With all the financial doom and gloom out there its easy to get worried about the impact of the recession on your acupuncture practice. This series of articles covers some of the best acupuncture marketing strategies to beat the recession and ensure a constant stream of clients coming into your clinic. I have personally used these techniques to ensure my own acupuncture clinic has stayed thriving. I have also taught many others how to do the same. The strategies work whether you are just starting out in practice or if you are well established. Not only are they easy to implement but once set up many of them run themselves, drawing in a constant stream of new clients, leaving you free to get on with doing what you love - helping people feel well.

This article tells you specifically how to get more referrals.

Every acupuncturist knows that referrals are one of the best sources of new clients for your practice. But how can you encourage your existing clients to recommend you to their friends? The best way is to set up a referral system. You can set up a referral system so that every time one of your clients refers someone to you, they get a discount on their next treatment.

You can easily do this by sending out a letter or email to all your clients thanking them referring their friends to you. Explain to them that from now on every time they refer someone to you they will receive 40% (or whatever percentage you choose) off their next treatment. Set it up so that they receive the discount once their friend has attended the first session.

You can also make discount vouchers for your clients to give to their friends. This way both the person referring and the person being referred can receive a discount when a referral is made. Using both of these incentives together will massively increase your referrals. We implemented this strategy at an acupuncture clinic in London and the number of referrals tripled from one month to the next.