As a professional within the physical therapy industry, your time and your expertise are best spent focusing on the treatment and overall care of your patients to ensure optimal outcomes. While your time and efforts boost the outcomes that your patients experience, it is also billable time. You must place a certain degree of your time and efforts on driving new business. By placing a focus on your marketing strategies, you are sure to experience new growth, patient retention, and increased revenue. In this guide, we will share some physical therapy marketing strategies that will greatly enhance the overall success of your practice.
The Who, The What, The When, and The How
When creating physical therapy marketing strategies, it is crucial that you consider the who, what, when, and the how. First, start with your target audience. You should outline all of the demographics that you can think of regarding your target audience. These include their age, gender, job, socioeconomic status, relationship status, what types of hobbies they have, and their location. This will cover your “who”.
Next, focus on your “what”; that is, the practices and treatments that you are offering as a physical therapist. Then, place an emphasis on the “when”. In short, when do you want to start your campaign of the “what” to the “who”. Finally, you should consider “how” – exactly – you want to market you, your services, and your practices. Continue reading to learn marketing strategies that will help you outline and pursue your “how”.
The Most Productive Marketing Strategies
The following outlines the most productive of all physical therapy marketing strategies that you may use for your campaign. You may select from this list or use every strategy on the list – the choice is yours!
1. Create a Website for Your Services
It is a known fact that our world is highly digital and technologically-advanced. More than ever before, individuals are communicating through and obtaining various types of information from the internet and associated platforms. As a result of this, it is advised that you take part in this.
One of the easiest and most successful ways is to create a website for your services.
According to statistics, 63% of all PT patients will choose a provider over another provider if they have a strong online presence. It is advised that you take advantage of this fact and establish a strong online presence. Failure to do so could result in the failure of your practice.
2. Harness the Power of Email Marketing
If you want to connect to former, existing, and even potential patients, one of the most productive means of doing so is through email. According to statistics, most internet users will read and interact with personal email than with online advertisements.
One of the best marketing measures – in terms of email marketing – is creating and distributing newsletters about your practice.
You could include the following types of information:
- Staff News
- Treatments and Services Offered
- Success Stories
- General Physical Therapy News and Stories
- Information Pertaining to Specials You Are Offering
3. Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Once you create a website, it is important that you place an emphasis on utilizing search engine optimization (SEO). In short, this practice involves using industry-specific keywords, specialized content design, hyperlinking, and a wide assortment of other strategies to ensure that the website ranks higher on search engine results. This – in turn – results in higher levels of organic or natural traffic among internet users.
4. Leverage Social Media
Once you have a website up, the next physical therapy marketing strategy that should be utilized is leveraging social media platforms. Patients of all ages are using the popular platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
As a physical therapist, you should utilize the platforms to capture the attention of those patients and cultivate relationships with them.
You may share videos on treatments, share information about your staff, and even include a “call to action” button so that those patients may easily interact with your clinic.
Be sure to share any blog, vlog, webinars, or website content through your social media pages.
5. Create Professional Partnerships
While it is true that the ultimate goal of your physical therapy practice is to attract new patients, you should place a focus on creating/establishing professional partnerships. This will provide a boost to your practice in terms of referrals.
The partnerships that you should focus on include those of other wellness experts. These include nutritionists, athletic trainers, chiropractic care professionals, yoga instructors, message therapists, and rehabilitation counselors.
In short, the services that you provide are capable of complimenting the services that those that your “partners” offer. Both you and your partners will end up getting more patients by referring patients to one another.
6. Television and Radio Advertisements
In most instances, patients will not want to travel more than an hour to reach the office of their physical therapist. That means that you will need to advertise within your general area.
One of the best ways to advertise is through your local television and radio channels.
This is an effective and relatively affordable means of engaging your local target audience. In addition to this, these types of advertisements are more visual and auditory-based, which results in higher levels of stimulation than that of just internet advertising.
This form of advertising comes with a higher level of authority. As a result, some of the audience that hears or sees the advertisements are more likely to trust your practice.
7. Host a Free Clinic
One of the most productive of all physical therapy marketing strategies is to host a free clinic.
This is a highly productive means of promoting awareness of your brand. This shows the community where you host the event that you care more about them and their well-being than your profits and that you are willing to give back to the community where you serve.
You may offer various types of services at these clinics include x-rays, massage therapy, braces, and more. Just remember, sometimes, it takes money to make money. Yes, hosting a free clinic will cost a little bit of money, but it will result in a massive amount of profits, in the end.
Reviews
Remember, the basis of all the physical therapy marketing strategies that you engage in are the reviews from your current clients. If you want your practice to grow, it is important that you encourage your patients to leave reviews on your services, treatment plans, and your practice.
Reviews – in and of themselves – may serve as marketing material.
Once the patient leaves your practice, they should receive a notification that encourages them to leave a review. This is the best way to remind them the importance of this step. They are also more likely to leave a positive review, too!
Join Us
We here at Colorado Physical Therapy Network would like to encourage you to join our network. We offer many tools, resources, and opportunities for the therapists who are a part of our network. In addition to physical therapists, our group consists of speech therapists, occupational therapists, and more. If you would like to learn more about what we have to offer or would like to initiate the process of joining us, we encourage you to contact us immediately. Please browse our website and learn more or contact one of our specialists today to learn about our network at: 303-757-7004
