Physical Therapy Marketing: You're Doing It Wrong

PT Marketing: You’re Doing It Wrong

⅔ of your marketing potential is being left on the table.

In the world of physical rehabilitation, we’re often taught that in order to run a successful practice you need legitimate referral sources from doctors and other healthcare providers…. but, what if that wasn’t 100% accurate. What if I told you, you were leaving ⅔ of your marketing potential (and thus your revenue) on the table by thinking this way?!

In this blog I’m going to share the other ⅔ of the marketing plan you should be doing  and how these will sky rocket your marketing efforts, bring more patients than you can handle (good problem to have) and ultimately more money moving through your practice.

I will touch on:

• How to go direct to the consumer
• How to get your current patients marketing for you
• How to identify your ideal patient
• How to get your team of rehab specialists on board with this, so they are partly responsible for building their own patient base

In the old world, physical rehabilitation specialists meet with physicians, drop off their pamphlets, buy their office lunch, and vie for their referrals citing why they would be the best solution when it comes to therapy. Unfortunately, this archaic way of thinking is STILL going on! WTF! The “way you’ve always done it” is where innovation goes to die. It’s time for some new thinking!

First, those healthcare providers you’re trying to gather referrals from are hit with every other PT practice in town. How many lunches and visits to these offices just to battle for referrals are you willing to make? Is it worth your time? Second, what if this referral source supplies 30% of your patients and they up and move? Bye bye referrals. Third, what if they decide as a practice they’re leaving too much money on the table and decide to bring PT in house? We’re seeing this happen across the board. What will you do if any or all three of these circumstances occur? Go beg for referrals from the next source? Rinse and repeat?

Healthy marketing for your practice should be split into thirds: ⅓ coming from health care provider referrals, ⅓ from direct to consumer marketing, and ⅓ from word of mouth marketing.

Direct to Consumer Marketing

Almost every state in the country has some sort of direct access law. Where I live in FL, patients are allowed to come directly to PT without an Rx for 30 days before law requires a Rx from a physician. What are the direct access laws in your state? This is powerful because how many people do you know that hate to go to the doctor? Almost everyone! They hate the long wait times and quick non-informative attention they get from their doctors. What if you told people that they could bypass that doctor visit and come straight to physical therapy for their back pain? After all, we all know that’s what they need! The research even tells us that exercise and physical therapy are the number one things that help people get over pain. 

You’re thinking, “Well that's great Tribby, but how the hell do I tell them that and get them in my office?” The answer is not a simple one and it requires some extra work on your part, and that of your team, BUT isn’t that what we do as business owners? Fix problems and break down barriers so we can help MORE people!! 

I don’t think I need to tell you how big social media is. The problem is many of you are not talking directly to your ideal patient on social media. You’re just putting shit out there and hoping they see it and engage with you. Stop talking about yourself as the best PT ever and start talking about your ideal clients’ problem and how you can solve it. When you stop talking about their problem, they stop listening.

Let’s take a quick look at how this should work.

Who is your ideal patient? Don’t tell me, “Anyone with pain.” Yea, no kidding. I'm talking about if you could define your ideal patient. That ideal person who you wish was every patient in your practice. Give them a name. Right now. Who are they? Where do they live? How much money do they make? What do they like to do? Where do they hang out? Are they married? Do they have kids? How do they feel about life? How do they feel when they have an injury? Are they CrossFit people? Are they golfers or tennis players? How do they feel about the fact they have an injury or pain that is limiting their daily life? What do they hate about physical therapy? What do they love about it? How will you address these issues? Be super specific and paint a picture of your ideal patient.

Now go talk to them! If you’re looking to work the athletic population, those are younger people and usually hang out on Instagram or you can plug into your local schools and/or moms groups. You want the medicare knee replacement people, they’re on Facebook and at church (LOL) and by the way Facebook’s largest growth population are the baby boomers. You are looking to connect with more corporate types of people - they’re on LinkedIn. Take the time to find out where these people spend time both online and around your respective town and go talk to them. Here are some ways to think about accomplishing that:

Talk to them on social media about their struggles and how you can help. 

Educate them on direct access and why coming to you first is a better option. 

Send flyers out in the mail. 

Setup a day to talk to all the local crossfit gyms and offer free workshops on shoulder pain. 

Invite people to your facility for an evening event to talk about back pain.

Go to the local golf club or tennis club and offer the same free workshops.

If you’re a pelvic health therapist, find where the moms spend their time and offer yours to educate them.

Sell your services to your ideal patient! I hear way too many healthcare providers tell me they don’t want to come off as “salesy.” This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s your responsibility on a daily basis to sell your service and treatment plans to those who are in need. You essentially sell yourself on a daily basis. If you have a product or service that can help someone get well it is your duty to sell them that service. When you are nervous or cautious about selling your services it tells the patient that you lack confidence in what it is you offer and therefore they shouldn’t have confidence in you to help them with their problem. I truly believe that if you have a service or a product that will help your patients get better, it is unethical for you not to sell it to them.

Getting your current patients to advocate for you

Many of you are not doing your due diligence to capture wins and testimonials from your current patients. These are the people that already know, like and trust you; therefore, they are the best source of social proof.

If a patient is in your office talking about how much better they feel or how they are able to complete a task they once weren’t able to, get them to write that down before they leave for the day. Hand them a piece of paper you already have on hand and get them to write it down. Then put that in a binder in the lobby of your office for other patients to read or if you prefer the tacky route, put it up on the wall.

Give them a copy and ask them to post it to google as a review. You could even askif they would do a video testimonial for you that you can use in your email marketing or social media. Better yet, have a QR code that people can scan in your office that directs them right to the google review page and ask them to do it right there in your office before they leave.

We shouldn’t be shy about asking patients who have had great experiences to review us or send us more people they know who could benefit from our services.

Getting your team to participate  

Most PT schools and other rehab speciality schools are gassing new grads up and giving them the idea that when they graduate with their new degree they can demand 6 figure salaries and show up to work to treat people. 

As business owners and people who have been in this field for a long time, you and I know, that is a joke. If you want to make 6 figures, you’re going to have to treat a ridiculous amount of patients daily and use multiple techs or assistants to make that happen and then you still probably won't achieve that because you have to pay the techs and assistants!

It's time to put some of the growth of your practice into the hands of those you employ!

I know many of you are probably thinking (‘cuz I’ve heard it said to me many times) well I’m a rehab specialist, I’m NOT a marketer. *Insert eye roll* Look, I get it. I had this mindset once upon a time as well; however, after I paid someone to do the marketing for me and had lackluster results, I realized that the only person who could talk about how I help people get better, was me. You should have the same mindset. 

One thing I did to help motivate my team, since the money expectation is high anyway,  was to offer them an opportunity to make more money! Afterall, risk should equal reward. What better way to do that than to present an opportunity that would make each therapist their own entrepreneur. They could be directly responsible for how much money they make. Here’s how it worked:

Your base salary covered a certain amount of patient treatment hours, required meetings, lunch breaks, etc.

For every hour your schedule was full outside of that you were paid a commission. This works magically for those who are motivated to do more and make more money. For those who don’t, well it's up to you to decide how you want to handle them, but I can tell you that if you have a clinic full of hustlers, that shit is contagious.

 When it comes to hosting outside events in the evenings or weekends, there is no shortage of volunteers when extra cash is involved. 

This also puts the onus on your team to create their schedule and rely less on your direct marketing efforts to fill their schedule. The conversation now becomes, how can I help you fill your schedule rather than what do I need to do fill your schedule for you?

This also encourages the team to ask for more referrals and be more present in their patient care. 

Closing

It's time for us as healthcare professionals to change the way we offer our services. It's time for some ingenuity and innovation when it comes to reaching more of our ideal patients. Remember what I wrote earlier, the way we used to do it is where innovation goes to die. I’m asking each of you reading this to start looking for the opportunities to truly build your dream practice with your dream team so you can affect the world in a positive way.