Physical therapy Blog Archives

What’s Your PT Company’s Story?

“For a football fan, there might be nothing better than watching a playoff game at Lambeau Field – and seeing it decided, dramatically, in overtime. ”Cris Collinsworth - Sunday Night Football

One of the human brain’s most fascinating qualities is its ability to remember narratives…like a playoff game at Lambeau Field. You may not remember what time your mail carrier comes or recall your Netflix password instantly, but I bet you can talk about a sporting event, like Sunday Night Football, or a movie you love even if it happened weeks or even months ago.

Do You Recognize the Power of Story Almost Every Monday Morning?

If your practice is anything like ours, you probably have no shortage of team members arriving on Monday mornings eager to discuss the previous night’s episode of “Sunday Night Football!” Even if you don’t know all of the players on each side of the ball, I’m sure you can share some of the exciting plays and names of superstars like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson…that happened days or even weeks ago. This simply demonstrates just how impactful stories, like an exciting football game, can be.

Make Sure You Tell a Memorable Story About Your PT Practice

Leveraging the power of narrative is a great way to make current and prospective patients remember you. Think about the brands you most admire. Odds are that in addition to having great products and excellent customer service, these brands convey their identity and their purpose in a lasting way.

Have You Thought About Your Story?

Despite this truism, many practice owners I speak to haven’t thought about the story of their practice. Maybe that’s because telling this story in a succinct way can be difficult. One tool I’ve found immensely helpful is the BrandScript model created by Donald Miller of Building A StoryBrand.

Miller, an accomplished fiction author turned marketing guru, created a formula that allows all types of business owners to quickly articulate their core principles and message in a way that compels readers to action.

He achieves this feat by making the customer — in your case, the patient — the main character of the story. Generating a BrandScript involves zeroing in on the core aspects of your story, so you can quickly define who you are and what you can do for a patient.

You’re Not the Hero…Your Patient is the Hero and You’re the Expert Guide

We’ll call that patient a character for the purposes of this exercise. The character, like all protagonists at the beginning of a tale, has a problem they need to solve. After meeting a guide (the PT at your clinic), the character now has an action plan to solve their problem.

Your plan needs to compel them to that action (treatment), help them avoid failure, and lead them down a successful path. If you can convince the character that you are the guide they need, you’ve just earned a new patient.

The details of your story will vary depending on the size and nature of your practice. Nobody is a better fit to tell that story than you, and you should be an integral part of the message you convey anytime somebody logs onto your website. After all, somebody on your site is already looking for a guide. You need to demonstrate to them you are the right one, and there’s no better way to do that than through a story.

Formula = Hero, Problem, Guide, Plan, Call to Action, Avoid Failures, Achieve Success

In closing, I ask you one simple question: What is your story? If you need a little help defining it, I recommend buying the book Building a StoryBrand and then visiting MyStoryBrand.com and giving the BrandScript tool a shot. You can create one for free, and it will help you control the story you’re telling.

If You Want Help Writing Your Story for Your Practice Website, Give Us a Call

Reference: Image is from Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand book.

Optimize Your Outdated Content for Higher Search Rankings

Being a content creator can feel like the Indy 500. The gas pedal is on the floor, but it’s just left turn after left turn. And every time you lift your head and look around, you’re on the same oval track, unable to punch through the pack of cars keeping pace around you.

In the world of content creation, that unending oval track is the hunt for higher Google rankings. It’s maddening to feel like you’ve done everything right, but still find yourself unable to punch through to the top three spots on the search engine results.

Today, we’re going to talk about how you can optimize your old content to improve your SEO and get onto that racetrack’s podium.

What Physical Therapy Content Should You Update?

“All of it” is definitely not the answer. You don’t have time for that.

Instead, look for content that is already ranking for a good keyword on the first page of search results — but not in the top three positions.

It may seem counterintuitive to focus on content that is already doing well, rather than on a blog post on page two or three.

Here’s why it’s not…

The jump in clicks that you’ll see by moving from position five to position three is significantly higher than the jump you’d see by moving from page three to page two.

The average click-through-rate (CTR) for a result in position one in search results is 34.2%. In position four, it’s 8.1%. By time you get to the second page of results, CTR is under 2%.

By moving from position 4 to position 1, you can quadruple your CTR. That’s how we get the biggest bang for our optimization buck.

To figure out which posts fit this criteria, use the free Google SEO Ranking Checker from The HOTH. Type in your website’s URL, and enter your email address to get your results. (Yes, this tool is a lead magnet for The HOTH, but it’s worth handing over your email address.)

You’ll get a report of your top traffic-driving keywords, as well as where your content ranks on Google. Hover over the blue keyword to see which piece of content is driving the traffic.

We’re going to pick a keyword that meets three criteria.

First, it should be ranking in the top 10 on Google.

Second, it should have good search volume. If you’re ranked #5 for a keyword that only gets 20 monthly searches, it’s probably not worth your time to shoot for position 1.

Finally, make sure the keyword has high value to your business. This means it should be something your potential customers are searching for. If you’re on the first page for the search term “best chocolate cake recipe” but you sell 1-on-1 coaching services, that’s not a keyword we want to focus on.

Next…

Recon Time

Time to do a little digital snooping.

Do a Google search for your target keyword to see which articles are beating you in the rankings. Audit their content. What do they have that you’re missing?

The purpose is not to copy…never. The purpose is to figure out what informational gaps your piece is missing, so you can figure out how to fill them.

In the world of search engine rankings, the most in-depth, helpful content usually reigns supreme. So you have to provide a more complete piece of work than the competition.

Next, read through your copy carefully. What has changed since you first wrote it? In the field of SEO, for example, best practices are changing all the time. An article from 2018 could be woefully outdated, and Google will prioritize fresher content.

Is any of your information old? Are there new policies or laws that need to be addressed? New studies you could cite?

Update Your Content

Fill in the gaps and update your article for the current climate. By answering the query more accurately and more completely, you’ll improve your chances of overtaking the competition.

Adding images and graphics can also help with your rankings. An infographic or a few handy charts can make your content more useful to the reader, and that’s something Google looks for.

Before you hit publish, check for broken links. Use a free plugin like SEO Minion or Broken Link Checker to verify that every link is still active.

And before you go live, update the publish date. Google will crawl the new content either way, but an updated publish date will also show readers that your info is current and cutting edge.

After You Publish

When your shiny new article is updated and re-published, promote the heck out of it!

Post it on your Facebook pave, Tweet it. Share it in a newsletter.

Treat it just like a brand new piece of content and push it all over your social media channels. Give it the best chance you can to climb up to Google’s coveted top three.

In a few weeks, check your keyword again to measure your results.

Now find another piece of content, and repeat!

Google likes established websites, but new content. This method lets you build on old work to keep your website fresh. With a steady routine of new and updated blog posts, you’ll keep your pieces accurate, useful, and Google-friendly.

That’s it for this post. If you have questions about physical therapy online marketing or PT blogging, don’t hesitate to contact us. Thanks for reading.

Use Storytelling for a Better Physical Therapy Blog

In ancient times, a powerful king oppressed his people. The citizens of the land feared the king and begged the gods for help. So the gods created a wild man that could equal the king and stop his misdeeds.

The wild man and the king fought a great battle, but the king showed superior strength. After it was all over, the two men became friends and began a grand journey together that would see triumph, heartbreak, and the search for eternal life.

This is the Epic of Gilgamesh, the earliest surviving work of literature, written around 1800 BC.

Human beings are natural storytellers. We’ve been sharing tales around the campfire since the invention of the campfire! Even ancient cave paintings from 30,000 years ago tell stories of the hunt.

So what does the Epic of Gilgamesh have to do with blogging?

Turns out, a lot!

How Do Stories Draw in Readers?

Stories help your writing to stand out. In the unending ocean of blogs (over 500 million of them!), interesting stories share personality and entertain the readers. While viewers may be searching for answers to their problems, they also want to have a little fun!

Clever storytelling also helps the writer to connect with the reader. It shares your unique voice and displays your personality. Telling stories is how you can get people to look forward to your content eagerly, instead of reading a blog once and never coming back to your site.

One study showed that a blog post that opened with a story saw nearly 300% more readers scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Since the call to action in a blog post is usually near the bottom, that’s 300% more people with a chance to convert!

One of the masters of blog storytelling is Laura Belgray of Talking Shrimp. She uses clever storytelling to draw in readers to her blogs and emails. She’s been featured in Business Insider, Fast Company, Money, and Forbes, and she uses the same storytelling techniques in these major publications.

Where Can You Find Physical Therapy Stories?

Everyday in your office!

Even simple, everyday events can be repurposed into interesting anecdotes that illustrate your point.

Laura Belgray once used a story of her search for basil for a recipe to demonstrate how important it is to build an online community. The story was funny and engaging. And while it wasn’t clear at first how it was going to relate to her final point, the eventual connection made perfect sense.

You may find that when you’re sitting down to write, you have a hard time coming up with a relevant anecdote. This is a common problem. That’s why it’s helpful to create a “story bank.”

Note the wins, failures, and funny events in your daily life. Then when you need a story for a new post, you can refer back to that bank to find an appropriate tale. These don’t have to be major, dramatic life events. A simple metaphor can be enough to draw in the reader.

Also — stories don’t have to be true!

Now, this doesn’t mean you should make up a case study or testimonial. Falsifying results is unethical marketing. But you could absolutely invent a story to illustrate a point.

For example, let’s say I wanted to write a post about a fictional patient that didn’t do their home exercises or modified their daily activities according to your recommendations.

This patient may end up back at the doctor having unnecessary tests, taking opioids, or even having unnecessary surgery. You could certainly bolster this story with the plethora of research articles supporting the use of physical therapy first and how following through with PT care can save money, time, needless expenses, and risk.

Additionally, you might tell a story about a patient that chose physical therapy first over seeing their doctor. Elaborating on the fictional experience that one might have when making this choice.

Again, there’s good support for this story. A 2014 study suggests that patients who received physical therapy through direct access, i.e. directly from their PT (vs. physician referral) had a higher level of satisfaction and better outcomes at discharge.

Where Do Stories Fit In?

The best way to use storytelling in blogging is right at the top.

The purpose of your headline is to get people to start reading. And the purpose of your blog’s introduction is to get people to keep reading. So hook them with an introductory story.

The story should have a main character, a problem, an action, and a solution in order to be interesting for the reader. Remember that without a problem, there’s no story!

After you’ve told your story, you’ll need to transition into the rest of the blog post. A smooth transition will make it easier for the reader to flow from the introduction into the rest of the piece. Your transition should connect the two, making it clear why your story aligns with the article’s message.

You may want to use a transitional phrase like, “What does this have to do with ____?” or “Why does this matter? Because…”

You can also split your story between the introduction and the conclusion of the post. Introduce your main character and their problem at the top of the blog post. Then get into the “meat” of the article, explaining ways to resolve it.

In the conclusion, return to your story. Share the action the character took to solve their problem (using one of the methods you explained), and how that action led to a solution.

Practice the Craft and Share Your Passion for Treating Patients

Storytelling takes practice, and it will take some time before you have a robust story bank to pull from. But start putting one idea in the bank daily, and soon you’ll have a wide variety of options.

Try adding stories to some of your old blog posts to see if the reader’s time on page increases. You might be surprised by what you find!

Don’t Have Time to Write?

Need help with blogging? We offer blogging services as part of our physical therapy marketing services. Contact us for more information at 760-585-9097.

Inbound Vs. Outbound Marketing Part 2: Outbound Helps You Cast a Wider Net

In our last blog, we showed you what an inbound marketing campaign can accomplish and walked you through the key steps needed to execute these types of strategies. An inbound approach can work incredibly well once someone finds you on the internet, but as we’ve pointed out, this isn’t always easy or likely. It also takes time, and lots of patience, which some private physical therapy practice owners may not have.

Enter Outbound Marketing.

Also referred to as “traditional marketing” or “push marketing,” outbound is more about casting a wide net with strategies that find your patients, rather than hoping that they somehow find you. It gives you more control over how to establish the first point of contact, and is, therefore, more direct and immediate than most inbound strategies.

Example Patient with Neck Pain

One way to understand the primary benefits of an outbound strategy is to think about the behaviors of an average individual who has neck pain. If this person is like most people with neck pain, he or she is probably not actively looking for a physical therapist, and may not even be aware that the option is available.

An inbound strategy probably won’t work unless they happen to be searching for terms related to neck pain and your area and you have pages that rank for these terms.

An outbound approach, on the other hand, is far more likely to bring your practice front and center through the use of advertising and other broad marketing tactics.

Getting to know the best outbound advertising options

Advertising is the most common and reliable form of outbound marketing, and there are numerous options available today. A selection of some that will be worth your time follows:

Paid Banner Advertising: this is essentially any type of advertising that’s used in a search engine; specific search terms are not always necessary, so these ads can pop up regardless of what’s being searched for
Social media advertising: these ads are paid for on specific social media sites, and are helpful for increasing awareness of your practice, better understanding your audience, and boosting your reputation; in general, it’s also less expensive than search engine ads
- Facebook advertising: one of the most popular options; ads are easy to create and can be segmented by interest, age, and other variables
- Instagram Ads: Instagram includes a number of highly engaged users, making your ads more likely to be seen by a larger number of individuals; these ads are also connected with those on Facebook
- Twitter Ads: promoted Tweets can use keyword targeting to go after specific individuals, and you only pay when you’ve achieved your marketing objective
- LinkedIn Ads: this type of advertising isn’t to generate new patients; rather, LinkedIn ads are typically used to attract new professional talent. While they are generally more expensive than on other social media platforms, they may yield better overall results than sites like Indeed.

Pros & Cons of Physical Therapy Outbound Marketing

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both inbound and outbound marketing, and that’s why we believe it’s best to spend time on each and find a balance that works for your practice and your budget.

Outbound marketing is usually far more expensive that inbound and also tends to be short-lived, but if you’re looking for more immediate results and have the funds, it’s certainly an option worth pursuing. In our next blog, we look into the role offline marketing can play in today’s times.

Outbound Marketing – A Great Way to Reach Referring Physicians

In conclusion, outbound marketing has its place. It’s often underutilized by physical therapy private practices and a quick piece of advice – if you still get patients from referring physicians, we definitely recommend you use this marketing strategy to reach them.

We offer a physician newsletter that is ideal and affordable for any practice. Contact us for more information.

References:

https://databox.com/outbound-marketing-tactics

35 Physical Therapy Blog Resources

Publishing content on your physical therapy website may often feel like a daunting task. Figuring out what to write about, how best to convey your message, and what elements to include in order to rank and attract readers can take some time to navigate. This tends to ring especially true for newcomers, but even seasoned bloggers and content creators can run into snags of their own.

If you are blogging, over time you may struggle to find ways to keep coming up with fresh ideas for content that will continue to engage readers without growing stale.

Coming Up with Physical Therapy Blogging Ideas Can be the Tough Part

If you handle any of the physical therapy marketing for your private practice with blogs or other content, you’ve probably run into issues like this in the past (or you may be in that position right now, which is what brought you to this page!)

It goes without saying that there’s so simple way to guarantee that you’ll never run out of ideas and always post the most riveting content, but it will be a major benefit to have some trusty resources to consult for topics, guidance, and writing assistance. Below are 35 essential tips and resources to help you become—or remain—an established physical therapy blogger in the long term:

Blog Topic Ideas

Statistics summary: write a post loaded with important statistics about physical therapy from across the industry, with commentary about how these statistics affect readers
Study summary: find a study that highlights the benefits of physical therapy and do a brief summary of its findings and why they show physical therapy is best
Success story: write about a patient at your practice that experienced a positive outcome after completing treatment; success stories are an incredible way to promote your practice, and you’ll never run out of them so long as you continue to treat patients
How-to guides: teach your readers how to get involved in a new exercise or activity with a step-by-step guide
Injury spotlight: pick a common injury or painful condition and explain why it occurs, what it feels like, and why physical therapy is the best treatment for it
Sport-specific injury guide: select a sport and describe the most common injuries that athletes experience, and how physical therapists can help patients return to activity
Body region injury guide: along the same lines, pick a joint or region (e.g. knee, back, ankle) and provide some details of what injuries occur most frequently, and of course, what physical therapy can do to address it
Services spotlight: promote a unique service you offer that’s not found at most other physical therapy practices, like the Graston technique, aquatic therapy, or dry needling
Seasonal blog: discuss how the current weather relates to exercise habits or common problems and provide tips on how to remain active while avoiding injury
Countdown list: readers love lists, so try creating a blog on “The 5 best stretches for shoulder pain” or “The 8 most common mistakes made when training for a road race”
Physical therapy news: link to an important development in the physical therapy industry and explain how it could affect patients in the future

Resources for physical therapy blogging or health topics to write on

General

Feedly: one of the many websites available for organizing RSS feeds
Healthline
Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic
WebMD
MedicalNewsToday
MayoClinic
The New York Times: Health
NIH

Physical therapy-specific

APTA: great for industry-related news and developments
ChoosePT: APTA’s consumer-focused website (formerly MoveForwardPT)
PT in Motion: APTA’s monthly magazine for physical therapists
GetPT1st blog: loaded with topics for physical therapists and patients
Evidence in Motion blog: industry-specific blog geared more towards physical therapists
Physiospot
The Physical Therapy Advisor
Athletico Physical Therapy blog

Resources to improve your writing and posting skills

CoSchedule: analyzes your headlines to ensure you’re using your words wisely
SEOPressor: a WordPress plugin that assists with search engine optimization (SEO)
XML-sitemaps: free service that creates a sitemap for your website, which helps search engines better scan each of your pages
Hemingway Editor: a grammar service that helps you improve your writing by avoiding sentence that are too long or wordy
Grammarly: another helpful grammar service to assist your writing
Quick and Dirty Tips: website that provides grammar tips and answers to your questions
Portent’s Content Idea Generator: enter a keyword and get topic ideas at this website
Hubspot: another helpful topic generator if you need to come up with new ideas

In our next blog, we discuss why all your content should include a call to action that will keep readers engaged with all your online accounts.

How to Ensure Your Physical Therapy Blog Posts Stay Evergreen

The best part about content marketing is its versatility. It can be specific to your practice, free and really covering any topic you want it to be, plus it’s easy for beginners to get started.
That said, not every aspect of creating content is easy. A successful content marketing campaign for your physical therapy clinic must deliver a valuable message, and consistently define you and your practice as the leader in your community.

One aspect of keeping your post evergreen is to revisit your blog history, we’re talking about the maintenance of your previous content marketing. Updating older content is a great way to boost your SEO, but many practice owners and marketers don’t take advantage of this opportunity.

Here’s why that should change.

Physical Therapy Content’s Final Stage

Content creation involves a defined process and repeated stages that begin with research. From there, the plan is formed to make new content over time. Once the content is designed or written, it’s published and shared, with not much done after the fact.
But the time after publishing, the maintenance phase is vital. Unfortunately, in the fury of constantly pushing new content, the end of this process is often neglected.
The content you’ve created to provide long-term value — your evergreen content — plays an important role in your site. These pieces are designed to stay relevant over time and guide new patients to your clinic, so they shouldn’t be neglected.

Just think about some of the benefits evergreen content brings to the table:
Driving traffic.
Backlinking.
Authoritative keywords.
Site and content continuity.
Improved ranking.

Evergreen and constantly maintained pieces serve as a foundation for the rest of your content and grow your authority as the leading physical therapist of your area. This also alleviates the stress of constantly struggling to source or validate new content.

Maintenance doesn’t have the urgency of creation, however, so it tends to take the back burner in content marketing. Content maintenance is about nurturing a sustainable relationship with your growing audience by keeping your post reliable.

If a loyal patient were to stumble upon an old, outdated post, they may lose faith in your practice.
Content maintenance is challenging though, which is why many content marketers ignore it. Evergreen content requires time, research and updates to stay relevant, which means adding a second plan in addition to your content marketing strategy.

Here are some methods you can use to update and maintain older content:

Physical Therapy Blog Technical Updates

Like anything else, your site needs maintenance over time. Whether it’s broken links or an outdated background, technical issues are likely present in your old content.
Even if it was published in peak condition at the time, there will likely be one or more elements that should be updated.

For example, Google recently made changes to their meta descriptions. The previous limitation of 160 characters is no longer the case, so what was once optimized is no longer optimized.
Maybe your meta description still works for SEO today, but it’s still worth the time to refresh your old content and check for things like this.

You may also want to experiment with new title tags to boost engagement and refresh your post. You may find that you have broken links or links to outdated resources that are no relevant which harms your credibility.

Broken links hurt your SEO, so take the time to find newer information or statistics that emphasize your point and link to those. You can also update your “last updated” timestamp to show viewers that your content is fresh.

Another technical challenge is the way content is consumed now versus how it was consumed years ago. The end of Flash, for instance, has also ended plenty of excellent content pieces that relied upon it. If you created content with Flash, it won’t last much longer as Flash is being phased out. Many sites recommend Flash be disabled anyway, so it’s a change that will come no matter what.

A way to update that content for modern audiences is by switching out JPEG images for PNG images. PNG images have better quality and load times than JPEG images, so if you don’t update them, you may find that you have slower load times that impact your SEO.

Revitalize Your Most Popular Old Physical Therapy Posts

While maintenance is important, you don’t need to update every single piece of old content, nor should you. The best place to start with updates is with your best and most popular pieces, regardless of how old they may be.

You can find out what these pieces are with Google Analytics under the “Behavior” section. This section will show you a detailed breakdown of each page’s performance for the history of your site and the posts that have stayed popular over the years. You’ll then have a list of pieces that are worth maintaining.

If you focus on maintaining and revitalizing these older pieces of popular content, you’ll most likely be able to continue to leverage them in the future.

You may also want to consider why these content pieces have been so successful. Each piece of content has a purpose, so you may learn more about what works and what doesn’t by analyzing your popular pieces.

If you think that an older piece could do better, consider “upcycling.” Upcycling turns your old pieces into a new format, which is commonly done with a video. It’s the same information, but it’s presented in a way that revitalizes the content and gets it more attention.

Make Relevance about your Physical Therapy Private Practice a New Goal

No matter how evergreen you thought your content was, time will always make your posts irrelevant. Eventually, posts will turn into old news, which requires maintenance to keep them relevant.
One of the benefits here, however, is that you can turn your piece into something noteworthy with your new perspective. So, instead of focusing on updating the piece for popularity, focus on making changes to make it more relevant.

To start, evaluate your content according to three questions:

Does your content still pique interest?
Is it timely?
Will it provide a purpose to your patients and your practice?

If the answer to all three of these questions is yes, then you have content that’s worth updating.

The most relevant content will be viewed and shared more, so taking the time to revamp your relevant content can improve your content lifecycle.

Once you decide that the piece should and could be updated, it’s a good idea to check the topic with Google Trends to make sure there’s interest in the topic of the old post you’ve chosen to update. If you see too many peaks and valleys, you may want to wait until the optimal time to revamp your piece.

Final Thoughts

Content maintenance isn’t the most exciting part of developing a content marketing strategy, but it’s incredibly helpful for your practice. If you want to continue to create evergreen content, you need to put in the effort to reach your patients.

This means taking the time with your old blog posts and checking for technical issues, popularity and relevance to see what will work best. It also means making a serious commitment to making these changes.

Evergreen content isn’t designed for overnight success. Instead, it takes up a vital place in your content library that will bring traffic and credibility to your brand for years.

Why You Need a Physical Therapy Blog…and Some Tips to Get It Done

In this presentation, I’m going to talk about why you need a physical therapy blog.

I’m going to go through a formula for you, and also give you some specifics on how you can get the information out on your website quickly.

So, why should you have a physical therapy blog? Because it helps you build authority in your community. It gives you great content to circulate about your specialty, the things you treat, like vestibular rehab, women’s health, the treatment of musculoskeletal balance, et cetera.

It helps with your search rankings.

If you have regular blog posts about particular conditions, and you use the keywords with respect to where you’re located, it will help you rank for those types of things. For example vestibular treatment in Los Angeles. Keep in mind that 94 percent of people doing business now are going online first, before they go to a local service in the community.

So for all those reasons, you definitely should have a blog post. If you just consider the number of people in pain in your community, and it’s about 50 percent, a lot of them need help.

The problem is, there’s a large supply available for physical therapy services. New practices are coming in and competing with the already existing clinics in your community. On top of that, you have substitute services like chiropractic, occupational therapy, personal training, massage, and medical doctors. You have suppliers, POPS, who are now bringing those in house, as well as hospitals, so there’s plenty of competition in that respect.

There are the more sophisticated buyers, those patients who are looking for alternatives to opioids because they’re hearing the same message you are that opioids are addictive. Because of the competition, it’s a great idea to help you break through the noise by having regular content in the form of blog posts.

When you are writing your blog, you want to make sure you write for a specific audience.

Take, for example, patients in your community with sciatica. This is the audience you are writing for.

Then you can simply follow the:

Who
What
When
Where,
How,
Why formula.

Use slide notes like I have here. This is all I’m doing. You can model this.

Talk about who physical therapists are, the training that we have, the fact that we go to a several years of graduate school, we’re doctoral trained, many of our doctoral trained have fellowship training, internships, and board certifications and all we do is specialize in movement. And then the muscular skeletal system. Talk about the particular condition that you treat, conditions that might mimic sciatica. For example, talk about Sciatica itself. If we’re speaking about people with sciatica in the community… talk about why you should see a physical therapist first.

There are a number of reasons why people should go to physical therapy first. There’s little to no side effects. It’s not addictive, and it’s affordable. You can get right into a physical therapist, who will take the time to explain the problem in detail, which a lot of patients are not getting that personal type of care anymore in the healthcare system. Talk about where they can get physical therapy. If you’re a physical therapy private practice, give them some reasons as to why it’s a good idea to go to a pt private practice.

Talk about when people should get physical therapy. John Childs and Julie Fritz, among other authors, have written good research studies about why you should get physical therapy within the first couple of weeks. For example, with back pain and sciatica can be lumped into that as well.

Talk about how people, can get started with physical therapy and then write an outline like I’m showing you here. I’m using Google slides to do this. But you can just have an outline up there if you like. If you want to use a service like I have here, and captured on video, then do that as well. And just have your outline up there for people to see. You can use something like loom which is at loom.com or go view by log me in to record the video. And then after you get the video, post it on Youtube, you’ll have your blog post with your headline and your video, and then the transcription of your video right beneath it. And you can use a service like Temi.com or Rev.com to get transcribed for a penny per word or a dollar per minute.

All you do is put this transcription on your website under the video like I’ve done here. Then when you’re done with that, you can take the link to your blog posts and you can post it out there on twitter and Facebook. So by following a simple outline, speaking to a specific audience, and having an authoritative blog post that goes out two to four times a month and circulating on social media, you can quickly build authority. You can also use video, so people can see you. And this helps build trust and familiarity and awareness of who you are.

So that’s why I like to use loom or similar services as well. Hopefully these ideas help. If you have any questions about blogging, you can read some of our other blog posts here, or you can connect with us, by phone or email and we’d be happy to show you how we can help.

Thanks for watching and reading.

Physical Therapy Blogging: 3 Steps to follow, when writing catchy headlines.

Your headline is quite possibly the most important feature of your blog post. It is your first impression and you only have seconds to capture your reader’s attention, sell them on your idea, and steer them towards your site.

Keep in mind how much information you are competing with. If your headline is long winded and uninteresting, the impression given is your article will be too. A high producing headline should achieve the following criteria:

• A tickler of information of what’s to come that piques the interests of your reader .
• An expectation of what they will gain by reading on.
• Full story disclosure in as few words as possible.

Here are 3 steps you can follow to achieve writing a headline that drives results.

1. Trim the Fat.
Re-read your article and summarize your main point. What purpose does your information serve to the reader? Once you have narrowed it down to the central topic, add in a couple of subpoints with evidence to support your idea.

Look at what you have written and continue to streamline your main idea into just a few sentences. From there, continue to trim down to a sentence with no more than 10 words. This is when you really need to communicate to your potential reader that your blog is worth investing their time in, and what they will gain by reading more.

When trying to find the perfect pitch for your blog headline, our multitasking brain can take us off course. By using this exercise of rewriting the main point from a paragraph then hoaning it down from a few sentences to just a few words, your headline will be focused on the objective of the getting your reader to “dig into your content”.

2. Learn from the Experts.
Marketing experts have done the studies and crunched the information; it’s been proven there are trigger phrases that catch our attention. These words are known to help the reader make a connection to the blog. This connection can stir an emotion or insight curiosity making the reader want to dive in and find out more.

Here are some examples of catch phrases and how they work.

“Will make you” This phrase when used draws a direct connection to what the blog subject is about and why the reader needs to read it.
Example:
5 core strengthening exercises that will make you have less pain. The reader can expect the blog will show exercises, that will take away pain. exercises= less pain.

“What happened next” when this phrase is used it evokes the reader’s curiosity.

Example: What happened next when this patient did these 5 exercises will surprise you. The reader is interested in how exercising can affect the body and wants to learn the unexpected answer.

“Talking about”, plays on our need to feel connected to what other people know. We don’t want to miss out on the latest news. FOMO or fear of missing out describes this emotion we can evoke with a good headline.

Example: Patients of physical therapy are talking about the latest drug free method of pain treatment. Plays on the importance of being in the know of the latest information, making the reader feel more knowledgeable than others.

“Tears of Joy” plays on the emotions of the reader. This sort of phrase is usually attached to a picture or video which aids in capturing our attention.

Example: This patient had tears of joy when he was able to walk his daughter down the aisle.

You can learn more useful phrases at https://buzzsumo.com/blog/most-shared-headlines-study/

3. Know How Your Headline is Going to be Formatted/Viewed on Different Social Media

Know how your blog is being distributed and the techniques required for different modes of distribution (i.e. ranking on search engines vs. getting a click to your blog from a Facebook post vs. getting a click on Twitter to your blog post).

Writing for the Search Engines
Writing for the search engines and optimizing your blog posts to be found on Google or Bing requires additional work as compared to simply writing an awesome, highly converting headline for Facebook.

Keywords in your blog headline will help your article be found on the Internet. Humans fall for the catchy phrases that help us personally connect to the blog, but computers are machines. It’s important to include your keywords you want to rank for in your headline of your post if you want the post to have any chance of ranking in the search engines.

Writing a Headline on Facebook to get a Click to Your Blog Post
The trick here is to combine step one of providing the nuts and bolts of your blog with step 2. including an enticing hook. Of course you have to be respectful of character limits which vary based on the type of ad you are running. https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/

In general though you want to stick to the formula as described above:

A combination of descriptive + sensational = increase click through rate

Writing for Twitter
Your objective here is different. You have 140 characters (less if you include a link) to get a click. It’s as if Tweets make up the entire headline. 140 characters gives you plenty of space to write a longer headline but again, but keep your objective in mind…it’s to get a click from the tweet to your blog post.

Test if Possible

Regardless of the type of headline you are writing, it’s always a good idea to compare one headline to another. By creating at minimum two headlines with descriptive + sensational information, and measuring the number of clicks or visitors to your blog post, you can see which combination works the best.

The trick is to see if version A works better with your audience, versus version B. Find out if your readers are more interested in knowing what new knowledge they will learn versus the feel good emotional pull.

We hope these tips on how to write good headlines will help you get your physical therapy blogging message read by your community. You have great value to offer. Putting that information in a blog and enticing more to read it with a great headline can help you build authority in your community.

If you need any help with your blogging, we have a number of services that can be of assistance to you. Just contact us if you have any questions.

Happy Blogging!

Thinking About Physical Therapy Blogging? Watch Out for These 4 Common Mistakes When Hiring a Writer

Physical Therapist have chosen their professional career path because they want to take care of patients. You’ve spent years investing in education grad school, fellowship training, con-ed galore and there’s no question you are the specialist in relieving their patients’ pain. Why would PTs ever want to trade the fruits of their labor (i.e. billing for patient care), and instead, start physical therapy blogging?

Sure it might seem fun at first, but keep in mind the importance of getting it right. Writing your practice’s blog is a specialty of its own. It represents who you are, and how you would like your patients to perceive you. In the Adage of today, it is a key component to your total marketing campaign. It should not be underestimated.

Once a practitioner understands the significance of his/her blog (i.e. communicating your value and expertise to your community), it often becomes clear that hiring a professional writer might be their best bet. If this is an avenue that you would like to pursue, consider the following 4 biggest mistakes that can be made, before hiring someone to manage your blog.

First common mistake: Taking the cheapest route available.

What is the saying? If you are going to do something, do it right. In the case of physical therapy blog writing it is imperative to get it right, too much is at stake to just wing it. This is a marketing component that needs total commitment once you embrace the need to blog.

Remember your ultimate goal, letting your patients know what your practice represents. Having a poorly written blog can say “I don’t really care about the end result. I just need to get this done.” Your patients are smart, and they are critiquing your message and how well it is written. Does it provide information that is meaningful and well researched. Is this information unique? Does it entice the reader to want to find out more?

It’s ok to be mindful of your budget, just keep in mind the importance of what is being accomplished here. Consider reworking where your dollars are spent, if you are not impressed by what your budget is is able to offer.

Second Mistake often made: Not looking at your PT blogger’s portfolio.

Your blog writer needs to have the experience and capacity to understand exactly what it is you would like your patients to take away from each blog. Is your future writer knowledgeable enough to communicate the overall philosophy of the practice, the issues you find to be important, and the personality you would like conveyed? If your office is fun, warm and caring, a heartless message about the newest scientific studies may not be the style you are looking for.

Even if all the grammar, and spelling is perfect the message can get lost in the boredom of the delivery. An experienced writer can adapt well to whatever the message is. Sometimes that requires seriousness and sometimes being a little playful. Find someone who offers you versatility.

This is your time to do some research. Ask for sample writings of what they have done for other clients. Check out their online portfolios and be sure to ask for a sample writing of what they can do for you.

Third mistake often made: Not spending the time to establish goals and setting a workflow process.

You have found an author who seems to be a perfect fit for you and your practice, now you can sit back and keep your eyes on your patients, SORRY not yet. There is still some work ahead. You and your future writer need to sit down together and map out your expectations of what it is you wish to accomplish. Plan out a series of physical therapy topics, and how they will fall into a calendar of blog releases. Discuss the tone each one should convey, and what sort of images, if any, you would like used.

Together create a blog marketing strategy with your wants and specific directions, so your author can refer back to your discussions. Establish deadlines of when you expect each blog article, and the process of proofreading before publishing. This roadmap should discuss both your needs and your authors, preventing frustration on both ends. By setting guidelines and strategies you will both be able to focus on what you do best. You can keep your attention to your patients, your writer can develope amazing article to wow your patients.

Last mistake to watch out for: Developing and maintaining your relationship.

Never take it for granted that you and your author are doing just fine. Along with your blogging roadmap, set quarterly appointments to come together and touch base with how things are going. What are the things you feel positive about? What areas would you like to see grow? You should take a look at your scheduled post and see if they are still pertinent? Maybe there is something in the news lately you would like to address, or there is a buzz about a new service that your clinic is offering. This is the time to keep on topic, aligned with your marketing strategy, which when written up correctly, can give the community you serve the right perception…that you are on the cutting edge of your industry.

Providing great content is what E-rehab.com specializes in. We provide physical therapy blog posts for patients that are about the value of physical therapy and are regularly posted on your website, and consistently present the value of seeing a physical therapist first.

If you’d like more information, contact us for details about E-rehab can help you with your physical therapy blogging.

Additional References

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/outsource-blog/

Physical Therapy Blogging – E-rehab in the Top 50

We are honored to be recognized as one of the Top 50 physical therapy blogs by Feedspot.com .

I thought this would be a good time to talk a bit about physical therapy blogging.

I see a lot of PT blogs and most of them die a rapid death.

The owner/practice marketer realizes that it takes a lot of time to create quality blogs post on a regular basis.

Others that blog on an ongoing basis don’t seem to have the strategy of “blogging with purpose”.

Blogging with purpose means creating blog post that are:

full of quality information that visitors to a PT website might find useful,
original content that isn’t copied from some other website or a graphic someone grabbed from Pinterest,
representative of the services you provide (no point in blogging about personal training if you don’t do it),
optimized for the search engines.
good content to be shared on your social media properties

Too many times I see blog posts that aren’t original, don’t have the target audience in mind, and simply wouldn’t be of interest to physical therapy patients.

Ask Yourself These Questions…

When marketing, Dan Kennedy says you need to fulfill three requirements: market, message, media and they must match.

There are three main keys to your success in Magnetic Marketing.

Message: Without the right message, you are going to be in trouble. Most people do not have a well-crafted message…
Market: The second thing is making sure you are actually marketing to the right people..
Media: The third piece of the triangle is media. You need to have the right message and it has to be delivered to the right market via the right media.

Think of it as a triangle with message, media and market at each corner. All three of these must be working together synergistically for you to get the greatest impact that you can from your marketing

Reference: https://dankennedy.com/images/PDF/MagneticMarketing_FR.pdf

Summarizing the Concepts of Physical Therapy Blogging

Make sure you are writing for a specific audience that can use your PT services.
Make sure you message is value-packed and entices people to take the next step in your funnel.
Make sure you are using the right media…blogging can be the right media to use especially if your posts rank on the search engines.

[note_box]NOTE: a good example of a blog post that you might want to write is a post with the title: Lower Back Pain Treatment in *Your City*. If this post ranks on Google, then people that are looking for lower back pain treatment in your area just might read it and take the next step, i.e. call you.[/note_box]

Looking for someone to blog with purpose for your practice? Give us a call at (760) 585-9097.

New Year’s Resolutions For Your Physical Therapy Blogging

physical therapy blogging

The new year should be seen as a great new beginning for just about anything that needs a fresh start, and this can be especially true if your physical therapy blogging could use some revitalization. Whether you already blog and need to boost its quality and quantity, or if need to start a new blog, we recommend these four resolutions to get you on a better track with an influx of new patients in the new year:

Resolution #1: Blog Regularly with a Plan

This is a simple resolution, but one of the most important components to keeping your physical therapy blogging successful. Regularly posting your blogs is what drives better results and engagement, and it also builds your overall reach and reputation in the world of physical therapy.

[pullquote2 align=”right”]To start the year off right, create a physical therapy blogging plan and an editorial calendar, which will establish an idea of how often you will blog in a given period of time[/pullquote2]To start the year off right, create a physical therapy blogging plan and an editorial calendar, which will establish an idea of how often you will blog in a given period of time. Whether it’s twice a week or twice a month, you’ll want to commit to your set blogging plan and stick to it as closely as possible. Make sure that you hold yourself and your team accountable for posting new blog content according to the calendar as the year progresses.

Resolution #2: Think Locally First

Local search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are typically the most important types of keywords your physical therapy clinic can use. Whether you have one location or 10, your prospective patients are searching for physical therapy clinics first by location in order to find therapists that are closest to them. This is usually followed by speciality, so it’s always important to include your specialities and services prominently as well.

Your physical therapy blogging can therefore become an important tool to help improve your local SEO when you write content that pertains to each of your locations. Your blog titles should include the location name that you are optimizing, and the content should be relevant to that particular office. Don’t haphazardly place location keywords in your blog posts, but instead, focus on topics that relate to the area. Stay up-to-date on local news and data, and try to come up with topics that respond to or promote local happenings.

[blockquote align=”center”]By making local SEO a key strategy for the year, you will see vast a improvement in your website’s traffic and leads.[/blockquote]

Resolution #3: Add More Variety

Diversity is one of the major keys to blog posts. If you continue to use the same photos, topics or formats in every post, your blog can become boring and monotonous. When there’s too much of the same thing every time you post, not only do you lose an audience, but you also lose interest and speed in the physical therapy blogging process itself. [pullquote3 align=”left”]When there’s too much of the same thing every time you post, not only do you lose an audience, but you also lose interest and speed in the physical therapy blogging process itself[/pullquote3] When there’s too much of the same thing every time you post, not only do you lose an audience, but you also lose interest and speed in the physical therapy blogging process itself. In healthcare professions like physical therapy, there’s so much more action going on, and your blogs need to reflect this in their content.

The first step to diversifying your physical therapy blogging is to create a few possibilities of different formats for your blogs and use each of them in a successive manner with each post. For example, if your blog normally reads with just one photo and text every time, this may seem repetitive to your average viewer. Change it up by providing charts of statistics, infographics, new types of photos in and outside the office, videos and other types of content.

Resolution #4: Share and Distribute Beyond ‘Post’

Many people make the mistake of thinking that simply pressing the “post” button after writing a blog is the end of the story. In reality, this is just the first step, and you need to put in the work to distribute that post in various ways afterwards.

Most importantly, you’ll need to share your blog content on your social media networks like Facebook and Pinterest right after it’s published. The best way to do this is to summarize the key takeaways and post them in a summary with the link to the blog. You can schedule them to post at different times and on your different social media platforms.

You can also share your blog posts through other tools, such as an email newsletter. Whether it’s a blog roundup posted every month or a special email for an important topic, finding a way to spread your post in other formats is another great way to draw attention to your blog.

Better Physical Therapy Blogging Equals More New Patients

By making these new year’s resolutions, you can boost the quality of your blogs and significantly increase your chances of visitors being impressed and engaged by them. As a result, impressed and engaged visitors who are looking for a physical therapist are more likely to become new patients at your practice.

[info_box]For more tips and tricks for your physical therapy blogging, contact us at E-Rehab today. We can look into your blogging practices and identify areas that can use improvements, and elevate the status of one of the most important tools of your practice.[/info_box]

Physical Therapy Blogging: How You Can Make Your Strategy More Effective

physical therapy blogging

We listen to feedback from our clients all the time, and it’s often clear that physical therapy blogging can be an intimidating pursuit, especially for a new office or website. Another pressing question that many private practices have is this: with so many other great blogs out there, how can we differentiate ourselves and draw people in to read our content?

Believe it or not, but it’s actually quite simple to get started, so long as you know where to start. That’s why we present you with these “main ingredients,” which we believe are necessary for your physical therapy blogging to become successful.

Purpose

Every good blog, no matter their industry, has a focus or niche, which makes blogging easier for you to reach the right visitors.

So how can you make sure your blog has a purpose? Ask yourself questions like:

Who is my blog targeting? Who do I want to target (age, gender, location, types of therapy, etc.)?
What do I want my blog to provide? Extra tips and advice supplementary to my therapeutic work? My opinion on different practices? Statistics and news?
If I was a prospective patient trying to find my practice, what topics would I search for? What kind of results should show up complementary to my website?

Remember, you can cover multiple topics in your blog, but if you’re the only one providing content, you should be writing about topics that interest you, are worth your time and effort, and ones that make it easier for you to remain consistent. If you’re spending hours researching a topic you’re not interested in or find yourself dragging your feet, you’re less likely to be building a blog that’s true to your purpose or goal. As a result, you increase the likelihood that you’re not meeting the best successful standard to blogging: consistency.

Consistency

Consistency is a key part of not just connecting with your audience, but also helping to maintain your web presence and website ranking. On the other hand, blogs that are infrequently posted may leave visitors wondering how reliable your office and the treatment you offer is.

Establishing a schedule (e.g. at least once a week or once a month) will help you remain consistent. You can always post compelling work whenever you find it outside of this regular schedule, but making your minimum posting at least keeps your blog and website active and engaged.

Engagement

In addition to purpose and consistency, you need to be engaging in your physical therapy blogging. Connecting with your audience—whether they love your writing or bring up counterarguments—adds authenticity and personality to your blog.[pullquote2 align=”left” textColor=”#000000″]Connecting with your audience—whether they love your writing or bring up counterarguments—adds authenticity and personality to your blog [/pullquote2] Ask questions, call for their own experiences or opinions, and reply to their comments to show that you’re not a robot generating random content, but a concerned therapist looking out for visitors and patients.

Engagement also doesn’t stop at your website’s blog page. You’ll need to reach people through social media by sharing your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or even LinkedIn. Make sure that there are sharing buttons to various social media networks you use, and automate your posts so that they show up on your own social media feeds whenever you post.

In addition, following thought leaders in the field and engaging with their work through conversation, guest posting or sharing can help broaden your blog’s visibility and get you connected to prominent bloggers and authoritative figures in physical therapy.

Your Voice

At its foundation, the most successful aspect of physical therapy blogging comes down to you and your voice.[pullquote2 align=”right” textColor=”#000000″] The success of the best blogs with lots of followers is always due to the voice of the writer, who isn’t afraid to reveal his or her true emotions, whether it’s excitement or even disappointment.[/pullquote2] Your voice is key to making your blog unique and providing an engaging, fun, and caring perspective. The success of the best blogs with lots of followers is always due to the voice of the writer, who isn’t afraid to reveal his or her true emotions, whether it’s excitement or even disappointment.

Having that voice is extremely important in the physical therapy industry: when people are searching for a new doctor or therapist, they want someone who they can connect with and someone who shows that they care. When you use your voice on your blog and talk about some of your favorite aspects of the job, what new therapeutic techniques you love or think needs more research, or updates on patients that are transformed by your work, you’ll easily draw people in.

Let Us Guide Your Physical Therapy Blogging

[squeeze_box3]Having a purpose, being consistent, showing engagement and presenting your own voice will really make a difference in your physical therapy blogging and the results that you see come from it. If you need guidance to get you started blogging, or at any other step in the process, E-Rehab can help. Contact us today to find out what we can do for your practice.[/squeeze_box3]