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Most chiropractors don’t get excited by having to deal with personal injury attorneys… but, they are 100X more excited about the revenue that they can generate from PI cases with the right chiropractic personal injury marketing plan.
When a chiropractor tells us “10% of their practice is personal injury”, we have a joke that it equates to 80% of their collections!
Finances aside, taking care of personal injury patients in an ethical way can be extremely rewarding, clinically challenging, and even dare we say… fun.
Note: chart not to scale
Generating a consistent stream of personal injury patients for your practice is pretty easy when you have a focused chiropractic personal injury marketing plan and strategy.
About two years ago, we started an imaging company in Tampa, a hotbed of PI and extremely competitive.
We generated over $250K in billed changes (focusing 100% on PI) in less than 12 months.
This is how we did it.
Creating an Attorney Target List
The first step to make all of your PI dreams come true is to create an Attorney Target List.
As Peter Drucker famously once said, “What gets measured gets managed.”
Creating a target list of 50 attorneys in your area is critical. Without it, you’ll be driving blind.
Depending on how many personal injury patients you’d like referred into your practice, you can make your list bigger or smaller.
We estimate that you should be able to build referral relationships with about 20% of your target list.
"It's pretty amazing to send an email and see your online scheduler fill up. Now, I don't need to sit down and stare at a blank sheet of paper to try to figure out my marketing plans!"
Dr. Reed Neubaum, DC
Ultimate Health
Want more referrals? Make your list bigger.
Want to slow down (yeah right!)? Then condense your list down.
Here’s a handy chart to help you get started.
The easiest way to maintain your list is to use Excel or Numbers.
Create columns for the first name, last name, email address, physical address, etc. Then pump in the data, and you’ll be ready to rock.
Alright, you’ve got your attorney target list, and you’re ready to hit the ground running.
Now it’s time to send your Ice Break Letter.
An ice breaker letter is designed to warm up your relationship.
Reaching out to cold contacts isn’t fun.
Cold calling is the wrong way to “break the ice.”
Sending an ice breaker letter helps you avoid this uncomfortable and weird outreach.
So, what do you say in an Ice Breaker Letter?
We find it’s best to talk about how many referrals you want and how much revenue you are trying to generate….just kidding!
Focus your ice breaker letter on them and their practice.
The thing that gets attorneys attention (and gets them excited) are things like consistent communication about patient progress, accurate and complete diagnosis/evaluation, and documentation that helps them rack up lots of $$$ in litigation.
Keep your Ice Breaker Letter brief and hammer home the point that your practice can help make their life easier.
We like to close the letter by letting them know that we’ll be reaching out in a week to schedule a meeting.
Whiplash Workshops to Increase Your PI Referrals
One of the most potent attorney strategies isn’t sexy or sophisticated. It’s just about rolling up your sleeves and getting to work with a good ol’ fashioned seminar/workshop.
We developed a Whiplash Workshop that is like catnip for attorneys.
Why whiplash?
Soft tissue injuries make up a BIG percentage of their cases.
These minimal impact, soft tissue injuries are notoriously difficult to litigate and often end up with low case settlements.
Our Whiplash Workshop has been an enormous hit and has generated hundreds of referrals.
Most chiropractors handle whiplash cases terribly.
They aren’t up to date on the research and don’t document completely and accurately.
The Whiplash Workshop is a chance for you to show why you’re different.
The presentation is loaded with new whiplash research. And not the boring research, but the good stuff that is directly applicable to their clients.
We can’t count how many times we’ve presented that material and watched every attorney’s eyes in the room light up as we begin discussing how and why these injuries are often permanent and ratable according to the American Medical Association guidelines.
If you want to go the tech-savvy (or pandemic mitigating) route, you can also host your Whiplash Workshop virtually with Zoom.
If you decide to go the virtual route, make sure you have the tech needed to present it professionally.
Pro Tip
Tools like E-camm can help you present slides on your screen and have your face showing in a small box in the corner.
We recommend a four email sequence to promote your workshop.
The Target List you created earlier will help you keep track of the email addresses. Here is the timing to send your emails.
- Email #1 Timing: Three Weeks Before the Workshop
- Email #2 Timing: 1 Week Before the Workshop
- Email #3 Timing: 2 Days Before the Workshop
- Email #4 Timing: Morning of the Workshop
Sending four marketing emails in the three weeks leading up to the workshop is the best way to fill it up.
You’ll also notice that some attorneys will email you back saying they can’t make it.
When they do, take advantage of the open communication channel!
Email them back and ask when you can meet one-on-one or via Skype.
We’ve found that hosting a Whiplash Workshop every quarter (or four months) is best.
Take out your calendar right now and mark a day 60 days from now. That’s your new goal to host your first Whiplash Workshop!
PI Marketing Success: It’s in the follow-up!
So let’s say that you’ve finished up a great Whiplash Workshop. You’re on easy street, right?
Well, not exactly.
Businesspeople are always fond of saying that 95% of the sales happen during the follow-up, which is true with your PI marketing.
Following up consistently is how you can squeeze more juice from the orange and get more referrals into your practice month after month.
The best way to follow up consistently is with Research Updates.
Sending over a research update (via email and snail mail) each month can help your name stay top of mind.
Don’t Forget
The number one factor of marketing success is consistency.
Monthly research updates are the easiest way to stay consistent with your chiropractic personal injury marketing.
Send your research briefs to the attorneys you have on your target list.
To get the best results, you should email and snail mail your updates.
Email marketing is convenient and free, but you’re likely to get only 25% of the attorneys to open the email.
Snail mail is low cost, but the “open rate” is more likely to be around 80%.
Using both channels will pretty much ensure that your message is seen.
We Repeat…
If you don’t follow up consistently, you’re likely to lose momentum, and your referrals will dry up.
There is a lot of competition for PI referrals, and chiropractors who take consistent action will generate the most consistent results.
One word of caution: a research brief is just that… brief!
Don’t send an attorney an entire article.
If you do, you’re probably violating copyright law, but you’re also breaking the law of good taste.
No one wants to read an entire research paper. Most attorneys (and doctors for that matter) would rather get a root canal.
Here is a sample of the research briefs we created as part of our Smart PI Marketing System.
If you want referrals, you have to be willing to do a little work.
Condense the research down into a single page or less that has the key takeaways, your logo, and practice information, as well as a citation. Keep it short and punchy, and try not to get too technical.
Time to Get Those PI Referrals: Next Steps
Congrats! You’re ready to start making some progress and helping more people in your community.
Set yourself a goal, or even better, mark one year from right now on the calendar on your smartphone.
Then set a small action step each week you can take to get closer to your goal.
The PI referrals in your community are going someone… why shouldn’t they go to you?
Car accidents are happening every day in your community.
Personal injury attorneys refer dozens (and maybe even hundreds in a big city) to chiropractors each day.
The only question is whether you are receiving those referrals or not.
Chiropractic Personal Injury Marketing
Most chiropractors want to business and the referrals, but don’t do anything actually to generate the results.
This article has given you the playbook on developing $250K in personal injury collections over the next 12 months.
Want to speed up your results?
Get our Smart Chiropractic Personal Injury Marketing Module.
It includes all of the tools in this article and more.
The Smart PI Marketing Module gives you everything you need for your practice to build referral relations and generate six figures in PI revenue in the next 12 months.
The Smart PI Marketing Module includes tools to get you RESULTS:
- 10 Personal Injury Focused Research That Matters Marketing Briefs
- Email Templates (use these to help drive attendance to your presentation)
- Attorney Ice Breaker Letter Template
- Medical Doctor Ice Breaker Letter Template
- Attorney Referral Relationships Guide
- Whiplash PowerPoint Presentation (perfect for webinars and in-person events)
- Whiplash Presentation Promotional Flyer
- “How to Host a Personal Injury Workshop” Step by Step Guide
- Referral Partner Tracking Sheet (used to track Attorneys and MDs)
It’s time for your practice to have the proven chiropractic personal injury marketing program to go from 0 to $250K. Click here to get started now!