Discounts and Promotions that Generate Patient Appointments

Most practices run a series of both recurring promotions, such as a Free Screening offer in the monthly newsletters, and seasonal offers to encourage patients to come to PT. Sometimes this marketing strategy works, and other times you may only get one or two patients who take advantage of the offer. What makes a campaign successful and drive patients to book appointment for physical therapy? Take a look at these key considerations in creating your next PT promotion.

Go with marketing over math

Use your retail shopper hat here. If an item is worth $10, it is better to say “Save 20%” or “Save $2”? Two dollars sounds small—the price of a coffee or a candy bar. But, “Save 20%” sounds like a big savings, even if it is the same discount. Think about your promotion like a savvy shopper and go for the sticker sell.

For a discount of $20 off a personal training session, which normally costs $60, your promotion should say “Save 30% Off a Personal Training Session”. A good rule of thumb is to always choose either the dollar value or percent savings with the larger number (ie. 30% is greater than $20).

Give value to your promotions

Offering something for “free” doesn’t necessarily correlate to a savings or discount to your patients—unless they know the full price value of the service. If you would normally charge $35 for a 15 minute free screening, market the $35 value of the free offer. “Get One Free Screening, a $35 value” gives quantifiable weight to your standard promotion.

Use orange in your promotion design

It might sound too easy, but people inherently associate the color orange with savings. The prominence of orange in advertising, from car commercials to store sale stickers, has lead our minds to psychologically associate the color with a discount. You can use orange subtly so as to not conflict with your brand and marketing style guide. Think about adding an orange flag to the corner of your marketing or a dashed, orange border around your coupon.

Avoid excessive capitalization and punctuation

It can be tempting to add @#!! to EVERYTHING to draw attention to the offer. But extra punctuation and all caps doesn’t equal increased engagement or patient visits. You want your practice to maintain a professional voice and consistency in its marketing communications. Reference the advertisements for corporate services, high-end retailers etc. These promotions typically use a clean, readable font and standard grammar. Mirror these style guidelines for your promotions.

Keep key details minimal, but prominent

If you have a coupon or printed promotion, be sure to include your practice logo, name, and phone number so that the patient can call to redeem the offer. Even if this promotion is included with other marketing materials, the paper may become separated and thus needs to stand alone as an individual component. For digital promotions, such as social media or email offers, include a link to your appointment request form or contact us page to facilitate easy booking.

For more tips on physical therapy marketing and promotions, check out our blog posts or call us today!

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How to Get More Referrals for Post-Surgical Rehab

For many patients, post-surgical rehab and physical therapy go hand in hand. After a orthopedic surgery, joint replacement, or injury, PT can be one of the most effective treatment options that both restores mobility and function, while keeping the patient active. Rehabilitation patients are often known for coming to all their appointments, working hard, and achieving great results—creating a mutually favorable relationship. So how can you get more physician referrals for post-surgical rehab?

Network with surgeons and specialists

Even in large communities, there are often only a few top doctors that perform orthopedic surgery, joint replacements etc. This niche market is prime for a strong referral network. Start by researching who the key doctors are in your local area. See who already refers to you and who you want to start referring patients. Once you have this list, begin your referral marketing campaigns and public relations efforts.

• Check that these professionals are on all your mailing lists for direct mail marketing campaigns.
• See if you have extra copies of your post-surgical rehabilitation mailer and send one to each physician at least once a quarter.
• Look for patient testimonials from past referrals. Send a personal note or card and include a copy of the testimonial inside.
• Call the office and see if the physician is available for a quick coffee or lunch. In person meetings can be both marketing and PR opportunities. Use that time to make personal connections, share stories (ie. “talk shop”), and build a relationship.

Promote your post-surgical rehabilitation services

As a key source of both referrals and patients, post-surgical rehab should be prominently featured in your print and digital marketing. Look for opportunities to reference these treatments, special equipment, and staff certifications in all your key services. Do you have a webpage on knee pain? Include a short paragraph about post-surgical rehab post knee replacement surgery. Marketing campaign and promotions ideas include:

• Newsletters and physician mailers on post-surgical rehab. Include patient testimonials and results to personalize the content.
• Brochures and rack cards. Keep these on hand to distribute to doctors, at events, and in the office. If you frequently work with athletes or sponsor sporting events, these can be included in the giveaway bags.
• Website. Have a dedicated page on your website that describes post-surgical rehab, the PT treatments, and the improvements to recovery. Include specific testimonials on the page to highlight your successful care.
• Postcards, email campaigns, and social media. Post-surgical rehab is not for every patient so be careful about over-marketing the service. Consider sending a targeted promotion once a year—say during the spring or fall sport seasons, to market your practice’s treatments.

Defining and growing small segments of your practice’s patient population can lead to big results for both your marketing and business. Post-surgical rehab may only be a few patients a month, but you can turn that service into a major source of physician referrals, patients, and revenue for your practice.

For more marketing tips and business consultation, contact the experts at Practice Promotions today!

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How to Overcome PT Reimbursement Challenges

As the insurance landscape continues to change and evolve, physical therapists are struggling to overcome reimbursement challenges. Practice marketing expert, Neil Trickett, has a one minute video with tips and strategies to improve your practice’s finances and management.

Click the video above to watch and learn!

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How to Host a Physical Therapy Workshop

Many people have not been to physical therapy and may wonder what goes into a course of PT treatment. Will it feel like a workout with a personal trainer or an alignment at the chiropractors? One way to demonstrate the types of treatments and their effects is to host a physical therapy workshop. This gives you the opportunity to show prospective patients PT in action, share your expertise, and help them feel better—building community engagement and public relations for your practice.

Tips for hosting a successful physical therapy workshop

Choose the right location and audience. You want your workshop to be held in a space that easily accommodates demos and exercises without a lot of set up. And, you want to attract attendees who can really feel the benefits almost instantly.

• Look for community centers, retirement communities, or athletic facilities that have large, open rooms with space for both a seated information session and active demos.
• Target a small population segment. Open houses are best suited for general interactions and can be held at the clinic to show off your practice. Physical therapy workshops should bring your services into the marketplace and create a comfortable space. Invite groups of people who already have a shared connection, which can encourage attendance and provide support. Groups such as retirement communities, civic groups, or faith-based programs can be a great source of connections.
• Set a minimum and maximum number of attendees. You don’t want to have 30 people show up in a space that is meant for 12. They might feel crowded or have trouble hearing/seeing the presentation. Plan the maximum headcount so that each person can have both a chair for the info session and a floor space, say the size of a yoga mat, for interactive demos. You also don’t want only a few people to show up as they might feel uncomfortable trying exercises in a small group. We recommend having at least 6 people to encourage engagement and boost morale.

Focus on the interactions and not the presentation. Remember in college when your professor droned on and on about something and you felt like you were in a trance. Don’t become Professor Boring! Plan your content and agenda to keep the audience engaged.

• Start with an activity. This immediately sets the tone that you will be hosting a fun, interactive physical therapy workshop. Ask participants to do a few simple stretches in their chair to gauge their mobility and flexibility.
• Keep the presentation short and relevant. Don’t go into philosophical backgrounds or the history of PT. Focus on your clinic, your services, your certifications, introduce staff at the event, and emphasis the benefits of PT.
• Change presenters. As the practice owner, you should probably lead the presentation and then let a lead PT coordinate the demo. But, if you really aren’t a fan of public-speaking, then let someone who likes the stage take the lead. Introduce yourself and spend time creating one-on-one interactions with attendees.

Bring your marketing materials and giveaways, plus food and drinks. It’s a no-brainer to bring your practice brochures and flyers, but be strategic about how you hand them out. Giveaways, food, and drinks always add to the event and you can quickly throw together a strong physical therapy workshop spread.

• Use your brochure during the information session. Have a copy available on every seat and walk through your services, practice history etc. during the presentation. This makes the participants actually read your brochure and get valuable information.
• Have plenty of old newsletter available. Bring several on a variety of topics and have extra copies to encourage attendees to share them with family and friends. Also, have a sign up station where people can opt-in to receive mailed newsletters and other promotions.
• Bring fun, seasonal giveaways. If you are hosting a physical therapy workshop in the warm weather, bring sunblock sticks and water bottles with your practice logo. Cold outside—create small goodie bags with tissues, chapstick, and hand sanitizer for some healthy winter giveaways.
• Keep the food and drinks simple. You want people to remember the workshop and not the meal. Opt for healthy options like veggies, dip, crackers etc. Avoid nuts and other allergens. Go for individual drinks, like mini water bottles or juices, that don’t require pouring and open cups. Spills and hot beverages can create commotion and a mess during the demo.

Hosting physical therapy workshops gets easier with practice. Set a goal to host one a quarter each year and try a variety of formats and venues. Tailor the presentation and demo to the intended audience, such as mobility and balance for seniors and injury prevention with flexibility for athletes.

Our last tip is to have a follow up engagement plan. Send a thank you letter to attendees approximately 1-2 weeks after the workshop to remind them to come see you for PT. Include a promotion, such as a free screening, and track the responses!

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Instagram, Snapchat—What’s Next for Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is ever evolving, from new updates and features to entirely new platforms. For most PT practices, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends and manage your existing platforms. How do you know where to put your resources and time? What platform is giving you the best return on investment? What is the true value of social media?

Social Media Marketing and the Big 3

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the big 3 of social media. With the lion’s share of active users, these platforms have key similarities and differences that make them still one of the most wide spectrum lenses of business’ social media marketing. Twitter continues to grow in followers and increased engagements, quickly becoming the top social media platform for many objectives. Tweets are short, sweet, and to the point. You can send 2-3 tweet per day without risking being too spammy for followers. Twitter also continues to roll out advancements that boost performance. For example, Twitter Cards are simple codes that you have a developer add to your website. Once that code is properly installed, your tweets automatically have added features that increase impressions, clicks, and engagements. If you aren’t already using Twitter or Twitter Cards, learn how to get started today.

LinkedIn also continues to grow in users, though it is decidedly more oriented towards professionals and job seekers. PT practices benefit from using LinkedIn for two main reasons: public relations and recruitment. LinkedIn is a great platform for connecting with doctors, medical representatives, and professional organizations (ie. APTA). Maintaining a business profile and syncing your regular social media posts to go to that account keeps your presence active without adding much additional effort. You can also easily recruit new PTs and staff through LinkedIn and those candidates will often check out your business page to get a feel for the practice. We don’t recommend spending more than 30 minutes or so a week on LinkedIn (unless you are actively recruiting) as the ROI in terms of getting new patients is not really high for this platform.

Facebook continues to be a front-runner for social media, but is starting to see a decline in both users and engagements. Most practices are already active on Facebook and this platform is the bulk of their social media marketing. We definitely recommend continuing to market your practice on Facebook, but monitor the engagements. Also, if you are running monthly paid marketing campaigns—closely watch the quality of the results as compared to your business metrics. Are you seeing a lot of likes, but not necessarily new patients? As more customers leave Facebook in favor of other platforms, you might not be able to attract the same quality leads.

The Future of Social Media Marketing

As the playing field changes, your marketing needs to adapt to the new ground rules. If a new platform gains traction (think Instagram, Snapchat etc.), be sure to set up your business profile to ensure that you protect your brand image. Whether Instagram is the next Facebook (or not), you want to ensure that your practice’s name and  account are secured for future use and marketing.

If you do want to try a new social media marketing tactic- start small and closely monitor the results over time. Its easy to see huge growth in the beginning and have that taper off after a few weeks. Conversely, it might be hard to get the wheels turning with attracting new followers and figuring out what to post and when. The new platforms are not a one to one match to Facebook. They are more specific and require different marketing strategies and content.

Want to learn more about social media marketing for PT practices? Stay tuned for new blogs and tips to help you maximize your results!

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Best Practices for Reactivating Patients

Reactivating patients is key to building a loyal group of clients that both visit your clinic and that refer their friends and family to your practice. There are two key strategies for reactivating past patients—including targeted messaging or content in routine marketing campaigns, such as your practice newsletter or on your website, and creating specific promotions to drive reactivation, such as a postcard or incentive program. Let’s look at best practices for both strategies to see what is a good fit for your clinic and when to use different tactics.

Reactivating Patients with Monthly Marketing Campaigns

One of the easiest ways to grow your practice is by reactivating past patients. These individuals have already experienced great care and PT with your clinic and are significantly more likely to return for future needs. Think about a patient like a car owner—most people will continue to buy the same make of car if they have a good experience with their previous model. And, if they receive good customer service at a local dealership, they will be much more likely to purchase another vehicle from them. The same goes for physical therapy, if someone has a good experience and feels better after PT, then they will be more likely to seek PT over other treatment options in the future. And, if they receive quality care and customer service at your clinic, they will be more likely to return to see you for PT.

Your monthly marketing campaigns should also include content and messaging that capitalizes on reactivating past patients. But, you need to be sure to refresh that marketing occasionally to ensure the message stays current. Try these ideas to keep your reactivation marketing fresh:

• Use seasonal imagery and messaging (think snowflakes for winter or gardening photos for spring)
• Change the incentive bi-monthly to attract different patients. You can offer a Free Screening, 10% Off, or a Free Exercise Class—each will resonate differently with patients.
• Move the layout and placement. If you usually feature the reactivation marketing on the last page, try moving it to the exercise section or the mail panel.

Your monthly marketing campaigns almost always reach past patients and are the perfect place to promoting reactivation.

Reactivating Patients with Promotions

Look back at last year’s monthly stats—when did your practice experience a dip in patient volumes? Now look 2 months ahead of that dip, that is when you want to start running a promotional campaign to reactivate past patients. Promotional campaigns can take on a variety of tactics. One consideration is that you should be able to execute these promotions quickly and without a lot of effort or costs. We recommend postcards and email marketing as two easy and inexpensive options.

Postcard promotions should include eye-catching imagery, simple text, and a big Call-to-Action (CTA). Reactivation campaigns can perform well with pain imagery, really driving home the need to go the PT. Lighten up the tone with positive copy “Ready to be Pain Free?” to keep the messaging positive. Use your practice’s brand colors to create a big CTA and include an expiration date. The date encourages people to mark their calendars and get into PT sooner to be able to take advantage of the offer.

Emails can also drive reactivations especially for practices that do not have monthly email marketing campaigns. These almost act like a digital postcard. Keep the messaging and content short and sweet. Try using healthy imagery and positive messaging for emails. Patients tend to find negative or pain messaging discouraging online and often respond best to a happy photo and encouraging message, “Get Back in the Game” with a picture of grandparents playing ball with the grandkids for example. Include a big CTA “Click to Book Your Appointment Today” and include an expiration date.

Want more best practices for physical therapy marketing and business management? Check out our blog or call us today!

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Marketing Analysis for PT Practices

Our last blog talked about using your practice’s data and statistics to prepare your annual marketing plan. Now let’s dive deeper into marketing analysis and how to choose the right campaigns and promotions to reach your practice goals.

Growth trends are when your practice is seeing an increase over the last time range measured. This could mean that you saw more patients or received more referrals than the same time period last week or last month, depending on your statistic range. Growth trends should be celebrated, and they should also be reviewed to see what caused the increase. A marketing analysis can indicate whether the growth was due to internal or external factors. Internal factors could be sending more newsletters, mailing a new postcard campaign, or posting more on social media. External factors should also be considered and could be changes in the competitive market, changes in your practice operations (ie. appointment hours or accepted insurances), or new legislation such as direct access.

Flat trends occur when your stats are consistent for a time period. Don’t get too bogged down in the details of consistent. If the change is less than 5-10% (depending on the size of your practice) then it is most likely a flat trend. A marketing analysis for flat trends should include reviewing routine marketing campaigns to see if they need to be refreshed. If you have been sending out 4,000 newsletters per month to the same address and aren’t seeing growth, then its time to revamp your marketing. This could mean getting a more up to date patient list, increasing the number of pieces (we recommend adding 500 pieces to start), or sourcing new content to increase engagement. Not all flat trends are bad—if your practice is operating at 90-100% capacity and seeing flat trends then you are right on track! Now would be the time to do a more business oriented analysis to determine whether you need to expand operations or if you are on a sustainable track.

Loss trends usually strike fear in the heart of practice owners and marketers. Instead, look at a loss as an opportunity and not a failure. A marketing analysis of a loss can be infinitely more beneficial than an analysis of a growth or flat trend. When analyzing the loss, keep an open mind and explore different possibilities—both internal and external to your clinic.

Marketing Analysis of Loss Trends

If you experience a loss trend, there are typically two factors: seasonality or market change. Seasonality can be determined by looking at that month’s stats for the year prior. If you experience a similar trend last year, this year’s trend (if it is roughly the same) is due to seasonal impacts. Most practices see season losses during the later summer months (July and August) and winter holidays (December and January). A marketing analysis and recommended course of action for seasonality is to increase marketing campaigns for the 4-6 weeks prior to the loss month. For example, if patient volumes drop off in December, then increase your newsletters, social media, and promotions during October and November to bring in a steady stream of patients through the end of the year.

Market changes occur when there is an unexpected loss trend—something that is unprecedented based on last year’s or last month’s data. As soon as you see a market change that leads to a loss, start your marketing analysis. External factors can drive changes are might be easier to identify so we recommend starting with them first. Some example questions to ask are:

• What is the competitive landscape? Did a new practice open? Did a competitor expand their offerings or network (ie. merge with a hospital)?
• What about your referral relationships? Did doctors change offices or leave practice? Check your relationships by comparing this month’s referrals to last months.
• Did your state adopt direct access? Did a major insurance company change its policies?

All these questions can quickly help you identify if an external factor resulted in a loss trend.

Internal factors are sometimes harder to identify. We suggest taking a look at last month’s marketing to see if anything changed. Some key items to check are:

• Direct mail marketing quantities: did you decrease your number of mailed pieces?
• Frequency of blog posts or social media updates: did you post less often or are you not as active on a certain platform?
• Business operations: did you change your hours, staff, or services offered?

All of these factors are critical to performing an accurate marketing analysis. If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then your loss trend is caused by an internal factor.

Now, what should you do? Get back on track! If you decreased the quantity of mailed marketing pieces, increase back up to the previous levels (or send extras to offset this month’s loss). If you changed your digital marketing, consider going back to business as usual or move forward with the changes, but look at other options to increase communications.

Business operations are often the toughest challenge to solve as these decisions are usually made after careful review and planning. But, you can use marketing to compensate for business changes. If you shortened hours or decreased staff, send more pieces to drive up volumes (to a manageable level). If you changed your service offerings, consider running a special promotion hyping a treatment that you don’t usually market such as neck pain relief or post-surgical rehab.

A marketing analysis takes your practice’s statistics and provides realistic solutions to the trends experienced. Once you develop the habit of doing monthly and annual analyses, you will be able to quickly adjust your business and marketing operations to support goals and financial objectives.

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