Attract More People To Your Practice And Expand Your Patient Base

Do you need more customers? Are you sick of people visiting your website but not calling to schedule an appointment?

Much worse than having no visitors to your website is actually getting visitors, but no new patients. That can be quite frustrating.

If that has happened to you, don’t despair. We are familiar with marketing for small physical therapy practices and know a few tricks to help you attract not only new patients to your website, but expand your patient base with ones who will eventually decide to come to your practice for treatment.

Identify your target audience – don’t try to reach out to everybody

The first and most important step for any business is to identify your target audience. Do it right, and you will have a much easier time converting visitors into patients. Do it wrong, and you risk creating a product/service that nobody (or not enough people) wants.

It is well known customers want to interact with brands they can connect with.

To do this, you need to know what kind of image you want to portray and then adapt your marketing to directly appeal to the ideal brand of patient you want to attract to your practice. This is done by creating ideal buyer persona (an image or profile of your ideal patient) based on their buying habits and lifestyle.

So instead of searching for patients, help them find you. Go to the sites and places they go to; put yourself in the places they want to be and invite them to come and see you. If you have a clear image of who you want to serve, you are going to be in a better position to give them what they want.

A lot of companies make the mistake of thinking that everybody is a potential customer. They are not! You need to focus on the dreams and desires of the people most likely to become patients, and then pay them special attention by treating them well.

Don’t try to rent your audience, build your own instead

Some businesses try to take a short cut by renting eyeballs or clicks. They buy and rent email mailing lists in order to get extra customers. Sometimes the gamble can pay off, but if you want patients who are looking for the physical therapy services you offer, it is much more profitable to grow your own list instead.

This is not hard to do. For example, on your Facebook page you could provide shareable, inspirational and humorous content like images and quotes to encourage visitors to engage with you.

The people who enjoy the content on your site are generally the ones who will be more likely to come to you for treatment or refer others, and you can quickly attract a lot of eager new fans and patients.

Word of mouth marketing

The best way to attract new customers to your site is by word of mouth, and social media marketing, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., makes this easier to do than ever before. It is fast, free and easy.

We are experts in social media marketing and have lots of great ideas for you, so don’t be afraid to give us a call to see what we can do to help you.

Ditch the large-scale marketing campaigns

In the old days, marketing used to be large-scale isolated advertising and media events, but things have changed. Your patients don’t live on a campaign schedule. They are always on the move and are constantly being bombarded with new information and offers wherever they go. As a result, they have become more discerning and advert aware.

Social media makes it easy to follow a person from their first visit to your site, to the point that they become a lead and eventually, if all goes well, a new patient.

The relationship doesn’t end there, as your constant engagement and relationship building with them should continue long after their first treatment session with you. You can easily get them to come back in the future or give referrals if you handle it right.

[note_box]Use social media to establish and build relationships with potential patients, but don’t forget to continue to build relationships and engage people once they become patients. This makes it easier to get them to come back in the future or refer their friend, family and other people they know.[/note_box]

Copy your competition

Do a bit of research. Find out how your competition is attracting new patients. Do they advertise on the Internet or is it mainly offline? Do they buy advertisements in local media like newspapers and radio, or do they have a large social media following online?

If they are doing something that clearly works for them and are getting new patients, you need to try and adopt similar measures so that you don’t continue losing patients to them.

Attend physical therapy conferences and exhibitions

We are big fans of attending conferences, exhibitions and networking events. It is a great way to make new connections and spread the word about your practice to new potential patients.

This type of event is also perfect for showing potential patients how caring you are and that you strive to make all patients happy. Exceptional customer service plus excellent service will always ensure that you have a thriving business.

[note_box]People buy from people they have met. So, if you are seen and are active at events, people will be more inclined to come to you for treatment. Use these events to get people to visit your website and join your mailing list, so you can stay in constant contact with them.[/note_box]

By using some or all of these methods you will be able to attract more visitors to your website and practice, who will hopefully turn into new patients.

[colored_box variation=”steelblue”]It is an exciting time for small businesses and you don’t want to miss out on the revolution that is happening at the moment. Old marketing methods no longer work. The way that consumers buy is changing and you need to change with them, knowing who they are, where they are and why they make business decisions.

If you are interested in any of these marketing strategies or want to talk to us about other ways that we can help your practice, we would love to hear from you.[/colored_box]