Physical therapy practice reaches out to diverse audiences including patients, physicians, prospective self-refer patients and others that are the part of this mix. In today’s highly dynamic business landscape and increasing competition for physical therapists, the advertising and marketing plan needs to be definite and carefully coordinated with supporting strategies.

Physical therapy practice management needs to attract and retain patients, maximise outcomes, and achieve excellence. Today, marketing and advertising plan cannot just work to help you survive; it has to work on many fronts and engage target audiences. These days, this is a considerable challenge.

Highlighting the product, and not the benefits of your services: Marketing strategy tends to frequently emphasize the product, rather than the positive value it adds to the overall experience. Such self-centered approach can be termed as weak as eventually becomes ineffective.

Solution: While planning your marketing materials, concentrate on how your services can help to make your patients’ lives better. So instead of forming sentences like, “Here at XYZ Physical Therapy, we strive to provide excellent patient care,” swap it for patient-centric messages like, “Do you suffer from knee pain? Let XYZ Physical Therapy help you lower your pain”. This message depicts that you care for your patients and genuinely intend to improve their recovery process.

Devising strategy only for new patients: Targeting only new customers, and not making marketing efforts for old, loyal customers.

Solution: Remember, that your current customers not only ensures continued business but also helps to increase your patient base with word-of-mouth marketing. So, the next time your patients like your services, give them your card and encourage them to refer your services to their friends and family.

Not paying enough attention to online marketing strategies: Disregarding importance of online marketing strategy and not devising a formal plan to attract online customers.

Solution: Establishing a strong media presence helps to boost your clinic’s SEO efforts that eventually helps your customers to find information about your services easily. Online marketing efforts such as blogs and regular updates on social media platforms help to better connect with potential clients.

Failing to measure your results: The goal of any advertising campaign is to design strong solutions to increase revenue and profitability. But, if you fail to monitor your marketing efforts, then what’s the point in investing in a marketing strategy?

Solution: There are a varied number of ways to adequately measure how well your current marketing strategy is working. A Physical therapy software provides access to information about every aspect of your practice. With hundreds of reports providing you extensive data, you have all the information at your fingertips to gauge the success of your marketing strategy. Also, you can also use web analytics tool such as Google Analytics to understand what people are looking for and how they are finding you online.

Have you ever experienced a few bumps along the road to designing a perfect marketing plan for your clinic? How did you move forward and overcome them? We would love to read your thoughts in the comments section below.