Top 6 Marketing Best Practices for a Physical Therapy Business

Like any other business, a physical therapy business relies on its customers to earn revenue. Physical therapists market their practices to create brand awareness, build trust and maintain customer loyalty. There is stiff competition in the healthcare industry; your business will need to use excellent marketing strategies to attract and retain customers.

Here are the best marketing strategies to use for your physical therapy business:

1. Establish Your Brand Identity

Successful marketing of a business requires understanding your customers' needs and having a solid identity. Start by presenting your brand to the target audience in a more attractive way than your competitors.

You will need to explore your market and offer your patients unique services. FYZICAL clinics provide outstanding balance and vestibular services to differentiate themselves from other physical therapy businesses. Focus on adding value for your patients and differentiating your practice from your competition; it will help build more brand awareness when you stand out among other physical therapy businesses.

2. Gain Connections Through Community Engagement

Community events and marketing campaigns can help you capture potential patients for your physical therapy business. These interactions help create brand awareness for your clinic. By engaging with your community in this way, you will be able to discuss deeper details about the valuable services you offer, which will earn your prospective patients' trust.

Community events create a forum to address the public's concerns and curiosities about what you do. Many patients are unaware of direct access opportunities or the wellness services that a PT can provide. A community event allows you to knock down barriers of perception in your industry and get FaceTime with your prospective patients resulting in trust equity and a likely conversion to becoming a patient in your clinic when a need for physical therapy arises. 

3. Improve Your Online Presence

Today, most people are searching for products and services online – including their doctors. Create a website for your business clearly outlining the services offered, your credentials, the types of insurance you accept, and contact information. You will need to demonstrate an online presence through active social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where you can make advertisements and engage a wide range of prospective patients. Don't underestimate the importance of your online listings like Google my Business, Healthgrades, WebMD, and RateMDs – they often rank high in searches, and you want to have a presence in as many places as you can. 

Create blogs and ask your patients to post positive online reviews of their experience in your clinic, as well as you as their provider. Be sure to respond to all reviews – even the negative ones. It will help show the public that you are an expert in your physical therapy business and will help to drive interest in your services.

4. Collect Emails from Patients

When a patient is already in your clinic, collect their email so you can continue to market to them and bring them back into your clinic, as well as help keep your clinic top of mind. 

Consider automating email campaigns that send email to a patient three months, six months, and one year after completing their plan of care to check on them. You can also include offers in those check-in emails for a free laser treatment, 15-minute chair massage, or a discount on supplements in your clinic.

Retaining an existing patient is excellent for the growth of your clinic because they already trust you. Building great patient relationships means they are likely to talk about their experience with their peers and refer business to you through word of mouth. Using email for these customers is a great way to do more peer-to-peer marketing because they are already big fans of your business and have had a positive outcome. Using this strategy, you might consider creating email campaigns with offers, like 'Refer a friend who becomes a patient and get a free laser treatment,' or 'Post a story to your social media about your experience with us and tag our clinic to be entered in a drawing to win a free ergonomic pillow.'   

5. Consider Paid Ads for a Physical Therapy Practice

Advertising is not only done through organic social media but also in other ways that healthcare providers often underutilize: paid ads. As a physical therapist, you could consider printing flyers, posters, business cards, making ads on newspapers, radio, and television. Building awareness of your physical therapy business means you'll be top of mind when a patient needs your services. 

Make sure when you start that you have a marketing plan and budget in mind. You don't want to waste money or resources on marketing strategies that may not be the best for your prospective patients or practice. 

6. Build Positive Relationships at Your Workplace

Good relationships at a clinic benefit the patients and the staff as well. It promotes employee engagement, which leads to more productivity. Patients can access great care, which can lead to referrals. When your patients walk in the door to a happy, smiling employee who is ready to provide them the best care, your practice will stand out as the one they want to continue to come back to and one they will happily refer friends and family. Keeping the relationships within the workplace positive will only lead to the best results for your practice.

FYZICAL helps private practice owners market their physical therapy business, enabling you to convert more prospects to patients. Our business systems, clinical education, operational support, as well as our proprietary balance and vestibular protocols, provide a roadmap to help you take your physical therapy business to the next level. It's easier to reach your goals when you know the way!  Contact us today to learn more. 

While every physical therapist wants to help their patients and improve the patient experience, difficult patients are notoriously hard to manage and can feel impossible to work with. No matter what, you must do your best in every situation and give your patients the best experience possible. In the end, some will remain a challenge, but with these tips on how to handle a difficult physical therapy patient, and a little extra effort, you and your staff members may be able to turn a difficult physical therapy patient into a success story!

• How to Avoid Confrontation & Communicate Well
• Learn How to Be Solution Focused
• Follow Up to Strengthen the Relationship
• When to Terminate the Relationship

Learn How to Attract the Right Patients to Your Practice

Avoid Confronting Difficult Patients

A patient who is having a bad experience in your clinic is already looking for a way to escalate their reaction. Clear, calm communication is the key to de-escalating the situation and improving the patient experience. While you may be tempted to defend your position, they are not in a place to hear what you have to say right now. The most important thing you can do in this situation is to talk it out with your difficult patient. When you’re having trouble with a patient or he/she seems unhappy, take the time to sit down and ask your patient some non-confrontational questions. Find out exactly why he/she is acting this way so you know if it’s a personal reason or if you or a staff member have made him/her unhappy.

It's imperative that you remain calm! Ask your patient to help you understand what is wrong, validate their concerns by repeating them back, and empathize with the situation.  An example of this sounds like, 'I understand that your appointment today was difficult. What I heard you say is [patient's reason]. Your experience matters to me, and I want to make an action plan to improve your future experience. This is my suggestion [idea for improvement], do you have anything you would like to add?' 

Help Difficult Patients Find a Solution

Once you know the cause of their dissatisfaction, you can identify a solution to the problem. If the patient has an issue with therapy or results, you can work with them to modify their treatment or offer further explanation as to why he/she must do certain exercises and what exactly to expect. Many patients become frustrated when their treatment doesn't yield the results they are expecting.  Be proactive and always work to educate patients on what success they might expect or what pitfalls they may encounter. Empathize with their frustration and offer action-based solutions that can help them identify small successes throughout the process. 

Keep in mind if the patient is facing issues outside of the clinic, there may not be much you can do to help. Still, be a good listener and offer a smile and sympathy when needed; sometimes all a patient really needs is to be truly heard and understood amidst their challenges, and you can be an ally for them in a time of need.

Difficult Physical Therapy Patient? Don't Forget to Follow Up!

As a physical therapist, you already know that follow-up appointments are key to making progress, but the same rule applies to follow-up after a difficult encounter. After your initial discussion with this patient, make sure you or your receptionist follow up with the patient at their next appointment or by phone. This will give you an opportunity to find out if the situation has improved or if they’re still unhappy, and it also gives you the chance to build a bridge for a better connection. A phone call after clinic hours to let the patient know you have been thinking about them and that you want to check in and see how they are feeling now that they have had some time to process their appointment will go a long way! 

When to Know That You've Done Everything You Can for a Difficult Patient 

Some patients are simply challenging, may have circumstances outside of your control as their physical therapist, and may not be a good fit for your practice. If your patient is belligerent or abusive to you or your staff, you may want to consider terminating the relationship. Focus on doing the best you possibly can and holding the rest of your staff to the same high standard, it's okay to terminate a patient that isn't a good fit. Patient experience is a huge contributor to your success and the growth of your business. If you can create loyal fans of your practice, the rest is easy!

Attract more of the right patients to your clinic with online reviews!

Learn how to ask patients to review their excellent experiences and how that translates into more of the right patients for your physical therapy practice. More than 63% of patients use online reviews to choose a provider, if you aren't taking advantage of the free tools available to you, you're missing out! Click Here to get your free guide to getting more patient reviews!

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