Physical Therapy Websites Archives

Why You Still Need a Great Physical Therapy Website in 2023

As a physical therapy business owner, you know the value of a strong, effective website. Think about it for a second. If your target market is 35+ years of age, they use websites all of the time when making buying choices.

A great website can be the key to attracting new patients, engaging with current ones, and ultimately growing your business. In today’s digital world, having a professional, user-friendly website is essential for any business, and this is especially true for physical therapy practices.

Here are a few key reasons why physical therapy business owners need a great website:

A website is your online storefront. Your website is often the first point of contact that potential patients have with your business. It’s important to make a good first impression, and a well-designed website can do just that. A professional website with clear, informative content and easy navigation can make it easy for potential patients to learn about your services and make an appointment.
A website can help you stand out from the competition. In a competitive industry like physical therapy, it’s important to differentiate yourself from other practices. A great website can help you do just that by highlighting your unique services and expertise.
A website can improve patient engagement. Your website is more than just a way to attract new patients; it’s also a valuable tool for engaging with current patients. By offering resources like exercise guides, blog posts, and patient testimonials, you can provide value to your patients and keep them coming back for more.
A website can improve your search engine ranking. Having a website that is optimized for search engines can help you rank higher in search results, making it easier for potential patients to find you. This can be especially valuable for small businesses that may not have the budget for other forms of advertising.
A website can help you collect patient information. A website with a contact form or appointment scheduling tool can make it easy for patients to get in touch with you or schedule an appointment. This can save you time and help you collect valuable patient information that can be used to improve your services.

Having a professional, user-friendly website is essential for any business, and this is especially true for physical therapy practices.

A Website is More than an Online Brochure – You Need to “Work” It to Maximize Conversions

Of course, having a great website is only the first step. It’s also important to regularly update your website with fresh content and keep it optimized for search engines. This can help you attract new patients and keep current ones engaged.

In summary, as a physical therapy business owner, a great website is essential for attracting new patients, engaging with current ones, and growing your business.

By offering valuable resources, improving your search engine ranking, and making it easy for patients to get in touch with you, a website can be a powerful tool for success. So, invest in a great website and watch your business thrive.

Want Help Converting More Website Viewers to Patients?

Click Here to Schedule Some Time with Us and We’ll Show You How We Can Help.

50 Physical Therapy Marketing Tips for the New Year

2023 is just 6 weeks away. Are you preparing for next year?

Review these strategies and tactics so you can get some clarity on marketing, implement some of these easy strategies, and generate more new and repeat business.

What is marketing – it’s finding someone with a need and getting them to know, like, and trust you.
Marketing messages should first take into account your target marketing, the media they use, and the message should match their needs.
The most common need for most orthopedic patients is singular – pain relief.
The goal of marketing is to create campaigns that convert and help the practice grow.
Marketing is not a linear process, but there are steps to follow in order to be successful.
After you determine the market you wan to serve, the next step is to determine the offer.
Researching the competition is important in order to understand the market and create a unique offer.
The marketing message should be clear and speak to the target market’s pain points and needs.
Different marketing channels should be tested to determine the most effective way to reach the target market.
Marketing efforts should be measured and analyzed in order to continually improve and refine the campaign.
You must learn to sell – the sales process should be streamlined and optimized to increase conversions.
Marketing should not be viewed as a one-time event, but rather a system of continuous efforts.
Building a community or network of loyal patients is important for long-term success.
Physician referrals are one of the best opportunities to generate rapid new business. Are you doing this?
Collaborating with local micro influencers can help reach a wider community audience.
Storytelling on your website can be a powerful tool to engage and connect with potential patients.
Offering value through free discovery visits, a phone call, or great content can help attract potential patients.
Consistency in branding and messaging is crucial to building trust with the target market.
Emotional appeal can be more effective than logical arguments in marketing (i.e. avoiding risky surgery or addiction).
Patient reviews and video testimonials can be one of the most powerful ways to build credibility and trust. It’s a top 3 priority!
Creating a sense of urgency can increase conversions by motivating the target market to take action. The longer you wait, the more costly care will be.
Offering incentives movie tickets or a coffee card can encourage the past patients to refer to you.
Using scarcity tactics, such as limited time offers or limited quantities, can increase demand for the offer.
Personalization can be effective in making the target market feel valued and connected to the practice.
Providing exceptional customer service can help build loyalty and encourage word-of-mouth marketing.
Positioning – One way to position your practice – you always are “on time”.
Offering free trials or demos can help potential patients experience the value of the offer before committing to including a cash treatment in a patient plan of care.
Using social proof, such as showcasing the number of patients or followers, can increase the perceived value of the offer.
Utilizing video marketing can help create an emotional connection with the target market.
80% of consumers will remember a video.
Creating a sense of exclusivity, such as through a VIP program or limited edition offer, can get patients to come back. Do you have a VIP program?
Utilizing email marketing can help build relationships and keep past patients informed about new offers or promotions.
Checking in with all of your patients after 3-4 visits is a great way to keep them coming…assuming they still have the need for PT.
It may be against your insurance contracts or your practice act, if not, offering a money-back guarantee can help increase conversions by eliminating risk for the target market.
Creating a sense of urgency through countdown timers or limited availability can increase conversions on landing pages.
Using scarcity tactics, such as limited time offers can help encourage patients take advantage of an offer.
Offering bundle deals on your Facebook ads can help increase the perceived value of the offer.
Utilizing content marketing can help attract potential patients through valuable and informative content – if you want to own a niche topic on Google, plan on publishing a lot of content. E-rehab has you covered here.
Utilizing influencer marketing can help reach a wider audience and increase credibility.
Having your name, address, and phone number above the fold will make it faster and easier for patients to connect with you.
Having an easy to use appointment request system will generate more business – we’ve generated over 100,000 appointments for our clients since we started measuring a few years ago.
Quick access buttons will generate calls – make it easy to click and call on your website. We’ve generated over 600,000 calls for our clients since we started measuring a few years ago.
Email marketing content should include both educational information and will keep you top-of-mind.
Email marketing still provides the best ROI – if you’re not doing it, you’re missing out on a fundamental strategy.
Optimize your Google Business Profile – include all of the different categories of service you provide.
Using technology to capture reviews is the best way to NOT get them. Have a system in place to capture reviews.
Social media posts from PT practices, get on average, less than 1% engagement. Not one of the top priorities – yes, not a top 7 priority.
Google Ads can generate 5-10 new patients per month but you must test.
You should be capturing and recording calls when running Google Ads.
Does your receptionist make a great first impression and ask the Golden Question of each no prospect, “How soon can you come in?”

If you have questions or want to know how E-rehab.com can help you, give us a call at (760) 585-9097 or schedule some time by clicking here.

These Mistakes Can Scare Physical Therapy Patients Away Online

Here we are sharing some common mistakes that practice owners make online.

While it’s easy to think these aren’t that big of a deal, they’re actually scaring new customers away.

1. Having a Website that’s Not Mobile-Optimized

Almost everyone and their grandma is using a smartphone or tablet these days. If your website is not optimized for mobile, it can be nearly impossible to navigate.

While you may get a teeny percentage of patients who will switch to a computer, most will get frustrated, close your site, forget all about you and move on…likely to your competition who does have a mobile friendly site. As a result, you’ll miss out on potential new business.

2. Not Updating Your Social Media Accounts

More and more people are validating, cross-checking, and learning more about PT practices on social media platforms. It’s obvious that not having a social account can hurt your practice, but few realize that having a poorly updated page can cause damage as well.

For example, if a patient searches for physical therapy in your city on Google, clicks on the link to your Facebook page, and sees that you haven’t posted in months or even years, there’s a good chance they’ll assume you’re not organized, not up-to-date, and aren’t a quality practice.

Simply having these accounts is not enough. Make sure you post regularly so patients can clearly see you’re still in business and are using social media to communicate.

3. Getting Defensive while Responding to Negative Feedback

It’s hurtful when patients leave negative feedback. Especially when it’s a particularly difficult patient (you know the ones I’m talking about) who was the main cause of the problem.While it’s our first instinct to protect ourselves and our good name, getting defensive and causing an online argument for all to see can really hurt your reputation.

Instead, acknowledge the patient’s frustration and invite them to take the conversation offline. This will demonstrate your commitment to good service and will make future patients more comfortable doing business with you.

4. Not Responding to Positive Feedback

Just as it’s important to have a thoughtful response to negative feedback, it’s equally important to respond to positive feedback.

Think of it this way, the patient has taken time out of their day to share their thoughts with you and refer future clients. By not responding, it gives the impression that you don’t care.

By taking the time to respond, it not only makes that patient feel appreciated but also, it’s another way to demonstrate your commitment to good service.

Why This Works…

The Internet has revolutionized the world of marketing for PT private practices and completely changed how we, as business owners, need to manage our reputation and marketing.

Taking care to ensure you have an active presence online will not only help patients discover your clinic(s) and also get a sense of what kind of service they can expect.

A practice that is responsive, available, and ensures patients have a friction-free experience will be much more appealing.

What do you get out of all this?

By caring for your online reputation and making sure you’re easily accessible, patients will be drawn to your practice.

As a result, you’ll have a much easier time attracting new clients, keeping long-term patients, getting more referrals, and growing your business.

4 Steps to Create the Perfect Elevator Pitch

What is an elevator pitch? An elevator pitch is defined as a succinct and persuasive sales pitch.

Elevator pitches are also known as a talking logo by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing or Your One Liner by Donald Miller of StoryBrand.com . Each of these marketing experts have their own take on what makes up a quality elevator pitch; however, at the end of the day, there are far more similarities than differences between the three.

Why is an elevator pitch necessary?

Well, let’s say you are at a networking event, an industry event or you happen to bump into someone who requires your service. An elevator pitch is designed to entice people to stop, listen and develop an interest in your service. It’s an excellent way to connect with important contacts and potential clients.

Here are 4 important steps to creating the perfect elevator pitch:

Keep Your Elevator Pitch Brief

You don’t need to deep dive into your extensive work history and experience. An elevator pitch should be a quick recap. Ensuring your audience can quickly grasp who you are, what you do, and most importantly, how you can benefit them. You should keep your elevator pitch to under 60 seconds.

Understand Your Target Audience and Identify their Pain Points

The easiest way to grab someone’s attention is to identify something that they’re struggling with. By demonstrating that you understand the problem, you’re instantly placed in a position of credibility.

Can everyone on your team answer the question, “What do you do?” A great way to answer is to with a question. “Have you ever had any pain in your muscles or joints?”

An orthopedic physical therapy practice most certainly deals with patients that have pain – it’s their number one concern in most cases. Pain is what your patients want to avoid, get rid of, and learn how to prevent from returning.

Highlight the Biggest Benefit of Your Physical Therapy Service

Your elevator pitch should highlight the biggest benefit of your PT service. It may be difficult to limit which benefits you share. However, it’s a good idea to base it on the pain point you’ve identified as well as the features that make your business stand out from the competition.

At this point, I suggest you create some curiosity. After you’ve asked the question above, respond to their “yes” answer with something that creates curiosity. You might say, “So many do, that’s why I learned how to alleviate pain with my hands.”

This should inspire the person you are speaking with to ask the question, “How do you do that?”

The response could be something like this – “As a physical therapist, I’ve learned a number of manual therapy and therapeutic exercise techniques that addresses the underlying cause of pain and helps people avoid unnecessary drugs, expensive tests, & surgery.”

Finish with a Call to Action

Once you’ve completed your pitch, what action do you want them to take next? For example, should they call to book an appointment?

At this point you need to read the person you are speaking with. If they follow up with more questions, ask them this, “Would like to come by for a quick free exam? I might be able to help.”

If they say they know someone with pain, ask them if they are nearby – offer them a free exam.

Don’t leave anyone up to their own devices. Be very clear about what action they should take next to secure your PT services.

Why This Works…

More often than not, PT practice owners are incredibly passionate about their care and the opportunity to help. It’s easy to get caught up in conversation and launch into a long-winded explanation about how wonderful their care is, etc. Though well-intentioned, this often loses the attention of the audience. Even worse, it decreases the chance of them doing business with you.

An elevator pitch keeps your explanation concise and direct. Getting right to the important key points that will motivate them to take action.

What do you get out of all this?

Having an elevator pitch ready to share who you are, what you do, and how you can benefit the potential client is a quick and easy way to get your business on their radar. It tells them what they need to know so they can make an informed decision on your services.

As a result, it allows you to successfully generate more new business and book more clients.

An Elevator Pitch is a Sales Tactic…For PT Marketing, You Also Need These Strategies

An elevator pitch is important and especially useful if everyone in the office is using one to communicate your practice’s value. However, when it comes to online marketing, you want to do these things first:

Create a great website that tells a compelling story and funnels viewers to your call to action.
Email marketing to retain your past patients.
Rank on as well as you can on Google – Google is where almost everyone starts their online search for a physical therapy clinic.
Have the best reputation in town – trust is the number opportunity for small clinics to differentiate themselves from the big corporations. There’s no better place to show your community that you can be trusted, than with ratings and reviews on Google and your website.

If you would like to learn more about how E-rehab.com can help you get your online marketing right, click here to schedule some time with David Straight, DPT and co-owner of E-rehab.com

Physical Therapy Blog Posts that Make Patients Take Action

Blog posts are an excellent tool for providing value to your audience. They convey expertise, authority, and passion for your profession of physical therapy…not to mention, the posts are great content to publish on your social media channels like Facebook.

But, if you want your blog posts to motivate your audience to take action, such as booking an appointment with you, this is how you should structure your posts.

Opening Paragraph: Identify a Key Pain Point (& use keywords for Google)

In your opening paragraph, you need to identify a common pain point that your audience may be having. This is how you grab their attention.

Be sure to go into detail about the problem. By showing you have a genuine understanding of their struggle, they will be much more likely to believe you are the person capable of solving it for them. As a result, they’re much more likely to listen to you and follow your instructions.

Body Paragraphs: Share a Simple Solution or Steps to a Solution

After you’ve explained the problem in detail, transition into discussing the solution. This section is all about providing value.

You can make it easier to read by providing 3-5 bullet points that discuss multiple solutions. You can also lay out a single solution into easily digestible steps.

In addition to providing value, this section will give your audience a taste of your expertise. By proving that you are able to solve their problem, you’ve positioned them perfectly. Increasing the likelihood that they will take action in the final section of your blog post.

Closing Paragraph: Call to Action

This is where you ask them to book an appointment with you. To seamlessly transition into the call to action, point out how your PT services will make their life even easier than if they only follow the solution you provided.

For example, let’s say you’re sharing ways to relieve neck pain and want your audience to book a therapy session. You can share a few simple exercises for at-home relief in your post. Then tell them that if they want to maximize their healing, a personalized care plan that’s tailored to their specific needs will drastically improve their results.

Why This Works…

This structure provides a natural flow that first builds trust, provides value and then seamlessly transitions to a soft, but effective pitch.

Empathizing with the reader’s pain point early on is key. If you’re the person who knows the problem they’re having even better than they can understand it themselves, you’re immediately projected into a position of authority and established trust.

Putting you in the most ideal position to motivate them to take action with you.

What do you get out of all this?

This blog style will improve the amount of action taken on your posts. Not to mention, it will further establish you in your niche while endearing you to your audience. People will genuinely appreciate the value you provide.

Even if they don’t take action the first time, this gentle blog style will give them enough value to motivate them to come back for more.

Before You Take the Time to Blog, You Should Do These Things

Blogging is one of those appealing marketing strategies that many recommend. Afterall, it’s part of a solid marketing strategy that can help establish you as the go-to provider if you are consistently publishing quality content and (super important) circulating it via social media to your community.

However, we don’t recommend you do this before you get these strategies right:

A great website that tells a compelling story and funnels viewers to your call to action.
Email marketing to retain your past patients.
Rank on as well as you can on Google – Google is where almost everyone starts their online search for a physical therapy clinic.
Have the best reputation in town – trust is the number opportunity for small clinics to differentiate themselves from the big corporations. There’s no better place to show your community that you can be trusted, than with ratings and reviews on Google and your website.

If you would like to learn more about how E-rehab.com can help you get your online marketing right, click here to schedule some time with David Straight, DPT and co-owner of E-rehab.com

Should You be Using TikTok to Marketing Your Physical Therapy Practice?

It’s not an easy question (and if you’d like our short answer, scroll to the bottom for a list of what you should be doing before TikTok).

What many people don’t realize is that Tiktok is the fastest growing app of the decade. The statistics are mind boggling.

It’s rapidly growing to a wide audience. Giving you ample opportunity to grow your customer base and engage with your community.

Here’s the biggest reason your practice should be on Tiktok…

In the digital age where ad blockers are prevalent, your advertising strategy needs to adapt. Users are much more likely to engage with content that feels authentic. Tiktok gives you the opportunity to engage your audience with marketing that doesn’t “feel” like marketing.

Here are a few video ideas that you can share on your practice’ Tiktok account:

Take Your Audience Behind the Scenes

People are curious by nature. That’s why taking your audience behind the scenes is so effective. Show them how your practice runs in a way they wouldn’t typically get to see.

You can walk them through your daily prep process before you unlock the doors. Maybe you and your staff have a fun ritual to kick off the day. You could even share some “day in the life” videos that reveal a typical day for someone in your profession.

Share “How-To” Videos and Provide Physical Therapy-Specific Advice

Users love helpful content that will show them how to solve a common problem. Not only does this provide genuine value to your audience, but it also endears them to you. Giving reason for them to follow you and regularly check out your content.

Take Part in Fun TikTok Trends that Relate to Physical Therapy

Tiktok trends are a fun way to engage with your audience and build some steam behind your account. They’re also an excellent way to show some personality behind your practice and allow customers to truly connect with you.

It’s important to only jump on trends that relate to your niche. You don’t want to post videos just because they’re popular. Be sure to stay on brand and consistent with your Tiktok approach.

Why This Works…

Many aggressive advertising styles are falling short, especially with younger generations, forcing practice owners to find less invasive ways to attract customers and grow their practice. Creating content on the Tiktok platform will help market your practice in a much more organic way.

What do you get out of all this?

Tiktok provides an opportunity for customers to truly get to know you. In the long run, this approach will build a much stronger and long-lasting connection with your audience.

Before Social Media Marketing, You Should Do These Things

Social media marketing is appealing. So may use social media on a daily basis and with the rapid adoption of TikTok there are compelling reasons to use this marketing channel. However, we don’t recommend you do this before you get these strategies right:

A great website that tells a compelling story and funnels viewers to your call to action.
Email marketing to retain your past patients.
Rank on as well as you can on Google – Google is where almost everyone starts their online search for a physical therapy clinic.
Have the best reputation in town – trust is the number opportunity for small clinics to differentiate themselves from the big corporations. There’s no better place to show your community that you can be trusted, than with ratings and reviews on Google and your website.

If you would like to learn more about how E-rehab.com can help you get your online marketing right, click here to schedule some time with David Straight, DPT and co-owner of E-rehab.com

Don’t Make This Mistake – It Will Cost You New Evals

For over 19 years we’ve been helping PT private practices market their services online. We’ve seen a lot of silver bullet, online marketing, promise you riches marketing companies come and go because:

They extract all they can out of the PT private practice and move on,
They don’t adapt to the changing market,
Most Important – they don’t have any idea how patients buy physical therapy services.

Here I want to review some information to help you, the practice owner, better understand how your patients buy and better yet, help you avoid paying for a marketing service that doesn’t work…but costs you a lot of money.

Physical Therapy Marketing – Is it a Bad Word to You?

Many clinicians underestimate the effort, time, and money that is required to succeed in their local market.

When things don’t go as planned, they follow this predictable pattern:

I don’t know enough – I have to learn.
I have learned but I never executed what I have learned.
I need an outside company to save me.
I bought the silver bullet solution – the one that promised me riches, and nothing happened.
Marketing sucks and I can’t trust marketing companies.

We see this regularly. In fact, I just had two conversations with clients yesterday – one tried Facebook ad funnels and it cost him five figures. Another was told by their marketing company that they had over 100 new leads. When I asked how many converted into patients, they had no idea. They received a lot of data, but had no idea if it had any impact on their bottom line (i.e. generated more revenue).

Neither one of them made a profit with these fly-by-night marketing companies.

80% of PT Marketing Strategies Sit on the Shelf and Nothing Happens

You’ve probably heard this before – if you want to succeed, know your market.

Define your ideal target market, your ideal clients, etc., etc.

These exercises often leave small practice owners with a piece of paper, the start of a strategy, but no action, and no results…no new patients. I’d invite you to step back, just ask a few of your patients, and look at some of the basic numbers that you most likely already have right in front of you.

Good Marketing Starts with Knowing How Patients Buy Your PT Services

Ask yourself these questions:

A. What is the age of the patient population I want to serve? Usually it’s 40+ years of age…this is when orthopedic injuries become more common.

B. How do 40+ year olds buy? They use Google, they look at clinics’ reputation, some visit the PT website, and then they call or request an appointment from the website.

C. What percentage of patients do a search before they visit a physical therapy practice? The answer is astounding – 84% as reported by LSA (which is localogy.com).

D. It gets better. The research results also noted that that percentage of healthcare consumers of physical therapy, contacted a physical therapist 100% of the time after they did a search! Of course this behavior doesn’t happen 100% of the time across all communities, but most follow this pattern.

E. Finally, take a look at your website visitors – how many do you get each month?

Quit Missing Out on Easy Opportunities – Focus on the Low-Hanging Fruit First!

I just shared with you how a large percentage of consumers buy PT services – Google first, some visit your website, then they call. So, you simply want to optimize/focus your time and energy on this. The good news is this is what E-rehab has known this for some time and it’s what we do everyday for our PT private practice clients.

The bad news is that newer PT business owners, don’t know this yet. They focus on media channels that often times don’t matter much – Instagram and social media for example. If you don’t believe me then consider these survey results.

When PT Practice Owners Don’t Consider Their Market’s Buying Process, They Lose

We looked at 100 PT private practice websites in the greater Los Angeles county area, and here’s what we found:

48% of PT websites have basic mistakes with their addresses.
45% of PT websites don’t even have a phone number that’s easy to find or above the fold.
67% of PT websites don’t even have an address above the fold

The Take Home Messages – Focus on GMB, Your Reputation, and Your Website (design, imagery, and the copywriting [copywriting is the words that persuade website viewers to take action])

Focus on Fast, Easy, Friction-Free Mobile and Desktop Website Experience
Make It Painfully Easy for New Patients (and existing ones too) to Contact You
Put Your Energy Into Your Google Business Profile – that means get those reviews too!
Put Your Time, Money, and Energy Into Your Website!!!

There’s no need to struggle. There’s no need to get lost in pages of irrelevant data. There are no silver bullets – successful practices will master the basics and knowing how your target audience buys from you is one of those basics.

You Can Avoid All of These Problems, Execute Your Marketing Strategy, and We Can Help.

Contact us and we’ll provide you with all of the online marketing services you need at a price that any practice can afford.

We Guarantee It!

You can reach David Straight, DPT, co-owner by setting up an appointment – just click here.

New for 2022 – This May Be the Best Way (and By Far the Cheapest) to Generate More New Initial Evaluations

Have you heard of conversion rate optimization? It is the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action – hotjar.com

“How does this apply to a physical therapy practice, and does it really matter?” The answer is a resounding “yes”.

To clarify the above definition as it applies to you, the practice owner, conversion rate optimization is the practice of converting more patients that are considering you to initial evaluations.

Three Ways to Improve Your New Patient Conversion Rates

Again, to give you some context, we are talking about converting more prospects (warm leads that are one or two steps away from booking an appointment) into patients. Here are three fast and easy ways to improve this, with one of them, in my experience, being the very best.

Tell a better story that is consumer centric, not company centric. Take a look at the copy (the words on your website home page that are meant to funnel viewers to your call to action), on your website home page. Is it about the patient, their pain, their desires? Or, is it mostly about you, how good you are, & details about services that may never matter to the reader?
Take a look at your mobile website experience. Does it follow Google’s golden rules of being fast loading, super easy to read, and friction-free? Too many PT websites have long paragraphs that prospective patients don’t want to read. Moreover, it isn’t easy to scan, which just so happens to be the way many read websites, i.e. they scan them.
Finally, the Best Way to Increase Conversions – Add a tracking phone number, record your calls, and improve communication. This is by far the best thing that you can do. Do you know what your receptionist (who gave the first impression of your practice to a caller) is saying to patients?

Quick, True Story

I recorded calls for a practice once, and a prospect called with a TMJ problem wanting to know if PT was right for them. After they finished the call, the prospect undoubtedly hung up and was wondering if they had cancer. The caller went from pain in the TMJ to I might have a problem that could kill me. The receptionist had so badly mismanaged the communication that it undoubtedly hurt the practice’s reputation.

Quit Wasting Money on Expensive Marketing and Examine How Well Your Existing Marketing is Doing

Therefore, Take a look at your conversion rates.

Action Items:

Look at the text on your homepage – is it telling a memorable story that funnels people to a call to action (do you even have a call to action)?
Check out your website on your smartphone. Is it fast loading, easy to scan, and there are easy ways to take the next step in the buying process?
Get a tracking number and put it on your website and Google Business Profile (add it as an alternate number). Record some calls and use them as teaching moments.

If you need help with your conversion rates, and your online marketing, let’s connect.

Click here to request an appointment or if my calendar doesn’t have something available just call (800) 468-5161.

Thanks for reading – David Straight, DPT

Four of the Most Important Physical Therapy Website Content Tips Most Don’t Even Know

Having worked with over 2000 practices, generated over 100,000 appointment requests and over 600,000 phone calls, we’ve continued to evolve our physical therapy marketing services based on data, feedback, patients case studies, and client wants and needs.

Below you’ll find four tips, based on considerable experience, that will help you develop a better PT private practice website and convert more prospects that are considering you, into paying patients. Here are some of our recommendations.

I. Put Some Time Into It – Provide Content that Prospective Patients Want

In a service business like physical therapy, people judge what they can’t see (e.g. the quality of your service) based on what they can see (i.e. a great looking, fast, easy to use, website with clear communication, is extrapolated by viewers, as a representation of the quality of your PT services).

I am just floored at the number of mistakes I see on so may physical therapy websites. Younger PT owners, that spend more of their time on social media than searching for services, often make these mistakes. They’re more interested in funnels and Instagram than the marketing opportunities that are right in front of them.

Here are some examples to name a few:

No attention to detail – misspelled words and inconsistent/inaccurate information,
Large paragraphs that never get read,
A practice website that make viewers hunt for and/or work very hard just to find their address & phone number,
Little to no use of quality media like service photos, video, or interactive educational tools,
Websites that were down in-house with little to no experience or strategic forethought.

Do you know how many people visit your website each month? Is it 100, 300, 500 or more? With those kinds of numbers, why would you do something fast, cheap, or get a website from a company that has no idea how the physical therapy market works?

Here are some basic things you need to do to address problems right away.

Think Like a Patient When Analyzing Your Physiotherapy Website

When someone visits your home page, the most visited page on your website, you need to tell a memorable story. Don’t make it all about yourself, understand who the real hero is…it’s the patient.

Have you ever thought about what’s on a patient’s mind when they are visiting your website?
What questions are they pondering?
Are they comparing you to someone else?
Are they simply wanting to know how to contact you?
Are they questioning whether the services they’ve been referred for are worth their time and money?

Try This Simple Exercise

Here’s a simple exercise you can do to answer these questions. Ask 4-5 of your patients if they visited your website and if they did, ask them open questions like:

What were they looking for and did they find it?
When did they visit during their buying process?
Why did they visit?
How could you done things better?
What did they like and what can you improve with physical therapy website design?

By simply putting yourself in the mindset of your website users and asking them a few questions, you’ll get some good insight about how it’s used.

A Word of Caution – Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Feedback from 4-5 patients is just that, feedback from an n=5. It’s a small sample and may not bet representative of the 200+ visitors that are viewing and using your PT website every month.

Make sure their feedback makes sense. For example, I once heard from a PT that they included summaries of social posts on their home page and patients loved them. Maybe this is true for some patients, but you might want to ask, “How many times did you visit our website?” to better clarify the first question.

Most won’t visit anymore than once or twice. They aren’t likely to re-read your home page content unless they are returning months or years later.

So, is it really that important to have a social media post feed on your home page? Maybe, but not likely. Will potential patients choose you still without it?

There isn’t a right or wrong answer. I’m simply suggesting that you consider the bigger picture when making tactical, online content decisions for your home page, beyond the feedback of a few patients.

II. Use Your Own Physical Rehab Website Photos (including PT, OT, Speech photos)

I want to share a quick story here, about a PT owner that spent $17,000 on her PT website. $17,000 – that’s a lot of money and a long time to recover your ROI. When I compared her website to ours, fundamentally & technically (I.e. speed, on -page SEO, etc.), they were very similar to what we here at E-rehab create for a fraction of the cost.

There was one main difference though – the photos. On the home page there were nice images of patients and staff, and each internal page had a service photo, and the staff images were well done too. Certainly, it wasn’t worth $16,000 more than what E-rehab charges though.

Here’s my point. It’s 2021. With modern iPhones, and Android phones, you can shoot phenomenal photos. Some movie directors have shot independent films only with iPhones.

Another reason to use your own photos is that prospective patients want to see you. Moreover, they want to see the smiling faces of patients like them. Remember, your patients are the heroes in your story and you are the expert, empathetic guide. Click here to read more about our StoryBran-based methodology recommendations for your home page.

Donald Miller mentions in his book Marketing Made Simple, that people that see themselves in they story and photos you are telling on your website, are more likely to buy. It’s called narrative transformation, and a big step toward accomplishing this transformation is including your own photos.

NOTE: there are times when a stock photo can do the job almost as well. Images from product vendors about your aquatic equipment or how a high intensity lasers works are a couple of examples. However, it’s always best to use your own photos.

Take an extra few minutes to take your own photos. It will be a simple way to gain a competitive advantage over many of your physical therapy private practice website competitors….and you certainly don’t need to spend $17,000 to get it done.

III. Mobile Optimize Your Website to Help Execute Other Online Marketing Strategies

When we look at the analytics across hundreds of PT websites, we see that about 50 percent of your visitors are on smartphones. Check your web analytics (we provide those to all of our customers at no additional cost), and you’re likely do see the same.

As I mentioned above, I’m just floored at the lack of quality and the mobile user experience on so many PT websites. Often they look poor without any attention to design detail. Often the content is long, run-on paragraphs that are really hard to read.

I’ve seen the converse as well. Wix or Squarespace websites that have little to no content at all. When I question the current owner about this, I’ve heard more than once, no one wants to read stuff on our website. My counter question is, “Tell me the average age of your patients?”

It’s almost always people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, or older. They indeed want to read a memorable story about you to find out if you are an expert, do you have a caring staff, do you treat their problem, have others had with their diagnosis had success? The take-home message here is you need to match the right type of media (i.e. a good website) with your market (your average users).

Other common problems on mobile sites:

I’ve seen videos that run off the page,
No click-to-call functionality or mapping functions,
No facilitation of reviews or social following

…all important functions that your mobile optimized website should offer its users.

So, take a look at your website on iPhone and Android devices. Does it represent the quality of the physical therapy services that you deliver or does it fall short?

You can’t afford to make this mistake, especially if you are competing agains the large corporations that have spent 5-figures on their website and have full-time staff members that oversee their design, form, and function.

IV. Have More Than an Online Brochure – Differentiate Your Practice

Here’s the stereotypical physical therapy website. On the home page is one of two kinds of content.

1. The “Our Mission” Content – it’s all about the practice, doesn’t tell a story, is often brief with trite statements like “we are the best…”

2. The “Misaligned Sales” Message Content – On this type of home page, you find workshops, some typical copywriting like the “treat yourself for free” ebooks (that suggest the practice would rather teach you how to care for yourself and spam you in exchange for your email address, rather than have you come into the clinic for care,) and then some mixed message videos.

Rather than sharing platitudes or dissuading your viewers from connecting with you, follow a specific formula – tell a memorable story, that funnels viewers to a call to action.

Realize that by the time a potential patient gets to your home page, they generally aren’t asking:

“Is physical therapy is right for me?”

They are probably asking themself:

“Is your physical therapy practice the better choice compared to the clinic right down the street?”

Take the opportunity to differentiate and educate with tools like:

A. A Nice Introductory Video. Shoot an expert interview confirming they are at the right website; or answer the question why you are the right choice and share what makes you better.

B. Social Proof. Make sure you have testimonials. You don’t need long paragraphs or 60+ of them on your home page. On the contrary, post short testimonials that answer the most common objections your view might have. Objections to using your practice might include the amount of time it takes for care, the cost, travel time, insurance coverage, appointment availability, and expertise.

C. A Differentiation Table. You’ve seen these when shopping for products like software. Create a table and by comparison, feature your strengths and expose your competition’s weaknesses.

D. Include a Chat Bot that Educates Rather than Misleads. I’ve seen chat bots that portray themselves as being a live service. Not only is this illegal in some states, they often push the viewer toward an appointment rather than educating them on the value of your physical therapy services. Half of consumers that visit your website don’t trust you. Rather thank trying to sell them on your PT services, educate them and motivate them choose you with good patient education.

E. Describe the Recovery Process. If a website viewer of yours has never experienced physical therapy before (and that might be 50-70% of new initial evaluations), show them what the recovery process is like. Share what they will be experiencing that will take them from pain and dysfunction to recovery and wellness.

In closing, I am shocked that even in 2021, so many small PT private practices completely miss the mark when it comes to online marketing. Only after wasting lots of time and money looking for the marketing “silver bullet”, do some circle back to tried and tested strategies to convert more physical therapy web viewers into patients.

Give the above tips a try and let us know what you think.

If you’d like help designing and developing your physical therapy website, give us a call.

Let us help you get more PT online marketing right. Contact us today at 760-585-9097 or click here to schedule an appointment.

A 15-Point Checklist to Make Sure Your Physical Therapy Website is Converting Visitors to Patients

There’s a saying in marketing: “People judge what they can’t see based on what they can see.”

With new patient acquisition becoming more difficult, it’s critical that your physical therapy website be a reflection of the high-quality service you provide.

Moreover, it’s a lot easier to convert viewers that are visiting your website right now into patients than trying to drive new traffic (which is expensive and time consuming).

Here’s a 15-point checklist that will help you make sure your website isn’t turning visitors off and causing them to choose the competition.

1. Check Your Images & Staff Page – the staff page is one that often needs updating. Are the headshots consistent and high quality? What about the images on the home page? Do they entice people to choose your practice?

2. Check Your Spelling and Grammar – You can utilize a web-based service like W3C Spell checker at https://www.w3.org/2002/01/spellchecker

to scan pages. If you have questions about grammar, then grammarly.com is your best resource.

3. Cross-Browser Testing – your physical therapy site might look great in Google Chrome but does it look great in other browsers and devices? Make sure your site looks great in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge. Rather than paying for a service to test this, I’d recommend just downloading the browsers and scanning through your website.

4. Test Your Website on Smartphones – with about half of your traffic coming from smartphone users, it has to look great on mobile devices. I recommend blisk.com for this. If you are serious about it, Sizzy is my favorite tool for testing. Try the 14-day trial, install it, and make sure your site looks awesome on lots of devices…both mobile and desktop.

5. Check for Broken Links – Screaming Frog is a tool that visits all the webpages on your site and reports back to you if there are any broken links.

6. Page Titles and Descriptions – As mentioned above, Screaming Frog is again a good tool for this. You should keep your page titles about 50-60 characters long.

7. Check Image Alt Descriptions – the alt tag helps tell Google and other spiders what an image is about. Use Screaming Frog spider to check and ensure you have images optimized.

8. Check Your Webforms – Manually check each form by inputting test data and make sure that you receive the data/the data is being used correctly. Of course, appointment requests are super important.

9. Check Your Brand Favicon – look at the browser tab at the top of the computer screen. In the tab of a web page you should see an image then a title. This is your favicon. Make sure that it is your logo.

10. Codes and Scripts – Make sure your web analytics and any other tracking codes for things like the Facebook pixel are set up properly and functioning.

11. Check NAP with Schema – verify that your name, address and other contact data is proper and properly formatted with Schema code. Google has a free tool for this: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data

12. Check Your 404 Pages – Type in a web address that doesn’t exist on your website. This will display a 404 error. For best results, utilize a customized page for this that has an error message that’s better than the default page error.

13. Check Your Site Map – your site map should be up-to-date and have all of the pages listed on it. A WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO is a good tool for this.

14. Test Social Links – Click on all of the social media icons on your website. Make sure they go to the appropriate social media page. Also, make sure that your content on your social property is up-to-date. If it isn’t, consider updating it or closing down that social property.

15. Check Your Addresses & Hours of Operation – go through the various pages and your footer to make sure that your name, address, phone number, and hours of operation are consistent. Consistency not only communicates the proper information to viewers but helps give the Google algorithm confidence and can help with SEO.

Go through this list with your website developer. Any fixes should be fast and easy. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

David Straight, DPT is the co-owner of E-rehab.com, a physical therapy private practice website design, development, and online marketing company that has been helping PT private practices get their online marketing right since 2003.

For more information about how we can help you out, click the button above to request an appointment.

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.

Your About Us Page Could Be Suffering From These 6 Mistakes

Your About Us page probably has more website viewers land on it than you think. Too many companies treat this valuable real estate like an afterthought. They knock off a paragraph about why they started their practice or add in their mission and that’s about it.

Take advantage of this missed opportunity!

With so many eyes on this content, it needs to be some of the better work on your website. While a bad About Us page probably won’t destroy your practice, it could leave potential patients wanting more, before they choose you.

If you’re making these 6 frequent mistakes, it’s time for a rewrite.

1. It doesn’t show your personality

This is a common problem with website writing. People default to corporate-speak and start using phrases they’d never use in real life, like leverage, cutting-edge, etc. Cut out the jargon and just write like you talk!

Small practices shouldn’t hide their personalities behind the veil of boring corporate lingo. There’s nothing wrong with a fun or clever voice, on your About Us page, but do remember, you are a healthcare provider.

For a great example of this, check out PT Central. https://ptcentral.org/about/ . Take a look at their commitments, values, and they even mention some of their partners in the community.

2. It focuses too much on you

Yes, it’s called an “About Us” page. So you will need to talk some about yourself and/or the company. But if you drone on for a full page about how great you are, your readers are going to zone out fast.

Dale Carnegie famously said, “…a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” The quote speaks to a broader point — the most interesting thing in our lives is us. So while your reader may have some interest in you, what they really want to know is how you can benefit them.

You have to relate your story back to a benefit for the reader — aka, your potential customer. This doesn’t mean you should turn your About Us page into a sales page. But you should include what sets your company apart from the competition, and how that can solve the reader’s problem.

3. It doesn’t have a strong headline

If the headline of your About Us page says “About Us,” we might want to change it. Your headline needs to hook the reader right off the bat, above the fold. That doesn’t mean it needs to be flashy or clever. In fact, clever copy can sometimes be confusing. Aim for clarity instead.

A good example is on the About Us page for Copyhackers. Their headline reads, “Helping Great Businesses Build Audiences.” It’s short and to the point, and tells you exactly what the company is all about.

4. It doesn’t include social proof

You can talk about yourself until you’re blue in the face, and it still won’t have the same impact as someone else’s words. One study showed that 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family.

Testimonials and reviews can be sprinkled throughout your website for a little dash of word-of-mouth. You can also include a list of other companies you’ve partnered with here as well.

Better yet, why not add in a patient video testimonial or two.

5. It doesn’t show your face

Small practices don’t have the marketing budgets and resources that the giant mega-corps have. But they do have the ability to forge genuine relationships with their customers.

It’s much easier to create a relationship when you put a face to the brand. Digital marketer Neil Patel knows this, and that’s why he puts his smiling face all over his website. Hire a photographer for a few hours and get some professional photos taken of yourself and your team.

6. It doesn’t tell the reader what to do next

With a higher traffic volume than most other pages on your website, the About Us page is a perfect opportunity to ask the reader to take action. You should add in a clear call to action and redirect them to your contact page as well.

You could also use this real estate to ask readers to sign up for your email list.

Make sure the Call to Action stands out. Instead of just adding a link, add a nice clickable button in a bright color. Studies show that buttons have a much higher click-through-rate than links.

Your turn…

Now it’s time for an audit. Is your About Us page making one (or more) of these six mistakes? If so, you’re actually in good company. Some major brands make these errors on their sites. But now that you know better, spend an hour or two brushing up your content.

Looking for a Physical Therapy Marketing Expert?

Need help with your physical therapy website? That’s our specialty. Give us a call or schedule an appointment to learn more about how we can help.