How to write a headline that gets more readers, listeners, attendees, and interest from your potential next patient

So you are getting ready to give a talk at the local Chamber of Commerce, write a blog series, write copy for some office brochures for an upcoming speech you are giving, or create a month’s worth of radio shows and you need some ideas for really getting the attention of potential attendees, listeners, or readers.

Here are several sure-fire headline templates that will help you reach your goal. You can change the verbs, nouns or adjectives. These are flexible ideas to give you the best shot at the most potential customers.

1. Give Me [short time period] and I’ll Give You [blank].

This headline promises a strong benefit to the reader/listener, like all good headlines do. But this one is especially effective because it promises to deliver in a very short time period.

Give Me An Hour of Your Time– and I’ll Give You the Tools to an Easier Allergy Season!

Give Me 10 Minutes a Day – and I’ll Help You Stay Out of the Doctor’s Office.

2. If You [blank] Now, You Be Sorry Later (or) If you [blank], You’ll Be Happy Later.

All people can be motivated either by fear or hope. Use a little of both in these headlines.

If You’re Eating Sugar Now, You Could Be Sorry Later

If You Follow This Simple Health Advice Now, You’ll Be Happy Now and Later.

3. The Lazy [blank’s] Way to [blank].

This headline always works well with time-pressured people, and that’s certainly true for most of us. No one likes to think of her/himself as lazy, but everyone likes to save time and effort.

The Lazy Man’s Way to Better Back Health

The Lazy Woman’s Way to Better Sleep.

The Lazy Mother’s Way to Healthier Kids

4. Do You Recognize the [number] Early Warning Signs of [blank]?

Here's a more compelling structure than your typical “Top 10” article. People want to avoid problems, and this headline promises critical tips before it’s too late.

Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of High Blood Pressure?

Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of Osteoarthritis?

Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of Metabolic Syndrome?

5. See How Easily You Can [desirable result].

We love quick and easy when it comes to learning something new or gaining some advantage.

See How Easily You Can Manage Your Seasonal Allergies.

See How Easily You Can End Hot Flashes.

See How Easily You Can… [?].

6. You Don’t Have to Be [something challenging] to be [desired result].

People almost always have preconceived notions about things, and this can be a barrier to taking action. Remove the barrier that stands between them and the desired result with your headline, and people are more likely to respond positively.

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Attain Health and Wellness.

You Don’t Have to Be a Rocket Scientist to Get the Most from Your Health Dollar.

You Don’t Have to Starve Yourself to Lose Weight.

7. Do You Make These Mistakes?

This is always a powerful attention grabber, since no one likes to make mistakes. If you’ve targeted your content well for your intended audience, helping people avoid common mistakes is a sure-fire winner with this type of headline.

Do You Make These Mistakes in Maintaining Your Health?

Do You Make These Common Eating Mistakes?

So there are a whole bunch of ideas for writing your next promotional article, brochure, radio show, blog, or public talk. I hope they help you get more folks interested in your work and in our wonderful medicine.

Stay well everybody, and thanks for reading my blog.

Honora Wolfe

Another Great Business Blog for Acupuncturists

Check out this new blog from Jason Stein, who teaches the business classes at Oregon College of OM in Portland.

http://www.heartofbusiness.com/free-call-beyond-asking-want/

Good luck and best wishes to all my readers and all acupuncture professionals!
Honora

Cool Videos for You and Your Patients

Health Tips for Patients and for YOU as well?

Check out the YouTube Channel of my friend Anthony Giovanelli, founder of Acupuncture Ambassadors. He creates new digital video about Chinese medicine, self-care, massage therapy, psychotherapy, feng shui, and dietary therapy...just for starters. More video for acupuncturists coming soon..."The 20 Most Frequently Asked Questions from Acupuncture Patients. Turn your patients on to this channel!

http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/insane-mathematical-illustrations-made-without-computer/

Also, check out the Feb. issue of Acupuncture Today for an interview with Anthony.

New Online Tools to Help All of Us Stay Organized in 2014

Hi Folks,

I was not sure if I would be blogging anymore, but just cannot seem to help myself! Saw some new tips for saving $$ and staying organized that anyone with a smart phone, computer, or tablet can use that I want my readers to know about. Hope one or more of these rings a bell for you.

1. Make a budget. I know, I know...boring or scary or it makes you feel clueless. Online expense-tracking tools like Mint or BudgetPulse make it easier.

2. Are you a coupon clipper? Amongst the Hamburger Helper and Rice-a-Roni coupons, you can find others for all sorts of supplies that are useful for your clinic (paper products, clinic supplies, office supplies, and more) at Coupon Sherpa, SavingStar, or Coupons.com

3. In May or June, consider a block-or-neighborhood garage sale, which generates more traffic and more sales. Decluttering is an excellent way to re-energize of your home, office, and life. Use the money you make for a new piece of needed equipment for your business or to make an extra payment on your student loans.

4. Do you have the best rates and features on your personal and business credit cards?? Compare card rates at NerdWallet or CardRatings.com

5. When was the last time you saw your credit report? You are entitled to a free copy once per year from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You may be surprised (pleasantly or not) but you should know your scores. Check out annualcreditreport.com

6. Have trouble paying your bills on time? Use the tools at Manilla or Check, free apps for your smart phone and set up on time bill pays for everything you can!

7. Online security is a huge issue for all of us and seems to get more dicey all the time. Check out tools like Dashlane, Password Genie, or LastPass for keeping passwords organized (I personally find this maddening!!!) and to keep your financial accounts as safe as possible.

8. If you "Like" the company pages of product and service providers that you do business with you are more likely to receive info from them about clearances, BOGO deals, or other discount opportunities that can save you money. Some companies have regular "Facebook Only" sales that can offer steep discounts for limited time periods. If you are a regular on Facebook, this is something to consider. The same is true about following companies you like on Twitter.

9. Do you like to use Twitter? Check out #Bargain, #SavingMoney, and #Frugal for regular tips to help you get more for your buck every day. This also feeds the mindset of money saving, which, if you have student loans, needs to be part of your life until the loans are paid up.

10. If you want to offer a discount to new potential customers (I have mixed feelings about this), you might consider a site such as Slickdeals to share info about yourself and your services. This web-centered savings community has a huge audience (10-million users!) and 18 different areas of interest (health is one of them). Alternatively, consider posting something about yourself and possible discounts at Frontpage Deals and Coupons.

Coming in a couple of weeks....Communicating with MDs for Fun and Profit.

Happy New Year everyone! May it be peaceful and prosperous for all of us everywhere.
Honora

Honora's Farewell Blog

“…won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into a kind of life?”

   –Lucille Clifton

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It’s a little difficult for me to believe, but today I come to the end of my tenure here at Blue Poppy. The company is, I believe, in good hands to continue the work Bob and I began over 30 years ago to help our profession succeed. Though there may be things left undone, I surrender the weight of them to those who follow me!

I haven’t much more to share with you (after all, I’ve blogged and lectured and written continuously for that last decade and more), but I do want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my books or my blogs or attend my classes, workshops, and webinars. I’ve been blessed to have a good career, most of the time doing things I enjoyed with people I liked. If you got a tip or two along the way that helped you be a more effective clinician or a more successful businessperson, I’m satisfied that it was not all just hot air.

Before I ride into the next sunset, I want to thank anyone and everyone who helped me in my career. So many kindnesses from colleagues who set up a class for me, bought a book, attended an event, or believed that what I had to share was valuable! Especially I want to thank my co-workers at Blue Poppy, without whom the work I did would have been impossible, not to mention lonely. I wish them all success and happiness; I’ll miss the collaboration and camaraderie.

Last, I’d like to thank my business and life partner, Bob Flaws, from whom I learned the medicine and whose tireless work for our profession is still the foundation upon which the edifice of Blue Poppy stands. His contribution cannot be overstated in my estimation.

Final thoughts. I believe that at the end of the day (or the end of our lives) we won’t remember much about what we owned, what cars we drove, or how much we spent on our wardrobe. (We’ll be lucky if we can remember anything at all if we live long enough!) The only things that will matter are who we helped, what we gave back, and how much we loved and shared in our short visit to this small and beautiful planet.

So please don’t be lazy, pay attention, share when and what you can, and smile, laugh, love as much as possible.

Happy trails,

Honora Lee Wolfe

Why Do Patients Leave Our Care Before They Got Better? Part #3

When patients have money issues, we may think there is no way to keep them in our practice. But perhaps we need to think more creatively about this. There may be several ways you can give these patients more affordable options so that they will keep coming. Here are a few ideas.

1. Time of service discounts

Some practitioners only take cash for services rendered, which means that you have one price for all everyone. If, however, you are billing insurance or any type of 3^rd-party payers, it is legal to offer a time-of-service discount or 10-15%. Why? If people pay you at the time of receiving services, you don’t have to do any further paperwork or send out any billing, which requires time and expense for your office. In that case, most states allow you to give patients who pay you up front a discount for making your life easier.

2. Sliding scale payments

If you wish to go to the trouble, you can create a sliding scale similar to what is used by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, which charges fees based on your income-per-household. You may choose to require some type of proof for the discount, or take people at their word.

3. Package deals

In Colorado, we are allowed to give package pricing, as long as there is a signed statement that the patient understands they can get any remaining fees returned to them if they discontinue services prior to using up the total amount. This is a good deal for patients and has the advantage of giving you a larger of income amount up front. Then it’s up to you to do such a good job that the patient wouldn’t think of leaving before all the services are rendered!

4. Clinic “membership” discounts

One clinic I have worked with locally, offers a 15% discount for all services if you become a member of their clinic. What this implies is that the patient will get at least one treatment per month for being a member.

5. Monthly payment schedule with a credit card

If the person says they can only afford $XX per month, but you know they need more treatment, they can give you a credit card to bill over however many months are necessary at an agreed upon rate per month. Get this in writing and signed by both you and the patient!

6. Bill something to insurance

Does the patient have insurance and you have not explored whether they have acupuncture benefits? Insurance patients typically are willing to take more treatments more often than those who are paying on their own.

7. Partial trades

Does the patient have a skill or service that would be useful to you? Explore what you could do outside the world of cash. You will be surprised at how often a patient could trade you something that you want or need outside the cash economy.

8. Space treatments further apart

As a last option, you can suggest spacing treatment further apart, unless you think that will cause the whole treatment plan to be ineffective for the patient. You might also consider switching to herbs-only treatment if that is less expensive.

There are eight options for working with patients who complain about your prices or their inability to pay. You don’t always have to lose a patient because of financial limitations if you can be creative!

Final advice: There are lots of things you can do to improve your patient communication and education, clinic and business operations, and creative financial options, in order to keep more patients who walks in the front door from getting a couple treatments and then walking out the back!

Last but not least, maintain your interest and passion about the medicine and about helping patients heal! Keep learning and keep improving your clinical skills. Do your best with each patient, every time. Patients can feel that and instinctively know this! Make them believe they’d be crazy to be seeing anyone else!

Good luck and best success in your practice.

Thanks for reading.

Why Do Patients Leave Our Care Before they Got Better, Part #2

In the first installment of this blog, I wrote about patient communication and education. It’s my personal belief that everything about how we run our business is also a very powerful aspect of our communication with patients. As such it is more subtle, often non-verbal, communication which makes it more difficult to “teach” but possibly even more powerful than the things we write or say out loud.

What do I mean by office-operations-as-unspoken-communication? Pretty much everything! This includes things as diverse as how (and whether!!!) the phone is answered, how easy or difficult it is to get an appointment, the quality and ease-of-use-and-understanding of your patient paperwork, ease of finding your office, ease of use of your website, whether you run your clinic on time, your bedside manner, the lighting and décor or your rooms, efficiency of check in and check out process, to the cleanliness of the bathrooms. The better you do at all of these, the more satisfied your patients will be with your services. It might even make your treatments work better because all these things are part of placebo effect. Let’s talk about a few of these in more detail.

Phone communications

People in our profession who’ve heard me speak about business know that I have a pet peeve about how poorly we do, in general, with this service to our patients. Without whining too much let me say two things:

1. The lion’s share of the people who are making any serious money in this profession are not answering their own phones.

2. People expect that professional, “real” medical services will be open for business during regular hours. Nothing says dilettante or “playing doctor” more loud and clear than a message about how you’ll get back to them soon and their message is important to you.

3. If you were to become one of the clinics that has it’s phone answered every time someone calls, you’d be in the minority and you’d be more likely to be successful simply because you are open for business and people can get hold of you.

Efficiency of your check-in/check-out

People want to be greeted by a friendly face, sign whatever they need to sign, not wait too long to actually see the clinician, be able to get water or tea, pay their bill quickly and be on their way. Inefficient management of your reception services: no one there when they come in the office, paperwork that cannot be found or is not ready to fill in (best if they can download from your website), paper not loaded into the credit card machine, lights that don’t work, scattered and disorganized operations, running out of toilet paper or facial tissues, all these things indicate to people that the business is not well run. If the business is poorly run, how do they know they can trust any other aspect of your work (like your treatments, for example)?

Cleanliness

In our world, people expect any type of medical office to be spotless. That includes bathrooms, carpets, walls, windows, equipment, everything. Period. This is really not optional.

Ease of getting an appointment

This goes back to phone service, but may also involve your website and email communications. If I want an appointment, but I want to ask you a question first, or I want an appointment today, I need someone to answer the phone or get back in touch with me within minutes of my leaving a message, or answer my email within an hour of when I sent it. If this is not happening in your clinic, you’re going to lose patients. People should not have to work at getting in touch or getting in to see you. In fact, landing on your treatment table should be in every way possible, as easy as sliding down a greased pole and landing on it before they knew what happened!

Décor

There is an entire chapter on this subject in Points for Profit, but just to reiterate, the basic idea for décor in your clinic is one of a few options:

• either knock the socks off your chosen niche of patients, or at least make them feel that the entire place is “all about them” in some way.

• go for a classy, simple, appealing to everyone haven where anyone could relax and be comfortable

• make your space very community oriented, with bulletin boards, announcements about your volunteer activities, offer your space for community meetings, food co-op pickup and drop-off, and generally make it homey in a community oriented way.

No matter what else, keep it clean, clean, clean.

All the above things go into making sure your business approach is patient centered and totally easy and comfortable to interact with. Make sure these are NOT reasons why patients stop care before you decide, together that it’s time.

Next time…Part 3 of this blog: What Payment Options can you offer your patients so they don’t quit for financial reasons?