All of the time spent studying has finally paid off: you are a brand new physical therapist. It may seem like the hard part is over, but the fun is just beginning. Once you’ve obtained your degree, now it’s time to get out there and open your own clinic.
You’ll have to do all of the leg work, scouring for office space, getting insurance, all of that great stuff. However, one of the meat-and-potatoes thing that you have to do to have a successful physical therapy office is marketing your business so that people will know that you’re out there ready to cure aches and pains. Marketing is a part of any sound business, and that includes yours as well.
If you’re new to the world of marketing, never fear as these tips will help you learn the ways of marketing your clinic and let everyone know that your physical therapy practice is open for business.
1. Have A Marketing Plan
Before you embark on marketing your physical therapy office, you should make sure that you have a plan on how you want to market your business.
Think of a marketing plan as a road map. You want to make sure that you have the right directions before you embark on the journey to profits and a great business. According to WebPT, a good marketing plan should involve how you picture your ideal patients. Envision how they spend their time, or why those patients would seek out physical therapy in the first place? Also, think about what do they need in terms of your services and where do they get their information from?
By learning about all of this, it will enable you to come up with a stealth marketing plan that will point you toward the road to success.
2. It’s All In The Budget
After you’ve created your marketing roadmap to success, now you have to figure out just how much money you want to spend on your marketing plan.
Having a budget is crucial to making your advertising campaign a success. In this day and age, it doesn’t take a lot of money to come up with a great marketing campaign (more on this later), with the advent of social media that provides a wealth of free-to-low cost advertising that will certainly help with your budget.
To maintain your budget, you should first consider your current financial situation. Is it fluid? Are your finances rock solid? Your situation will greatly determine how much you can spend on a marketing campaign, especially if you will need to be in the market for business loans. Once that’s figured out, set out some goals that you want to achieve with your campaign, then figure out how you want to carry out your marketing campaign. There is a tone of business technology solutions that could be the answer to your marketing budget.
The last one is crucial as there are a lot more mediums to advertise your physical therapy business nowadays than there were in the past, which has made marketing a bit more affordable. After choosing how you want to market your business, set aside a percentage of your revenue that you want to dedicate to your marketing campaign. Advertising is a never-ending process, so setting aside some revenue each month to advertising will continue to keep your business vibrant.
3. Choose An Identity
You’re reading this and thinking to yourself what does identity have to do with getting your physical therapy business off the ground?
The short answer is it has everything to do with making sure your business is a success. By coming up with an identity for your business, you’re illustrating the mission of your business to potential clients. This is very important, especially if you’re new to the physical therapy scene. One of the best pillars of marketing is coming up with an identity that will set you apart from others within your market.
4. Upgrade Your Website
In this day and age, you need to have an online presence that will lure in potential new clients.
Having a great website is a major key to getting your physical therapy business off the ground. Over the years, digital marketing has grown to become a very important component of a business’ marketing strategy, even, in some respects, passing traditional marketing methods such as billboards and commercials. A great website should be a key part of getting your business to shine in a market that may be flooded with physical therapist offices.
One of the best ways to ensure that you have a great website is to make sure that your web design is clean, vibrant, and easy for users to interact with. If you’re not sure about how to design your website, depending on the market you’re practicing in, you can call a web design contractor that will come and make sure your site is fresh and ready-to-go. once the website is up, you will need to keep it maintained so that viruses and other computer glitches and bugs won’t invade it and make it mobile.
For that, you need to hire an employee who specializes in business IT solutions that will keep your site monitored and make upgrades as needed.
5. Take Advantage of Your Social Media Channels
Not too long ago, the traditional ways of marketing a business went through billboards, commercials, and websites.
While those modes are still important, social media has risen to become just as big as a marketing tool as those traditional outlets. The reason for the explosion of social media as a great marketing tool is just how easy it is to use sites such as Instagram and Facebook. You don’t even need another employee to manage your social media accounts, though if you’re not too savvy in social media marketing, it could help to bring aboard someone skilled at making your business look great on social media.
Social media and content marketing is a big part of the digital marketing universe and you can get your business out there with a great Facebook post about what your clinic provides or showing how successful your clients are by using Instagram to chart their progress. In fact, it costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing, and it’s just another part of why online marketing has become such a critical pillar for the marketing of businesses, especially for physical therapists.
6. Make Sure Clients Can Find Your Office
Of course, none of that marketing would mean a thing if potential clients can’t find your office. Having an office in a high-traffic area of your market will be very beneficial to your business, but one of the issues is that to get that slice of real estate, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny in rental prices.
If you know the tricks-and-the-trades of marketing, you won’t need to be on a major street to be seen by customers. One of the best ways to get your business recognized is by road signage. You don’t have to get a huge sign, but the sign should be highly visible. Also, the signage design makes a lot of difference in attracting clients, and your design should be eye-catching.
7. Request Referrals From Previous Clients
While you’re ready to go, you’re still new in the physical therapy world, and one of the best tools you have within your marketing kit is client referrals.
You should request client referrals so that potential clients can see just how great of a physical therapist you would be. Those referrals are goldmines as they will be able to give testimonials to how you are as a therapist. Physical therapists add in client referrals all the time into their marketing campaign, and you should do the same.
8. Don’t Cut Any Corners With Your Marketing
In life, everyone is faced with the urge to cut corners.
That is something that you don’t want to do when carrying out your marketing plan. One of the major corners that some physical therapists make is opting to advertise strictly on social media. While there is no denying that social media has become a force in the marketing world, you shouldn’t cut your website or other advertising mediums out of your budget. The goal of advertising is to reach as many people as possible, and by going with a social media-only policy, you may be cutting yourself out of potential new clients that your competitors will gladly scoop up.
Advertising is a very important part of a business, so you shouldn’t cut any corners with this as that could equal up to lost clients, which translates into lost profits.
9. Interact With Potential Patients
Most companies see their customers and don’t interact with them when they comment on a social media post. Please, do not let this be you.
In recent years, customers have responded more positively to businesses that interact with their customers, and a physical therapist should not be any different. There will be a lot of questions and inquiries that your potential patients will have, and may turn to your social media pages to seek answers to them. Try your best to interact with them and assage their concerns or answer any questions that they may have. Don’t leave them out in the cold as those patients could see it as a red flag and won’t come to your clinic.
10. Pay Attention To Your Competition
While you will be helping people with their pain, you can’t ignore the fact that your physical therapy business is just that: A business.
With any business, there are going to be competitors who will be battling with you for the same patient base. in larger markets, this may not be an issue, but if you’re in a medium-to-small market, you are going to want to pay close attention to what your competitors are doing. One reason is so you can get an idea of what works in your market, and what doesn’t. To do this effectively, find offices that are offering the same services as you, and see how their marketing campaign compares to yours. You don’t have to copy that other office outright, but you may want to incorporate some of their ideas into your own campaign.
In conclusion, to be a physical therapy wiz, you must know the ins-and-outs of marketing your business. Advertising is a central pillar to any successful business, from fast food to physical therapy.
More-often-than-not, therapists who are just getting started in this field may not have all of the knowledge at hand to create a successful marketing campaign, which is why you should follow the tips that have been outlined above. For starters, you have to have a marketing plan. By having a plan, you can chart the way you want to advertise your business and put it on the road to success.
Next, you need to have a budget in place to ensure that you can advertise your business effectively. There are many businesses out there that don’t have the resources to create a campaign that will get the word out, and you don’t want to fall into that similar rabbit hole. So have a budget in place based on your current financial situation so that you can have an effective and successful marketing campaign that will get the word out.
Once that’s done, you want to make sure that your presence on the online landscape is fully seen. Have a great website that will lure in potential clients and patients. Also, don’t overlook the power of social media, which will be a great force in your campaign. While social media has played a huge role, don’t let it be the only source of your advertising. Don’t cut corners and overlook the power of great signage and a location where patients can find you.
Lastly, you will want to interact with your potential patients online, which shows them that you’re transparent and trustworthy with your services. By following these steps, your physical therapy business will be on the road to success. Think of it as a journey that, with the right directions, will easily take you to the promised land.