Intro to Physical Therapy Marketing

In today's healthcare landscape, making your physical therapy practice stand out requires more than excellent patient care–it demands a strategic marketing approach. It starts with understanding your target audience, establishing your online brand presence, and engaging in targeted outreach via marketing campaigns. By leveraging both traditional and digital media, you can effectively grow your practice, build strong patient relationships, and establish a trusted presence in your community. This guide will offer practical tips for successful physical therapy marketing.

Understand Your Target Audience

Physical therapy services are utilized by a wide range of individuals. While the dominant demographic trends toward adults aged 65+, physical therapy is sought by all ages for many reasons such as management of chronic conditions and recovery from injury or surgery. Many of these individuals are referred to physical therapy by doctors and other medical professionals. Your marketing efforts should address the concerns of patients who want quick rehabilitation and specialized treatment for their conditions. Use the platforms you have at your disposal to highlight your expertise and become a trusted authority on physical care in your community.

If your practice specializes in a specific form of care, consider what type of audience your marketing should target. For example, if you specialize in sports injury recovery, it's likely that your audience will trend to younger and include athletes and active adults. Or perhaps your practice specializes in pediatric care, in which case your marketing should cater to parents of children with developmental conditions. Adjust your marketing message based on who you cater to and what your practice can offer individuals who seek therapeutic care.

Build An Online Presence for Your Practice

Brand presence plays an important role in how your practice is perceived. In today’s digital world, brands are expected to establish a strong online presence. Potential clients need to be able to search and easily find your practice on search engines such as Google My Business and social media platforms. Having a professional-looking website and complete GMB profile will help these searchers find your practice and perceive it as trustworthy and competent.

Website Optimization

Your website is the most important digital representation of your brand, so you should prioritize its optimization. It should look professionally designed and be easy to navigate, so that visitors can quickly find what they are looking for. Minimize page loading times and cumulative layout shift as much as possible to reduce potential frustration. Cumulative layout shift refers to how visual elements on a web page may change position briefly after loading, which can be frustrating to visitors and may encourage them to leave the site early. Optimizing these aspects of your website not only keeps visitors around longer, but it also boosts your position in search rankings because engines like Google give priority to well-functioning sites.

Search engines also prioritize websites that have regular updates because they appear active. It is beneficial to have specific pages on your website that you regularly update with new information such as an active calendar or blog. Blogs can also be instrumental in driving additional website traffic because you can create specialized articles about various topics related to physical therapy. As individuals search questions or concepts, your blog may appear in the results, increasing traffic to your website. Think of commonly searched questions related to your field such as "how long does it take to recover from surgery," and write an article that answers the question in detail. Not only will this help drive traffic and signal to Google that your website is active, it will enhance the professional perception of your brand's online presence.

Google My Business

Location-based searches on Google such as "physical therapy centers near me" will usually bring up a map and a list of businesses at the top of the search results called a "local pack" or a "map pack." This is a useful result type for searchers because it immediately gives them the nearest businesses that match their needs, as well as information about each one. It's important to ensure that your profile on Google My Business has complete and accurate information because this is also a ranking signal for Google. Mobile searches including phrases such as "where to buy" and "near me" have been trending upwards since the late 2010s', so the likelihood of your business appearing in a local pack search result has increased significantly in the past several years. You don't want to miss out on potential traffic and new clientele due to having an incomplete profile.

Your business' review score is shown alongside your address and operation hours when it comes up as a search result in a local pack. It shows the average customer review score out of 5 stars–as well as how many total reviews there are. To optimize your ranking via Google My Business, you will not only want to earn 5-star scores from customers, you'll want to encourage as many people as possible to review your services. A greater amount of reviews is a positive signal to Google and to consumers that says you have experience and an established client base making your company appear trustworthy and professional.

Market Physical Therapy Through Social Media

Social media is a component of your practice's online brand presence that can be used to create unique content and reach new clients. Different platforms are better for showcasing different aspects of your therapy services. For example, Facebook is ideal for connecting with your community, sharing educational content, and promoting events. Instagram is best for visual storytelling through photos, videos, and patient success stories. Video-based platforms like TikTok or YouTube are useful for sharing exercises, tips, and demonstrations of therapy techniques. Social media platforms also differ in average user age; Facebook appeals more to older demographics whereas Instagram and TikTok trend younger.

Create a Physical Therapy Postcard Campaign

Direct mail is an effective way to reach local residents and build even greater brand awareness within your community. Direct mail is versatile in its targeting capabilities, as you can deliver them directly to the mailboxes of your target demographic. Postcards can be sent without an envelope so when your recipient receives your message, they can view it without having to open anything, which results in higher read rates. You can even use a postcard campaign to re-engage former patients and remind them to return to your practice for follow-ups or additional care.

Mailing List Selection

Select a mailing list that aligns with your marketing goals. This starts by determining a success metric that can be used to measure the response to your direct mail postcard. Your campaign's success metric should take the form of an actionable step that can be taken by the recipient, which will be described in the Call-to-Action statement. This can be something such as visiting a specific page on your website or filling out a form online, but you'll want to select your target audience and your mailing list for the campaign based on this objective.

Geographically, you'll likely want to advertise in nearby zip codes because there is typically a limit to how far someone will travel for in-person services. You may want to research other physical therapy facilities in the area to see how much competition exists in specific zones. Next, consider what demographics align with your marketing goals the most. As mentioned earlier, if your practice offers specialized care, you'll want to narrow down your list to the audience that your services caters to like parents, adults aged over 65 years, or perhaps individuals with certain income levels.

Postcard Design

The design of your postcard should help establish your professionalism, reassuring your audience that your services are high-quality. This includes displaying high-quality photos of your facility and service on your postcard with cohesive branding in terms of color scheme, font selection, and inclusion of other branded elements like a logo. Be sure that your photos are easy for the average person to understand and avoid using diagrams that are overly technical.

Your postcard's text should describe your services succinctly. Save longer, more detailed explanations for your website because you'll want to make effective use of the limited space that you have on your postcard. Don't forget to clearly state what you want the recipient to do in the Call-to-Action statement, which should be featured prominently on the mailer. QR codes are great for linking the recipient directly to the webpage you want them to visit after they've finished reading the postcard.

Reach Out to Your Community

Community outreach through events, seminars, or charity fundraisers allows you to build your practice's brand presence through in-person connections. Showcase your expertise to local residents through educational workshops covering topics like injury prevention, managing chronic pain, or tips for post-surgery recovery. Participate in health fairs and distribute educational material from your own booth. You could sponsor local sports teams or hold an athletic event like a marathon or youth tournament. There are many ways to go about local outreach, so take the time to get to know your community and find the intersection between what is needed and what you have to offer.

Track Your Marketing Efforts

Determine your success metrics before starting any marketing campaign. Your key metric will help you calculate the response and overall success of the campaign. Your campaign's response rate can be found by dividing the number of responses your campaign receives by the total number of marketing material recipients. Track the average response rate across your first marketing campaigns and record your results. Understanding your response rates will help you make improvements to your marketing strategy for future campaigns.

Conclusion

There are many aspects to consider when marketing your physical therapy practice to your local community. If you don’t have the in-house resources to implement the marketing strategies you want while maintaining your day-to-day operations, consider partnering with a professional marketing agency to handle the work that you don't have time for. Cactus Mailing is a professional direct mail agency with over 22 years of experience launching campaigns for all kinds of small businesses. We can eliminate your workload by taking care of every aspect of your next direct mail campaign from list selection to design to printing and distribution.

Bring your practice to the next level – get in contact with a direct mail expert and start your journey today!