The Ad That Increased A Chiropractor's Response By 9,000%!

by Rich Harshaw, CEO

Marketing & Advertising - 66 Strategies: Y2M TIP 17

We argued for three hours straight about the "no pictures, all copy" ad that I had written. "It won't work," he insisted.but when the results finally came in, my ad

out-pulled his by almost nine thousand percent.

Here's a story about an advertisement I wrote for an already very successful chiropractor. It demonstrates the power of our non-traditional approach to writing advertising.

Dr. Duke had been running a typical 2"x 3" advertisement in the living section of the local newspaper. The ad had a picture of him, an offer of a $75 stress test, the name and the address of the office, and a phone number to call. It was the same kind of ad that just about every ad agency would create. The problem was that the ad didn't work. Dr. Duke had gotten three or four non-qualified responses per month over the course of four months - at an expense of over $1,000 a month.

Over lunch, I took about five minutes to scribble out a headline, some body copy, the offer, and the number where to call. I drew a square around the text and said, "Run this!" Then when I told him that my fee was $5,000, he almost had a massive heart attack right there on the spot. Later that week I went into help him work with the advertising rep, Bob, on placing the ad. When Bob saw the ad I had written, he went crazy telling Dr. Duke it would never work. After arguing for almost three hours, Bob threw up his hands and conceded.

SAMPLE AD!

$75 Stress EvaluationFREE To The First 50 Callers As Part Of A Daring Medical Test!

 

Call us at 555-1212 and we will send you a written stress evaluation, the same one used by doctors worldwide to determine causes of stress remedies.

 

When you get the evaluation, fill it out then mail it back to us (no postage necessary) and we will call you back promptly with your results.

 

CALL NOW! Dr. Duke 555-1212

The ad I wrote carried a whole different strategy. I was now using a three-step sales method instead of a direct sale approach. The $75 Stress Test was now offered FREE The ad ran for the first time on a Wednesday. Dr. Duke received over 90 calls before the morning was over. He actually had to convert his whole staff to answering the phones. As a matter of fact, he was a bit frustrated because he had never experienced a barrage of calls like this before. By the end of the first week, he had over 600 inquiries for the FREE stress test.

WOW! When he finally got used to all those phone calls and the idea that his ad was working, he really got excited. When he mailed out the stress evaluations, 91% of them came back in the mail within two weeks. It took another full week afterward to decipher the tests and prepare reports for the respondents.

Then he began the process of calling those prospective patients back and informing them of their results. They were invited to come in for a "one-on-one personal remedy analysis," in which they would receive specific information on how chiropractic could eliminate many of their symptoms. Over 80% of them came in and out of that, over 50% became patients at a minimum of $500. Out of those, half became regular patients at an average of $5,000.

Needless to say, Dr. Duke continued to run this little ad for a period of six months - then I developed a referral program for him that leveraged his current patient relationships. Within a year, that ad was responsible for close to $1.5 million in new business. Not bad for a little 2"x3" no picture, all copy ad!!!

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