Growing a successful physical therapy practice takes time
and energy. You can’t simply hang up your shingle and expect
patients to flock to your door nor can you build a website
and expect it to generate tons of traffic online and into
your office. The truth is that if you want to generate
traffic, you have to have a solid, tried and true strategy
to do so. By consistently utilizing these 6 traffic
generation techniques, you will be on your way to having a
busy and lucrative physical therapy practice.
1. Email Newsletters: You must build up a list of
subscribers on your website and use this marketing tool to
send out monthly newsletters. Newsletters are great for
providing valuable information to readers hungry for
knowledge as well as for offering incentives for them to
visit your practice. Keep the brand of your physical therapy
practice always on the minds of your readers by constantly
building a relationship through your newsletters.
2. Video Marketing: It is beneficial to create
memorable videos that educate, entertain and provide
information to your viewers. You can demonstrate exercises
for strengthening or stretching muscle groups or discuss and
educate viewers on the types of patients you treat at the
clinic. You can even inform viewers on what to expect in
physical therapy after a knee or hip surgery. There are many
different types of videos you can create to engage viewers.
Make sure that in all of your videos, you leave a call to
action that tells viewers to visit your website or join you
on one of your social media networks. This will help them to
stay in touch with your brand.
3. Press Releases: This marketing strategy is used to
promote any news about your physical therapy private
practice or any upcoming events. You can write a press
release if you are having a grand opening, welcoming a new
staff member, or if you have new equipment that will allow
you to attract a specific patient population. Press Releases
are also great for telling success stories or letting people
know that your practice is sponsoring a local organization,
charities, giveaways, holding workshops, etc. Anything that
is news-worthy can be used as a press release to promote
your physical therapy practice online. The benefit of
creating and submitting a press release is the traffic
generated from distribution. Your press release gets
submitted to multiple online news sites hence, generating a
healthy amount of traffic to your website. There is even the
possibility that your press release will get picked up by
local TV or radio stations. Press Releases bring good
exposure to your private practice, giving it the attention
of people seeking out your services.
4. Social Media: If used correctly, you can use
social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to engage your
audience and start a discussion. Social media can yield
great patient referrals if you stick to a long term strategy
of engagement and providing value. You can use social media
to create Q&A sessions for your communities or reach out to
local referral sources like Physicians, specialists and
other health related medical professionals. It is the best
way to interact with people that are seeking your services.
You will establish trust and by providing value in your
social media communities, you are viewed as a trusted source
and expert in the field.
5. Blogging: This is by far the best way to get your
content out into the world so that potential patients can
discover your private practice as well as the services you
offer. It is a known fact that the search engines love good
content and this is one of the ways your private practice
will get discovered. The more content you have out there,
the more chances that you will be discovered by your target
audience. Blogging establishes relationships and connections
with your audience through the content you post. This is
something that you cannot do with a static website. The
potential to engage and interact with potential patients is
possible through submitting quality blog posts.
6. Comment Marketing: This is a great traffic
strategy that you can use to get the attention of local
physicians and specialty providers. Believe it or not, a lot
of physicians now have blogs and are on social media.
They’ve realize the importance of staying connected and
providing information that will be useful to their patients.
As a therapist, you can identify those blogs of the
physicians or healthcare providers you want to target and
leave comments on their blog or social media network. This
does 2 things. First, it gets the attention of the blog
owner (Physician, specialist, etc.). Secondly, if you leave
a comment that adds value to the conversation or topic, they
will be inclined to learn more about you and what you do.
This is how the process for getting a patient referral can
start. If you leave relevant comments that provide value on
multiple blogs, you will create exposure for yourself and
your practice and increase the opportunity of getting
patient referrals to your practice.
The important thing that you must remember is that utilizing
all of these techniques can truly increase your patient load
as well as your credibility in the industry. Let’s face it!
The days of opening up a big telephone book and thumbing
through the yellow pages to find a physical therapist are
long gone. People actually research their providers online
before they’ll pick up the phone to make an appointment. By
following the above techniques, you will have the
opportunity to truly make your private practice thrive!
Last revised: December 16, 2012
by Samuel Awosolu, PT
