How to Market Your Clinic At Your Local Farmer's Market

The Super Easy Steps

First, this plan needs a little prep time, so get started on it now.

Secondly, the doctor or staff members can complete this easy promotion.

Thirdly, my doctors have done this many ways with varying budgets. I'm going to lay out the concepts, give you some tools for success, and let you run with it and make it your own.

Let's Go!

Here is the promo:

Put on a Self-Promoting Shirt

You go to the Farmer's Market with Recipes.

Meet the Vendors First.

Walk around and simply hand out your recipe cards.

Simple enough right?

The people going to the Farmer's Market are your target audience. These are your people.

But they aren't there to get a spinal screening...

They are there for heirloom tomatoes and goat cheese.

So, you, as a health and nutrition awesome sauce Chiropractor need to go meet your patients where they are.

Let's get to the Hows and Whys.

The Recipes...and Why

If you have any level of nutrition, weight loss or diet consulting / services in your clinic, you will LOVE this idea.

People love recipes.

My favorite way to do these recipes is to print them on Magnetic Sheets. VistaPrint has Magnetic postcards and the results are phenomenal. They are the size of over-sized postcards and you can get them vertical or horizontal.

Where do people put magnets? Especially those with recipes and pictures of food on them? On the fridge. That big box in the center of the universe for every home that gets opened 50 times a day by your teenagers who stand in front of it waiting for a sandwich to magically appear...

Anyway.

You just got your clinic and your info on every fridge in town. Good! You just became the "First Thought" Chiropractor.

If you don't want to spend the money (It's about a $1 a postcard to have VP do them in full color) you can always print them on card stock or gloss paper at your local printer or Office Depot. People keep recipes that are unique and appeal to them. If you are printing on paper cards, be sure and have your clinic promotion on the back. If you food test, talk about that. If you have a great weight loss program, talk about that. Don't leave an opportunity to promote your clinic on a blank sheet of paper!

I highly suggest having a little bit of EVERYTHING! Fridge magnets, printed brochures, business cards and handouts.

I have had some doctors do several recipes and even a recipe book.

If you notice on the recipe magnet pictured here, we put a little factoid about nutrition on the recipe card. There are hundreds of food factoids out there.

The best recipes for this promotion would be salads, salsas, and any vegetable dish. Mind you, there are more than just veggies at a Farmer's Market so you might want to find out the various vendors or have a variety of recipes.

Be a Walking Billboard

If you don't already, have a shirt with your clinic info on it and identify yourself as the doctor.

I've had some doctors make t-shirts JUST for this promotion. Again, Vista Print will print a t-shirt for you...but I really like using LOCAL companies. (Just another source of networking for you!)

One of my doctors put on the back of his green shirt. "Ask me about my recipe for health". Another one did "Are the foods you are eating...eating you? Ask me about Food Sensitivity Testing".

Just own your brand and promote your clinic.

Meet your Vendors

Recipe cards? Check

Standard business cards? Check

Groovy Self-Promoting Shirt? Check

The motivation to go slay the day at the Farmer's Market? Check Check!

Now what.

Go meet the vendors FIRST.

"Hey, I'm Dr. Smith and I'm going to be here at the market today just giving out recipes for some healthy dishes and I see you are selling some beautiful green bell peppers! This salsa recipe I have has green bell peppers, can I tell people to come to your booth? Can I leave some of my recipe cards with you?" You've created a contact, and now they are going to place your recipe cards at their booth. ANOTHER point of awareness for your clinic!

Could a normal Chiropractic business card to that?

Network Your Booty Off.

You've met your vendors.

Now you are going to start walking around meeting your potential new patients.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Talley and I'd like you to have my recipe for my Famous Cuban Salad!" (just hand them the card) "I found a vendor over there who has some amazing avocados!" The people who want to talk to you (remember you identified yourself as "Doctor" and you are wearing that cool shirt... they may want to chat you up for a bit) will ask questions.

And as you pass by the Chiropractor who is waiting behind a table with a stack of symptom surveys waiting for his/her next spinal screening...just be nice and say "hi". (There is NOTHING wrong with spinal screenings, btw. Again, I've done them...I'm NOT bashing them but dang I don't like them...)

It's that easy...

Did you schedule a bunch of new patients at that moment and collect some pre-paid visits? Probably not.

That wasn't your intention.

Your intention is to be FIRST THOUGHT. Your intention is to create awareness about you and your clinic.

You've done that, had a good time meeting lots of new people, probably got some bomb goat cheese, and now it's time to relax.

Farmer's Market Fresh Veggie Recipes

Dr. (your name here)'s Famous Cuban Salad

You'll Need:

Lettuce, red leaf or blend, green leaf
3 Large Ripe Avocados, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 Large, Ripe Tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 Medium Red Onion, halved and cut into thin slices
4 oz. Feta Cheese, crumbled

Garlic Lime Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
6 garlic cloves, mashed
1/2 cup olive oil
Mix and shake

Arrange on a plate and

drizzle with feta and vinaigrette.

Salt & Pepper to taste

Dr. (your name here)'s Never Left Over Guacamole

3 avocados, ripe
1/2 small onion, finely diced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
3 tbsp, fresh cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp sea salt

Slice the avocados in half, remove the pit and skin and place in a mixing bowl.
Mash the avocado with a fork and make it as chunky or smooth as you'd like.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir together.

Definitely use fresh limes rather than lime juice in a bottle. The flavor difference is worth it.

Dr. (your name here)'s Broccoli Power Bowl Salad

Ingredients

4 cup flowerets broccoli, florets
4 fruit clementine
1 fruit (3-3/4″ dia) grapefruit
1/2 cup, sliced ALMONDS
1 cup blueberries
3 slice cooked bacon
1/2 medium avocado
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 tbsp vinegar, rice
2 tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/2 tablespoon Poppy seeds

Instructions

Chop broccoli into bite size pieces.
In a bowl combine the broccoli, peeled and sectioned clementines and grapefruit, sliced almonds, and blueberries.
Add the remaining ingredients (except bacon) into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
Pour over salad ingredients and toss well to combine.
Crumble bacon and sprinkle on the salad.