9.5 Marketing Tips You can Implement Right Now During The COVID Crisis

David Straight April 26, 2020 Marketing PT marketing PT Online Marketing

Tip 1: Update Your Website

Work on your message – is your home page optimized to convert viewers to patients? Are there calls to action?
Add a payment button – it’s an easy way to for patients to pay their statement online.
Add digital intake forms – these days, it’s much more convenient and saves time if you allow patients to fill out their forms on your website.
Add a store – this is a nice way to generate a little bit of revenue to cover some smaller expenses.
Update staff CVs – make sure that you have updated photos and biographies.
Feature areas of expertise, advanced degrees, board certifications, and specialized certifications.

Tip 2: Update Your Brand Materials

Refresh your logo – If you want to reopen with a more professional brand look, updating your logo is one way to do it.
There are a number of companies like 99 designs, Fiverr, or Logo My Way that offer various logo design packages.
Update your brochure – have you reviewed your brochures or rack cards recently? Consider refreshing them and clearly stating benefits and make sure you have a good call to action.
Take inventory of your referral pads
Create a digital business card – make it easier for people to connect with you. switchitapp.com/ is a unique service that provides digital business cards.

Tip 3: Use Social Media to Engage with Your Community Online

Create a series of posts to engage your community.
Boost posts to both your fans and the area 5-10 miles around your practice.
Post videos about home exercise types, home office setup, nonpharmacological pain relief.
Build your following with inspirational messages and a request to like your page.
Update your social media cover photos. Canva.com or snappa.com are good resources for this.

Tip 4: Create educational videos with your smartphone

What better time to shoot a video than now. Your practice is likely to be quiet so it’s a great time to shoot some videos. Here are some topics:
If you’re open, take some time to share how you’re keeping patients and your staff clean.
Create an expert interview video that differentiates you from the competition.
Discuss various conditions & demonstrate how you treat them.
Make a series of stretches and boost them out to your community – 1 per day for a month.
Contrast your service to other more aggressive treatments.
Here are a couple sample videos on the home pages of these websites:
GMSPT.com | Procarept.net | Ptcare.net

Tip 5: Review the patient value journey.

This an often overlooked and a great exercise to map out all of the places/things that a patient might see as they move from awareness to patient ambassador.
Break down each touch point and examine where you might be able to improve the processes and provide a higher level of service.

Here’s a blog post where I discuss the patient journey in more detail:
https://www.e-rehab.com/2020/01/26/physical-therapy-marketing-strategy-part-3/

Tip 6: Review & Update Your Google My Business Listing

Review your process to capture Google ratings and reviews…one of the best ways to differentiate yourself. If you aren’t getting 5-10/mo (obviously this depends on patient volume), you are missing a big opportunity.
Review how it works – I did a blog post about Google My Business – click here to review it.
Add pictures – this is a great way to show others some of the unique features of your practice. Create a regular schedule to add photos and delegate it to someone in your office.
Update your listing – if things have changed in your office, update your listing. For example, update your business description and add in keywords. Add any additional business categories as well.
Respond to reviews – responding to reviews is a great way to show people that are considering your practice that you care. Even a thoughtful response to a negative review can generate more business. I did a blog post on this this with some additional advice. https://www.e-rehab.com/2019/05/24/physical-therapy-ratings-and-reviews/

Tip 7: Send Out Email Messages to Your Past List

Introduce the idea of telehealth and offer a free telehealth session. Limit the time of the session to maintain your value.
Keeping in touch with past patients is a great way to generate more new business. Past patients are more likely to consume your content too.
Give them a combination of good will information…wellness information as well as educational information about the conditions you specialize in treating.
On occasion, you should make offers to your past patients. The combination of email and direct mail can be more effective.

Tip 8: Educate Referring Physicians with Research

If you get referrals from physicians, then take the time to collaborate with your referring doctors. Don’t be what I call a “physical pharmacist” and wait for the referral. Physical therapy is the best first choice for some many neuromusculoskeletal conditions. Make a point of reaching out to your referring physicians and send them a copy of a research paper. Put a post-it note on it saying something like – I thought you might be interested in this and sign your name on it.
To find these studies, do a Google search for a reference, add in the words PDF and often you will find that the document is public. Make sure you follow the necessary copyright laws.
Shortcut: the New England Journal of Medicine published an article with this conclusion: Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who underwent physical therapy had less pain and functional disability at 1 year than patients who received an intraarticular glucocorticoid injection.
Here’s a link to the article: https://www.nejm.org/do/10.1056/NEJMdo005728/full/
Look up additional authors like Julie Fritz, John Childs, or Gail Deyle to name a few.

Tip 9: Kill your Google Ads if They Aren’t Performing

I’ve run Google Ads for PT private practices since 2007.
One thing I can tell you, in my experience, most physical therapy practices are wasting their money on Google Ads because they aren’t managing them properly.
Don’t be afraid to either invest in having someone do them right or cut this cost and put the money elsewhere.
It’s highly likely that you’ll never notice you turned the ads off.

Tip 9.5: Look at your budget, ROI, and Opportunity Costs

In all of the years I’ve been marketing for PT private practices, I’ve notices that large percentage of practice owners don’t have a strategy.
They pick a tactic and spend some money on it…often not even knowing if they are getting anything out of it.
This is a good time to take inventory of what you are spending your money on and making sure you are getting value from it.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater but make sure you have some key performance indicators that suggest you are getting a good return.
If not, consider spending that money elsewhere.

If you need help with your physical therapy marketing, we have a variety of packages that will fit the budget of any practice. Click here for our package information.