus has been on business and practice development– marketing, websites, all the nuts and bolts of running a practice.

What I’ve realized is that while I do have a passion for helping practitioners with these things, what I care most about is helping them transform into what I would call conscious entrepreneurs. What does that mean??

Well, you’ll find out soon enough if you get the new audio on my website. Being a conscious entrepreneur means that you merge your spiritual values with business skills. You integrate your vision into the conventional world without compromise. As a practitioner, you stay true to your highest ideals and you hold your patients to those same standards.

What I’ve decided to do is create a new Ezine called the Conscious Practitioner that will be emailed bi-monthly to anyone who leaves their name and email on the home page of the website. This will be full of both practical marketing tips and support with your personal and spiritual development as a practitioner. I have to tell you, I am on FIRE about doing this.. This epiphany has led me to revamping everything I’m doing as a coach so the purpose really boils down to helping you become a conscious practitoner.

I’ve also started a new group called The Conscious Practitioner on Facebook that I encourage you to join:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41498131868

This will be a dynamic forum to discuss the principles of conscious entrepreneurship for acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and other healers and therapists.

Kevin Doherty