How to market a physical therapy practice in 2022

Sep 14, 2022 | Practice Management Software, Tips

With competition high and an increased need for sophisticated strategies, now is the perfect time to re-sharpen the marketing strategies for your physical therapy practice or clinic.

We’re sure you’ve set foot in the marketing arena before, but with growth and resilience comes the need to continually improve your marketing. We highlight some physical therapy marketing ideas you can action.

Review last year’s marketing strategies for your physical therapy practice

The best place to start is to look back a year at what you did and seek improvement.

All you need to do is to log in to your:

  • Google Analytics
  • Social media platforms
  • eDM marketing tool.

You’ll be able to see a set of metrics that tell you how many clicks you got, likes you received, and website visits you garnered. You can also see things like your best demographics to target and tailor your marketing efforts toward.

This is the gold you need to mine.

Put these marketing metrics to work

On a basic level, simply look at what worked well and what was disappointing. If one email had a high rate of clicks, double down on this style. If you had a top-performing social media post, replicate this success with similar posts. At the same time – ditch the marketing strategies and content that didn’t work.

Get your physical therapy practice discovered online

One of the primary aims of any physical therapy marketing strategy is to improve your Google search ranking. This is of course referred to as search engine optimisation, or SEO.

If you’ve never thought seriously about SEO before as a physical therapist, read our blog ‘SEO for dummies’ to get the full picture.

Essentially, you’ll need to do an audit of your website and set pages up to be targeted by keywords that people search for. With so many effective and user-friendly SEO tools at your fingertips, today, it’s easier than ever to do this yourself. Just use SEO software to target physiotherapy keywords and tag your website properly.

Grow your reviews on Google Maps

Boasting a top of the bunch Google Maps ranking is increasingly one of your most important physical therapy marketing strategies.

You need to be discoverable in a Google Maps search and you need to be as attractive as possible when you do come up in a search.

While SEO is important for a general Google search of physical therapy clinics, potential patients are likely to also open up Google Maps and search for a nearby physiotherapy clinic.

No doubt you’ve done this yourself to find restaurants or retail stores in your local area. Now which key factors help you decide which business to choose once you see some location pins pop up close by?

Google review scores!

Most searches are now automatically set to prioritise 4 plus stars. Thus, if your Google review score dips below 4 stars, your chance of netting new patients is incredibly damaged. This is huge in 2022. So, the mission is clear – be searchable in Google Maps and have a score above 4. How?

1) Complete your Google My Business listing

The first mission is to make sure your Google My Business listing is complete. Many businesses are missing a few fields in their Google profile. This means updating your address, contact details, website url and social media links. It also means uploading pictures of your business and listing your correct opening times.

2) Encourage and ask for reviews

Now firstly, be careful about using reviews and testimonials in your advertising if you’re a member of Aprah. It may be against the law to use treatment testimonials in your social media or ads. You can read the Aprah testimonials in advertising rules here. However simply encouraging Google reviews is fine.

The second step is to make sure your Google review score is above 4 stars. First and foremost, you need to have immaculate patient services and top-notch physical therapy practices.

Your best bet is to simply ask your clients for a review.

Make it a habit to request a review or rating after every session. If your customer gives you great feedback after their session upon payment, be sure to ask them on the spot for a review. Strike while the iron’s hot. You can also include a link and a request to rate your clinic in any email communication you send to your patients.

Turn patients into raving fans who refer others with excellent patient care

One of the most effective methods to enhance any physical therapy marketing strategy is through word-of-mouth. It’s also a great way to improve the Google review scores we just spoke of!

The most natural way of course is to be outstanding in your physical therapy services and patient care. You can also concoct ways to step above the competition. This often comes down to offering little things in your services that add intrinsic value, which are either free for you to do, or relatively inexpensive. Perhaps giving free exercise bands or small pieces of equipment is a way forward. However, freebies only go so far. At the end of the day, if you aim to delight every single patient and make sure you give them and their issue the utmost of your attention, you will naturally encourage word of mouth.

After you’ve done so, one thing many forget is to simply ask. Ask a patient after your session, if they have any family that have issues to feel free to get in touch. Such subtle yet direct encouragement plants a seed that has a good chance of fruiting.

For more customer satisfaction tips, see our interview with Reckon’s GM, Alex Alexandrou to glean some expertise.

Grow your content marketing calendar

Many physical therapists go about content marketing in an ad hoc manner. In 2022 its time to get more organised in your marketing efforts.

Figure out how much time you’ll have each week or month and set up a basic calendar of marketing content. Create a mix of social media posts, blogs and video for example. Now simply allocate a day for each piece of marketing content and fire them off throughout your work week.

Look to your metrics on social media sites and understand the best performing pieces of content. Take note and try to emulate what worked next month. This way you’ll see easy and continual improvement in your website visits and marketing reach. Now set up a landing page for these pieces of content to link to…

Set up a landing page with your booking form

Whether you post to Facebook or set up some online ads through social media or Google, you’ll need a landing page to link to.

Don’t make the mistake of sending people to your physical therapy website homepage after all of your work to get someone to click on an ad or social media post.

The trick is to create the path of least resistance with the least possible clicks for a patient to book.

So, make sure your landing page is clean, free from fluff, attractive, well-branded (to instil confidence) and have your booking form front and centre. By ensuring your booking form is given pride of place, you’ll easily encourage more bookings for your physiotherapy clinic.

 

We hope this gives you and your health clinic a few physiotherapy marketing ideas to put into practice in 2022!

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