For practices looking to market their services, clinics, and practices, chiropractic marketing materials (especially the web) provide an opportunity to connect with patients, and potential patients, in a powerful way. Context is the way to make chiropractic marketing truly meaningful.
con·text • ˈkäntekst/ • noun
the circumstances that form the setting for an idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.
When I wrapped my head around the intersection of content and context, it changed marketing for me. Phrases like “content is king” and “compelling copy” have been thrown around a lot. Without context, it’s hard to create rich content that compels the reader to take action, feel emotion, or share something.
The best way to get an understanding of how content and context go hand-in-hand is to look at a real-world situation. As someone that’s spent a fair amount of time in a chiropractic clinic with a low back issue, I don’t have to imagine too hard. A look around the waiting room would reveal patients from all walks of life, many suffering from lower back pain.
On one side of the waiting room, we have a woman who recently retired. She’s excited about the extra time she has to spend with her grandchildren. She’s also very social and loves to travel and play tennis with the neighborhood ladies. With her back pain, she has some legitimate fear about whether or not she can physically do all that she wants to.
Next to her, we have a former college athlete. While it’s been a few years since the “glory days,” he still considers himself a fitness buff and works out several times a week. He’s always up for a game of pickup basketball with the guys and plays in a co-ed softball league. His body has some wear-and-tear, and his nagging back pain is starting to affect his participation in sports and fitness, but he’s not ready to slow down.
Across the room is a corporate executive. Her career has spanned 40 years, much of it sitting behind a desk and in conference rooms. Her high-stress job and sedentary lifestyle have taken a toll on her body. Her career has been on an upward trajectory for decades, but she’s paying a hefty price for having put her health on the back burner.
Three patients from very different walks of life, but each suffering from the same issue of low back pain. Imagine these patients reading the chiropractor’s marketing materials such as the website and social media. Each needs to be communicated with in a very different way. Their motivations, fears, backgrounds and goals are all very different. To grow your practice, a one-size-fits-all marketing approach simply won’t do, and that is where context enters the equation.
For content to really shine and be effective, it needs context. You can achieve context by developing and choosing Buyer Personas, and creating content for a specific stage of the Buyer’s Journey.