Building Partnerships to Expand Your Community Network

Smart business owners, especially small business owners, know that they cannot succeed solely on their own or without the help of others. A small business needs a network of local businesses and organizations that share and reciprocate patrons.

For example, the town government provides recreational sports leagues through the local community center. The community center orders custom t-shirts printed at the nearby print shop. The print shop forms a partnership with the small sporting goods store and agrees to have the shirts delivered there for pick up. This increases business for the sporting goods store when parents buy sports equipment there during t-shirt pick up. The sporting goods store may give the printing shop 5% of the revenue generated from sales to rec league members. And, the printing shop might provide 100 free flyers to the community in support for their business from the t-shirt order. This partnership does not increase work or efforts for any of the businesses, but results in increased business and revenue for both the sporting goods store and printing shop.

How to Build Partnerships for Your PT Clinic

Think about logical relationships between physical therapy and local businesses. Some good opportunities might be with:

• Sports leagues or school sports teams
• Senior centers or retirement communities
• Chiropractic or massage therapy providers
• YMCAs, CrossFit, or local dance studios

Develop a plan to network with the business or organization. Think first about what benefits they could receive from a partnership with your practice. Can you offer discounted care for their patrons, free PT support during games, or on-site services at the retirement community?

Now think about what you want in return for their partnership. You could have your clinic’s logo printed on the uniforms or a banner at the field. For on-site services, you could have your business listed on their website and maybe included in their marketing campaigns (postcards, social media etc.). For YMCAs or other membership/fitness studios, would your patients be able to receive a discount on membership (say 10% a YMCA membership for patients). This could be marketed on your website, social media, and in your new patient packet.

Once you have a partnership plan in mind, prepare for when and how you would want to introduce the idea to the business owner. There can be a couple approaches to consider:

• Do you have an existing relationship with the business? If so, it might be easier to set up a meeting to discuss your potential partnership. If not, take a couple weeks or months to build that relationship before introducing a joint venture.
• Find out who is the right person to talk with. If there is a clear owner, you might want to go straight to them. For larger organizations, such as the YMCA, they might have a community outreach or business department to speak with.
• Present your plan clearly, but be flexible. You are presenting a plan that works well for your business and benefits you. The other partner will probably need time to review and refine the plan to suit their business. Expect that they will need time to review, consider, and might present different terms or ideas.
• Get the finalized partnership solidified in writing. Have an attorney draft a contract and get both parties to sign to ensure that you receive the benefits of the partnership. Keep copies for both yourself and the other party.

Want more ideas on business partnerships for physical therapy clinics? Or already have a partnership and want to start marketing it? Talk with our expert business and account management team. We have years of experience in creating successful relationships and can help take your practice to the next level.

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Practice Newsletter Content Strategies

A practice newsletter is a great way to engage patients and demonstrate your PT expertise, while also telling a story about your clinic. Whether you have an ongoing monthly practice newsletter campaign or are looking to get started, planning your content strategy in advance helps to increase read-through and to improve patient lead generation.

Your newsletter content strategy should be customized to support both your business goals and marketing plans. But, it also needs to be sustainable and something where you can economize your time creating content each month. Preparing a newsletter content strategy for printed pieces can be time sensitive—you often have to send your content to your marketing agency or printing company at least two weeks in advance to ensure on-time mailing. So it is important to plan for content that is independent of timelines or to have a stock of ready to go information that can be used interchangeably from month to month.

How to Develop a Newsletter Content Strategy

1. Plan your layouts

An effective newsletter will have a combination of educational information, such as articles and exercises, and marketing content, such as patient testimonials and clinic stories. Try to keep your layouts consist from month to month to avoid having to rework pieces. Plus, then you can learn the amount of space you have in each section.

2. Keep your sections consistent

Think about your local newspaper—it often has the same sections from day to day or week to week. You know what pages the articles are on, where to find the editorials, and how the classifieds are formatted. Try the same approach with your newsletters! Even consider adding section headers, such as Patient Superstars (for testimonials) or Clinic Catch Up (for practice news).

3. Prioritize your information

It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to cram in every piece of information for the whole month into one newsletter. But, that does not give your patients an easy to scan or read overview of your practice. Instead, chose 2-3 stories for your clinic updates that appeal to different audiences, such as an employee spotlight, sponsorship event, and incentive program.

4. Pick good photos

We’ve all seen them, those grainy or blurry photos that have poor lighting or angles. Avoid these at all costs! Poor imagery degrades the quality of your newsletter. Invest in a good camera for your practice and take all the photos with that same camera to ensure consistency between images. Also, think about the image size—sometimes a great photo can replace 1,000 words. Or if the photo is the size of a stamp—is it really adding value to your content? If you work with a marketing agency or art director then ask their input on your photos, they are the experts.

Your practice newsletter content strategy should have two key objectives: achieving your business goals and engaging your patients.

When it comes to planning and reviewing your content, ask yourself—does this align with what is happening in our clinic, and would a patient enjoy reading this newsletter? If the answers are yes, then dive deeper. Ultimately, would you want to visit your clinic for PT after receiving this newsletter? Be honest with yourself…if the content is not marketing your clinic successfully then change it!

Want expert advice from our marketing team on how we can help take your newsletter content strategy to the next level? Sign up for our free webinar today!

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Doctor Communication Strategies for PTs

As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, some doctor’s offices are closing their doors to sales and marketing representatives. This means that it may be almost impossible to do office visits with local physicians. Physical therapy practices rely on physician referrals as a key source of new patients and often have a network of carefully crafted relationships that support their business. How can PTs keep communicating with and marketing to doctors once the front door is closed?

Doctor Communication Strategies

• Direct Mail: this might feel new or innovative, but direct mail is still a viable marketing channel. This beyond the basic letter campaign and try more engaging and different options:
  • Full color brochures and flyers stand out in the daily mail stack
  • Custom invitations to open houses or physician demos

• Packages: a package instantly engages both the doctor and office staff. While there is additional costs to shipping a package, the value added by the more substantial presentation is worth the investment:
  • Prescription pads for your PT practice make it easy for the doctor to refer to you
  • Welcome kits with branded office supplies and fun gifts for the office staff, such as healthy snacks or product samples, indicate the effort that you will put into establishing a referral relationship
  • Thank you kits with the patient’s testimonial, results, and branded giveaways show your appreciation for the physician’s referral

• Open Houses: if you cannot visit the doctor, invite the doctor to come to you. Open houses can take a variety of formats and it helps to host several a year to see which works best for your clinic:
  • Morning coffee and healthy breakfasts can work great for PT clinics located in medical office parks or buildings
  • Lunch demos are a great opportunity to show your skills and expertise to both physicians and the patient community. When it comes to invites, invite 3X the number of people you hope to receive to ensure a good turnout
  • Happy hours can be a fun, informal way to network after the work day. These do not have to be drinking focused either—host them at a restaurant that offers lounge seating and encourage physicians to bring their staff and families

• Digital Interactions: the digital marketing channels (web, email, and social media) can be challenging to use for doctor communications. But if you develop and execute strong strategies, you can start to expand your interaction options (and most digital marketing tools are free!).
  • LinkedIn is our pick for the best social media to use for referral networking. Most doctors will maintain LinkedIn profiles to connect with colleagues, professional organizations etc. Use your professional profile to connect with members of your referral network and share relevant communications about your practice’s services and updates.
  • Email marketing for doctors can be used in very specific ways. Sending generic or patient-focused communications to your doctor list may hurt your email strategies. Instead, focus on sending only 1-2 messages per month that are engaging and informative. The subject lines will be very important to encourage opens and click throughs—spend some creative time thinking about that first line.
  • Website marketing to doctors is best suited to soliciting professional reviews of your practice and treatment. A positive review from a well-known local physician shows both patients and other practitioners that you are an expert PT and great to work with.

As you explore your doctor communication strategies, try to implement at least 2-3 to see which ones work best. Allow several months to see the results and be proactive about asking for feedback. If you see an existing referrer at a conference or in passing, ask him or her how they feel about your approach. Honest feedback is best gathered in small, personal conversations and it helps to have an established relationship with the physician. For more tips- check out our blog posts on Doctor Marketing!

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PT Website Content Checklist

Website Content for PT Clinics

Our last post, The Best Pages for Physical Therapy Websites, described that pages that your website needs to be a viable component of your digital marketing. From the About Us page to Contact Us, those pages are essential in attract new patients to your clinic.

But, your website also needs to have informative and educational content that conveys your expertise as a physical therapy provider. This content showcases your services, specialties, and achievements–differentiating your practice from its competitors. The content for these pages goes beyond the text and needs to include relevant imagery that encourages a patient to come see you for PT. Let’s looks at the must have content for your practice’s website:

Key Website Content

• Services Pages: go into detail about your services. Explain what low back pain is, show a picture of someone receiving treatment for low back pain, and tell the viewer how you can treat their low back pain with PT. 4-8 pages on your services is key to building SEO (search engine optimization) and to being informative.
  • Sample services pages:
    • Back Pain
    • Knee Pain
    • Shoulder Pain
    • Sports Rehabilitation
    • Neck Pain
    • Occupational Therapy
    • Aquatic Therapy
• Patient Forms: allow patients to download and fill out forms prior to coming to PT. Many patients, especially young professionals and busy parents, like to eliminate their waiting time and can complete their forms at home.
• Accepted Insurances and Direct Access: provide a list of the insurances you except and your direct access policies. Emphasis that patients should call your office to confirm their insurance just in case. You don’t want someone to be out of network and have them book an appointment.
• Patient Testimonials and Reviews: post your best testimonials and reviews to your site. Include photos of the patient and their PT to show “real people” getting results.

These pages have content that explains your physical therapy services and encourages a viewer to make an appointment. The patient forms and insurance information simplify the booking process and provide transparency for your patients. Reviews help to qualify your skills and the results your patients achieve.

Our posts focus on a lot of Do’s, but some Don’ts can help ensure your website performs at its best. Below are some high-level best practices for your content:

Web Content Don’ts

• Pages with <500 words. If you cannot write two paragraphs about the service, then it should not be featured on your website. 500 words is the SEO minimum and anything less does not present you as the expert.
• Photo galleries: people want to see pictures of your clinic, but only a handful. Include professional photos of the clinic on your About Us, Services, Forms, and Insurance pages.
• Pages that simple link to other digital media. Encouraging people to follow your social media or leave a Google review is definitely a marketing best practice, but make those links icons in your header or sidebar. A click through to another click is not a good user experience.

Creating a top-notch physical therapy website goes beyond an attractive design. PT websites that truly generate results (AKA: more patients!) for the clinic have the right balance of quality content, engaging imagery, intuitive user interfaces, and practical execution. Our team has built over a dozen successful physical therapy websites for clients and knows what your site needs to succeed. Call us today for more information!

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The Best Pages for Physical Therapy Websites

When it comes to creating or revamping your PT practice’s website, many owners struggle to determine what content is relevant or important. There may also be concerns about the sustainability of that content—how often would you need to update it, is it applicable year round etc. There are some pages that your website needs as a baseline, pages that are recommended by digital marketing best practices, and pages that may be completely custom to your practice.

There is also something to be said about the overall number of pages on a site. Think about when you are looking up a new restaurant, do you want to have to click through 10 pages to find the menu or would you rather have a set choice of options to streamline your browsing and search experience. On the other hand, some sites have so few pages that either all the content is jumbled together on the same page or there is not enough content for the pages and site to be credible or informative to the viewer.

Let’s go through what pages you must have, pages you should have, and pages you should avoid if possible—all of which contribute to an informative, well-managed PT practice website.

Must Have Pages

• Home Page: this is main page that most users will land on. This page should be informative, well designed (aka. pretty images), and helpful to prospects, current patients, and doctors.
• About Us: this is often the 2^nd most viewed page on any PT clinic website. This page should explain your practice’s mission, expertise, history, and callout any specialties or affiliations.
• Our Staff: this is page #3 for views. People want to know who will be providing them care. Consider having a staff bio template for your PTs, front desk etc. with professional headshots to match. Its less about what your team looks like, and more about an organized team with robust credentials
• Our Services: tell your viewers what services you provide in a comprehensive list with short (1-2 sentence) blurbs about the service. Include links to longer pages that address each service individually for those who want more information.
• Contact Us: this page is your gateway to getting new patients. If someone wants to see you for PT, they will need your phone number and address (a Google map helps too!). Also, include a contact form for people to make appointments, ask questions (especially if it’s after office hours).

These pages help to tell the story of your practice to viewers online. For some, this might be the only glimpse they have into your clinic and the care that they can receive. It is important to spend enough time and resources on these pages so that their content is helpful and informative to the online viewer. Your website also needs to market your clinic–highlight your services, specialities, and achievements with appropriate text and imagery.

Want more ideas for your website’s pages? Our web design team has built custom, responsive websites for many physical therapy clinics. Check out our portfolio or request a custom website analysis today!

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Patient Lead Generation: Where Are Your Patients Coming From?

One of the biggest challenges for private practice marketing is determining the effectiveness of your campaigns, promotions, and channels. How can you track patient lead generation and your return on investment (ROI) from different marketing initiatives? Most practice owners use a combination of business statistics, such as # of patient visits and # of physician referrals, plus data from new patient intake forms and registrations. Business stats can be a great, quantitative metric that shows spikes in volumes, which can be linked to different monthly and promotion campaigns. For example, if you mail a monthly newsletter on the 15^th of each month, you should expect to see a spike in patient visits about 3 weeks later. Similarly, if you host an open house for local physicians, you might expect to see an increase in the # of referrals in the days and weeks following the event.

Patient lead generation is the ability and quantity of leads (or prospective patients) produced as a result of marketing campaigns, promotions, and channels.

When it comes to tracking your patient lead generation, however, the process may not be nearly as linear. For a patient to become a lead, they typically must see your marketing at least 5X before they “convert” into a patient. Sounds technical right? Essentially, for someone who is not aware of your practice, they need to see your marketing (newsletter, advertisements, postcards, website, social media etc.) at least 5X before they will consider becoming a patient. Once they decide to become a patient, they “convert” and this conversion takes place when they check in for their first appointment.

This conversion moment or at new patient registration is the precise time when you should determine where and how a patient become a lead or heard about your practice.

Most clinics attempt to determine lead generation by asking, either on a form or in person, “how did you hear about us?”. This is definitely the right question to ask, but are you asking it in the right way? Check out our patient lead generation strategies…

In-person lead generation and confirmation:

• First, ask what marketing (campaigns or channels) the patient has seen:
  • Have you received our newsletter or visited our website?
• Next, ask where the patient first heard about your practice:
  • Where did you first hear about us?

These in-person prompts accomplish two main business and lead generation objectives. First, you can determine what marketing the patient has interacted with. Second, you can determine which campaign or channel prompted the patient to convert and book an appointment for PT.

Form-based lead generation:

• Ask patients Have you received or visited the following? (select all that apply)
  • Include check boxes for all your primary marketing resources (but keep the list manageable at around 4-7 platforms). Examples include:
    • Practice Newsletter
    • Postcard
    • Email
    • Website
    • Online search (Google) or reviews (Yelp, HealthGrades etc.)
    • Physician Referral (include a line for the physicians name)
    • Social media
  • Include a free response or write-in section Where did you first learn about our practice?
    • This question should follow the “Have you received or visited the following? (select all that apply)”. This ensures that patients realize the full scope of what marketing they have engaged with and will help them determine where they truly first heard about your practice.
    • By having this question be a free response, you also avoid any traditional survey biases, such as ordering bias, by allowing the patient to dictate their response.

When it comes to accurately determining where your patients are coming from, we strongly recommend in person lead confirmation. This allows the dialogue to be more fluid and engaging and allows your front desk to connect with the new patient. Many practices also already have a similar step in their intake process, resulting in only an incremental change to the business flow.

To learn more about patient lead generation, conversion strategies, and marketing analysis, sign up for our free webinar today.

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Marketing Health and Wellness Services

Many private practices have expanded their services beyond physical therapy and into complimentary fields, such as personal training, massage therapy, or exercise classes. These services often align with PT’s core mission of improving personal health and wellness in a holistic manner. But, some clinics struggle with the initial promotion and routine marketing campaigns of these services. It can be challenging to introduce a new service without having it compete against the main physical therapy treatments in terms of resources, budget, and time.

Examples of health and wellness services:

• Personal training
• Group training
• Exercise clinics or classes
• Gym memberships
• Massage therapy
• Yoga
• Wellness Coaching

All of the above can easily help patients transition into and out of PT, while keeping them engaged and active members of your practice. Fitness services (ie. training, exercise classes, workshops, and gym memberships) can be a great resource to offer patients as they are ready to discharge. Many patients, especially those suffering from isolated injuries or rehabilitation, can benefit from continuing their fitness and recovery at your clinic. Similarly, participation in auxiliary programs can help potential patients identify physical impediments or conditions that could be treated through PT. But how can you market these services without taking away from your main clinic?

Wellness Program Marketing and Strategies

• Feature one program each month in your practice newsletter. Include a write up of the program, photos of the services “in action”, and a participant testimonial.
• Include dedicated pages for each program on your website. Having the program’s name, such as Personal Training, in the page title, URL, and content will optimize that term for SEO and generate more traffic to your website.
• Insert a brochure or flyer about the programs in the discharge packet. Have your PTs counsel the patient about what program would be the best fit to support their recovery. Offer a discount (2 free weeks) to incentivize the program.
• Run bi-monthly or quarterly postcard campaigns that promote the programs and provide an incentive.
• Have a weekly post about your programs on social media or include a monthly blog post that highlights the benefits of a specific service.

As a practice owner or marketing manager, it is a delicate balancing act to support multiple services and programs. Your business plan should include monthly analysis of the marketing’s results and the program’s statistics (number of participants, number of new sign ups etc.). If you are seeing a growth trend, keep marketing and consider new channels to promote your program.

If you are seeing a decrease in response and participation, dive deeper into the possible causes. You could be marketing to the same audience and have reached all the interested participants. Or the market could have changed—did a new gym open, is another clinic offering the same service, or does your program need to be revamped? If there is an increase in local competition, try to differentiate your program from the rest. Gym’s often do not have PTs on hand to help with injuries and treatments, and some might not require certifications for their trainers or group exercise instructors. If your staff is certified, do a staff spotlight to show their training and expertise. Other PT clinics might be stiffer competition, but do they offer classes at the same times or as often? See if there is a gap in class offerings (early morning, after work etc.) and market your program’s variety of class times and days.

Breaking into a new program and marketing it successfully can be intimidating, but it will ultimately help to grow your practice. For more expert advice on marketing your physical therapy practice and services, contact us today!

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