Local Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing 101

physical therapy social media marketing

You’re already a talented and invested physical therapist. You’ve probably got a steady stream of patients who trust you and are seeing results. What’s next? How can you grow your client base and keep your patients healthy, even after their sessions are wrapped up?  We suggest physical therapy social media marketing.

You don’t need to be a trained marketing professional to develop your online community. In fact, sometimes that authentic novice approach can help your business stand out among all the cookie cutter stick-to-the-book traditional tactics. So, in between sessions, give a few of these channels a try.

Pinterest

If you’re not on Pinterest already and think it’s just for crafters and bakers, it’s time to get reacquainted. Pinterest was the fastest growing social network over the past year, and it has qualities that you won’t quite find on Facebook. “At their core, the difference between Pinterest and other social networks is why people use it,” Kevin Roose explains, “— to plan for the future, rather than exhuming the past or analyzing the present.” On Pinterest, health-and-recovery-minded users, like your patients, plan for the future by pinning wellness tips, healthy recipes, and inspirational quotes. “Pinning says ‘I want this.’ It’s aspirational.”

Your physical therapy practice can be a hub for such holistic aspirations. Of course you’ll have boards dedicated to PT-specific topics (i.e. Knee Pain, Spine Rehab, Shoulder Problems, etc.) and other subjects that would be a perfect fit for Pinterest‘s “Health & Fitness” category, but you should also tap into the most popular categories like “Food & Drink.” For example, you could pin anti-inflammatory foods, therapeutic teas, protein-rich smoothies, and so on. Latch on to another popular category, “Women’s Fashion,” by pinning workout gear that your active or working-to-become active clients would be interested in. Think beyond the walls of your practice and consider the entire lifestyle of a person on the road to wellness. The topic“Physical Therapy” has 1.78 thousand followers; start showing a few of them why your PT brand is worth following.

Blog

Don’t freak out just yet—you don’t need to write a novel or post every day to have a quality blog for your practice. You also don’t need to be a tech wiz. With platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr (the second fastest growing social network over the past year), it takes minutes to set up a blog and begin participating in one of the biggest trends in marketing: content marketing. Content marketing is an approach which focuses on creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and engage with an audience. Blog posts are an excellent vehicle for such content, whose keyword-rich format can also help your business by improving your search engine optimization.

Okay, enough jargon. Think about what your client base would find compelling, informative, and shareable. You could write a 300-word piece about five ways to improve shoulder mobility. You could invite a guest blogger (i.e. a patient) to share how PT has changed her life. You could ask your chef neighbor to type up her favorite smoothie recipe and share a few tips on healthy eating. Compile a list of your top ten favorite outdoor activities in your city. Host a giveaway, like a free resistance band, for a randomly selected commenter. Are your own ideas flowing yet?

Facebook & Twitter

You have a Facebook Page, right? Maybe a Twitter profile, too (if not, we can set these up for you)?  These platforms are easy to get started on and are an effective way to build and engage with your online community. Like with other digital tools, it comes down to sharing high-quality, relevant content and interacting with your audience in a meaningful, authentic way. Since Facebook and Twitter are typically more well-known than the other channels we’ve mentioned, we won’t go too in-depth on the mechanics, but do know that having an active presence on these sites is becoming more of an expectation than a bonus for businesses. If a patient is in a work meeting and has a quick question (“Is the office cancelled today because of the snow?”), they’re probably going to pop on over to your (hopefully existent and active) Facebook Page or Twitter profile for real-time, up-to-date info. Trying to build up a collection of testimonials? Encouraging people to review you on Facebook is a great way to do so. You can then take these positive reviews and highlight them on your other channels, perhaps after turning the quotes into mini works of art with some free, easy design programs (i.e. Canva).

Practice patience

Be patient with yourself as you experiment with what works for your audience. You may be surprised by what resonates (or doesn’t), and just as your practice was built brick by brick, it will take time to develop your online community. Trust that the new growth you’re cultivating online will circle back to a more enriching experience at your clinic, for you and your clients.

How We Can Help

[note_box]E-rehab.com publishes regular, fresh, and engaging content for its members.  From videos to memes, we provide a variety of content to compliment your social media marketing strategy.  Contact us us to learn more about how we can help you with your social media marketing.[/note_box]

How to Choose Physical Therapy Website Developer

physical therapy website developer

There are certain things that everyone is looking for in a physical therapy website developer. Some of these are pretty basic things.

  • You want a functional website that’s going to generate more traffic for your business.
  • You want your website to be a patient education tool.
  • You want your website to help with operational efficiency.
  • You want your website to communicate your expertise, etc., etc.

The tone of your website is generally considered to be important. Given that most of your traffic to your website will be prospects (potential patients), you want your website so be easy to navigate and to clearly represent the quality of service you provide.  What I often state is, “In a service business, people judge what they can’t see based on what they can see.”  Make sure your website is very attractive.

These are all important things to keep in mind when you’re looking for a physical therapy web developer. However, it’s also important to communicate exactly what you’re hoping to achieve. You’ll have to work hand-in-hand with them to get the types of results you want.

What Are You Trying to Achieve?

It’s always a good idea to be really clear about what you’re trying to achieve with your website. Do you want to attract new patients? This is often what many physical therapists want to do with their online presence. But for some, new patients may not matter that much. Instead, they may want to improve their online image. Maybe they want to become thought leaders in their field. For them, the quality of viewers attracted may be more important than the quantity. It’s important to convey your aims to your web developer so that you can see the types of results you want.

Design Secret: Look at a Lot of Websites but Only Spend 5 Seconds on Each PT Website

It’s a great idea to look at websites of companies within the physical therapy profession. Once you know what your competitors are going for, you can compete with them more easily. Forbes magazine agrees with this idea, adding, “Most designers are not experts in your field of business. Having a list of competitor websites and doing your own research about those competitors and similar businesses can help you articulate ideas for the new website.”  Here’s a tip though.  You could waste hours of time looking at other physical therapy websites.  Don’t!  Do a search for physical therapy in various cities.  Click on links the to each PT website but only look at it for 5 seconds.  You will know within that timeframe if you like the look and feel of the website or not.  If you do, write it down and communicate it to your developer.

What Does Your Web Developer Specialize In?

Before you start working with a web developer, you might want to check out their previous work and see what they specialize in. If you’re a physical therapist working with E-rehab, you don’t need to worry because we specialize in building websites for physical therapy private practices. You can feel free to point to our previous work and tell us what you liked and what you didn’t.

We bring a certain type of expertise to the task while you bring another. We’re experts in web development while you know the services you provide. It’s important for you to stay involved in the process, overseeing the content and design to make sure that it portrays your practice accurately. At E-Rehab, we’ll be happy to keep you as involved in the process as you’d like to be.

An article from Huffington Post also suggests that you should check out the “back-end” of websites your web developer has built.  This will give you an idea of what it will be like to later edit your website on your own. Is it going to be a simple, easy process or will it be too complicated for you?  We build our websites on the most popular website development platform on the web-WordPress.  This means it is easy to update your website on your own.  We even provide personalized training, videos, and phone and email support 5 days a week for you.

[note_box]Take home message: Your website should generate business, communicate your brand image and expertise, improve efficiency, and should be a patient education tool. It can also be a place where you sell product, appointment requests are taken, paperwork is filled out, where a video story about your practice is communicated, where outcomes are presented, and more. Take the time to invest in a good physical therapy website. It will certainly pay dividends on a daily basis.[/note_box]

Contact us for more great tips on working hand-in-hand with your physical therapy web developer.

Why Seeing the Big Picture of Digital Marketing Is Therapeutic

physical therapy marketing the big picture of digital

It’s a little ironic: you’re a physical therapist who improves the health of others, but when tasked with the overwhelming flood of information involved in online marketing, you become stressed, tense, and exhausted.

But there’s a quick relief valve to this stress: step back and look at the big picture — at the panorama that sits behind all of the little online chores of physical therapy marketing.

And, thankfully, this big picture is not complicated — yet so many businesses overlook a simple truth: marketing, in the end, marketing for small businesses, i.e. physical therapy practices, is about getting your market (doctors, current & past patients, and your community) to know, like and trust you. But obtaining that prized marketing goal requires an essential skill.

Being a Good Listener

Yes, online marketing involves plenty of techno-babble at times — terms like “scalable,” “metrics,” “big-data,” “viral,” or “growth hacking.”

But the heart of online marketing, or any marketing, thrives on something everyone can relate to: being a good listener.

In the ancient days of sales before the Internet, door-to-door salespeople — the really good ones who ran their numbers through the roof — all did one thing really well.

They listened.

They listened carefully and sincerely. They were comfortable with silence. They weren’t eager to steamroll their customers with non-stop pitching and strong-arm talking tactics. They asked good questions and then really listened to their customers until they pin-pointed that one red-hot need, that one cry for help that perfectly matched what their product offered.

Nothing has changed. Although you do not travel door-to-door conducting surveys on paper or pitching services, you are still listening. In the digital age, we now do much of our listening through screens. All of the online spheres — social media, data analytics, web design, e-newsletters — have become digital ears.

Superb Web Design: Making That Crucial First Impression

[pullquote1 quotes=”true” align=”right” variation=”steelblue” textColor=”#4c7c81″]In fact, over the last 6 weeks, across all of the mobile websites
E-rehab.com manages, we’ve logged over 5,000 calls. [/pullquote1] If you fail to make a stellar first impression with someone you meet, they’re less likely to enter into a meaningful conversation with you. Your website — its visual appeal, navigational ease, functionality — has to be top-notch to earn the trust of visitors and create those conversations.

Physical therapy practice owners need a complete, state-of-the art online marketing system, and that’s exactly what we offer in our proven web design model. By combining Google, Yahoo!, and Bing-friendly content, an intuitive management Control Panel, an integrated blog, powerful visual appeal, and multiple calls-to-action, your site will create valuable conversations with visitors.

But desktop websites are only half of the equation. According to recent studies by Pew Internet, 34% of Internet users “go online mostly using their phones.” In fact, over the last 6 weeks, across all of the mobile websites E-rehab.com manages, we’ve logged over 5,000 calls. Mobile marketing grows every year in its dominance, and a powerful mobile website is a must. We design fast-loading, visually attractive mobile sites that will increase user engagement and attract both new and repeat visitors — in addition to many other features of mobile marketing, including QR code creation.

Search Engine Optimization

Part of being a good listener in the Screen Age means creating more conversations. We learn to listen well by doing it often. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) creates more opportunities for you to listen by bringing more traffic to your site.

But it’s more than just opening the floodgates and letting faceless IP addresses stampede through your web traffic stats. As search engines have evolved, it’s become more about search experience optimization. We make sure your website optimizes the experience for human beings, not the robot crawlers that scour the Internet. When a website creates helpful search experiences for prospects, search engines notice and this improves your ranking.

E-rehab helps you find that balance between excellent user experience in your site design and SEO guidelines that help your website stand out to search engines.

We can also determine your local SEO effectiveness and look for ways to position you more effectively among local prospects.

Remember, according to Pew Internet, 72% of internet users say they looked online for health information within the past year. When asked to think about the last time they did so, 77% of online health seekers say they began at a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

Effective local SEO helps you create more conversations with prospective patients in your community.

Patient Survey

And, of course, the direct approach is the best approach. E-rehab excels in creating attractive, easy-to-use, interactive patient surveys that can be delivered via email. We can post ratings, reviews, and survey results on your website and create dynamic charts. But most importantly, our services help you ask the right questions and listen to what your patients need.

Relief from Marketing Brain Freeze

When you reduce a complex system to its essentials, it’s a little easier to relax. When you know that the goal is attainable — that, when boiled down, marketing is simply about getting your community to know, like, and trust you– it makes the process less intimidating.

The bottom-line? Digital marketing doesn’t have to be a splitting headache. Contact us to see how we can alleviate your stress and help you listen well in our digital world.

Physical Therapy Blogging – Simpler Than You Think

physical therapy blogging

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many ways to start your own physical therapy blogging regimen.  If we have put the cart before the horse and you are still considering whether or not you need a blog, well…take a look at these stats here.

Success Stories

These stories can be from your own experience or you can research them. You can use stories of popular celebrities if you are trying to reach a certain demographic, then you can pick the celebrity accordingly. If you want to reach people interested in sports you could choose a popular athlete.

Stories that come from the public will work, as well. People can easily place themselves inside the stories and learn about the numerous benefits of physical therapy.

Training and Education

Another blog idea is to blog about the training and educational process that it takes to become a physical therapist. You can cover the guidelines of the American Physical Therapy Association. These can help assure potential clients of the legitimacy of your business and its staff.

Another idea related to education is to simply educate people about physical therapy. You can get into the specifics of treatment with them. If people know more about the topic of physical therapy they can become more comfortable with it.

Interviews

You can do simple interviews with people in the physical therapy sector to achieve more prestige for your blog. An interview with a professor of physical therapy can help add an educational spin to your blog. A practicing physical therapist can be interviewed to humanize themselves and their profession.

Explain Who Needs Physical Therapy

This can be done in a variety of ways. It can combine the success stories and interviews above, so that you can let people know how they can benefit from seeking physical therapy themselves. Statistics and charts could also be used explaining all of the different benefits of physical therapy.

Interact with Readers

Some blog posts can simply exist to interact with your own reader segment. If your readers see that you care enough to respond to their comments or questions they will definitely feel valued enough to keep coming back to your blog.

Establish Your Audience

There are many audiences you can target in your physical therapy blog. You can target physical therapists themselves. You could write blogs about how to best run your practice and tips on interacting with and retaining clients. You can also target people who are simply interested in physical therapy. They could be interested in becoming a physical therapist or seeking treatment themselves.

There are many audiences out there. Once you establish which audience you are seeking; you will be able to write your blogs around this particular audience.

Establish Your Tone

The tone for your blog depends on who you are writing it for. If you are writing a blog for a physical therapy office you should likely keep it professional. However, if it is for physical therapists themselves you could let loose a bit and use some work humor. Tone really depends on your audience and the purpose of your blog.

What do you want your blog to accomplish?

The final consideration and perhaps the most important is to have a goal for your blog. Whether you want more traffic to your website, to inform people, or simply to discuss topics in physical therapy: there are many ways to do each of these things.

Feel free to contact us at E-Rehab for more technical tips and tricks.

Stay Up With the Times and Modernize Your Practice With a Strong Web Presence

important web presence

Don’t Deny the Changing Tides of Business

Some business owners, especially those with a bricks and mortar business, might like to pretend the Internet isn’t happening. This can be particularly true for private physical therapy practices that have been around for a while and have never needed to make any real drastic changes to adapt with the times. They think if they ignore what’s happening around them and put their heads in the proverbial sand, it will all go away.

Sorry, but for those of you stuck in denial and the past, it’s time to take your heads out of the sand and face reality. The Internet isn’t going anywhere. It’s here to stay. It’s like a juggernaut that’s thundering along, gaining more and more momentum, and all your potential patients are moving with it.

Get Mobile-friendly Now

Right now, just having a website is not enough. It is vital that your practice has strong web presence with a mobile-friendly version.
[note_box] Your patients are not going to wait until you have one created. If they can’t see your site properly (if at all) on their smart phones, they will likely take their business somewhere else…your competition.[/note_box]

This is not scaremongering. The statistics all around are warning us what is happening right now: 49% of mobile subscribers in the United States own a smart phone, and they are eager to find information about your practice and possibly come to you with their business.
These numbers are growing: 9 out 10 phones now sold today are smart phones. In the first quarter of 2012 alone, almost 145 million smart phones were sold. By the end of 2012, it was estimated that more smart phones would be sold than PCs, with estimated sales of 657 million smart phones sold to consumers. As an experiment, ask your friends and family what kind of phone they have. If they don’t have a smart phone at the moment, no doubt they will tell you that they will be getting one soon.

A Vital Component of Everyday Life for Some

Smart phones are an important part of your patients’ lives. Some people may even get addicted to them, constantly using them for Twitter posts, updating their Facebook status and shopping online.

If you provide treatment services that they want, they will expect to be able to see your website on their phone. If your website content is not easy to read on a mobile phone, you are in trouble, because most mobile users will simply leave your site and take their business elsewhere.

So even if you don’t think you need a mobile version of your website, you will actually be doing your practice a lot of harm by ignoring the statistics and your customer’s needs. Every day you don’t have a mobile website you may be losing potential patients interested in your practice who decide to go elsewhere.

Future-proofing Your Practice

Having a mobile website will future-proof your practice by opening the doors to literally hundreds of new and creative ways to drive traffic to your site. For example QR (quick response) codes will allow you to create unlimited marketing campaigns that will drive potential patients to specific mobile friendly landing pages with calls to action that work.

Recent figures show that 50% of Smartphone uses have scanned a QR code and 18% of them made a purchase afterwards as a result. That’s an easy increase in business you wouldn’t have gotten without your mobile marketing platform. The opportunity to improve your practice’s web presence and boost business with something as simple as a QR code should be clear.

Another important point to focus on is you need get your name out there to constantly remind your potential patient-base of who you are and how you’re interested in helping them improve their condition. Using the right tools and resources is vital. Some business owners attempt to draw attention to their business by throwing away good money on large newspaper ads, the Yellow Pages and flyers.

Newspapers and the Yellow Pages are part of a dying business model, and in most cases, it’s a waste of time putting a one-time advertisement in them. Flyers are expensive and only reach a limited demographic.

Mobile marketing is the most effective way of keeping in contact with your current and potential patients that may have forgotten you or not known that you were there.

Consult Us for Additional Expert Guidance

We would advise any private practice considering using mobile marketing to reach potentially millions more customers to contact us at E-Rehab to discuss how you can employ traffic generating marketing strategies and turbo-charge your practice.

Having a mobile-friendly site will not only impress your patients, but will set you well apart from your competition, who still have their heads in the sand and are refusing to acknowledge that times are moving at such a terrific pace.

[colored_box bgColor=”#788794  ” textColor=”#ffffff  “]Keep up with the times and bring your practice up-to-date with a web-based marketing strategy and you’ll notice a change in the way you’re perceived.[/colored_box]

Attract More People To Your Practice And Expand Your Patient Base

Attracting More People to Your Physical Therapy Practice
Attracting More People to Your Physical Therapy Practice

Do you need more customers? Are you sick of people visiting your website but not calling to schedule an appointment?

Much worse than having no visitors to your website is actually getting visitors, but no new patients. That can be quite frustrating.

If that has happened to you, don’t despair. We are familiar with marketing for small physical therapy practices and know a few tricks to help you attract not only new patients to your website, but expand your patient base with ones who will eventually decide to come to your practice for treatment.

Identify your target audience – don’t try to reach out to everybody

The first and most important step for any business is to identify your target audience. Do it right, and you will have a much easier time converting visitors into patients. Do it wrong, and you risk creating a product/service that nobody (or not enough people) wants.

It is well known customers want to interact with brands they can connect with.

To do this, you need to know what kind of image you want to portray and then adapt your marketing to directly appeal to the ideal brand of patient you want to attract to your practice. This is done by creating ideal buyer persona (an image or profile of your ideal patient) based on their buying habits and lifestyle.

So instead of searching for patients, help them find you. Go to the sites and places they go to; put yourself in the places they want to be and invite them to come and see you. If you have a clear image of who you want to serve, you are going to be in a better position to give them what they want.

A lot of companies make the mistake of thinking that everybody is a potential customer. They are not! You need to focus on the dreams and desires of the people most likely to become patients, and then pay them special attention by treating them well.

Don’t try to rent your audience, build your own instead

Some businesses try to take a short cut by renting eyeballs or clicks. They buy and rent email mailing lists in order to get extra customers. Sometimes the gamble can pay off, but if you want patients who are looking for the physical therapy services you offer, it is much more profitable to grow your own list instead.

This is not hard to do. For example, on your Facebook page you could provide shareable, inspirational and humorous content like images and quotes to encourage visitors to engage with you.

The people who enjoy the content on your site are generally the ones who will be more likely to come to you for treatment or refer others, and you can quickly attract a lot of eager new fans and patients.

Word of mouth marketing

The best way to attract new customers to your site is by word of mouth, and social media marketing, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., makes this easier to do than ever before. It is fast, free and easy.

We are experts in social media marketing and have lots of great ideas for you, so don’t be afraid to give us a call to see what we can do to help you.

Ditch the large-scale marketing campaigns

In the old days, marketing used to be large-scale isolated advertising and media events, but things have changed. Your patients don’t live on a campaign schedule. They are always on the move and are constantly being bombarded with new information and offers wherever they go. As a result, they have become more discerning and advert aware.

Social media makes it easy to follow a person from their first visit to your site, to the point that they become a lead and eventually, if all goes well, a new patient.

The relationship doesn’t end there, as your constant engagement and relationship building with them should continue long after their first treatment session with you. You can easily get them to come back in the future or give referrals if you handle it right.

[note_box]Use social media to establish and build relationships with potential patients, but don’t forget to continue to build relationships and engage people once they become patients. This makes it easier to get them to come back in the future or refer their friend, family and other people they know.[/note_box]

Copy your competition

Do a bit of research. Find out how your competition is attracting new patients. Do they advertise on the Internet or is it mainly offline? Do they buy advertisements in local media like newspapers and radio, or do they have a large social media following online?

If they are doing something that clearly works for them and are getting new patients, you need to try and adopt similar measures so that you don’t continue losing patients to them.

Attend physical therapy conferences and exhibitions

We are big fans of attending conferences, exhibitions and networking events. It is a great way to make new connections and spread the word about your practice to new potential patients.

This type of event is also perfect for showing potential patients how caring you are and that you strive to make all patients happy. Exceptional customer service plus excellent service will always ensure that you have a thriving business.

[note_box]People buy from people they have met. So, if you are seen and are active at events, people will be more inclined to come to you for treatment. Use these events to get people to visit your website and join your mailing list, so you can stay in constant contact with them.[/note_box]

By using some or all of these methods you will be able to attract more visitors to your website and practice, who will hopefully turn into new patients.

[colored_box variation=”steelblue”]It is an exciting time for small businesses and you don’t want to miss out on the revolution that is happening at the moment. Old marketing methods no longer work. The way that consumers buy is changing and you need to change with them, knowing who they are, where they are and why they make business decisions.

If you are interested in any of these marketing strategies or want to talk to us about other ways that we can help your practice, we would love to hear from you.[/colored_box]

Attract New Patients With Pinterest

for Physical Therapy
Pinterest for Physical Therapy

Pinterest has fast become a force to be reckoned with in the world of social media, and its influence is still growing, not just in bringing products to the attention of consumers in a visual marketplace but in resulting sales and business growth.

According to Wishpond, referrals that come from Pinterest spend a staggering 70% more than referrals from any other form of social media. Added to that, ComScore reports that Pinterest buyers “spend more money, more often and on more items than any of the other top five social media sites”. That should add up to some pretty strong motivation for you to be part of this social media community.

Why does Pinterest have this effect? Essentially it has to do with the fact that people are visually stimulated to buy. We like to see how something looks, whether it’s in situ in our home or while it’s being worn, how it works and how we can use it. More than that, we like to know the things we like are things other people find appealing and attractive, and by seeing what others are looking at, we can spot the latest trends, and see what is going to be the next big thing to do/wear/drive/watch/use in our lives.

Pinterest is perfectly designed to fill all those needs, and as a small business owner, you can take advantage of what is essentially a huge selection of people’s “Wishlists” to generate the desire in consumers for products and services. Here is a checklist of how to sign up for and get the most out of a Pinterest Business Account.

[note_box]According to ComScore reports, Pinterest buyers “spend more money, more often and on more items than any of the other top five social media sites”. This is because they are visually stimulated to buy. Use this to your advantage to generate the desire in consumers for products and services.[/note_box]

Getting Started: Setting Up A Pinterest Business Account

  1. Go to https://business.pinterest.com and click on the “Join as a business” button.
  2. Choose to set up a business account or convert your current personal account into a business account (business accounts have more tools available and there are other benefits which are outlined later in this article).
  3. Select a username. This is a unique name between 3-15 characters in length that appears at the end of your personal Pinterest URL (https://www.pinterest.com/USERNAME) (try to include Keywords that link in to your practice. This will help optimize your position in Search Engines results).
  4. Fill out all the profile information
    • Basic information section
    • Email notification
    • Link up to all your other social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
    • Add profile picture for your Pinterest home page (Profile images on Pinterest are square.  Pinterest will choose the center square of any image regardless of the content. So if you use a portrait picture as a headshot, you may find only part of your face is visible in the Pinterest profile, so try to crop your image down into a square format before you upload it. Remember this is your BUSINESS Pinterest. While you may pin images that are fun, your profile image should be professional, so use either your company logo or a decent headshot).
    • Add a profile name
    • Complete the “About Description” section  (You only have 200 characters, but make sure to include keywords that relate to your practice to maximize your SEO opportunities).
    • Install the ‘Pin It’ button onto your bookmark toolbar.

Verification

It is important that you verify your e-mail address in order to be able to use the Pinterest website (Pinterest allows business users to have their website address in their public profile. Verified websites have a red check mark, which tells others that your site is safe to visit. This immediately builds confidence in you.)

Start To Build Your Boards

  1. Click on “Create A Board”.
  2. Name your Board (To maximize your Pinterest appeal to others, name your boards with interesting, appealing titles and have a good mix of business and social boards. Good social boards to create include Inspiration, Cute, Travel, Pets, Themed Holiday Boards (Christmas, Easter etc), Food, Tutorials, Tips & Tricks, as well as creating boards to showcase some of the treatments and services your practice offers, as well as professional tips and advice for patients).
  3. Fill in the ‘Board Description’ (Remember to research and use keywords here too as this description is also searchable).
  4. Put the Board in a category (Once you do this, it will become visible to people who are not followers of you when they are browsing through that particular category. Otherwise you will limit the amount of people who see your images to those people who are a follower of either you or your board).
  5. Choose to make your board secret or public. (Secret boards are only visible to people you invite and are not searchable. You can make a Secret board public but you cannot make a public board Secret).
  6. Create five boards minimum with a good range of varied themes, ideally, each board should end up with at least 10-20 images.

Adding Images: “Pinning”

Ideally, you should be looking to add between 5-10 images per day. Not only will this keep your profile fresh and current, it will offer incentives for your fans and followers to keep revisiting you, especially if your content is entertaining and informative. (There are websites like PinGraphy.com that offer a paid services which in return allows you to schedule and pin images automatically at chosen days and times, which means you only have to upload in one bulk lot and the system takes care of the rest automatically)

You can add an image (known as a ‘PIN’) to one of your boards from a number of different sources:

  1. From Pinterest Search
    • Find an image to pin.
    • Click ‘Pin It’.
    • Choose one of your boards from the ‘Board’ dropdown.
    • Add description.
    • Click red ‘Pin It’ button.
  2. From Inside Your Pinterest Board
    • Click ‘Add A Pin’ placeholder.
    • Choose to add an image from your computer, from a website or from Pinterest (When pinning your own image, make sure it has a file name that has been customized to a snappy title, because on Pinterest the file name becomes the title of your image).
    • Select board to pin image to from dropdown (when pinning an image to one of your business-related boards, always remember to take full advantage of keywording the description box and title).
  3. From An Online Source
    • Find an image you wish to pin.
    • Click the ‘Pin It’ button you installed on your Bookmark toolbar.
    • Select the image.
    • Click the Pin It button that appears inside the image when you hover over it.
    • Choose the board to pin it to from the dropdown.
    • Add a description.
    • Click ‘Pin It’.

Finding Images To Pin

Pin images from a wide range of sources.

Don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon and re-pin a really popular or trending image. (You should be trying to connect with as many people as possible. Having popular images that attract people’s attention is a good tactic to use).

Search out images that have been re-pinned a lot of times and re-pin a number of these at regular intervals to your own boards.

Look for images that are out of the ordinary, astonishing, unique or funny. These are the pins that tend to go viral (every time someone re-pins an image, the board it comes from is shown to the re-pinner, as well as being given the option of following the board or the Pinterest profile. This opens your practice’s Pinterest profile up to many more people, and the more re-pins you get, the more people will visit this profile or your website)

—Search and pin images from trending topics to add interest to your overall profile and to keep your content fresh.

—Keep in touch with other social media sites to see what people are interested in.

Pin a range of images of treatments and services offered by your practice, along with useful infographics of helpful tips, guidance and ‘How-To’ information.

Search on Pinterest for images around the theme of the board you wish to pin to (Enter your theme keywords into the ‘Search’ box at the top of the Pinterest page. This will give you a starting point to begin exploring).

Online newspapers and magazines often have special “The Top 10…” features, which could be things like the top 10 places to visit, top 5 romantic gifts, 7 worst car parking examples, etc. These are ready-made image stores, but only pin one or two examples.

[note_box]Add between 5 and 10 images per day by pinning new images of your own and repining really popular or trending images that are relevant to your practice and treatment methods. Popular images attract people’s attention, which will help your Pinterest page get noticed. But, be a polite contributor. Do not just repin other people’s photos. And, don’t forget to thank people who repin your photos.[/note_box]

Build Up Traffic On Pinterest

Add Keywords to the following:

  • Your User Name
  • Your ‘About’ Profile Section
  • Board Names
  • Board Descriptions
  • Image File Names
  • Image descriptions

Here are a number of additional tips to help build traffic for your practice:

  • Add links to the captions and information of your Pinterest posts. These links remain live, no matter how many times the image is re-pinned, so they will all lead back to your site.
  • Edit uploaded images to include a link in your pin.
  • Use a contest to increase engagement, such as ‘Pin It to Win It’.
  • Link your Pinterest to your other social media accounts.
  • Add the “Follow me on Pinterest” button to your Facebook and Twitter accounts (It makes it easier to share pins between Social media sites).
  • Add the Pinterest tab to your Facebook page (You can use the Facebook Developer Application to do this or you can go to www.woobox.com and get a free app there).
  • Add a ‘Pin It’ button on to your website.
  • Invite friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, or search Pinterest.
  • Follow other Pinterest boards or users that have high numbers of followers.
  • Follow back those who have re-pinned one of your images or who are following you.
  • Don’t just pin or re-pin content. Be a polite user and a contributor to the social fabric of Pinterest by using the ‘Like’, ‘Comment’ and ‘Share’ features too, as well as thanking those who re-pin from your board.
  • Tweet or share on Facebook some special or interesting images.

Monitor Your Stats

Use Google Analytics and Pinterest Analytics to scrutinize your Pinterest performance. Find out useful things like: which days and times that you pin bring you the biggest results, and which boards have the most followers, and then pin to these boards more often.

Maximize Visual Interest

Place your most important, popular and related boards in the center of the page, at both the top and middle of the page. (A study by Mashable gave valuable insight into how people peruse the boards of an individual Pinterest user. Most people will tend to focus on the center of the screen, so they start top center and move their eyes straight down the middle of the page and boards here get the most views.)

  • Choose the most engaging image for the cover of each board.
  • Ensure all your important boards are positioned above the fold (the top part of any page when viewed on screen).
  • Change the Board covers and arrangement at regular monthly intervals to keep your profile looking fresh.
  • Make sure to position any seasonal boards you may have in the top row.

Attract New Patients With Pinterest

By creating a well-run Pinterest business account, you will massively improve your web presence, which will strengthen relationships with many potential patients and eventually lead to more business. The visual nature of Pinterest has given it a proven track record of inspiring a viewer to progress to becoming a purchaser. By getting involved on Pinterest, your private practice can take advantage of this, which will bring you more traffic to your website and more business.

[colored_box variation=”steelblue”]The time spent creating and maintaining a well-run Pinterest business account is well worth it. The potential rewards for your practice are huge, but we know many private practice owners have their hands full running their businesses on a day-to-day basis, or they find the whole process very daunting. We can help you make the most of Pinterest and our knowledge of social media marketing can help you take full advantage of the platform. Give us a call for some guidance with Pinterest or to hear some of the ways we can help your practice grow.[/colored_box]

Avoid Chasing Away Potential Patients By Using Good Web Design

Patient Running Away From A Doctor

Attracting a potential patients to your website is hard enough, but grabbing their interest and persuading them to come to your practice for treatment is even more difficult. That is why it’s so important to good web design so you don’t frustrate or irritate your visitors by making them jump through hoops to find the information that they need.

Here are some examples of common website mistakes that make visitors leave a website within the first few minutes:

Putting up Barriers that Prevent Them Viewing the Information

Avoid putting up barriers between you and potential patients by forcing visitors to register before them can view content of your site. In most cases, the visitor will leave and try to find the information that they are looking for elsewhere.

Stale Old Content

It is no use having a glossy, professional looking site if your content is old and stale. You need to keep your site constantly updated with fresh new content. Not only will this make your site more relevant and interesting, but it will also contribute to higher rankings on the search engines.

Too Many Ads

If your site bombards visitors with too many ads that pop up, flash at them or fill the entire screen, then you are really going to infuriate them.  If it’s bad enough, they may leave the site, which is one less patient that will come to your practice for treatment. Running ads on your site makes good business sense but in order to maximize your retention rate and not chase away visitors, your ads need to be discreet and fit in with the theme of your site.

Bad Navigation

Nothing frustrates a website visitor more than a site that is hard to navigate. If it is too complicated or too hard for your visitors to find their way around, it will make them feel confused, angry and irritated. These are definitely not the emotions you want your potential patients to feel when they visit your website.

Hiding Your Website Content

It’s a big mistake to make your visitors have to search your entire website just to find the relevant information that they need. Try to group similar content in a clear, concise manner. Don’t complicate things by distributing your content and information across multiple pages that could easily have been put on one page. Bad content structure can literally destroy your conversion and retention rates. Make all of your content, especially your contact information, easy to find. It’s estimated that as many as 50% of sales are lost because potential customers can’t find what they are looking for.

Invasive Use of Audio and Video

Most of your visitors will prefer to choose what content they want to absorb. Having voice or audio content that loads up and starts playing automatically can potentially drive a lot of patients away. Give users the choice of viewing videos or listening to audio content. Don’t force them.

[colored_box variation=”steelblue”]Call us today for your free website health check. We will make your site more customer-friendly and in turn help you improve business.[/colored_box]

Getting Google to Love Your Website and Move Up in Search Engine Results

on-line marketing diagramBefore the Internet, life was so much easier with good old-fashioned phone books. Back in those days businesses were listed in alphabetical order so AadvarkA1 Services was always going to be listed above every other business in their category.

Yes, to be listed above every other business in your niche all you had to do was name your business with as many A’s in the title as you could and there you would be, at the top of the page.

How things have changed. Nowadays search engines like Google have taken over and achieving a top ranking website takes much more effort. However, the results are worth it.

For many companies, Google is their lifeblood. They recognize that Google provides their customers with trusted information from trusted websites and it is every website owner’s goal to be on the first page of Google’s search engine results, preferably sitting right at the top of the page.

The danger for many small practices is that they are too focused on getting their websites featured at the top of Google’s first page that they forget about their patients. In total contrast, Google thinks mainly about your visitors and it wants to deliver the very best information to them relating to whatever search term they use.

Why it is important that Google loves your website

Many small practices make the mistake and think that just because they have a website, that sales will automatically follow. It doesn’t work like that. Your success depends heavily on the search engines. They decide how relevant your website is and whether or not they would recommend it to other users.

It really doesn’t matter how expensive or amazing your website is; without the search engines sending you much needed traffic, you won’t be making any money. That is why pleasing search engines, and in particular Google, should be the aim of all websites. Building a good relationship with Google is not always easy, but as in real life, every good relationship takes time to grow and evolve.

The ingredients to a good relationship with Google

Here is a list of SEO tactics that will not only please Google but keep your patients happy too. This is what you need to do to gain the love and respect of the world’s biggest search engine:

Keep Your Website Fresh

Google hates stale, neglected and unloved websites. Instead, it loves to see a website that contains fresh content and up-to-the-minute news and updates.

[note_box]You need to give Google a reason to promote your website instead of your competition. The best way to do this is by providing high-quality content and updated information about your services.[/note_box]

As a private physical therapy practice, you don’t necessarily have to add new content every day, but you do need to show Google that you have not abandoned your site and you are keeping patients up to date with what’s happening at your practice.

Show That You Are An Authority In Your Niche

Whenever somebody types a search command in the search engine Google wants to make sure that they deliver the most relevant and informative results. If they didn’t, then people would use other search engines instead.

Google is searching for and will only deliver trusted sources, so if you are an expert in the field of physical therapy and have many years experience and a wealth of knowledge about the services you offer, then your site needs to reflect that information.

It’s also important to remember that the Internet is no longer anonymous. You need to show who you are, what you can do and why your customers and followers can trust you. It’s no good trying to hide behind a corporate or faceless style website. If you can convince people to trust you, Google and all of the other search engines will trust you too.

That means that you get so many more visitors resulting in increased sales.

Score 100% when it comes to ‘On Page SEO’

What on earth does that mean? “On Page SEO” is a term that essentially describes everything that needs to be done on your website itself so that it’s optimized and ready for the search engines.

Think of “On Page SEO” as laying the foundations to your online empire. You need to have solid, firm foundations and then build your business on those. Google will love you for it while other sites will be heavily penalized and will lose rankings (and customers).

[note_box]Here at E-Rehab, we can help ensure steps are taken so that your SEO (search engine optimization) is done correctly in order to give you higher rankings.[/note_box]

Never violate Google webmaster guidelines

This is another area where a business like E-Rehab protects you, but if you’re doing all of the SEO yourself you need to make sure that you don’t violate Google webmaster guidelines, as they will drop your site from the rankings in an instant.

In most cases when webmasters do violate the guidelines it isn’t intentional but simply because they were not familiar with the guidelines and did so without even realizing it.

To make sure that you stay on the right side of Google, it’s worth taking the time to read the Google Webmaster Guidelines (enter that phrase into Google and it will direct you to the right place).

As a general rule, don’t try to beat the system. If you read about some supposed fast-track trick to get extra visitors to your site or if the claim sounds too good to be true, then it probably is and it should be avoided. In the long term, you will do a lot of damage to your search engine ranking and your practice might never recover from it.

Be patient. Follow the Google guidelines, which are there to help you. The good results will come.

Be Social

Although there are no specific figures to prove the case, Google has suggested that one of the best ways to promote a website is through social media platforms.

In fact, in their Google webmaster videos, you may have noticed that they frequently mention social media as one of the most appropriate ways to promote a website.

In addition to having a positive effect with your search engine rankings, social media will have other beneficial knock-on effects as using social media will increase customer engagement as you share content that interests your customers. Social media promotes brand awareness and is a perfect way to encourage customers and other website owners alike to know about your content and spread the word by creating relevant links back to your site.

Google wants to help you to stay updated

As we mentioned before, Google wants to deliver the most relevant and helpful results to their visitors. To ensure that they do that, they provide lots of advice and help to webmasters to help keep them abreast with all of the latest trends and developments.

For example, their quality team makes more than 500 changes per year in their algorithm so you need to keep up to date or you will fall behind and your rankings could plummet literally overnight.

Currently, you should be giving special attention to making sure that your website is mobile- and tablet-friendly and looking at being active on the Google+ social media network.

This is something that we can also do as part of our service.

Have Good Titles and Descriptions

Whenever Google writes about SEO, one topic that they keep repeating is the importance of having good titles and descriptions in your website pages. These are the titles and descriptions that you see on the results page when you type in a phrase in Google.

Follow these basic guidelines:

  • Titles should be less than 70 characters (not words) in length.
  • Descriptions should be less than 160 characters.
  • Titles and descriptions should be absolutely unique for every page in your website.

Don’t stuff titles and descriptions with keywords (Keyword stuffing occurs when an article or webpage is chock-full of keywords in an attempt to increase a website’s search engine rank.). Here is an example of keyword stuffing, which will only annoy Google: Are you looking for cheap skinny jeans? If you’re looking for cheap skinny jeans, look no further. Our cheap skinny jeans website is the best place to order your new cheap skinny jeans. Feel free to check out our selection of cheap skinny jeans from our cheap skinny jeans selection.

You can see why Google would hate that but it’s amazing how many websites do it anyways, and then wonder why they don’t get ranked.

If you want to attract local patients then optimize your title and descriptions for local SEO with the name of the towns or cities you provide physical therapy services to.

Conclusion

The most important point to take away from this article is this: if you want to keep Google on your side so they continue to send your website lots of visitors and potential patients every month, you have to play by their rules.

If you don’t have the knowledge, skills or time to keep up-to-date with Google, don’t risk things by trying to do it yourself or by taking shortcuts.

The fact is, without Google it will be very difficult for your practice to succeed and draw in new patients with your online presence.

[colored_box bgColor=”#788794″ textColor=”#ffffff”]We know that SEO can be a confusing subject and it’s both annoying and frustrating when the goalposts are continually being moved. Don’t forget that you don’t need to tackle this alone. At E-Rehab, we’re here to help you and will be happy to explain the benefits and pitfalls as well managing your online marketing for you.

The investment will be worth it because the amount of traffic and patients that Google sends to your site will give you and your practice significant profits and stop your competitors from stealing business that should be yours.[/colored_box]

 

13 Easy Ways to Improve Physical Therapy Websites and Attract More Visitors

atract more website visitorsSome of the private practice clients we speak to have spent huge amounts of money on their websites, but are still unhappy with the results. The majority don’t do anything about it, as they think it is going to incur more huge expenses and make the assumption that having a better website actually means having to start creating a brand new website from scratch.

In some cases that might be true, but from our experience, just a couple of tweaks here and there are enough to make the difference between a site being successful or not.
If your concerned that your physical therapy practice’s website isn’t attracting enough visitors and new patients, here’s a list of our top 13 quick fixes that have converted non-performing websites into 24-hour sales machines:

1) Have a Call to Action on Every Page

Every single page on your website needs to be working for you by making every visitor take some sort of action. For example, you might want them to give you a call, leave a testimonial about successful therapy, watch a video or leave a comment.

Whatever it is, make sure you tell them what it is you want them to do. Make it easy for them. The last thing you want is for them to be wondering what to do. Don’t assume that they know what to do, even if you think it’s perfectly obvious. Tell them instead.

2) Put Your Phone Number on Every Page

Although this might seem like common sense, it is surprising to see how many companies bury their phone number deep within a site, making it hard for potential customers to contact them.

[note_box]In a lot of cases, visitors have actually come to the site to look for your phone number, so don’t make them hunt for it. Putting it at the top right hand corner is best, but you can also put it in the footer of your site. Remember, patients are visiting your website to find you, contact you, and get directions to your office.  Make your contact information easy to find. [/note_box]

3) Add an ‘About Us’ Page

“About Us” pages often help customers better decide who you are and whether or not they want to take their business to your practice.

Whether they are a businessperson or a consumer, when a person selects a company to do business with, they like to know a bit about their background, so don’t be afraid to give your visitors a brief history that will help them better understand what your practice is all about.

NOTE: The Staff page and About Us page serve different functions.  On the staff page, adding photographs of you and your team with short bios about them, helps you and your clinicians become real people, not just a faceless practice.

Listing your experience and credentials is important, but also engage your visitors, tell them a bit about your hobbies, your family life and things you like to do for fun. Letting the visitor see the real you builds their confidence and trust when doing business with you.

4) Add Your Opening-Closing Hours

There is no such thing as typical opening hours these days, so you need to tell your visitors when you are available.

Making your business hours known is very helpful to patients and can solve their frustration if they visit or ring you when you are not open.

5) Don’t be Afraid to Use Big Bold Images

Images speak louder than words. The Internet is very visual and people respond well to images, so include images on your site that a potential patient will engage with.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on fancy graphics. Simply take pictures of your team in action performing therapy on other patients, shots of your local area, your premises, recent community or team events you all have participated in.

All of these things help to engage your patients and lets them know more about you and your practice.

6) Make Your Site Mobile-friendly

Mobile is huge.  Thirty percent of your visitors are using smart phones and with over 200 million in use in the States today, more and more people will be visiting your site via their smart phone or tablet.

You need to make sure visiting your site on a mobile device is an outstanding experience. Sites that are not optimized to be seen on tiny screens can be frustratingly difficult to navigate around for your potential patients. They won’t persevere, they will simply move to another site.

There are a number of ways to make your site mobile-friendly and we will be happy to give you advice on that.

7) Add Success Stories

Your existing patients are a huge asset to your practice.  They can provide real-life case studies and testimonials that will inform potential new patients of how successful their treatment was, how you saved them time and money or how knowledgeable and efficient your staff is.

How do you get testimonials? Just ask right after you receive a compliment.  Most patients will be more than happy to oblige if you ask them.

8) Match Your Company Branding Always!

For continuity and to help create instant brand awareness ensure your online presence matches your bricks and mortar business. It helps patients to both recognize your practice and to remember you.

9) Take Off the Music

Do you enjoy listening to elevator music? Probably not. Neither do your patients. Never put music on your website. It isn’t relaxing or funny. It’s just annoying. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean that you should.

Remove anything that might appear annoying to your customers (music, flashing images, etc.) or anything that might distract them from doing what you want them to do: navigate your website, get a good impression of your practice, and hopefully commit their business to you.

10) It’s Time to Get Social

Have you embraced social media yet? Your patients sure have. They interact with thousands of people on the Internet all the time and are very influenced by it. People listen to other people’s recommendations and are interested in their like and dislikes.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time your business went social. Get started with a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Focus marketing on that platform, and then move on to another network.

We know it can be quite daunting, but we have some great tips for you, so please contact us at E-Rehab or read other blog posts on the subject if you want to know how and where to get started.

11) Be an Authority Website – Add a Physical Therapy Library and More

If you want to be known as an authority site in physical therapy, add some resources to your site that show potential patients how well-versed you are in the field.

These resources could be reports, research papers, infographics, helpful physical therapy website links, videos and more. They all add credibility and will encourage visitors to buy from you rather than from a competitor.

12) Know Your Site’s Main Purpose

So many businesses forget about this. All they know is they need a website, so they just slap one up without thinking about who the target audience is, how they will use the site, and what their objectives are when visiting your website.

Ask yourself: Who will visit your website?  Why do you have/want a website? What do you want visitors on your site to do?

Spend some time thinking about your answers, then make it your top priority to see that your website accomplishes that goal.

NOTE: Avoid putting your mission on your home page.  Put some additional thought into it.

13) Start Again from Scratch

While starting again is not ideal because it takes a lot of time, money and resources, sometimes a site is so badly designed that you have no other choice.

For example, if you have an old site that was set up in the 90’s, it probably looks old and dated by now. Starting again with brand new technology and a new fresh design, instead of trying to patch up the old site, could be a smart move and pay for itself many times over.

Even if you have zero tech skills, you can still determine your site’s purpose and what you want it to do. Sketch out a quick design, along with a plan of what you would like the site to accomplish, then hire a team of professionals who can make it happen.

[colored_box variation=”steelblue”]

Take Home Message: Hire a Professional

The Internet has changed so much in recent years. What worked well five or 10 years ago doesn’t work now.

If you have been looking after your site yourself, or used an unprofessional friend or relative to create your site, it may well be worth calling on our professional services at E-Rehab to come in on the project. Not only will we bring in fresh new designs, but we’ll also share our experiences, expertise and creativity to improve your website. That is what we do. Not only can we give your site a fresh new look, more importantly, we share our marketing skills to make sure your site converts customers 24 hours a day.

Even just applying one or more of the tips here will have a significant effect on your site and increase your business profits. Simply pick a couple that you can identify with and make the changes to your site.

Don’t forget that at E-Rehab we are always here if you want any website or marketing advice, and we help take physical therapy websites and physical therapy private practice to the next level.[/colored_box]

6 Physical Therapy Marketing Ideas for Your Website

physical-therapy-marketing-ideas
Here are 6 physical therapy marketing ideas for your website

Most practices could do with more patients. That’s where physical therapy marketing comes in and physical therapy websites are an important part of the plan and process. Here are 6 simple tips, that if put in place, could help your clinic’s bottom line.

1. Show Off Your Testimonials
When choosing a new practice, reading testimonials from other patients will confirm to users that they are making a good decision by choosing your clinic.

Place your testimonials on their own page. Consider placing one testimonial on each page as well. Also, highlight them not only on your home page but also give them their own place in your navigation. Photo testimonials are great.

2. The “One Benefit Focus” Technique
What is the ONE super thing about your Clinic that you are offering?

If you offer too much choice then people find it hard to make a decision. So concentrate on just one amazing service or program that shows potential patients why they should choose your practice.

3. Behind the curtain
Some potential patients get nervous about what will happen if they see you for care. If they have never had physical therapy before, they don’t know if it will hurt, what you are going to do to them, and they will draw on past experiences with other healthcare providers that might have been less than satisfactory.

Why not make “first-visit video” showing exactly what will happen once they come in for their initial evaluation, guiding them through the process from the reception desk to scheduling their follow-up visits.

This will be reassuring to them and provides a higher level of customer service which is definitely a great way to separate yourself from the competition.

4. Demo – let them see the “hands-on experience”
Why not create a video giving a demonstration showing how awesome your clinic is? For example, if you have a staff member with an exceptional skill, or a program with unique results, then demonstrate how great they are!

When a potential patient can see end results, then will likely be more inclined to choose your clinic.

5. No Risk
Offer free screenings, next-day appointments or educational events to educate the public. This can offer peace of mind to potential patients before their first regularly scheduled appointment.

6. Positive Passion
Of course, and most importantly: You will always be more successful when the audience can feel your excitement for your practice. Your passion and enthusiasm will shine through and help generate new and retain current patients.
[info_box]Action Items
1. Go back and look at your website.
2. Really try hard to view it from the perspective of a new patient shopping for a PT practice.
3. Then review the items above and update your content to differentiate yourself from the competition.[/info_box]

5 ½ Physical Therapy Website Development Mistakes to Avoid

physical therapy website development

How many visitors do you have see your website each month…100, 200, 300+? In a service business people judge what they can’t see based on what they can see. Ask yourself this question, “Have you chosen a business because of the look, quality of information, or usability of a website?” If you are like most, the answer is “yes”.

Do you spend hours at community events, visiting doctors, volunteering hoping to get in front of patient or referral source? The fact is that lots of people are visiting your website right now and many are potential patients. Let your website do the work for you. With this in mind, here are 5 ½ solutions to common mistakes many make why you should fix them fast.

[info_box]1. Fresh Content – updated content gives you credibility. It gives viewers the perception that you use the most popular communications tools (i.e. the Internet) to keep your patients and prospects informed. It’s not easy to repeatedly create fresh content but E-rehab.com can help.

2. Interactive Content – too many websites are just online brochures…and poor ones at that. Make sure your website provides viewers with interactive driving directions, videos, contact forms, FAQ, social sharing functions and ratings and reviews capabilities.

3. Appointment Requests – anyone with a smartphone has it within 3 feet of their body 90+% of the day. Take advantage of this and fast-paced world we live in by giving patients the option to request an appointment right from their smartphone…and your desktop website too.

4. Optimized for Google – the 900-pound gorilla of search, Google, is how 50% or more of your website traffic will come from. Make sure that your website is designed and optimized to show up on Google. If you are having trouble with this, we can help.

5. Analytics Enabled – what pages are patients visiting, how long are they staying, what search engines and key phrases are they using to find you? All of this business intelligence is necessary to help you make decisions about what is and what isn’t working with your online marketing efforts. Make sure you have an analytics program easily available to you; moreover, make sure you understand how to use it.

1/2. Mobile Optimized – What does mobile optimized mean? It means that your website is built with the mobile user (someone that is viewing your website on their smartphone) in mind. It means that the mobile user won’t be waiting 10-20 seconds for your big graphics to download to their phone. It means that the viewer will be able to:

1. click one button and call you,
2. click one button and map your location on their phone,
3. click one button and fill out an appointment request form,
4. click one button and “Like” you on Facebook,
5. click one button and save your mobile optimized website right on their home screen like the Doodle Jump, Angry Birds, or Bejeweled apps,
6. click one button and write a draft review of your practice on Yelp,
7. click one button and send you an email.

These are some of the outstanding opportunities that are available with a mobile optimized website.

I give this 1/2 because mobile websites are their own animal. You can learn more about mobile website here.
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If you are in need of assistance with any of the above problems, we can help. We are here for the smaller private practice to help you build your local online footprint and stand out in the community.

See a complete list of our services by clicking here.

Give us a call at 800-468-5161 x 1101.