Do you have a decompression table in your practice? If not, are you thinking about getting one?
I know some of you might be skeptical, for years there has been quite a bit of hoopla in chiropractic around spinal decompression. Trying to get to the bottom and find real answers is sometimes a difficult task.
Here’s the deal though; decompression offices are still overflowing with new patients, as the need for such treatment has not dropped off and likely will not as the population ages.
You might have heard or read comments regarding spinal decompression not being chiropractic; this is true, spinal decompression is not chiropractic. Therefore; if your goal is to have an adjustment only practice without any instrumentation or electronic device, then you should not get a decompression table.
But for doctors who want an excellent way to help their patients, a spinal decompression machine is the #1 therapy device I recommend. Why do I recommend it so much?
Two reasons…
#1.) It helps herniated/bulging/degenerative disc patients get better in ways that no adjustment can. Some people will argue that their technique can do the same thing. I’ve not researched every chiropractic technique available, but I’ve yet to come across one that can pull on the pelvis of a patient with 80lbs of pressure, alternating between relaxing and pulling every 30-45 seconds for a total of 15 minutes.
#2.) The marketing for this is so much easier to do. Not because it’s a fancy piece of equipment. But because the people who are suffering from disc problems are desperate for a solution. If you’re faced with a lifetime of shots, dangerous pain pills and/or surgical fusion of your spine, how quickly are you going to try something non-invasive like spinal decompression?
Realize, #2 would be insignificant if decompression didn’t work. Ethically it has to work before you can market that it does.
So now you armed with the knowledge that decompression works, how do you market this service as to attract prospective patients? Should you use hyped up claims or simply use educational advertising with condition-centered copy?
Here’s what I discovered…
When marketing the results of your table in an ethical and professional way, you open new doors for marketing spinal decompression with prospective patients. This is one reason why testimonials are so important. You’ve seen patients get better. You’ve seen them get well, preventing back surgery or a lifetime of dangerous medications. Their stories need to be heard.
Unfortunately, because of some hyped up marketing a few years back chiropractor’s opinions about spinal decompression became skewed. Many doctors thought “true spinal decompression” could only be found in spending $100k on a table. If you thought this, then the only 2 choices were to either send a house payment every month for this table or not pursue decompression in your practice because it was out of your price range.
Then, more hyped up marketing (in the form of patient advertising) entered the picture and state boards got involved in banning certain types of marketing. Some states even looked for ways to prevent chiropractors from using spinal decompression, saying it wasn’t in their scope of practice.
I realized that there had to be another way to do this whole decompression thing. Over the past few years I’ve proven educational ads focused on patient results provides the best results.
After a bit of research, I found quite a few manufacturers that make good decompression tables. Of course, then I had to prove to myself that these tables did actually do decompression, since I had been brainwashed as well into thinking only one table was “TRUE DECOMPRESSION.”
I won’t go into the details, but most tables that claim decompression actually do decompression. It’s just a matter of how easy it is to use and how nice it looks. Arguments against this are just an old marketing technique (which is sometimes valid, but not here), where you try to get everyone to think your product is the only “real” table that does decompression, and the rest just do traction. You probably heard of this, often times called the unique selling proposition.
For $8-10k I could get a table and start helping patients get better. Combined with chiropractic adjustments and other strength building therapies, I saw some amazing results. Not to mention my average case values went up considerably.
Was decompression just a fad, one that has died out?
Do you think there will be more or less patients with herniated discs? How about in 5 years from now? Decompression is not a fad because spinal disc problems are not a fad.
Remember that marketing is crucial…
Don’t fall into the same trap that some chiropractors I speak with have done. Don’t spend a ton on a table, and then not spend money marketing it. But you have to market it for what it does; otherwise it’s just an overpriced traction table sitting in your office collecting dust.
This is why I wrote the decompression ads in The Ultimate Chiropractic Ads. It was difficult to find ethical marketing that wasn’t hyped up, so I learned to write my own. And they have done extremely well.
If you don’t have a table yet, don’t wait. If you already have a table, make sure you’re planning on attracting new patients with some strong marketing.
Tags: chiropractic marketing, decompression adverstising, decompression marketing, decompression marketing ads, Spinal Decompression, spinal decompression ads