Key Steps in Targeting Your Demographic With Online Content

You can create the most persuasive online content by tailoring it to a well-defined audience. For your chiropractic practice, that means identifying the average demographic profile of your potential patients, and developing Web content, blogs, articles, social media postings, videos, slide shares, infographics, and other forms of content aimed at them. Resolve their common queries and doubts through your content, and address their unique needs to achieve the most desirable outcomes in your chiropractic content marketing campaign. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Who Are Your Potential Patients?

Identify your potential patients as a first step in your content marketing strategy.

Analyze the Demographics: What is the average age of your potential patients, how many of them are males, females or children, and what is their average education and financial status? This broad analysis will allow you to understand new insights about your target audience. You may discover new potential patients you never considered before.

You should evaluate the following key elements to determine the average demographic profile of your potential patients:

• Age, education and job position
• Location of residence and workplace
• Financial status
• Expectations from your practice
• Factors that motivate them to buy
• Common health pain points and areas of concern

Understand Their Concerns: Once you have defined your target audience, you can try to evaluate their most pressing needs and concerns. Listen actively to what they are trying to say during their conversations or consultations, get an idea about how predisposed they are toward certain types of treatments, what types of chiropractic procedures they might prefer, and their wellness needs and goals.

Reach Out to Them Online: The typical places on the Web where you might be able to find your target audience for engagement could be popular blogs, websites and online discussion forums, especially the ones related to chiropractic care. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn also offer a major point of convergence where the target audience for your practice can be reached.

Create Customized Content

Make sure your chiropractic online content is original, interesting, engaging and delivered to your demographic in patient-friendly language.

Meet the Goals of Your Patients: Determine whether the majority of your potential patients seek correction of functional health issues or general wellness and fitness issues. As long as your goals are in sync with your patients’ goals, you will gain their maximum attention and interest. Research the most innate needs and goals of your patients and design content that is tailored to meet them most adequately.

Quality Over Quantity: Make sure there is no compromise on the quality of the content. The focus should be on producing the best-quality content, rather than voluminous content of lower value. Each content theme should resonate with your potential patients and provide them useful value. Wherever possible, the content should offer a fresh perspective, as well as original insights based on your personal experience as a chiropractor.

Empathize Through Your Content: Patients usually appreciate when you establish an emotional connect with them through your content and personalize the engagement. It will always make a better impact when you empathize with your readers, and generate a feeling of positivity and hope.

The Benefits of Targeted Content

When you create specific content for your targeted chiropractic patients, it will deliver the following benefits:

• Increase patient awareness about your practice and let people know what your practice stands for.
• Make people see you are concerned about their health care issues and have the right solutions for them.
• Generate their interest in your chiropractic products and services.
• Allow people to compare your services and expertise with the services / expertise of your competitors.
• Improve your conversion rates, as potential patients will have all the information needed to make a buying decision.

Accuracy of facts and information is of paramount importance for all health care professionals, including chiropractors. Utilize online content to help build credibility, reputation and brand value for long-term practice gains.

Editor's Note: The author thanks Vikas Vij, who assisted in the writing of this article.

Naren Arulrajah is president and CEO of Ekwa Marketing (www.ekwa.com), a complete Internet marketing company that focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education and the online reputations of chiropractors.