Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
Digital marketing is evolving faster than ever, and as a chiropractor, you're not just a healthcare provider—you’re also the CEO and marketer of your practice. Without a solid grasp of marketing fundamentals, it's easy to fall for one-size-fits-all strategies that waste time and money.
Join us as we break down proven, cost-effective, and innovative marketing tactics designed specifically for chiropractors. From social media mastery to Google Ads that convert, we’ll equip you with the tools to attract more patients, build lasting relationships, and dominate your local market. Stay ahead, stay profitable, and take control of your practice’s growth!
Marketing 101 for Chiropractors
From Door Knocking To 24 Clinics
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Waiting for patients is the fastest way to feel stuck, even when you’re a great chiropractor. We bring on Corey Malnikov of Palmer Care Chiropractic, a builder who has helped grow to 24 clinics, to break down what actually creates momentum when you’re starting from zero and what it takes to scale without the wheels falling off.
We talk through the gritty early days: graduating in 2005, opening a practice with more confidence than clarity, and learning the hard truth that purpose needs a pipeline. Corey shares the grassroots marketing moves that still produce patient acquisition today: door knocking with a simple survey, direct outreach, and health screenings placed where ideal patients already spend time. He explains why getting out in the community isn’t just about leads, it’s communication training that makes every consult and report of findings sharper.
Then we jump to 2026 chiropractic marketing, where the playbook is “everything,” done with consistency. We cover postcards that still win in certain geographies, lunch and learns coming back strong, local search, and how “feeding AI” with clear websites and FAQs may be the new local SEO. We also dig into marketing paralysis, why people quit too early, and why AI discovery is likely to get monetized just like Google. Corey closes with a simple operator’s rule: know your new patient number, reverse engineer where they come from, and track it before the month slips away.
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Welcome And Why Scaling Matters
SPEAKER_01Hey everyone, welcome back to Marketing 101 for chiropractors. I got a really special guest this week. Uh, if you want to talk about growth and scale, I think Corey Malnikov is the guy to talk to about Palmer Care Chiropractic and how he's not only grown his practice, but his scaling it everywhere. So this is gonna be a great podcast. Thanks for being on the show, Corey. I appreciate your time. Of course, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah. Where'd you graduate? How'd you start? How'd you do the grassroots things? And how did you get to this point?
SPEAKER_00Loaded question. Okay, uh, let's see. I graduated from Palmer and Davenport. Uh, loved walking the grounds of BJ and DD and all that jazz. Um, graduated with a big ego, decided to open a practice, had no idea what I was doing. Um signed a lease to a place that wasn't built out, had to pay on that before it was even built. Um took a took a night job to pay that. Finally got someone to let me kind of see patients out of their clinic. And uh, you know, the moment the moment that I was able to start seeing patients was the moment that I realized, well, wow, if I want to start seeing patients and change the world like everything I had planned on doing, then I guess I need some new patients. And you know, big big story behind all of that. But what I can say is um, you know, anytime you want to get a little momentum in any clinic, and you know, I realized it right from the beginning there is it starts with you know, marketing, you gotta pump people through the door. You know, it's not it is not the answer to growing, it is not the answer to to you know having a successful practice, but there's nothing that beats momentum and marketing, and learned that at a very early part of my career.
SPEAKER_01Yes, awesome. Uh so when you when did you start? When did you graduate? 2005. So it's been a good thing. I mean, so before social media, right? Before social media. There we go. Let's let's talk about that. Because the reason I like talking about it, and some people give me slack about it, is they're like, come on, man, that was the old day. It's not that doesn't that doesn't pertain anymore. I'm like,
Starting A Clinic With No Playbook
SPEAKER_01actually, believe it or not, um, it pertains more now than ever. So tell me what you were doing at the beginning, and we'll we'll get this going here and what we're doing today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I will tell you, and I'm sure we'll hit this up, but yes, it's so funny how things are so cyclical because a lot of the stuff that I did back then were like reintroducing now in certain geographies and working very well. But you know, back then was you know, everything people have probably heard from the whole gorilla marketing type grassroots. Uh, you know, I started literally knocking on doors. I had a little survey. Is this a good area for a family wellness doctor? Oh, why? Because I'm one. You want to come see me? Um, you know, I back then we had the phone book, and I still joke because you know, I literally just went down the alphabet and and called people, which back then you could do. Um, and I still have a family of five that I literally saw in the practice not that long ago that's still coming 21 years later for me, from me calling. But, you know, I also I always had like four or five places in my back hip. You know, select comfort at the mall was one of those places that if I ever didn't have a patient, I could literally pick up my portable table, go put up a little sign, and literally be doing health screenings at the mall in two seconds, or I could go to the gym and in two seconds. So, you know, for me it was it was the the rule was very simple in the beginning. Because I was literally obsessed with growing, it was if I didn't have a patient, I had to go get one. And it was like I had to, you know, those moments where you look outside, you go to the like plaza where there's like Target and Books a Million and Joanne Fabrics and Michaels, and there's like hundreds of people, and I'm like, oh my god, I only need like 20 or 30 new patients. This is this is insane. Um, you know, one of the best places, you know, uh when I talk to doctors about where I should do health screens, which I still believe you should do health screenings, and and I could get into that a little bit, but um where should I do a health screening? The best place to do a health screening is where you're gonna find your best patients, right? That that that'd be number one. But number two, the best place to do a health screening is where there's a lot of people, right? So one of the best places I ever did a health screening back then was I was in that plaza I was talking about, and I'm looking at just so many cars and so many people, and like I'm like, okay, like Joanne Fabrics is right there, and then Books a Million, and then it was Michael's. And I'm like, my god, there's literally moms with their strollers going from Michaels to Joanne Fabrics all day. So I got Books a Million to let me put a booth outside of their store where I literally blocked the sidewalk so that when the women were trying to go from Joanne Fabrics to Michael's all day, Saturday and Sunday, I could literally stop them and talk about chiropractic. So, you know, health screenings were great. I still think they're great. I think there's so many reasons that
Door Knocking And Old School Outreach
SPEAKER_00docs should do it. You know, when we hire docs, we talk about them getting out there at least once a month to do it. Because outside of just getting new patients, why I love health screenings is one, if your mission is to teach people about health and wellness, I'm always talking to people about their moms, dads, cousins, uncles, aunts, and giving them suggestions. Um, but the other thing is you literally put yourself in the most uncomfortable position you could possibly imagine, and you have to answer the hardest questions about chiropractic. It's like a cheat code that when you go back into your office, man, you can answer anything because this is easy. I'm like, I'm in my home court, like like throw it at me. So in the beginning of the time, and then in the beginning, man, it was knock on doors, call the phone book, health screenings, and that that was my world.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. I think you lost half of the Gen Z listeners. You worked all day Saturday and Sunday. What are you doing? You're crazy, Dr. Corey. But he's got 24 clinics, so you can uh keep listening for a second here. Great. So as we go, health screenings are back, and I love that. That's why I was smiling for the whole time you were talking. Is it is getting in the community has never been gone. The world's changing around us uh with more technology. They got iPhones in their pocket now. In 2005, they didn't, they had razors and flip phones, that's fine, but they still have to go to Michael's and Fabrics and Sprouts and all that stuff too. So good on that. Yeah, so when you started your practice, you worked hard. Whenever you didn't have a patient, you had to go get one. I love that. That's perfect instead of just sitting there. And then and then things just started to develop. You built a practice, you had a practice base, and then the model keeps going there. Let's go into the model that you decided to follow, or maybe it organically developed over time. Because, like you said, when you graduate, it's just all ego. You really don't know anything. Um, what happened there? What did you learn? And then what's the model that you built that you were like, oh, I think I think this is a system that works for me and maybe works best.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, man, and you know, one of the hardest things to do as you're as you're growing is making changes. So the systems are always, you know, changing and evolving. But what I can tell you is for me, what happened was I had one practice. Uh, I had I literally got offered, you know, without getting too deep into these stories, but I got offered to go partners in a second practice pretty much because I had capped out the first practice. Um, and then in developing how to do that second practice, it is kind of where it all started coming together, you know. When I was like, okay, listen, it's the same kind of marketing, it's the same kind of scriptures, uh, it's the same scripts on the phone, it's the same systems for processing new patients and reports. And and I just started kind of putting it all into writing, you know, and then before I knew it, my buddy wanted me to open a practice, and my other buddy wanted me to open a practice, and then I blinked and I had four offices. And I was so big into studying uh Amazon, Ritz, Starbucks, and Nordstrom. I was so big into self-help, personal and professional development that for me, you know, I had all these persist procedures and systems and trainings where we were always working on growing, whether it was affirmations, visualizations, and goals, or whether it was learning new techniques for our patients, new exercises, new stretches, new modalities. Um, then even when we started getting into the things about personality profiling, so for me, I was just always stacking and stacking and stacking and stacking. You know, and the fun part as I was growing more practices is if I stacked personality profiling in four offices, I got to kind of see how it hit and how it didn't hit so I could make changes. So for me, it's just always been introducing better procedures, better systems, seeing how they hit and then making changes and just keep moving. And you know, I just make sure to get around as many people as I possibly can. I've been in hundreds, if not a thousand chiropractic offices seeing how people run things. I've been in other healthcare providers, I've been around entrepreneurs, and I just I try to try to get from them, put it into our place and see how it works.
SPEAKER_01Great. Yeah, I love it. So now we're here, 2026. What have you found is working now? What are you guys doing right now as a machine for your marketing? Everything.
SPEAKER_00Uh it's it really is everything. You know, I was mentioning this to you before we started, right? Um, so for me, it really has become that we have, you know, I have a list of every piece of marketing that we could possibly
Health Screenings That Create Confidence
SPEAKER_00do, right? So we have everything from you know, on the simplest level, postcards, which you think would be crazy, but in some geographies are amazing. And then on the most you know, intricate thing, we have how we're loading into AI so that AI is literally turning around and reading our websites and the 17 other websites we have that are directing AI to come to our current website, right? Um, so so it really is everything. You know, what what I usually when I'm talking to docs is number one, they should know everything that exists, right? I think in marketing, uh, one of the things that happens for people is paralysis. I talk about this with systems as well, but I think one of the things that happens is paralysis because they'll be like, okay, this new AI thing looks so cool. So now I have to fill out all the frequently asked questions, I have to fill out my LinkedIn properly because it's gonna pull from there. I gotta fill out all my social medias, I gotta fill out, and it's just like there's so much people get like uh paralysis. You know, what what we have to do is sit down and make a list of everything you possibly could do, and then you gotta work on it. And then one of the things I think that happens to a lot of people with marketing is they introduce something, like they're like, Okay, I'm gonna introduce social media. Um, I'm gonna be the expert in sciatica, right? I'm gonna put that on social media, get me my sciatica patients, and they do it for two months and nothing happens, and they quit. And so, you know, one of the things I'll say about marketing is it's gonna work, right? And so, what I've noticed is it's gonna work. If it's not working, the first thing I'll typically do is turn to somebody where it is working. So I'll find somebody in our in our field where they're doing it and it's working and figure out what the difference is, and then you know, start implementing what they're doing. Um, and then it's just a matter of time. But you know, I mean, I will just tell you, it is everything, you know. It's we do, you know, lunch and learns are so back now, it's crazy. You know, COVID hit, you know, we were a fully health screenings, lunch and learns, like that was our marketing, right? And then COVID hits, and then overnight I had to become a digital marketing expert, okay. Um, and then so for years, I I was learning social media and Google Ads and Google local, and I'm I'm learning how to use you know LinkedIn between businesses and all this digital stuff, and then now AI. Um, it literally turned me into I was constantly studying and at seminars and podcasts and YouTube videos, and I had to learn digital marketing, and now I can tell you that that's what I'm talking about, cyclical. You know, now we go out every other month, the clinics will go out and we go to businesses and we say, Hey, local chiropractor, we want to bring you guys lunch, talk about chiropractic. What's a good day? And you know, 10 years ago, that was hard. Like we were going business to business to business, and it was like you're you're like a salesperson, but now we walk into these businesses, we're like, we want to bring you guys lunch, talk about health and wellness, and they're like, Oh my god, people. Yeah,
SOPs And Systems Behind Four Offices
SPEAKER_00yeah, people. So, you know, it's easy to get back in, but you know, you you gotta kind of have that list, man, have that arsenal of things, you know. You gotta be able to know how to do a screening, and you gotta do it even if you don't like it. You gotta know how to do a lunch and learn, you gotta know how to do an advanced workshop in your clinic, you gotta know how to do a postcard, and maybe it's a thing to try in your area. You you you gotta know how to feed AI, you gotta know how to look at Google Ads and Google Local, even though it's dying, it's still there. Um, you know, you know, you gotta know how to you know pose yourself as um an expert through social media, and you know, marketing, like I said, is the momentum that I think really can push clinics, and so you really gotta stay on it. Like your your podcast, you know, I was listening to some of the episodes, and you know, just listening to your podcast on a regular so that people are always just trying something new so you don't fall into that world of paralysis of doing nothing. Like, just listen to your podcast and just implement as you're you literally. I heard one of your podcasts you're giving everybody like step by step, like this this is how you're gonna go ahead and start feeding digital. Like gotta listen to your podcast, gotta listen to other podcasts, and you just gotta keep moving with this with this digital world because it's yeah, ever evolving.
SPEAKER_01And I mean, you haven't the word Facebook ad or Facebook or Insta didn't even come out of your mouth yet. And we're and we're not going to. I don't want to because you're right, it's not, it's not, it wasn't, it's not the way, right? It was a time, it was a time. I'm gonna be honest with you, you know, the last six years, it was a time. Uh, but just like uh the yellow pages, it just it just it's extinct, it's gone. People are saturated, the market's changing. I thought something else was gonna pop up here in the last from 2023 to 2026. I thought for sure like a not like another TikTok because some I thought something was gonna like a new medium. Yeah, and I'm not giving up on it. I think something is in the brewing up, but uh the way the way it's looking with AI, the whole world is now into this AI thing, and there is no new growth in ideas. So now what we're taking is what we have and putting AI and like and we're in this AI generation of like, here, let's give AI time to learn the universe, yeah, and then let's see what we can uh delegate through AI. And we're kind of stuck there as business owners. Uh, that's my perspective on it. I think that's I was waiting. I was waiting for like FabChat for something to come up, like some some new uh medium.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I thought Snapchat had for a minute, but no. Um, yeah, man, a AI. So I I totally agree with you. Something's coming. I think what we're seeing right now, you know, I still I will say we still do use some social media ads from time to time. If I have a new doc and I'm just gonna, but I spend a ton of money and just throw people in the door just to get some momentum. But there's better ways to do that now, being more specific with symptoms and and charging more, and that's that's a whole nother conversation. Um, but I think what's next is I think right now, right, it's kind of the wild west, wild, wild west of
The 2026 Marketing Arsenal Plus AI
SPEAKER_00AI, and you now have the free opportunity to have AI point people to your clinic. And what's gonna come, and I don't know how fast it's gonna come, is that that's gonna get monetized, just like Google. And uh sooner than later, uh we're not gonna be able to get AI to point to us so free. Um, money's money's gonna have to play a part. I don't know how they're gonna do that because that kind of takes away from the integrity of AI.
SPEAKER_01Um it's it's there. You can you can do ads on Chat GPT now. We can't, we can't, but you ads are popping up, and it's just like social media when it started. If we you were first, I was first to it, I wasn't doing anything, I was just saying happy birthday or Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Those are my posts. But those people that were loud on it, and then I started doing the videos back in like 2011. Yeah, um, started doing videos and posting them on there on YouTube and Facebook, and then boom, I was the expert doctor at like 26. I was no expert at all. So, but whatever. And uh that you know, and then that built momentum, and I didn't and I didn't know it. So you're right, you're absolutely right. Things are changing and consistency. I I think that's all you've said without saying the word, the health screenings, the workshops, the seminars, the new patient onboarding, the specifics in symptoms, the it's just it's just a machine, it's just constant. And you've what what Corey has done, he's he's created such a strong SOP that now you can talk about scaling. And I know in my podcast we're like, so you can grow and scale, but very few scale. We're all focused on growing, which is great. And you can have a great career growing your practice and being healthy. It's absolutely fine. But to scale is a whole different machine, and you've got the things on, and they're always changing, especially now. You used to update your SOPs maybe every other, every other year. You're probably updating them every six months now, um, just because things are changing so fast. So that's where Corey's at and what he's doing there. And I'm really glad he's on the show, just showing you the potential of what's there. I haven't had someone like you that's that's out there. We've had, you know, uh 100% chiropractor and all that other stuff that you know, people that have tried to scale tried to scale different conversation. Um, but yeah, there, you know, but with you, so that's fantastic and what's going on there. So in 2026, what are your so you are you getting new grads? I bet you have a mix of new grads, experienced doctors. Okay. So what's your focus now? Is it to open more practices and get new grads because your SOPs are strong for them or anybody?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, again, man, it's kind of a mix. You know, we we have 24 clinics. Um you know, in the scaling world, you hit certain points where the infrastructure starts to feel the wheels falling off and you need to recreate. And so for the last six months, I kind of paused at 24 clinics and we've built an infrastructure now that could handle a heck of a lot more clinics. So we're about to about to purchase some clinics, open some clinics, and you know, it's it's a mix of docs. So whether someone's been in practice for 20, 30 years and wants to come into a practice could be a great fit. Uh, we meet a lot of new grads. I mean, we probably have maybe four or five times a year, we'll have about 10 new grads fly out and come shadow the clinics. Uh, for us, the biggest thing is you know, we are a subluxation-based practice, so you've got to be nervous system, body self-healing. If that's your conversation, then you could be a good fit, or else it's hard to train you. I mean, I I love our docs that do musculoscale, I love all that stuff, man. It's great, but with our training and our SOPs, it's hard for me to get you growing fast. Um, yeah, but if you're a subluxation-based doctor and you want to grow your interpersonal and professional development, man, then you know that that's kind of our world. So, you know, we're literally about to launch a very, very big recruiting program. Um, because we'd we'd like to bring on another. I mean, honestly, I could I could see in the next what do we have here, four or five months that we'd like to bring on another like 20 doctors.
SPEAKER_01Nice, great.
SPEAKER_0020 locations or 20 doctors? 20 doctors. 20 doctors, great, good, good feeling. You know, we we're always have
Social Ads Saturation And AI Monetization
SPEAKER_00two, we always have two cups we're filling, right? We're always looking at our clinics and saying where can we grow them? And we're then we're looking at the new locations. So, yes, I'm gonna open new locations, but I'm always looking at the capacity of our current clinics because if they're not where they could be, I'm I'm always gonna push the limits.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, guys, go. I mean, if you're listening, you're a newer doc, palmercare.com, go check it out. And then reach out to Corey. I'm sure he's he's a great guy. Uh reach out to him, he'll answer your questions. And then um, for the rest of you, the message was very clear today. It is consistency, it is going back to grassroots, it's doing the same thing over and over and over again and not letting one small defeat or one one dip in something that you've done turn you turn off the whole machine. I see this all the time. I used to get $21 leads on Facebook. Now they're $50. Uh that doesn't make sense. Something's going wrong. I'm like, no, that's that's how this all works. I used to get 10 cent cost per click on Google back in 2009. Uh it doesn't cost that much anymore. It costs about you know $97 to get a new paycheck on Google to just call the office. Then half of them don't even book an appointment. So I mean, yeah, so it's about $200 uh uh a lead on on Google. So so I mean, but you got to be consistent on this stuff, uh, no matter what. Uh anything else? Did I miss anything? Do you want to drop something? Do it.
SPEAKER_00No, man, the biggest thing I would say when it comes to the marketing world, I think the biggest mistake I see clinics make by far. I mean, even my own clinics when I talk to our doctors is like I need more new patients. More new patients means nothing. You know, what is what well, not just that, that's a whole nother conversation. But no, when I talk to the docs, it's how many new patients do you want to start this month? Like, what is your number? Do you actually know what that number is? Because if you know your retention, your PVA, and you know your you know where you want to be at for office visits, then you should know exactly how many new patients. And so for if you want 20 new patients this month, then reverse engineer that and tell me where those 20 new patients are coming from. Because too often than not, like our profession loves to like wait till the end of the month, and then they look and they're like, oh my god, we've only had six new patients this month, and then like everyone tries every marketing thing, and they throw the kitchen sink at the wall, and in
Recruiting Growth And Knowing Your Number
SPEAKER_00a in a place of desperation, nothing sticks to the wall, nothing works. And instead, and know your number. I want 20 new patients to start this month. If I get to the fifth, then I should have about five. When I get to the 10th, I should have about 10 and track it and know what you're doing. I'm gonna do two screenings for eight patients and one lunch and learn for seven patients, and I'm gonna get 10 patients from referrals. I don't care, but have a have a plan. Have a plan and get it. Have a plan.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Good, good, good stuff, man. Reach out to him. Uh, and if you need anything, uh info at enrico d.com. You got Corey to learn about that stuff. You our the beauty about our profession is we truly want to help. Like it's different. I don't see across industries when you call someone, I call my lawyer, he's nice, he picks up the phone uh three weeks later, I get a $325 bill. But you know, it's it's different in our profession. Um, we truly are here to I'm here, I'm doing this damn podcast for four years consecutively every week, uh, because I love this profession. I mean, if we don't have people like us doing this stuff and teaching, and in the in uh we're never gonna grow, and the and the world's never gonna experience chiropractic. And I love that you're subluxation based as well. I you know that's my fundamental premise of why I'm a chiropractor, but there's so many different models in chiropractic, too, that work really well. And as a unit, we have to keep growing. So thank you for what you do because you're making a huge impact on the profession. Appreciate you. Yeah, man. Thank you. Thanks for being on.
