The PT Marketing Newsletter | August

The PT Marketing Newsletter | August

5 Emails You Need in Your New Patient Welcome Campaign

Inside: • 5 Emails You Need in Your New Patient Welcome Campaign • How to Market Direct Access in 2018 • [QUIZ] 5 Ways to Attract More New Patients With Your Website

Neil Trickett, PT

NEIL’S MARKETING CORNER

How to Market Direct Access in 2018 Are Your Doctor Referrals Disappearing? The growth of Hospital-Owned and Physician-Owned PT Services (HOPTS & POPTS), means the referral marketing that got many PT Owners where they are today, is no longer viable for a successful, growth-minded practice. However, don’t be discouraged! In the US, almost every state now allows patients to seek physical therapy via direct access. This is great news both for you and for your patients. provide a specific phone number for insurance questions. Consider advertising a “3-Step Plan to Living Pain-Free” that tells them how to become a patient. 2) Never Discharge a Patient, Only Their Condition 5) Use Strategic Wording When Discussing Direct Access This goes back to not endangering your existing referral relationships. You DO want to speak to people in their everyday language such as “no referral needed.” But not every marketing or branded collateral needs to make doctors sound useless. Consider the intended audience of your marketing—is this a resource for both patients and doctors or just patients?

Now that patients can come directly to you, it’s time to think of them as life- long customers. Most practices see their patients’ cycles as starting at intake, and ending at discharge. While this might be the time that someone is actively in your care, their patient cycle should never end. Once someone is treated by your practice, they should be ready to come back to you for their healthcare needs at anytime. 3) Balance Print and Digital Marketing First, 2 facts you probably already know: • Print marketing is not dead • Digital & social marketing is not a fad Could you imagine your practice either without any paper whatsoever, or with no computers? The key to marketing to patients is balance in the media you choose. Direct access marketing means you have to think about who you’re talking to, the right message to say, and the right media to use to reach them. Consistency in message and timing, plus a balance of print and digital, will get you a long way towards financial independence. 4) Invest in Professional Tools and Training We recently wrote an article on PT Clinic Investments, and this is right up there with the most important ones. Every business owner, needs to learn enough about marketing, to make confident leadership decisions. Even if you’re not the one carrying out every task, it’s vital that you understand what is needed to grow your practice.

If newsletters go to both patients and doctors, add a small callout box with short headline or sentence that direct access is now available and to call in for more information. On the other hand, most doctors’ offices do not heavily utilize social media or website marketing. Use these outlets to promote direct access to patients The Bottom Line: Want to build a secure, valuable practice you can be confident in? Market direct access online, social, print, and direct mail. Take it seriously, invest in professionalism, and be consistent month-to-month. In addition, you’re a PT expert not likely a marketing expert – that’s ok! Be a good business owner and leverage someone who is an expert. You can overcome Hospital & Physician Owned PT and increase your own patients!

CONNECT With Neil Trickett, PT Update the accepted insurances list to include “direct access available” or “no referral needed” to let patients know about their healthcare options. Then “It’s time to break free of the doctor dependence!” You now have the chance to take control of your own patient growth, and market direct to consumer. HOPTS & POPTS competition is only going to increase, if it hasn’t already, which means your marketing strategy needs to generate you an ever-growing volume of new patients. Don’t ditch your doctors, but make it a goal to become independent of their success. Take the point of view that you want to educate your patients about the opportunities available to them directly through physical therapy. You’ve heard of branding your practice, part of this is always communicating as a topical expert. Talk less about you and your solutions, and instead focus on the pain people experience, how it hurts their quality of life, & how easily they can overcome their challenge. Use headlines that make your customer the hero versus you . Encourage patients to contact you with questions and/or to verify their ability to be seen without a referral. 5 Simple Ways to Market Direct Access 1) Be A Teacher, Not a Salesmen

3 Get PT marketing tips from our blog 3 Access to Marketing training videos 3 Connect with other practice owners

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Practice Promotions Physical Therapy Marketing

WAYS TO ATTRACT MORE NEW PATIENTS WEBSITE MARKETING QUIZ 5

How many vital online marketing tools does your website have? Check your score at the bottom to see how your practice website stacks up in today's digital age!

Over 90% of customers check out online reviews about your practice, before choosing to contact you. Building your online reputation by gathering reviews from your patients is critical for you to grow your practice. The more review sites you can be on, the more your SEO, online reputation and trust in your services improves. Blog Posts Blog posts increase traffic to your website by attracting visitors who are searching for content about PT via Google and other search engines. Getting additional visitors improves your website’s SEO (search engine optimization), which causes your site to rank higher in the results and increases its visibility. Analytics and Reporting Knowing how your website and online marketing is performing is key to achieving maximum ROI from your marketing dollars. Metrics and reporting dashboards can provide you with valuable information on where traffic and new patients are coming from. Using >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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