Instagram is one of the fastest growing, most popular social media platforms today. It is a hotspot for Gen Z and Millenials, which means if you see any patients in those age ranges, you should be marketing your chiropractic practice on Instagram.
How to Stand Out from the Crowd
As with any social media platform, there is a lot of competition, a lot of “noise” that your posts need to break through to get to your patients (and prospective patients). That’s why it’s important to have an Instagram marketing strategy and utilize the latest features available.
Here we’ll outline our top 3 chiropractic Instagram marketing tips and provide a few free graphics you can use to start reaching new patients today.
#1. Interact and Expand Your Reach with Stories
Instagram stories are a great way to interact with your followers, share casual updates or pictures, and potentially reach new patients. It’s a place to have fun and get a little creative.
If your stories are shareable or encourage some sort of action, you have the potential to reach new patients when your current patients share your post and tag you. For instance, this “This or that?” graphic gives your followers something fun to do, stories like this are very popular, and when they share it and tag you, their followers will be able to click to visit your Instagram profile.
Now all of their followers, many of whom are destined to be local friends and family, see them recommending you, their trusty chiropractor.
Another way to interact with patients in stories is to ask them to ask you questions.
This opens the door for questions like, “My knee has been bothering me. Is that something you can help with?” or “Do you have any appointments today? My back is really hurting.” Give it a try with the graphic above! (Just be sure to add the question sticker where indicated. Here’s a how-to.)
#2. Post Photos of Real People
You may have heard us preach the importance of including real photos of the doctor, office, and staff on your practice website. Well, the same rings true for Instagram. Because the platform is image-based, the quality of your images is critical. That doesn’t mean you have to be a professional photographer, just cognizant of the types of photos you’re posting and how they’ll stand out (or not) from the thousands of other photos in your patients’ feeds.
Always posting a graphic with an inspirational quote or stock photo is going to get stale fast. Think authenticity and personality when creating your posts.
The team at PWC Chiropractic does a great job of this. Take a look at the variety and authenticity in their posts.
There’s a mix of staff pictures, patients, staff with patients, and text posts. The photos are good quality, not professional or stock, but not grainy or dark. Nice, clear images that their followers can connect with.
(*Note: Be sure to have all patients who appear in photos sign a waiver giving consent for their photo to be used.)
Take a look at the photos you’ve been posting and ask yourself the following:
- Are the images good quality?
- Is there variety in the images I’m posting?
- Do I showcase real people that my patients can connect with?
- If I were scrolling through my feed, would I stop to look at this?
If not, make it a priority to snap some new photos throughout the week and try to up your posting game.
#3. Instagram Ads for Chiropractors
Another way to make Instagram work for you is with Instagram ads. Instagram ads can appear as regular posts in the feed or in stories. This is a great way to target local Instagram users (aka. prospective patients) with special offers. The cost is reasonable compared to Google Ads and is a great way to increase your brand awareness.
Here’s an example of an Instagram ad we’re currently running for one of our clients:
Instagram is part of the Facebook ad network and included in our Facebook & Instagram Advertising service.
Instagram Marketing to Get New Patients
Don’t feel like you have to utilize every trendy feature Instagram has to offer. Just master the elements listed above and you’ll be able to stay engaged with your current patients while attracting new ones on one of the most popular social media platforms. If you want some assistance with your Instagram posts try Get Social, our in-dashboard social media content platform. It’s full of chiropractic content ready for you to share and is included as part of our premium service, or as an add-on with essential.