Summer time is fast approaching…schools are out, families are on vacation, work days feel shorter. Summer might be the best of all worlds for many of us, but a lot of physical therapy practice owners feel differently especially when it comes to their businesses. A physical therapy clinic in the summer months can be a ghost town. Peak vacation season and school breaks disrupt the family schedule, resulting in less patient visits and fewer referrals.
What can you do to rev up your marketing and get more patients in the office to offset the summer slump? Try these four strategies:
- Use new, targeted seasonal messaging:
Think about what you like about summer and what your family does during this time of year. Do you join a local swim club, vacation at the lake or beach, spend more active time outdoors? Chances are many of your patients enjoy the same activities. Play up the sports lingo! Offer a “swing special” for golfers or host an open house focus on “safe swimming”.
- Look at last year’s stats for June, July and August:
Each practice and local community has a slow month in the summer. For most clinics, August is like Death Valley—hot temperatures and barely any patients. Anticipating seasonal slumps is key to summer success. Offer a serious incentive for the month and start hyping it early! Waiting until mid-July to unveil a big August savings special might seem like a good move. You won’t lose July business with patients waiting until the special and you will get lots of patients in August right? But, you take a serious gamble that most of your patients are already out of town or have made plans for August by mid-July and thus, won’t be around to take advantage of the special. Instead, start marketing August savings in June to gain enough interest through traditional channels and word of mouth referrals to get more patients.
- Plan ahead for fall sports
Most fall (even winter) sports have off-season training in the summer. From camps to weekly practices to pre-season warmups, fall athletes do not take the summer off. Promote injury prevention and performance training in the summer months to get your athletic patients safe and in game day shape. Network with local recreation leagues or schools and provide PT at camps and clinics. Offer discounts on special services, such as kinesiology/taping or TENS, for athletes when they wear a team shirt to the clinic. Or, set up a pop-up clinic at tournaments to provide onsite care and PT counseling.
- Follow your marketing plan
As the seasonal impacts start to take effect on the number of patient visits and referrals, it can be very tempting to cut expenses by decreasing or stopping your monthly marketing campaigns. By skipping your August newsletter, you will save some money to offset the lost revenues due to the summer slump right? 100% wrong! The #1 rule of successful marketing is consistency is key. It took your monthly campaigns, such as newsletters, physician mailers, or postcards, several months to gain ground and start generating consistent results. Stopping for even one month can set you back and undo months of work. Also, you want the number of patient visits to swing back up in September. So, you need to mail a newsletter in August to get those fall patients back to PT. Keep doing your successful actions and you will weather the seasonal effects.
By using targeted promotions, analyzing last year’s data, marketing for future needs, and following your plan, your physical therapy practice will continue to see results throughout the seasons. Some times of year might still experience a drop in stats, but that is ok—every business, from Wall Street to the corner shop, sees seasonal fluctuations in volume and revenues. You need to be the seasoned marketer by anticipating the changes and proactively improving the results. Want to start your summer marketing campaigns? Give us a call and we will help you get more patients!
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