Marketing for chiropractors that earns trust
Most new patients come to a chiropractor because someone they trust sent them: a friend, a physician, a physical therapist, a personal trainer, a coach. Good marketing for chiropractors makes those people think of you for the right patients, and it stays inside the ACA Code of Ethics on advertising and patient expectations. Here are 22 ideas built that way, for practice owners and associates building a name.
The rules that shape chiropractic marketing
The American Chiropractic Association's Code of Ethics, ratified by its House of Delegates in 2023, sets a standard of conduct for doctors of chiropractic. Four of its principles bear directly on marketing:
- Expectations (Principle III). "Doctors of chiropractic should not mislead patients into false or unjustified expectations of the results of treatment. Doctors of chiropractic should never misrepresent their education, credentials, professional qualification, or scope of clinical ability."
- Confidentiality (Principle IV). "Doctors of chiropractic should preserve and protect the patient's confidential information, except as the patient directs or consents, or the law requires otherwise."
- Other professionals (Principle VII). Doctors of chiropractic "should, when available, willingly consult with and/or recommend other health care professionals when this would benefit their patients or when their patients express a desire for such consultation or recommendation."
- Advertising (Principle XI). Advertising, "including participation with social media, should not exploit the vulnerability of patients, should not be misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent and should conform to all governmental jurisdictional rules and regulations in connection with professional advertising."
Two more sets of rules apply to many practices. If you bill Medicare or Medicaid, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute covers referrals and offers to patients. The HHS Office of Inspector General's guide, written for physicians, says that in federal health care programs "paying for referrals is a crime," that remuneration "includes anything of value," and that routinely waiving the copays those programs require "could implicate the AKS and you may not advertise that you will forgive copayments." And if your practice is a HIPAA covered entity, any idea that uses a patient's name, story or photo needs the steps in the physician and dentist guide. Your state chiropractic board may have its own advertising rules, so check those too.
Sources: American Chiropractic Association, Code of Ethics; HHS OIG, A Roadmap for New Physicians: Fraud and Abuse Laws. Read November 3, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice or an ethics opinion.
Focus
1. Name the patients you want more of
"Runners with recurring knee and hip pain," "desk workers with neck pain," "pregnant patients," "golfers who want their swing back." A chiropractor known for one kind of patient is easier to recommend than one who treats "everyone with pain."
2. Write down the questions patients ask first
What is causing it, how many visits it will take, whether insurance covers it, whether it is safe, what they can do at home. These become your web pages, handouts, talks and, later, book chapters. The topic guide turns them into an outline.
3. Make your website answer them
A page for each question, in plain words, and the patients you want on the home page. A visitor should know within one screen who you help and what a first visit involves.
Referral relationships
4. List who meets your future patients first
Primary care physicians, orthopedists, physical therapists, massage therapists, personal trainers, running and cycling clubs, yoga studios, midwives and employers with desk-heavy teams. For each, write down which of their people could need you.
5. Tell each one exactly who to send
"Runners whose knee pain comes back every spring" gives a trainer someone to think of. "Anyone with back pain" does not.
6. Report back on every shared patient
Send the referring physician or therapist a short note after the first visit and at the end of care: what you found, what you are doing, when you will send the patient back. HIPAA permits disclosures for treatment, and coordinating care with another provider is treatment.
7. Refer out when it serves the patient
Principle VII asks doctors of chiropractic to recommend other health care professionals when that would benefit the patient. Sending a patient to the orthopedist or physical therapist who is the better fit is the clearest sign to those professionals that you will do the same with the patients they send you.
8. Keep gifts and payments out of it
No referral fees, free services for referral sources or "bring a friend" rewards for Medicare or Medicaid patients. The OIG guide counts anything of value as remuneration. Ask counsel before any arrangement with a referral source.
Sources: ACA, Code of Ethics, Principle VII; HHS, Uses and Disclosures for Treatment, Payment, and Health Care Operations; HHS OIG, Fraud and Abuse Laws.
Workshops and talks
9. Talks for the people who refer you
A session for trainers on spotting the movement problems that need a clinician, or for a physical therapy group on how you work alongside them. They leave knowing more and knowing who to call.
10. Workshops for employers
A lunch session on desk setup and moving through the workday, for a company's staff. Teach what people can do on their own, answer questions, and leave a handout with your practice name.
11. Talks for the public
Running clubs, libraries, prenatal classes, senior centers. One question, answered well, with real cases told without patient details and without promising results.
Reviews, within the rules
| Practice | What the source says |
|---|---|
| Asking every patient for a review | Allowed. Google's help pages suggest a review link or QR code, and the FTC's rule has an exception for general requests to all customers. |
| Paying, discounting or giving gifts for reviews | Google's policy lists reviews posted because of an incentive from the business, and reviews paid for directly or in kind, as prohibited content it removes. |
| Rewards only for positive reviews | Banned by the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, which bars incentives conditioned on a review's sentiment. |
| Asking only happy patients, or discouraging unhappy ones | Google's policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews and discouraging negative ones. |
| Replying with details of a patient's care | HHS has settled with health practices that disclosed patient information in replies to online reviews, including Elite Dental Associates in Dallas, which paid $10,000 in 2019. |
12. Ask everyone, the same way
Put the request into the checkout routine for every patient: a card or text with your Google review link.
13. Offer nothing in return
No discounts, raffles or free visits for reviews, even for honest ones.
14. Reply without confirming the person is a patient
Thank positive reviewers in general terms. To a negative review, reply with a short line that invites the person to call the office, and nothing about their visit, treatment or records.
15. Read reviews as feedback
Once a quarter, list the complaints that repeat: wait times, billing surprises, the phone. Fix the one that comes up most.
Sources: Google Maps prohibited and restricted content policy; Google Business Profile, tips to get more reviews; FTC, Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule questions and answers; HHS, Elite Dental Associates settlement.
Honest patient education
Principle III asks doctors of chiropractic to use "clear and understandable language" about the patient's condition and not to create "false or unjustified expectations of the results of treatment." Patient education built on those two lines is also good marketing, because it is what people share.
16. A handout for every common condition
Low back pain, neck pain, headaches, sciatica. One page each: what it usually is, what care involves, what patients can do at home, and when they should see someone else.
17. Explain the plan of care in writing
How many visits, why, what you will measure and when you will decide whether to continue. A patient who understands the plan is less likely to drop out, and more likely to tell a friend what to expect.
18. Patient stories, with consent and without promises
A case told with the patient's written permission, stated as it happened for that person, not as a promise for the next one.
19. Be careful with offers
"Free exam" and "no copay" advertising can run into the OIG's guidance for Medicare and Medicaid patients and into your state board's rules. Talk about the care instead, and run any offer past counsel first.
A book as the anchor
Every idea above needs material. A book written for patients supplies it, because it answers the questions behind all of them.
20. A patient guide to the problem you are known for
What causes it, what care involves, what patients can do on their own and when to see someone else, written for the patient, not for colleagues. Ian Hart, a fitness and wellness professional who specializes in back pain relief, built his book Healing Hacks around a program for people with herniated discs, sciatica and bulging discs, and six years after launch readers still reach out (story).
21. Hand it over at the first visit
Send a chapter after someone books, and give the book at the first visit, so the questions are answered before they become reasons to stop coming. The client process guide covers each stage.
22. Leave copies with your referral partners
Colin Dombroski, a pedorthist, left copies of The Plantar Fasciitis Plan in physicians' offices and later saw those physicians' patients at his clinic (story). Plan who gets a copy, and when, with the practice worksheet.
None of these authors is a chiropractor; they are clinicians in nearby fields whose books did the same work with their own patients and referring physicians. These are strong results from individual Scribe authors, not typical ones, and nobody can promise them.
If you work alongside physicians or physical therapists, the physician marketing ideas cover their rules. For guides, checklists and other ways to bring the right patients forward, see the lead magnet examples.