Have you recently opened your physical therapy clinic and wondering what’s the best way to promote it? In this article, we’ll share with you the 10 physical therapy marketing strategies that will surely help bring in more patients to your clinic!
10 Physical therapy marketing strategies
Running your own physical therapy clinic can be a tough task especially if you haven’t come up with a plan that you will use in promoting your brand. With that, here’s a list of physical therapy marketing strategies that will be helpful in establishing your brand’s online presence:
1. Pay-per-click Marketing
Pay-per-click marketing works by showing your physical therapy advertisements to individuals who use specific keywords that are relevant to your practice (e.g. physical therapy near me, best physical therapist, or physical therapy clinic LA) on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
In this type of marketing strategy, you’ll only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Some of the benefits of PPC marketing include having full control of your budget, the ability to manage your campaigns, and measuring the success of your ad campaigns. You could also see reports from your marketing efforts and test your campaigns before publishing them.
Google Ads
Google Ads helps you get easily discovered not just on Google Search Results but also on Google Maps. Here, you’ll only pay when someone clicks or calls your ad.
Pros:
- helps you get more patient bookings
- drive more traffic to your physical therapy website
- increases patient calls
- ability to adjust your advertising budget
- gives you instant results
Cons:
- you need to undergo PPC training to fully understand how it works
- useless if this is the only strategy that you’re using
- can be time-consuming
- prone to spend lots of money especially if you are not familiar with the use of search intent
Read our guide on Google Ads for PTs to learn more about starting your digital ads.
Facebook Ads
If your goal is to get more impressions, then, you should try Facebook Ads. It also runs under a pay-per-click system. The only difference is the channel where it is delivered as well as the format of your ads.
Here’s a list of the pros and cons of using Facebook ads in promoting your physical therapy services:
Pros:
- wider reach
- effective in driving traffic to your website
- highest ROAS across different social media platforms
- multiple ad formats to choose from (e.g. stories, photos, videos, messenger, carousel, etc.)
- good for strengthening your brand’s presence
Cons:
- not suitable if your goal is retaining patients
- not suitable if your goal is to increase conversion rates
- the audience is limited to Facebook users only
Yelp Ads
Yelp advertising is another platform where you can market your physical therapy services. It also works under a pay-per-click system where you can customize your ad, choose your goal, and target audience, and gives flexible options when it comes to your budget. You can also monitor the performance of your ads in their dashboard.
Pros:
- it shows your physical therapy ads on your competitor’s business pages
- it’ll show your ads on top of Yelp’s search results for relevant keywords and categories
- results in a high organic ranking
Cons:
- you wouldn’t know where the calls came from unless you have call tracking software or ask your patient
- you need to pay for extra features like call-to-action buttons
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are some of the most powerful channels that advertisers use nowadays because that’s where most of your prospective patients are. Those are some of the platforms where you can promote your physical therapy services, and interact with a wider audience through sharing posts and updates about your clinic.
Some of the benefits that this marketing strategy includes increased brand authority, patient retention rate, and the fastest way to share content. You just have to use the right hashtags or collaborate with influencers or famous people.
Disadvantages:
- you should have a social media manager handle your accounts
- you have to be consistent in producing fresh ideas for your brand
- need to stay up-to-date or else you’ll be left behind
- social media trolls
- negative reviews may tarnish your brand
Want to know more about how it works? Check out our blog post on Social Media Marketing for Physical Therapists to get the best tips for handling your social media pages.
3. Direct Mail Marketing
Although direct mail has been one of the oldest forms of marketing, it is still relevant in today’s time. In fact, it’s easy to use and gives you plenty of room for creativity, and allows you to send timely campaigns. Not just that, it also works best especially if your goal is to retain your existing patients.
However, direct mail marketing has a few downsides such as:
- low response rates
- can cost you a lot of money
- people sometimes perceive it as annoying if you send it quite often
So you have to take extra efforts to stand out in your prospective patient’s mailboxes without making them feel irritated.
Interested in this type of marketing strategy? Read our blog post on Direct Mail Marketing for Physical Therapists to find out how to start your mailing campaign.
4. Video Advertising
88% of consumers are more likely to engage themselves in a brand after watching a video about their services. It’s because videos not only help raise brand awareness but it also builds trust with your prospective patients about your brand. Some of the advantages of adding videos to your marketing strategy include a higher rank on the search engine’s results page, increased social shares, and a boost in conversion rates.
Although this type of marketing strategy works best in attracting a page visitor’s attention, it also has a few disadvantages:
- It can be quite expensive because you have to hire an agency or a professional to help you come up with your physical therapy clinic’s promotional videos.
- You have to invest your time in the video production process. From filming, checking the drafts, and finalizing the video, you have to be there to make sure that it will clearly deliver the message you want to convey to your audience.
YouTube Ads
This type of marketing strategy helps you reach out to individuals who are fond of watching videos on YouTube. This advertising method helps people get a glimpse of your physical therapy services in a video format. Here, you can easily tell the story behind your clinic, build trust, and ignite a connection with your prospective patients.
Here’s a list that will help you decide if YouTube ads suit you:
Pros:
- helps you rank higher in search results
- boosts conversion rates
- increased social shares
- helps you gain credibility
Cons:
- can be intrusive at times which results in people skipping the video before it finishes
- can be quite expensive in terms of video production
- no guarantee that the user will pay attention when your physical therapy video is shown
5. Blog Marketing
Another way of promoting your physical therapy services is through blogging. What happens in blog marketing is that you publish articles that have useful information about physical therapy. It’s one of the most effective digital marketing strategies to try out if your goal is to bring in more traffic to your site and gain trust and credibility toward your physical therapy brand.
However, it has a few drawbacks such as:
- allotting a significant amount of time before you see results
- requiring you to have tons of ideas to write about because you have to provide your readers with a consistent stream of information if you want to build your brand’s credibility and online presence.
For the most effective marketing efforts, refer to our physical therapy keywords guide.
6. Gather patient reviews
85% of consumers trust online reviews the same way as they trust recommendations from their family, friends, and colleagues. In fact, local businesses that have customer reviews have 3.5 times more conversions than those that don’t. See how reviews can be used to generate leads and turn page visitors into actual customers.
So before your patients leave your physical therapy clinic, don’t forget to ask your patients for reviews!
7. Manage your online reputation
Since online reviews influence most people’s decisions when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider, it’s important for you to have a positive online reputation. But maintaining your image isn’t that easy, you have to monitor how people think about your physical therapy services consistently, or else, it might brush off your potential patients from visiting your clinic.
Learn how to effectively manage your reputation by checking out our blog post on Reputation Management for Physical Therapists.
8. Optimize your PT website
As a physical therapist, you want your page visitors to have a smooth experience while navigating your website. To make that happen, you must have a fully optimized physical therapy website.
Here are some of the things you could do to maximize your physical therapy website’s potential:
- your website should be mobile-friendly
- switch from HTTP to HTTPS
- choose a good hosting plan
- declutter unused widgets and plugins
- improve website speed performance by compressing image sizes, embedding videos on YouTube, reducing page redirects, etc.
Check your website’s page speed performance through PageSpeed Insights. Also, read our guide if you would like to learn more about the best website layouts for PTs.
9. Get listed in physical therapy directories
Getting listed on physical therapy directories is very important because it makes it easier for your prospective patients to find you online. Although it takes time and effort to get listed in physical therapy directories, you have to make sure to include the necessary information that your patients are most likely to look for such as:
- business name
- business description
- email address
- exact location/ landmark
- your front desk receptionist’s contact number
- accepted payment methods of the company
- field of specialization
- business hours
- business description
- pictures of your clinic
- year established
- languages
Here are some of the directories where you can get your physical therapy clinic get listed:
10. Regularly monitor results
Once your campaigns are running, give it some time until there’s enough data for you to analyze and measure results. This step is important as it gives you an idea of which of your marketing efforts should be improved and if you are getting a good Return On Investment (ROI) or not. One of the best tools to help you analyze your digital marketing efforts results is Google Analytics.
Interested in marketing your physical therapy clinic but don’t have enough time to manage it?
Importance of marketing your PT practice
Marketing is one of the most important features that every business should have. It’s something that sets you apart from your competitors. In fact, according to a study, marketing your brand not only increases the visibility of your physical therapy practice but also helps you build a good reputation, outsmart your competitors, and get to know more about your patient’s personal experiences with your services.
Need help marketing your physical therapy practice?
Best Practices for Marketing your Physical Therapy Clinic
Now that you already have a background on marketing strategies as well as the importance of promoting your physical therapy services, here are some of the best practices in marketing your brand:
1. Keep an eye on your competitors
Assessing your competitors is one of the first few things that you should do if you want your brand to stand out. This gives you a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, evaluates the trends in your industry, and identifies the gaps that your competitors haven’t covered yet.
2. Get more new patients through a referral program
If you are just starting out with your physical therapy clinic, one way of growing your patient base is through a referral program. What you’ll do here is motivate your patients to invite their families, friends, or colleagues to visit your clinic by giving them incentives like freebies that are useful for their condition, gift coupons, or discounts that they can use on their next visit.
3. Stay in touch with your patients
The relationship you have with your patients shouldn’t end with one transaction. You have to maintain a long-term connection with them. Here are some ways to stay in touch with your physical therapy patients:
- send birthday or holiday greetings
- respond to patient reviews
- post customer testimonials on your website
By utilizing the tips we’ve mentioned above, you’ll get to make your patients feel valued and cared for. This will result in an increase in your clinic’s patient retention rate.
4. Create your Google My Business profile
If you haven’t heard about this before, you can get a free business listing through Google My Business. This is one of the most effective strategies to get more calls, and clinic visits, and increase your brand’s exposure. You can also share the latest updates about your clinic through Google Posts.
Read our blog posts on Google My Business for Physical Therapists to learn more.
5. Share your blog posts on social media
One way of establishing a strong online presence is through sharing your blog posts on social media. If you want to expand your network as much as possible, publishing articles that a specific type of audience will find helpful increases the chances of them converting from your page visitors to one of your actual patients because you are not just focusing on individuals who are looking for physical therapists but also for those who are just looking for more information about physical therapy.
Want to make the most of your physical therapy marketing strategy?
Schedule A Free Strategy Session!
Key takeaway
There are several ways to promote your physical therapy clinic. You just have to be careful in choosing which suits you best according to your goal, budget, and skills. For best results, you can use more than one marketing type that’s aligned with your practice.
