What I want to talk about in this article is what the injury market really needs.
It needs better doctors.
And it’s very, obvious that this is true by looking at the statistics in the injury market.
In this article we want to discuss an article that was published in the American Family Physicians Journal. This article brings up a topic that I’ve been talking about for years.
And it’s only gotten worse.
This article claims that 90% of today’s injured patients who’ve suffered a back or neck injury are working with doctors who do not have a clear understanding of their injuries.
Wait, it gets even worse.
Doctors in the injury market, lawyers in the injury market, specialists in the injury market, all want to market to get more injury patients, and there’s a commonality in the injury market that it’s very difficult to market for injury patients.
I totally disagree with that. First of all, one of the things that we create in the SmartInjuryDoctors® Program, for some the best injury doctors in the country, is the ability for these doctors to get a message out so that patients know that they’re there. I believe that the best doctors in the injury market are those that can get great results. That’s what we want to produce. That’s why we’re producing the SmartInjuryDoctors® Program. Doctors that can take back and neck injuries and get great results. They can get fast, effective, efficient, and very cost-effective results with these patients.
We Have This Idea of Marketing and That Marketing for Injury Patients Is Very Difficult
Well, it’s not difficult if you understand what marketing is. There’s a lot of books written on marketing, there’s a lot of things that could be said about marketing, for this segment I’m going to make it very, very short, and I’m going to define some terms. I’m going to make it easy to understand what marketing is.
Marketing is how you are perceived in your market. A marketing strategy then, is how you go about influencing how you want to be perceived in the market. Most marketing starts with a survey. You survey the public to find out what they want, and then you supply that want. That’s your marketing message, that you can supply what they want, and people will buy. That’s marketing.
Everything You Do Impacts Your Marketing
So, if marketing is how you’re perceived in the market, everything that you do with injury work is marketing. From the time that your front desk takes that first call, you’re marketing. Everybody that handles a patient in your clinic is marketing to a degree because they’re providing a perception. It’s how you and your clinic are being perceived by the injury patient. That’s marketing.
Your documentation is marketing. Your documentation that goes to the insurer is marketing. Good or bad. Your documentation that goes to a lawyer is marketing. Good or bad. So, if everything you do is marketing, you have to decide your marketing strategy and how you want to be perceived?
Before I move onto the next step, let’s just quickly define one other thing, that a lot of doctors don’t understand. That’s what is the difference between marketing and advertising. If marketing is how you want to be perceived in your market. Advertising is what you do to deliver that message to the public so that they know you’re there.
The Difference Between Marketing and Advertising
Advertising can be free or paid. For example, all the social networks are free. However, advertising can also cost you a lot of money. Advertising is taking your message and putting it on communication lines so that people can perceive you, whether it’s newspaper ads, TV commercials, radio commercials, social network posts, videos on YouTube, that’s all advertising. The message that you’re relaying, is your marketing.
On the injury side of things, one of the things you want to market today is fast, effective results. Remember, when you look at marketing, each market has a different need. If you look at patients, what do patients want? Well, they want fast, efficient, and very inexpensive care. That’s what they want, in general, right? So, if I’m marketing, or you’re marketing to injury patients, you want to focus on fast, effective results because that’s what they want.
Marketing to Attorneys
If you’re marketing to attorneys, what do attorneys want? Well, they want excellent documentation. So, one of the ways that you might market to an attorney is by focusing on the fact that we don’t waste your time with poor documentation. Our SmartInjuryDoctors® are the best doctors in the country as far as documentation goes, because they understand the simplicity of what everyone in the market needs, so it becomes very, very easy. If I’m with attorneys, it’s very easy to market and say, “Well, look we don’t waste your time with bad documentation.” And trust me, most documentation in the injury market is pretty bad.
Most of the time in the spinal ligament injury market, ligament injuries aren’t even documented, so the severity of the injury is not documented, and that starts a problem. It causes problems for attorneys, insurers, and adjudicators, it starts a problem all down the line. So, if I’m a SmartInjuryDoctor® who is marketing to an attorney, one of the things that we’re going to say is that we don’t waste your time with bad documentation, like the majority of doctors that you probably work with.
Marketing to Medical Doctors
If I’m marketing to medical doctors, or other providers seeking referrals, I might choose something like: “We don’t submit patients to any form of excessive care. All the care that we give is the care that the patient needs, and no more.” That’s what we provide. We provide only care that’s necessary to get that condition stabilized fast, effectively, and then we release the patient. That’s what I’m going to be talking about if I’m talking to medical doctors.
Three Things You Must Do Well
All I wanted to do in this short post, is just explain, what is marketing? It’s how you are perceived in the market. There are three things that you want to do excessively well in this market:
- You want to be able to diagnose the injuries, the extent of those injuries, and you don’t want to miss injuries. If you’re a doctor of chiropractic, I’m going to tell you one of the things that I recommend that the doctors market is that when they’re assessing injuries they communicate to the market that they only use top medical specialists to interpret their imaging, to get an accurate diagnosis.
- You want to be exceptionally good at treating those injuries.
- You want to be exceptionally good at documenting in such a simple way that everyone in the market knows exactly what’s going on. That reduces problems for the patient. It reduces problems for the patient’s attorney. It reduces problems for the insurer. It reduces problems for everyone in the market.
When you’re providing everyone with what they need in the market, you’re marketing, and that will actually cause you to bring in a lot more injury patients. If you’re the top doctor in your area, you should be seeing as many of the injury patients in your local area as you possibly can, because those patients as we talked about in other additions of this program, are at super high risk for long term residual complaints.
Send Your Market the Right Message
You want to intentionally decide what message you are sending to the public in your area. Once you choose your message, you want to advertise and promote, so that people become very aware that you’re here. Our key thing today about marketing is how you’re perceived. A marketing strategy is deciding how you want the market to perceive you, and understanding your market is important because then you can put forth what the market wants. They will perceive that you have what they want, and that’s the simplicity of marketing. That’s all marketing is.
I hope that clarifies things. Like I said, I want to keep it very, very quick and to the point, on a particular topic. All I wanted to address here was what marketing is, and that it does not have to be difficult for injury patients. It really does not. Our SmartInjuryDoctors® know that, and they know that they have a message that they’re readily putting out., It’s very, very easy to do, and that doctors, is marketing.
For more information on Spinal Ligament Injuries please check us out at www.smartinjurydoctor.com or check out our SmartInjuryDoctors® Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Stitcher.
For information on spinal ligament testing by board certified medical radiologists go to www.thespinalkinetics.com