With relatively small changes, you can improve your practice's marketing. Investments in marketing can help you attract new patients and to leverage existing patients for more revenue.
Marketing for your physical therapy practice involves a critical balance between promoting your services while remaining professional and HIPAA compliant. Currently, there is an increasing demand for physical therapy services and new providers are still entering the market with different practice strategies every day. For this reason, it has become even more difficult to capture more market space that attracts loyal physical therapy patients.So, what’s the solution? If you want to win in this market, you may want to consider upgrading your PT marketing techniques and strive to create a more seamless customer experience in your practice. If you have no idea where to start when it comes to marketing, we have prepared a detailed guide covering some of the most popular and effective physical therapy marketing strategies and how small tweaks to these approaches can consistently attract and retain their ideal patients.
Before the internet came into play, patients were only referred to physical therapists by their physicians. Today, patients are much wiser and will research your practice online before they visit. When your patients search for you online, will they find you? If your answer is “no” or “not sure,” it’s time to get your services online.Your practice website is the hub of your entire marketing effort, making it a starting point to give your practice a wider reach. A small change you want to consider to rank well within the local listing section of search engines is having NAP (name, address, place) consistency. This is one of the most important things to rank on Google Maps and increase traffic to your site. This makes it easy for new and existing customers to find your website and your physical location.
Your online presence is important, but if your reputation is broken, it could end up affecting your practice negatively. When patients search your services online, they're interested in the location, the services offered and most importantly what other people say about you. In fact, according to a survey by BrightLocal, 84 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Another study shows that 63.6 percent of people who visit Google check local business reviews and 77 percent of them don’t trust reviews that are older than 3 months.In follow-up emails with clients, include a section that politely asks for a review of your practice. This will help keep fresh reviews of your practice constantly coming in. In addition, it can provide meaningful feedback that can help you improve your services.
In this tech-driven era, a website is a requirement for any practice - it’s the front door to your clinic. This means it should have an attractive design and be easy to navigate. Your website should contain informative and helpful information about your practice and services.Few things to keep in mind are to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. A large majority of people will access your website on their mobile devices. Something to keep in mind is your site speed; it's great to have fast load times. You wouldn't want potential customers hitting the back button once they land on your site because of slow loading speed. A quick and easy way to reduce load times is to compress the images on your site. The small the file, the easier it is to load.
Having high quality content on your website can really help with your marketing efforts. You can consider blogging as a part of your physical therapy marketing efforts but it doesn't have to be the only way to put content on your site. Posting content regularly helps to showcase your expertise in your field and expand on your services. Furthermore, you get more eyeballs on Google. The frequency of blogging depends on what’s best for your patients. Because your focus will be on building a voice for your practice and the brand in general, you really only need to be posting a few times per month. Make sure the content is as informative as possible and written for the target audience. Aim to create quality resources that patients can reference for tools and tips to improve balance and achieve quick recovery.
You surely want to know if your patients had a great experience with your service or there is something you need to improve. The best way to learn about your practice from your customers is by sending out satisfaction surveys. In the survey, you can add a comment section where patients can write reviews on what they love and what they would like you to improve to make the experience even better. You might be surprised by the amount of feedback you get, including things you hadn’t thought of. This will help you make the necessary changes you see fit to benefit your patient and business overall. Making the feedback process as formal as possible, in a written survey, ensures you get honest answers that will guide you in making changes.It’s also a way to increases patient retention. When people are asked questions in one on one setting, they are likely to respond with an answer they think you want. But a written survey is likely to provide more factual details about how they feel about your service.
When was the last time you sent a thank you card or message to your patients? Or perhaps a reward your loyal customers? If you haven’t started, it’s time to do so. According to Gartner, 80 percent of your revenues come from 20 percent of your existing customers. In other words, the revenue sources you’ve been working hard to achieve are most likely sitting right in front of you, waiting to be nurtured and cultivated. To show gratitude to your patients send thank you notes and organize giveaways to give thanks to your customers all year round. Free stuff like t-shirts, water bottles, or sweatshirts can be positive!Incentive programs are a great way to boost customer retention. They go far beyond rewarding your loyal customer by incentivizing your patients for sending feedback or telling their friends about your practice.
In a nutshell, every physical therapy owner faces a new set of challenges, especially in marketing their services. But you will achieve success if you find a balance between overcoming these challenges while ensuring your patients are satisfied.Focus on these six essential pieces to make the necessary changes to your physical therapist marketing strategies. Each one of them will help you get more patients and retain the currents one. New marketing strategies will always offer an opportunity to provide excellent services in the long run – if you can master them quickly and incorporate them into your PT practice.
