What Does a Physical Therapist Do? How to Explain PT to Patients

One of the core components of any PT marketing strategy should be to educate prospective patients and referrers on what physical therapy is and what exactly a physical therapist does. Often, people are not sure how a physical therapist differs from a doctor or a personal trainer. This misunderstanding can discourage people from choosing PT as a treatment for their pain. Let’s see how you can use your practice’s marketing to explain how physical therapists can help patients feel better.

Include a page about physical therapy on your website

In addition to listing your specific services and treatments, it can be helpful to have a page dedicate to describing PT and what a physical therapist does. Some key information to include would be a general description, what types of education and training PTs have, and any special certifications that your practice and staff have. This page should be written from the patient’s perspective—use easy to understand language and realistic examples. Walk the patient through a typical PT appointment and use images of gentle care to illustrate how therapy is not a workout, but instead a targeted treatment. Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

Have a section of your newsletter dedicated to general PT information

Have a small section of your monthly newsletter or e-newsletter that describes physical therapy in a few quick snippets. Think about a bulleted list and keep the content easy to understand. Here’s an example:

What does a physical therapist do?

• Evaluate your current condition and physical needs
• Creates a custom plan of exercises and stretches
• Work with you to ensure proper form and safety
• Provides hands on care, stretches and massages

Post personal advice and motivation from your physical therapists on social media

Everyone loves personal content, especially images, on social media. It adds authenticity and relatability to your posts. Try to incorporate at least one original post a week to your social media calendar. When it comes to explaining PT, who better than a physical therapist? Have each PT share something, such as “why they became a PT” or “what their favorite stretch is” and include a photo of them. You can also have patients share their testimonials and results (with proper permissions of course) and include a photo of them with their physical therapist.

Explaining physical therapy and what PTs do is critical to the success of your practice. Once someone understands how PT can help them, they will be infinitely more likely to call and book their appointment at your clinic. By being both the educator and the expert, you build credibility and showcase your skills.

For more information about PT and practice marketing, visit our blogs or schedule your free webinar today!

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5 Simple Marketing Ideas for Physical Therapists

Physical therapists and practice owners are experts in the care and treatment of physical conditions and help their patients achieve fantastic results. While you often spend your days focusing on the patients’ health, you also need to dedicate time and resources to ensure the health of your business. Every practice should be consistently marketing their PT services to prospective patients and doctors to ensure a steady flow of appointments and revenue. Let’s explore some PT practice marketing ideas and how you can implement them for your clinic.

Marketing Ideas for PT Practices

Start with the basics and build up your marketing program from there. Most PT practices face two challenges—not knowing where to start or starting too many programs at once and struggling to maintain them over time. All of your marketing ideas need to support at least one of the below basics:

• Market to past patients and existing referral sources
• Develop campaigns that you can execute consistently
• Run at least one promotion per month
• Drive online marketing efforts, such as emails or social media, to your website
• Maintain an up to date mailing list of doctors, patients and community prospects
• Ensure that all marketing programs align with your brand and mission

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to start developing your own marketing ideas that work for your PT practice. The team at Practice Promotions has years of success in helping our clients build marketing programs that generate results. Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

5 simple ways to get new patients and referrals:

• Choose a logo and brand identity for your practice that illustrates your PT mission
• Create a monthly campaign, such as a newsletter or postcard, that is mailed to past patients and referring doctors
• Schedule regular visits to local doctors’ offices and keep building relationships with them and their staff
• Make sure your website is up to date and follows website best practices
• Keep a well stock inventory of practice marketing essentials, such as brochures, rack cards, business cards, and giveaways, on hand for promotions and events

These marketing ideas are just the beginning—use them as suggestions to start building your practice’s marketing plan. The marketing professionals at Practice Promotions are also here to help. Give us a call today to schedule your free consultation and to start growing your practice!

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Online Marketing Ideas for Physical Therapy Practices

Online marketing is the big picture or 10,000 foot view of your PT practice’s digital marketing and online presence. For example, does your PT marketing plan ensure that your practice’s website content coordinates with your social media marketing? Has your practice been able to adapt to recent changes in social post content and formatting? Do you tailor your messaging to speak to the differences in audiences across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? Many physical therapy practice owners and even marketers have a difficult time keeping up with the latest online marketing trends and opportunities. The key is to make it easy to share information with your audience. Then, build the audience and get them to further engage with your practice online.

The goal of online marketing

Online marketing does a number of things, but first and foremost, it is a platform for spreading useful information about your PT practice. This information can serve a variety of goals—one of which is to highlight you as the experts to turn to when someone is in pain and needs PT. Online marketing also:

• Creates an digital presence that brands your practice and attracts new patients
• Makes it easy for new patients to find information about your practice
• Allows others, such as physicians and peers, to easily share your information

Coordinated marketing

Many practice owners struggle at getting new patients through online marketing. Because, they don’t integrate it as a part of an integrated practice marketing effort. When you only post to Facebook once or twice a month and don’t link those posts back to your site, you are missing out on linking your social media followers into a prospective patient population. You need to lead new patients back to on your website through coordinated content. Then, get them to call in for more information.

Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

Your website as the hub

Your website should be the hub of your marketing efforts, meaning that everything from print marketing to social media should direct potential patients to your website. From here, you have capture their attention and interest for them to call in and make an appointment for PT. This means that just having a website is not good enough. Your practice’s website needs to be able to convert visitors to patients.

At Practice Promotions, we design and create highly professional physical therapy websites that coordinate with blog posts and social media campaigns to funnel patients into your practice.

Call us today to learn more!

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3 Types of Holiday Postcards for PT Practices

The holiday season is a pivotal time for your practice and marketing plan. November and December are busy times for your patients and community. So, it is important to keep your practice top of mind during the holiday rush. One way is to send out holiday postcards to past patients and referral partners. Holiday postcards can be more than just well wishes—they can generate new appointments and referrals too!

The core component of effective postcard marketing is to keep it simple. You have limited space to convey your message so adding in too much can confuse the recipient. Instead, opt for a straightforward message that is both easy to understand and visually appealing. Let’s look at some ideas for holiday postcards for your PT practice:

Marketing goal: patient reactivation

The holiday season brings its own host of seasonal injuries and pains. Whether its cold weather joint stiffness, back pain from shoveling snow, or strains from carrying heavy boxes and decorations, the holidays are often a time for PT. But, patients usually drop this to the bottom of their long to do list. You need to emphasize the importance of taking care of oneself and staying healthy—so that they can truly enjoy the holidays.

Holiday postcards for patient reactivation should use realistic imagery like shoveling snow or carrying shopping bags. Include a thought-provoking headline, “Breaking your back shoveling snow? Or Are you in pain from decking the halls?” Next, use easy to follow steps to get patients to book an appointment. Lastly, drive home your CTA to get patients to call or visit your website to make an appointment today. It is important to drive home the “today” piece as many patients already have a million things going on during the holidays—they need to act now.

Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

Brand goal: community relations

The holidays are a great time to network with local businesses and organizations. We do not recommend sending out holiday postcards to individual members of the community. During this time of year, people’s mailboxes are already filled with catalogs and greeting cards. Instead, reach out to 3-5 community groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Junior League, Ruritan/Kiwanis Clubs, country clubs etc. Ask if you can distribute postcards at their holiday event or have some included in gift bags. This gets your postcard directly into the hands of a potential patient. Be sure to use a design and messaging that suits your audience—such as a higher end look for Junior League or country clubs, or a holiday-neutral theme for business associations.

Business goal: patient to patient referrals

During the holidays, people often meet up with friends and family that they don’t see throughout the year. This means catching up on how everyone has been doing the past months, which may mean talking about injuries or surgeries. What if your patients could help a friend or family member in pain by referring them to your clinic? Holiday postcards with a clear referral marketing strategy get patients to share their positive PT experience with others and to help them feel better. A referral incentive, such as a free item or gift card, can help encourage patients by keeping your postcard top of mind.

As the holidays approach, you want to have your practice’s marketing ready to go well in advance. You should coordinate your holiday postcards to be mailed by early December so that they arrive before folks are too consumed with seasonal events. If you are supplying postcards to a community event, you want to have them at the office at least 2 weeks beforehand so that they can be added to gift bags or programs.

Ready to order your practice’s holiday postcards? Visit us online or contact us today!

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How to Promote End of Year Insurance Savings to PT Patients

In today’s complex world of health insurance, many patients do not understand how to maximize their insurance program’s coverage. Specifically, patients need education on how to reduce their costs for physical therapy treatments. One of the easiest ways to save money on PT is to take advantage of your deductible spending at the end of the year. Practices should start marketing these savings in October to increase new appointments and patient visits in November and December.

It’s deductible season

At the end of the year, many patients have spent most or all of their insurance plan’s deductible. Patients with family plans, major surgeries, or chronic conditions are especially likely to have a $0 balance remaining on their out of pocket expenses. This means that the cost of physical therapy could be minimal or completely covered by insurance.

Another cyclical factor in patient insurance is annual plan changes and renewal. Many companies start promoting the next year’s insurance plans and coverage options in September or October. Thus, many patients decide to review their current coverage and see what they spent and what they should pick for the next year. Deductible spending is a big component of this insurance review.

How to explain end of year savings

First, keep the marketing content easy to follow and simple. We recommend mailing a letter campaign to promote deductible and insurance savings. This allows you to personalize the message with a proper salutation “Dear Mr. Smith” and drive home your mission of putting the patient first.

Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

Next, ask questions to prompt the patient to think about the answers. Some examples include:

• Have you reviewed your insurance plan and coverage lately?
• Did you already spend most or all of this year’s deductible?
• Are you in pain? Can physical therapy help?
• Do you want to save money on your PT costs and out of pocket expenses?

Lastly, give patients a simple set of steps to follow. You want them to be able to take immediate action and book their appointment for PT. Start with reviewing their plan and balance and move towards your call to action—contacting the office via phone or website to request an appointment. Hype the benefits of feeling better and ending the year healthy and ready for the new year.

After your letter is mailed, we recommend sending a follow up postcard 3-4 weeks later to reinforce your campaign and increase response. The postcard can also be tied to holiday marketing and seasonal messaging with the promotion to maximize end of year insurance savings. You can restate the steps from the letter and really emphasize the need to book appointments before the end of the year.

Ready to create your own end of year marketing campaigns? Contact the experts at Practice Promotions today!

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3 Simple Fall Marketing Ideas for PT Practices

Many practices see a surge of patients in the beginning of fall. Everyone is getting back into their routines, schools back in session, and sports are in season. This leads to a stacked appointment schedule and lots of revenue for your practice. Since more treatment courses last about 8-10 weeks, this busy season can last into mid-November. But, what happens next? The holiday season hits town and people’s schedules just don’t seem to have time for PT. Thus, many practices see a slowdown from December to January. What can you do to keep your appointments booked through the early winter?

Fall marketing and planning

1. Invest during the busy season

September and October bring a lot of revenue into your practice. Use that additional capital to invest in a major marketing project. Is your website up to date? Are you getting a lot of patients online? Investing in a website redesign and social media marketing program can be a great way to attract new patients and referrals. This also gives you the opportunity to market new services and promotions online. Additionally, a new website will be optimized for search engines—pushing your practice to the top of Google’s search results.

2. Plan your end of year marketing campaigns

Most practice send out at least one holiday marketing campaign at the end of the year. A holiday newsletter, postcard, or greeting card are effective at increasing brand awareness and generating new appointments. You want to start planning these campaigns in early October to ensure they reach patients mid-December. It is important to have your fall marketing hit well before the holiday weeks when mailboxes are full and folks are busy. Some practices even run a special promotion, “Book your first appointment before January 1^st and receive 10% off” (for example).

Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

3. Get involved in community and seasonal events

Many local communities have lots of seasonal events in November and December. From 5K races to holiday parades, your practice can increase public relations and brand recognition by sponsoring or participating. Reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce to get registration information. Additionally, consider partnering with another provider group, such as a doctor’s office or dentist, to offset costs. Lastly, consider hosting a holiday open house at the practice. You can offer milk and cookies (and healthy snacks) and photo ops with seasonal themes. We suggest scheduling this for a Tuesday or Wednesday night so it doesn’t compete with people’s holiday party schedules.

The trick to navigating your fall marketing is to ride the wave of September and October into the early winter months. Keep your marketing consistent and plan ahead for special campaigns and promotions. For more physical therapy marketing tips, visit our blog or contact us today.

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How to Create a Patient Satisfaction Survey

Patient feedback is critical to the success of your PT practice. You need insights on treatments, staff, facility and communications. Sending a patient satisfaction survey helps you to gauge your clinic’s overall performance. It can also solicit new reviews and testimonials. There are several key elements within your survey design and execution that can make all the difference as to whether patients complete the survey and provide honest feedback.

Designing a Patient Satisfaction Survey

When it comes to your survey design, it is best to consider two criteria: effort and information. Your goal should be to create a patient satisfaction survey that requires minimal effort on behalf of the patient and your practice. While also maximizing the quality of the information received. Here are some strategies to accomplish those goals quickly and effectively:

• Use a free survey tool. There are plenty of great, free online tools that you can use to minimize your efforts in creating and managing the survey program. We recommend Survey Monkey for its easy set up and variety of plans and reporting options.
• Ask less than 10 questions. No one wants to spend more than 2-3 minutes completing a survey, so keep it short and sweet. Focus on the key areas of interest: treatment, staff, facility, communication etc. to streamline the survey and increase completion rates. It is helpful to order the survey questions in the same flow as the patient would have experienced their visit. For example, start with asking how the patient found out about your clinic. Then, end with will they come back to your practice for PT in the future.
• Use ratings to improve data and analysis. A ratings set could be—on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being Very Satisfied, and 1 being Not At All Satisfied, answer the questions below. This answer method allows patients to rate their satisfaction with their experience and helps to provide consistency across patient responses. It also avoids tying the ratings to an emotion (ie. happy v. unhappy). Emotions tend to be more subjective and less accurate in assessing the clinic’s performance.
• Include a write-in option for more details and reviews. Write in answers often have a very general question. For example, “Please provide more details and comments about your experience at ABC PT”. This allows the patient to leave a good review for their PT. Conversely, it also gives them the chance to write about a possible improvement to their experience. Place this question towards the end, but not as the last question, to encourage completion and quality feedback.

How to Implement a Survey

After you have designed your patient satisfaction survey, it is ready to be implemented into your routine marketing and communications. There are two key points in the patient experience where you should request feedback: after the initial visit and after the completion of treatment/discharge. There are pros and cons to each option. The right fit for your practice depends upon your current needs and observations.

Download our free guide for tips on marketing your PT practice and getting more new patients

Are you seeing a number of patients who do not complete treatment or who are no-shows for the first appointment? If so, you should request a patient satisfaction survey after the first visit. This will help to identify what may be leading patients to not complete their care. It could be anything from poor scheduling by the front desk, to too long a wait time, to unclear insurance policies. Once you can identify what is happening, via the survey feedback, then you can work to correct the problem.

If you are seeing a good number of patients be successfully discharged, then request a patient satisfaction survey after the last visit. This will allow you to evaluate the patient’s experience throughout their entire course of care. Be sure to include a question about whether they would return to you for PT or refer their friends and family. Consider even adding an incentive, such as a $20 gift card, for a referral.

Patient satisfaction surveys are a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis on the patient experience. You want to identify your learning and data goals, and minimize the effort to manage the survey program. You also want to maximize the information generated from the complete feedback. Learn more about PT marketing and patient engagement strategies today!

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