PT Practice Marketing Plan [How-To Guide]

How often do you plan out your practice’s marketing? Do you have short and long term plans—for the month, three months, or year? A marketing plan aligns with your business development goals and keeps you on track to see results for the practice. Your marketing plan should be your blueprint, roadmap, and checklist to build campaigns, organize promotions, and monitor the impacts. Every PT practice should have at least a monthly marketing plan to ensure that you are consistently communicating with prospective patients and referring physicians.

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

Build your marketing plan

Your marketing plan should focus on the key audiences that will support your business objectives and the way in which you are going to encourage them to patron your practice. Most practices focus on patients and physicians, but you can also market to community organizations, healthcare centers, and businesses. Once you know your marketing’s recipients, you can identify what campaigns and promotions to use to engage the respective audiences. Below are some examples of different ways to market your practice:

• Mailing a monthly practice newsletter to patients and physicians
• Mailing a monthly physician mailer
• Sending postcards for targeted campaigns and promotions
• Emailing an e-newsletter
• Having a high-quality, responsive website
• Managing social media profiles and posts
• Networking with physicians and referral sources
• Sponsoring community organizations or events
• Having professional brochures, rack cards, and in-office promotions

The above marketing programs require an investment of time and money to develop and execute. In your planning sessions, you want to decide what programs to use to market your practice and how you will implement them throughout the month(s) or year. You can also identify “big” projects, such as redesigning your website or adding a new direct mail campaign, that require additional preparation to get started. Your practice’s marketing plan keeps your efforts on track and working towards the big picture—a busy practice that generates growth and revenue!

The team at Practice Promotions works with you to develop your practice’s marketing plan, complete projects, and monitor the results. We make it easy for you to put together amazing campaigns and programs that help your grow your practice. For more information, call us today at 800-594-7656 or contact us.

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Managing Your PT Practice Marketing Budget

What is the right marketing budget for your physical therapy practice? How should you be spending that budget to get the maximum amount of return on investment? Most practice owners know they have to spend money on marketing, but many struggle with finding the right balance and budget. Answering a few simple questions about your practice can help you define your marketing goals and the budget needed to achieve them.

Is your practice seeing growth, stability, or declines in patient volumes?

Most PT practices experience almost all stages of business development throughout the calendar year so take a look at your quarterly or yearly stats to determine your overall trend. At that larger view, practices tend to be growing, aka seeing more patients, or shrinking, seeing fewer patients. While growth is almost always the preferred state of the business, you can be intentionally scaling back due to market or operational constraints.

If you are experiencing a roller coaster, inconsistent growth or decline trends, it could be related to the effectiveness and consistency of your marketing program. You need to be marketing campaigns and promotions that are attracting new patients and referrals, and you need to be doing so on a regular basis to keep growing. Once you have a solid, successful marketing program, you want to keep investing in it. Monitor your volume of patients, explore new marketing opportunities, and plan your business development to align with your practice’s long term goals.

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

What is the right marketing budget for your practice?

A standard rule is that you need to invest 8-10% of gross income on marketing to support business growth. However, many practices spend less than 5% of their gross income on marketing, which can lead to declining patient volumes or stagnant growth. Check your current budget by taking your monthly marketing expenses, without including any dedicated marketing staff, and divide by your monthly gross income.

(Monthly Marketing) / (Monthly Gross Income) = % of Income spent on Marketing

What is your practice’s marketing budget? If it is less than 5% of your gross income, you should try to spend at least 3% more on marketing per month and put that investment towards high return projects. We recommend improving your website, expanding your newsletter, or mailing monthly postcard campaigns. If you are spending more than 5%, you are on track! Closely monitor your data and consider scaling up your marketing budget and programs to align with your business development and growth goals.

Get the most out of your marketing budget and call us today for more information 800-594-7656

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Public Relations for PT Practices

Public relations is the practice of spreading information about your business to the public—focusing on communicating your mission, knowledge, and expertise. Public relations differs from marketing in that PR centers on building awareness of your practice’s brand whereas marketing promotes your practice’s programs and services to prospective clients. The perfect combination of PR and marketing creates compelling campaigns and promotions that encourage new patients, increase physician referrals, and expand business partnerships.

Public relations for PT include:

• Developing a practice mission. This should be 1-3 sentences that convey your point-of-view (POV) on physical therapy and how your practice approaches PT. Share your mission on your website, in printed materials, and in presentations. A good test of your PR and marketing is that each promotion and campaign should be able to relate back to at least one core component of your practice’s mission.

• Building your brand involves increasing its recognition with key groups, such as physicians, medical offices and their staff, and community organizations. You want these individuals to immediately think of your practice when they think about PT.

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

• Sharing practice news and updates. This is where PR and marketing can work together to attract new patients. The public relations efforts are directed towards writing press releases and copy for clinic news and updates. The marketing efforts are promoting this content in your monthly newsletter, on your website, and on social media.

• Handling the tough stuff. Occasionally, your practice might make news and not for positive reasons. You need to use PR to influence the media and public’s impression of your practice towards a positive light. Developing media statements, handling inquiries, and ensuring a consistent response keeps your practice looking polished and professional.

Public relations takes your practice’s brand and shares it with the larger community—helping you be known as the PT experts who achieve great results for their patients. For help with your PR and marketing, call us today at 800-594-7656 or contact us online. 

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