This month we will explore the important physical therapy marketing concept of Online Local Directory Management and how it can help physical therapy private practice owners like you convert more online viewers to patients. In today’s digital age, it’s crucial for practices to optimize their online presence, and that’s exactly what Online Local Directory Management enables you to do.
What is Online Local Directory Management?
Harnessing the Power of Your Geo-Targeted Digital Presence – Online Local Directory Management is the cutting-edge solution that takes your physical therapy private practice to new heights by strategically optimizing your brand’s online presence across all your locations’ local markets. It’s the key to enhancing your brand’s visibility, boosting search rankings, and providing your target audience with accurate information to engage with your clinic(s).
The Components of Online Local Directory Management
Managing Your Digital Fingerprint- With Online Local Directory Management, every aspect of your practice’s online presence is carefully managed. From monitoring your practice name, address, and phone number (NAP) to ensuring accurate business hours, we cover it all. We work diligently to maximize your local visibility, search placement, and reputation through effective management of directory listings, data aggregators, online review sites, and map listings.
The Synergy of Digital Presence Management – The Dynamic Duo of Local Online Marketing
Defining Digital Presence Management – Digital Presence Management is the comprehensive strategy employed to showcase your brand in the online realm. It encompasses various aspects such as website design, development, and maintenance, social media engagement, search engine optimization (SEO) with a local focus, pay-per-click marketing, and reputation management. By seamlessly integrating 1. Online Local Directory Management and 2. Digital Presence Management, we ensure your physical therapy practice thrives in the digital landscape.
The Legacy of Online Local Directory Management – from the Yellow Pages to the Digital Frontier
Embracing the Evolution from paper to Online Local Directory Management is not a novel concept; it has been around even before the internet era. Remember the Yellow Pages, mailers, billboards, and newspaper advertisements? While traditional offline marketing methods played a role, the advent of the internet revolutionized the way practices connect with patients. In today’s digital age, Online Local Directory Management and consistent citations are paramount to your success.
Ready to harness the power of Online Local Directory Management and conquer the internet for your physical therapy private practice? Schedule an appointment now or call our experts at (760) 585-9097. Let us transform your online presence and unlock unprecedented growth opportunities.
At E-rehab.com, we pride ourselves on delivering an Online Local Directory Management solution that goes above and beyond. Our comprehensive approach ensures your business data is managed seamlessly across the most important interactive media channels, for all of your brick-and-mortar locations.
Physical Therapy SEO – A Big Hit for Some in December, 2021
Back in end of November/early December of 2021, Google made some significant changes to the Google Maps ranking algorithm. Search Engine Optimization companies (SEO’s) termed this Google algorithm change – Vicinity. Sterling Sky was one of the first to write on this Google Vicinity update.
The update primarily impacted the proximity of the person searching for a particular business. For example, if someone is searching for physical therapy clinic south San Diego, Google Maps results favor businesses that are within/closer to south San Diego.
In other words, the Vicinity algorithm update was engineered to not only make it harder for physical therapy practices to rank when searches took place far away from their office’s physical location, but was also designed to penalize practices that were blackhatting, keyword stuffing, or adding in keywords into their Google Business Profile’s name.
Here’s an example of a hypothetical clinic that has an office in South San Diego. If your business name is Acme Physical Therapy and you entered the business name (in your Google Business Profile) Acme Physical Therapy South San Diego, chances are you would be penalized (i.e. your Google Maps ranking would drop down lower on the list).
In other words, Google has now given PT practices that are newer/less-established and closer to the searcher, a greater potential to rank higher than the older, more established physical therapy practices that are further away from the searcher.
How the Vicinity Algorithm Update May Have Impacted Your Business
Here are some examples reports of local SEO graphic reports. Each place you see a pin on this map represents where the practice ranks on Google Maps for a physical therapy search.
Here’s how this practice ranked before the Vicinity algorithm update.
Here’s how this practice ranked after the Vicinity algorithm update.
You can see that the PT practice isn’t ranking as often in the top 5 spots on Google Maps.
Not All Physical Therapy Practices Were Negatively Impacted
Here’s how this practice ranked before the Vicinity algorithm update.
Here’s how the practice ranks after the algorithm update – this PT practice actually improved.
Interpreting These Graphics
Note, that the further away the searcher is from the practice (represented as a pin on the map), the lower the practice ranks on the Google Maps results page (represented by the number within the pin). In other words, the closer the searcher is to the business (i.e. in the vicinity or proximity of the practice), the higher, in general, the practice ranks on Google Maps.
What Can be Done if You Were Impacted by Vicinity?
Right after major algorithm updates, many businesses (understandably so) end up in a panic.
Typically, you’ll see a flurry of ads and social posts from some SEO company(ies) advertising “the solution” to Google’s algorithm changes. Often those SEO techniques are blackhat methods. As Hubspot puts it:
Black hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines, used to get a site ranking higher in search results. These unethical tactics don’t solve for the searcher and often end in a penalty from search engines. Black hat techniques include keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks. ReferenceDebbie Millman
Try to Compose Yourself and Look at the Bigger Picture
There is always an element of uncertainty when it comes to search engine traffic and the numbers you find in your Google Business Profile Insights and your web analytics. Here are six things you can do to combat the Vicinity update:
Update your business name in your Google Business Profile – if you were one of the many that keyword stuffed your business listing, it’s probably a good idea to change it so it more accurately reflects your business name without the keywords.
Give it some time – if you were negatively impacted by the Vicinity update, it may not have as big an impact as you may expect. When searching for physical therapy, people use different search phases, different devices (mobile, tablet, desktop), and are searching from a variety of locations. While you may have fallen on Google Maps, it may not change the number of new patients that come into your office.
Take a look at your natural listings – even though you may have dropped in the Google Maps rankings, you may still rank well in the organic listings. If this is the case, you’ll still get some significant traffic from this search results page ranking. If you don’t rank well, consider hiring a company like us – E-rehab.com a physical therapy SEO company.
Don’t forget your Google Business Profile Insights – even if you did drop in the rankings, take a look at your Google Business Profile rankings for a quick reminder of how many people still see your business listing each month.
Stick to the core principles – no matter where you rank, you always want to continue to work on your Google ratings and reviews. Consistently obtaining Google ratings and reviews may help you recover your search rankings and will undoubtedly help convert some of those people that are already viewing your Google Maps listing.
Consider running Google Ads – yes, this is ultimately what Google wants you to do. If your maps listing has plummeted, there is always the option to run Google Ads. Yes, it’s a new cost to the business buy for some, it can still be fruitful.
As Things Unfold, We’ll Provide More Information
Having been in the SEO business for over 15 years, we here at E-rehab.com can tell you that algorithms will continue to change, Google will make modifications to the algorithm that may be in your favor in the future, and you have to move on.
As we discover new insights and strategies, E-rehab.com will continue to follow these new and best practices to improve the search rankings of our clients.
Hang in there for updates.
Were You Even Aware of the Vicinity Update?
If you were not aware of the update, chances are the changes in your Google Maps rankings didn’t negatively impact your new patient volume and/or you were too busy to notice.
If you were negatively impacted, you need a PT private practice marketing company that’s keeping an eye on these kinds of things and can offer you insight and solutions.
Need Help with Physical Therapy Marketing?
Call (800) 468-5161 or Click here to book a time on my calendar Thanks for reading – David Straight, DPT, Co-owner, Marketing Consultant
In this post I want to share five brief interviews I did with members of my local North San Diego community. The answers were a bit surprising.
TL;DR We interviewed four men and one woman in our local community and as you will notice, physical therapy was never mentioned by any of them. So, the obvious question is: Are you marketing your practice enough to your community?
Interviewer: “Thank you for participating. The first question I have is, uh, if you had neck or back pain, who would you go seek medical care?”
Participant #1 Answer: “Well, it depends on the type, just stiffness or sciatica. I have chronic low stiffness, so I go to the chiropractor.”
Interviewer: “Okay. And how about if you had shoulder knee problems? Who would you go see for that?”
Participant #1 Answer: “Um, probably an orthopedist.”
Interviewer: “And have you ever had physical therapy before?
Participant #1 Answer: Uh, yes I have.
Participant #2
Interviewer: My first question for you is if you had neck or low back pain, who would you go see?
Participant #2 Answer “Chiropractor”
Interviewer: “If you had a shoulder or knee pain, who would you go?”
Participant #2 Answer “Either a masseuse or an acupuncturists.”
Interviewer: “My last question is, uh, have you ever been to physical therapy before?”
Participant #1 Answer: “Uhhh, no.”
Participant #3
Interviewer: “My first question is if you had neck or back pain, who would you go see?”
Participant #3 Answer: “Neck or back pain? Uh, either a chiropractor I go to, or my local doctor.”
Interviewer: “How about shoulder and knee pain?”
Participant #3 Answer: “Shoulder and knee pain. Um, uh, it’s shoulder pain. I’ve had before I went to both, I got like treatment at a chiropractor and I also went to my local doctor for that electrical stuff.”
Interviewer: “Have you ever been to a physical therapist before as therapists?”
Participant #3 Answer: “No, my sister is actually going to school for that…”
Participant #4
Interviewer: “My first question is if you had neck or back pain, who would you go see?”
Participant #4 Answer: “Uh, I would probably say a chiropractor.”
Interviewer: “How about shoulder and knee pain?”
Participant #4 Answer: “I would once again, probably say a chiropractor.”
Interviewer: “Have you ever been to a physical therapist before as therapists?”
Participant #4 Answer: “Yes”
Participant #5
Interviewer: “My first question is if you had neck or back pain, who would you go see?”
Participant #5 Answer: “I would see my general practitioning physician.”
Interviewer: “How about shoulder and knee pain?”
Participant #5 Answer: “Also my regular physician.”
Interviewer: “Have you ever been to a physical therapist before as therapists?”
Participant #5 Answer: “No, I have not.”
What did you think of their answers. Surprised at all?
Most practices owners would agree, that in today’s competitive PT market, you need a great physical therapy online marketing to win. With the myriad of online marketing options, get-rich-quick, “be a 7-figure practice” schemes, misinformation, and time constraints, practice owners are often left very confused.
While every practice has different needs, we’ve found that there are seven fundamental strategies that practices should invest in to win online today. Focus on these, and you can beat the POPTS, HOPTS, and corporations…and in most cases generate some significant new business.
1. A Physical Therapy Responsive Website
Your website is hub of your of your physical therapy online marketing strategy, but if it’s not mobile-optimized, you’re simply missing out on patients that would like to easily connect with you on their smartphones.
According to our research mobile visitors account for over 40% of visitors to physical therapy websites. This is slightly less than the research site Statista, which indicates that mobile website visitors account for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide. In the first quarter of 2019, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 48.71 percent of global website traffic, consistently hovering around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017.
In addition, Google has made it clear that it evaluates your website for a mobile optimized version, and if the site isn’t optimized for the mobile user, it’s likely to impact your search rankings. Google states:
“Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page’s content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user’s query. Since the majority of users now access Google Search with a mobile device, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent going forward.”
If your site isn’t optimized for smartphone users, your search rankings are very likely to suffer.
NOTE: one tool that can be extremely useful on physical therapy websites, is chat. 79% of customers prefer live chat over email or social media for customer support due to its immediacy.
The problem with live on small PT practice websites is staffing the live chat. If you do have a request from a website viewer to chat and no one in your office is available or knows how to use a chat service, it can negatively impact your reputation.
A good solution is a chatbot. Physical therapy chatbots can proactively answer common questions and provide immediate answers to common questions and can help nurture users to the end goal of requesting an appointment. Interestingly, E-rehab.com chatbot data suggests that 1 in 10 chatbot users actually request an appointment. A chatbot should be included in your website and is an affordable way to convert more website viewers to new patients.
2. A Fast & Secure Website for Physical Therapy SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the marketing practice of engineering your online brand and website content to increase your website’s chances of appearing at or near the top of search results.
According to a recent study, the number one search ranking position earns around twice as many clicks as the number two. Once you reach position six, you start receiving clicks from less than 3% of the people who see your search result listing.
More specifically, “People will have a really hard time finding your practice if you aren’t ranked near the top of search results, and you’ll miss out on the lifeblood of your practice – new patients!”
It’s been reported by many SEO authority websites that Google’s algorithm contains over 200 factors that impact a practice’s physical therapy search rankings. Some of them are out of your control and others can be addressed to improve your search rankings. Two such factors are a. having a secure website and b. the speed at which your website loads.
“Google has indicated site speed (and as a result, page speed) is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages. And research has shown that Google might be specifically measuring time to first byte as when it considers page speed. In addition, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget, and this could negatively affect your indexation.”
“Page speed is also important to patients that are visiting your website on their smartphones. If your web pages take a long time to load some of your website visitors will leave and search for your competition. Longer load times have also been shown to negatively affect conversions.”
Simply put, a faster-loading site will rank higher and when people click on your Google listing, they will have a better experience and are more likely to become a patient.
If page speed isn’t something you’ve considered in the past, we do recommend you consider it now.
3. Physical Therapy Reputation Management
Physical therapy reputation management has a negative connotation. Many think of reputation management as the process of limiting negative reviews, responding to negative reviews, and getting them removed from your online directory profiles (Google, Yelp, Facebook, Healthgrades, etc.).
Here at E-rehab.com, we use the term Reputation Marketing for physical therapy private practices. It’s the process of not only making sure you deal with negative reviews but also the systematic approach of capturing ratings and reviews and marketing those reviews to generate more new patients.
First, a quick reminder about why you should be building your online reputation.
People will drive past your competition if you use this form of marketing
It’s the second most trusted form of advertising
86% of consumers read this type of marketing
50% of consumers visit a local business after reading this type of marketing
79% trust this form of marketing as much as a personal referral
65% of patients say this marketing is moderately or very important
48% are willing to go out-of-network if you use this strategy
72% of consumers use this as the first step to choosing a doctor
Implementing a process this like this can have a profound impact on your bottom line. Making the active choice to be number one in your market, as evidenced by a large number of ratings and reviews, can generate 5, 10, even 20 or more new patients per month.
Unfortunately, many practice owners don’t understand or are unwilling to do the work to capture ratings and reviews. The good news is we’ve made the process very simple. Some of our clients are generating over 50 new patients per quarter. It’s one of the most affordable marketing opportunities for small practices and one of the only ways to compete with the large corporations and hospitals ( that will always have a bigger marketing budget than almost all small practices ).
Reputation marketing is also a marketing multiplier.
Not only does having a large quantity of ratings and reviews increase the likelihood that someone will choose your practice, they can also impact or enhance other areas of your marketing efforts. For example, if you are looking to hire a PT. We’ve heard a number of anecdotal stories from practice owners stating that they had PT employment applicants mention the practices “large number of reviews” as a factor as to why they considered applying for a job at the given practice.
Another example is the importance of Google ratings and reviews and your search rankings. As noted here in this 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors article, SEO experts agree that ratings and reviews account or approximately 15.44% of the “influence” on search rankings.
While some say it is “the way” to rank number one, this is simply not the case. Take a look at this search for “physical therapy costa mesa”.
As you can see here, the company with the most Google ratings and reviews (i.e. Ann Steinfeld Physical Therapy) does not rank number 1. Nevertheless, accumulating ratings and reviews is a positive factor that can help with your Google Maps/Three Pack ranking. It’s just not the only factor.
Nevertheless, Google ratings and reviews are indeed a marketing multiplier and physical therapy reputation marketing should be one of the top fundamentals you implement in your marketing mix.
4. Physical Therapy Content Marketing
As the saying goes, “content is king”. This means that good physical therapy content will have a positive influence on new business generation. Good physical therapy content can:
Help capture the attention of potential new patients,
Help define you as an authority,
Help you rank in the search engines for various keywords, and
Your physical therapy content can be used across a variety of online marketing channels.
Whether it’s a blog, videos, podcasts, or all of the above, your physical therapy content should be a great resource about the conditions you treat, the services you offer, and above all, make it clear that for most diagnoses, physical therapist directed care is a great first choice.
But content is also the way prospects find and evaluate your clinical expertise. Content that educates, answers questions, puts a patient/reader’s mind at ease and is generally helpful can then be followed by a call to action that can generate more initial evaluations.
Content is an important part of your search engine optimization efforts. Google loves to index new content, meaning that more frequent quality content is produced, the more likely your content is to rank for a given keyword search.
As marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck famously said, “ We are all media companies now.”
Commit to producing high quality content on a regular basis. It’s a fundamental marketing strategy.
5. Physical Therapy Email Marketing – A System for Keeping in Touch
Once you’ve done all of the hard work of generating new patients, you also need a system to educate patients about the additional services you offer. Retention marketing or patient reactivation are the terms commonly used to market to past patients and get them back in your clinic.
Email marketing has long been a reliable channel to stay in touch with your past patients. Offering “good will” by providing quality educational information is an easy way to stay top-of-mind with your past patients.
It’s also a good idea to use other options like SMS if you have special offers like a free screening offer for past patients. Younger generations are rarely in their email inbox, preferring the speed of text messages and the social connection of messaging apps instead.
Regardless of the choice of technology, build your list and keep in touch to maximize the value of your marketing activities and the relationships you develop.
6. Really Want to Stand Out? Use Physical Therapy Videos
Video has officially taken over the Internet! According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, online video will account for 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019, up from 67 percent in 2014.
Ninety-five percent of people say they have watched an explainer video to learn more about a business, product, or service.
Why is video specifically a great choice for physical therapy practice owners:
It helps build trust. People like to see the providers that will be treating them and the clinic where treatment is provided.
You can deliver your specific message. Fact is that most scan web pages these days. With a good video, patients will watch the entire piece and will hear your entire message.
It’s a great educational tool. Using video to in the following ways can be extremely beneficial:
Help potential patients understand their condition,
Share the services you offer,
Share success stories and the experiences of other patients,
Help patients understand what will happen during their first visit,
Help patients understand why physical therapy should be their 1st choice
You don’t need a degree in film to produce great videos. Creating quality video is very simple with a newer smartphone and any number of apps to assist you.
If you really want to set yourself apart, physical therapy video marketing is a great opportunity. Most do nothing more than share exercises. There aren’t many (or enough) videos to describe why patients should be choosing physical therapy in the first place.
7. A Physical Therapy Social Media Presence
According to Verto Analytics, as of July 2017, we spent more than 41% of our online time on social media apps, which equates to an average of more than 25 hours per month per user. This number has stayed pretty consistent so far through 2019 as well.
Social media has its place in physical therapy marketing. The problem is that most potential new patients DO NOT look for a physical therapist on social networks. Let me illustrate this with a simple question. “If you are in need of a locksmith, an emergency dentist, a plumber, an orthopedic surgeon, or a physical therapist, would you search for someone on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram?” Most answer this question with a resounding “NO”! First this reason, social media marketing shouldn’t be your top priority. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it or it isn’t important. When practice owners think of marketing, they think about generating new patients. Your social media presence might help with the retention of past patients when they follow you on Facebook, but if you want to generate new patients, posting content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or YouTube isn’t going to generate many calls or appointment requests.
That said, advertising, or paying to get your social media posts/content in front of your local audience can be an effective way to generate more new business. This type of marketing is an advanced advertising strategy though, and requires considerable time, money, and ongoing effort. It’s not a fundamental marketing strategy for most new and small PT practice owners.
I absolutely believe that practices must have an active social media presence. However, measuring ROI can be a challenge.
Conclusion: Focus on Physical Therapy Marketing Fundamentals
There are a number of online and offline marketing options. It’s easy for practice owners to get confused, waste money on bright and shiny objects…marketing tactics that promise riches, and lose focus on the basics. Don’t make this mistake.
E-rehab.com has been helping private practice with their physical therapy online marketing and physical therapy offline marketing for over 15 years and chances are, we can help you too.
Click here to request an appointment with me or call (800) 468-5161 to learn more about how we can help.
With just a few improvements, your social media profiles could become the crown jewel of your digital marketing strategy. By switching up your approach and committing to a higher level of quality, you could soon be generating more leads, revenue, and interest in your physical therapy practice with minimal effort.
The great thing about social media marketing is that it doesn’t have to take a lot of your time to work wonders. If you plan ahead and use social media to reinforce your other marketing activities, you can achieve huge ROI through both organic and paid social campaigns.
So, to inspire you to improve your social presence and go beyond expectations, try implementing the following five highly effective social media marketing improvements.
Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy Document
Writing down your marketing ideas matters. According to CoSchedule, professionals who document their planned marketing strategy are over five times more likely to achieve success. Also, 88% of people who set marketing goals actually achieve them.
Documenting your social strategy involves both high-level and low-level considerations.
On the high level, you want to include your overarching goals for social. You want to describe how social media fits within your overall digital marketing plan. You want a few guiding pointers for brand voice and the type of values you want to express.
For low-level strategy, consider how often you want to post per week or per month. Plan a budget for the next quarter. Describe publisher sources for shared content you want to write.
Getting all of this down in writing helps you stay focused and consistent. It also makes it easier to communicate your intended strategy to others, such as employees or contract marketers.
Most importantly, it keeps you from approaching your social media activities haphazardly. Having intention and purpose is the key to achieving better results.
Coordinate Social Posts With Specific Campaigns
If you want to push your social media marketing to the next level, try a couple of test campaigns. These campaigns should start with you posting about your expertise and in time and with repetition, branding yourself in your areas of expertise.
Then, you should tie your brand expertise (i.e. clinical expertise) into special events, promotions or campaign pushes so that they can have an express purpose beyond “just posting because.”
For instance, if you have a promotional offer like a free consultation, your social campaigns can convert audiences into leads or customers. If you have an event, like a lower back pain seminar, you will be aiming to increase foot traffic over the seminar period.
Connecting social media activity to campaigns in this way ties them to concrete goals. Your performance can be benchmarked, helping you seek out ways to improve your next campaign based on past data.
For each campaign, create custom graphics and a variety of post ideas. For example, you can plan to develop a few beautiful photo-based posts as a way to turn heads on a platform like Instagram. You can also create a few strong call-to-action posts to generate interest and early signups on Twitter or Facebook.
Creating special, limited time campaigns like these helps you learn quick lessons and improve rapidly with your social media use. The data you generate and experience you gain gives you skills that make you better at using social media, helping you improve and accomplish your goals more consistently over time.
Create Content Marketing Assets and Landing Pages Just for Social
You can significantly upgrade your social media marketing returns by creating assets specifically designed to complement social posts.
For instance, you can create a lead capture landing page for specific target segments to use with targeted promoted social media posts. That way, your call to action can take 18-year-old college students to a different page with different appeals than your page aiming to convert 70-year-old retirees.
You can also create assets that you know will perform well on social, such as infographics. Infographics get around 41.5% engagement, on average, making them the content with the second-best ROI behind video.
Developing assets like these help connect your social media presence to customer actions that actually generate revenue. They also ensure you have a best-fit destination for each outgoing click to your website, as opposed to shoehorning a single “contact us” page link into every post or something similar. Since each asset is custom-made for social, they’re better suited to their individual purpose.
Invest in Professional Grade Social Video
Speaking of developing visual content with high ROI, now is the time to start considering using video within your social media marketing strategy.
These assets get attention and shape the way people see your practice. They serve as a form of social proof for the quality of your services when they include live testimonials. They give you something to link to within other campaigns and to embed within your blogs. They also serve as brief sales pitches that can be far more convincing than any chunk of text.
For best results, plan ahead for when and why you want to use your video assets and how you can repurpose them in multiple ways for future campaigns.
Need a Complete Online Marketing Strategy for Your Physical Therapy Practice? We Can Help.
For a free, no-obligation consultation, you can contact us at (760) 585-9097. We will discuss what you are doing know, your goals, and show you how we might be able to help.
The yellow pages are a thing of the past for most patients. Tens-of-millions of people now use online business directories each year and this applies to physical therapy business directories as well. These directories are designed to help online users locate the websites and information they are looking for. They are also a great way to help practices increase their Internet traffic and improve patient recognition.
There are many reasons why a physical therapy practices will want to register with the top directories on the web. Directories serve many purposes, such as:
Categorizing websites so that they are easily found using search engines.
Linking websites to one another for easier access.
Increasing traffic to your PT practice website
Providing an easy way for patients to find out about specialized information about your practice.
Assisting with SEO or search engine optimization. Having accurate business listings increase the likelihood that your practice will rank higher in a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search engine results page.
Helping business websites stand out to potential consumers.
Here is a list of the top business directories you want to submit your practice to:
Google My Business
Bing Places for Business
Yelp
Facebook
Local.com
Foursquare
LinkedIn
Google My Business
Yahoo! Aabaco Small Business
MerchantCircle
Yellow Pages.com
Superpages.com
Each of these business directories requires specific information. Below is a checklist of the information that you need to gather to register your physical therapy practice on these business directories. Not all the information is required but best practice is to fill in as much information as possible.
A Google Account/Gmail address (make sure the practice owner has access)
Business name
User name for the directory
Business owner’s name
Salutation
Job title
Year established
Country/Region
Street address
City
Directions/landmarks/cross streets
State
ZIP code
Is the business inside another location, such as another business?
Main business phone number
Additional phone numbers
Fax number
Website address
Main email address
Preferred method for customers to contact the company
Payment information including credit card, account holder’s name, etc. (for sites that require it)
Accepted payment methods by the company
Business category (physical therapy clinic, physical therapist)
Business description
Featured message, such as a slogan, tagline, etc.
Number of locations
Working hours
Your logo
At least 10 pictures of your clinic
Do you serve customers at your business address?
Are you authorized to manage this business?
Specialties
Languages
Security questions and answers
A document or system like lastpass.com to store each directory’s log in information
It takes a lot of time and effort to register your practice at each of the recommended business directories. However, putting in the time to do this can certainly help drive more patients into your practice.
If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, contact E-rehab.com for more information about how we can help.
You can reach us at (760) 585-9097.
Each day I speak with a client or prospect that wants to generate more business from the web. They are overwhelmed, confused, have been burned and simply don’t know what to do.
It’s not surprising when you consider all of the possible forms of advertising communication as diagrammed here in The Conversation Prism:
Your head really starts to spin when you think of social media:
By Brian Solis and JESS3 (https://www.theconversationprism.com/) [CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
Here are E-rehab’s Physical Therapy Online Marketing Recommendations
1. Make sure you have a great website – it’s one of the most trusted forms of advertising according to Nielson.
2. Make sure you have a mobile optimized website. 30% plus of your physical therapy website viewers are going to visit you on a smartphone.
3. Send out an email newsletter (examples here). It is the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to welcome, communicate, and stay in touch with past patients.
4. Ratings and Reviews – online reviews are the second most trusted and actionable form of advertising according to Nielson.
5. Create videos about your practice, your expertise, about patient reviews, and patient testimonials. Here are examples of reputation videos at Terrapin Physical Therapy’s YouTube channel.
6. Use Facebook and Twitter to communicate social signals to the search engines and to demonstrate your expertise and credibility.
7. Create a blog and optimize the posts to rank for common conditions you treat like MBF Rehab has done.
Invest in the Hub & Spokes
[info_box]You can spend hours every week chasing after the latest tech that might generate new patients. Our advice is to stop the madness and create a solid online marketing platform that includes the seven components above. We call it the Hub & Spoke Model. Your website is your hub of online marketing and the other components are the spokes. Invest in these and you will build your brand and develop more business from community members that have a need for PT.[/info_box]
Physical therapy online marketing is a necessary move if you want to hone in on capturing prospective patients who spend time online. Even if you’ve already done extensive online marketing for your physical therapy practice, you’ve likely realized that you need to focus more on capturing the right demographics. It isn’t enough to just market yourself to the entire online world and hope someone will notice and visit your website.
Ultimately, being thorough in finding key groups of people you need to capture, is the real secret to successful online marketing today. Those individuals are much easier to find through social media, though it doesn’t have to focus just there to attract the right people. It also means attracting prospective clients through website media or email.
So what type of contacts should you be seeking for your physical therapy clinic? Patients frequently fall into two different categories. Beyond there, you have other patients who are more local, plus those in the medical community who can help you improve your reputation.
Marketing To Past Patients
In your database, you likely have numerous patients who haven’t visited your physical therapy clinic for months or maybe years. In some cases, patients leave town due to personal circumstance or because they found another physical therapy source better suited for them.
Don’t delete these people from your database since you could still win them back with proper social media marketing or through email newsletters. If you had a social media account when they started with you, no doubt they still follow you on places like Twitter or Facebook. It’s rare when people take the time to unfollow someone they already followed years ago, especially if they have thousands of other people on their lists.
Link up with these former patients again with a direct message offering a special deal at your clinic. Or, perhaps advertise discounts directly on your social media feed. Direct messaging needs doing with discretion, since it can easily look like spam if you’re not careful. By checking to see if the person still follows you, advertising directly on your account means they’ll see it there anyway.
If they signed up for an email newsletter, send them specialized emails detailing what makes you stand out from your competitors of late. Your improvement examples will follow exactly what led those past patients to change to your competitor months or years before.
Marketing to Current Patients
To round out the potential for a healthy return on investment toward your marketing, re-focus efforts on marketing toward your current patients. Retaining patients you already have is imperative for this year and every year since they could also easily slip away if you’re not careful.
You can do this by also offering discounts for valued patients, plus providing health education on topics they can’t find anywhere else. The latter might be the most important of all, when value is what many people want while seeking medical treatments.
By making exclusive educational information available on social media or through newsletters, you help people improve their health on their own complementing the physical therapy you provide.
Marketing to Local Patients and Other Doctors
Local marketing is more important than ever, you can capture those already having physical therapy done with your competitors. When you place your information on local online directories, like Yelp or Yahoo! Local, you increase your chances of being found. Don’t forget, though, that you need your name, address, and phone number consistently on every entry so everyone can easily contact you immediately. Far too many businesses forget to place simple contact information in their local directory listings.
As for marketing toward doctors, you want them available for referrals and recommendations.
Contact us here at E-rehab.com so we can help you with your physical therapy online marketing procedures this year. It’s time you captured and re-captured the people who make or made your clinic successful on a consistent basis.
Digital marketing has quickly become the most common and fastest way to reach a wide audience. However, simply having a website isn’t enough to reach a vast audience. We recommend you have a simple physical therapy social media marketing strategy. A 2014 study performed by Social Media Examiner found that a whopping 97% of marketers were using social media to expose and sell their services; meaning that if you aren’t currently using social media to market your business, you are already behind. But it takes more than just opening a Facebook account to succeed at physical therapy social media marketing. Here are some things you need to know about social media marketing so that you can take your physical therapy clinic to the next level by reaching and impacting a wider range of audience:
Use Multiple Social Media Sites
It might seem like everyone in the universe has a Facebook account, but this isn’t necessarily true. Individuals tend to favor one social media outlet over the others, so someone who is very active on Twitter might miss your Facebook announcements and promotions. To optimize your business’s outreach, set up accounts on all the major social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Stay Active
Simply having social media sites isn’t enough to draw attention or business from followers. You need to update regularly with new information, exciting news in your office, and any news events that are relevant to your practice, your community, and the profession. But don’t panic if you don’t have time to personally make these updates. E-rehab takes care of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ updates for you so your pages will always be active and current.
Engage With Followers
Consumers are more likely to trust brands and companies they follow on social media than those that they don’t, largely because social media offers a personal, human factor that just isn’t present in direct marketing or even commercial campaigns. People are likely to lodge complaints or offer high praise on your social media sites, and these need to be addressed. Apologizing publicly to a dissatisfied client on Facebook or Twitter demonstrates that you listen to your clients and care about their feedback. Further, you can openly discuss any new policies or strategies that will take place based on the feedback. Likewise, accepting compliments and graciously saying Thank You shows followers that your business takes the time to read and respond to clients long after they have left your office.
Word of Mouth
We all know that personal referrals are the most important way for PT practices to generate new patients. When your patients respond to your social media announcements, they end up referring you to their followers, meaning you are reaching a much wider range of audience than through other forms of marketing. The best part is, you don’t have to do any extra work to reach this audience.
[info_box]Is Your Competition Already Ahead of You? Do a quick Google search for your competitors, and you will likely find that they are already using social media to market their business. Don’t waste any more time giving them the social media advantage and taking clients away from you. Contact us today, and let E-rehab work with you to develop a complete social media campaign for your physical therapy office. We will develop and maintain a customized Facebook account, a customized Twitter account, and a customized Google+ channel. “Not having time” to keep up with your social media accounts just isn’t an excuse anymore since we do all the work for you. All you have to do is sit back and reap the benefits of getting additional business for your physical therapy office thanks to your social media marketing campaign.[/info_box]
Google has made life much easier for physical therapy practice owners with the launch of its exciting new tool, Google My Business. It combines:
Google Places,
Google Maps,
Google Analytics & Insights
Google+
They are all under one easy-to-use dashboard and now, managing multiple Google accounts has never been simpler and the marketing advantages are endless.
What’s more, it’s free with no hidden costs. Here’s a quick summary of some of the services included in Google My Business:
Google+ (Google Plus):
Here’s a Google + Page that’s great for your physical therapy online marketing
G+ (Google Plus or Google+) This is Google’s answer to Facebook. It’s a social networking platform that allows you to share messages, photos, videos and links to your followers, directly from the My Business page.
Reviews: Google is the number 1 business review platform online. Google My Business has an entire review platform that gives practices a place to manage ratings and reviews in one location.
Google Analytics: You can very quickly and easily see all of your websites stats right on your business dashboard.
Insights: Insights gives you vital information on your visibility, engagement and trends in the market.
Maps: Manage your businesses location and information available on Google Maps.
YouTube & Hangouts: Video chats with key members of your physical therapy practice (think expert interview, patient testimonials, doctor interviews, etc.).
As mentioned earlier, this is all a free service. If you currently use Google Places for business or Google+ Pages to manage your online presence, you will already have been upgraded.
Not only that, but they are fine-tuning the My Business platform for mobile use too, and it is available in both iOS and Android.
6.5 Ways That You Can Take Advantage of Google My Business
Right Now and Quickly Overtake Your Competition
1. Be easily found on Google
Brand awareness is vital for any practice. How can you gain patients if people don’t know who you are or what types of services you offer? As a small private practice, you know how hard it can be to get high rankings on Google, especially if you’re in a big market with corporate and hospital brands.
So in order to create better brand awareness your first step would be to create an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to make your site more searchable on Google. Research has proven (and you probably know from your own personal experience) that 75% of Google users never scroll past the first page. This highlights how without good Google rankings, you are simply missing new patients.
This is where Google My Business comes into play. When you create a My Business account, fill out all of the information Google requests, as it will increase the odds that your practice will show up on a Google Search, Maps and Google+.
You’ll need precise information about your location, your office hours, contact information, website address, email and fax numbers, and at least 10 pictures of your practice.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that the information you put on Google is the exact information NAP (business Name, Address, Phone number) that you have on your website and any other places where your practice is listed online. Consistency is very important in SEO and it can affect your search engine rankings if there are any inconsistencies.
The more information you add, the more Google’s search algorithms will work to help your search ranking.
Together, all of these features will give your patients an inside look at your practice. As a result, when potential patients are comparison shopping or simply doing a broad search for “physical therapy and a location”, they will be more likely to find your Google My Business listing and visit your website.
2. Connect with existing and potential patients
Not only can you manage your practice listing (AKA Google online phonebook listing), you can also manage your Google+ page from your My Business dashboard. It has taken a while for people to get used to the Google+ social network, and most people still prefer and use Facebook and other social media sites, but bear in mind that your Google+ business page increases the trust in your practice name and gives you significant boost to with respect to your Google Local SEO listings.
Google is always trying to provide its users with the best, most relevant experience. As such Google takes note of those who comment, shares or +1 your G+ page posts, captures this information, and identifies your audiences identity, activity and interests. From there, they can even deliver your Google+ page content to your followers in the organic search results. It’s truly amazing how Google provides users such a customized experience.
The other advantage of using Google+ is this; while other social media sites place a “no follow” tag on any link you post, Google+ doesn’t. So if you posted a link on Facebook for example, any links that you put in your posts (to your website in attempts to improve search engine optimization) will not influence your practice’s Google search results. Google, on the other hand, treats them G+ posts as web pages, which then helps increase your sites visibility and page rank.
But even without the SEO benefits, Google+ is also a terrific way to engage with past patients and build a long term relationship with them, which will increase the trust in your company.
Just as on any other social network, if you expect any kind of results on Google+, you need to be consistent and post regularly. If you have a practice blog, post the links on your page and ask your audience to read and share them. Post fun pictures of you and your employees so that your followers can get to know you better and have a clearer picture of who you are. It will encourage brand loyalty.
It is worth reminding you that any content you share should be relevant and interesting to your audience. You don’t want to keep posting promotional offers like Free Screenings or Discount Massages. The point of Google+ is not to push your physical therapy services on people, but to create a close-knit community, which will inspire trust and loyalty in your practice.
3. Hang out with your clinicians
If you are not already familiar with it, Google Hangouts are another great way to demonstrate your clinical expertise. You can hang out with up to 15 people at a time.
It’s the perfect way to build an online video marketing strategy for free. Use it to answer questions, share information about your new services or even give online demos of treatment.
4. Check the Performance of your activity
It’s helpful to post on Google+ and host Hangouts with your patients, but it could all be a waste of time and effort if they are not producing the desired results.
This is where the Insights tool comes in for your Google+ page and Analytics for your presence across all Google platforms. Both of these tools make it very easy for you to see how many views you’re getting, and you can even see how many people are reading your specific Google+ posts. It even gives you information on how many people have checked out your practice on Google Map searches.
5. Encourage and Respond to Patients’ Reviews
Whether you love them or you hate them, some patients want to leave a review about your practice. It’s part of online culture and people will either want to rave or complain about any experiences that they’ve had.
Side Note: the most common “bad reviews” are about patient billing and payment. It’s worth knowing this and making a little extra effort to make sure patients understand your physical therapy billing practices and policies.
Since online reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising, it’s worthwhile to make it easy for patients to post ratings (0-5 stars) and reviews (text comments about your practice). Chances are positive reviews will generate more business for you too, as many patients decide to make decisions based solely on what their peers have to say about your practice. Google My Business makes it easy by allowing you to claim your practice listing so that patients can add their rating and review by simply by Googling your name and clicking on the blue Google+ page link under your business listing.
The dashboard even makes it easy for you to promote the reviews on your Google+ page and monitor reviews on other platforms like Yelp. This will help you to easily respond to positive reviews, while professionally and politely dealing with any negative reviews. You will have a great pulse on the online reputation of your practice…certainly an asset for any physical therapy practice these days.
6. Create an AdWords Express Account
It probably won’t surprise you that at the bottom of the My Business dashboard, there is a button that will bring you to an AdWords account. After all, advertising is where Google makes 95%+ of its money.
The “express version” if AdWords, in my experience is very easy to use for private practice owners, but your ads will often show up for keywords that aren’t related to your business. This will result in unnecessary clicks and expense. Nevertheless, it still super easy to quickly create ad campaigns. It’s very similar to the right-side and inline Facebook ads, where you simply write your ad and set your budget and then Google AdWords will do the rest the work.
6.5 Stay Informed on Your Mobile Device
Just as 30-40% of your patients are likely to visit your physical therapy practice website while browsing on their smartphones, Google My Business will allow you to do manage My Business with either both iOS and Android apps. The mobile streamlined dashboard makes it easy for you to simply swipe through all of your tools and data, allowing you change dates, manage ads and modify your online presence from wherever you are.
Claim Your Page Today
With Google My Business, you will find all of the best Google tools are right in front of you by simply by logging into your dashboard. It makes management of your online presence easy.
[info_box]As you can see, Google My Business is a robust practice brand management platform; but, as with all aspects of online marketing, your web performance is only as good as you can make it. It’s very important that you include as much relevant information about your practice as you can. If it’s done right, it really can make a difference between your online success or failure.[/info_box]
If you are in any doubt or would like more helpful tips and advice on how to make the most from this great tool, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
I get calls from my clients almost every week – “These Yelp sales people are hammering me,” is what I heard yesterday. They share numbers that aren’t likely to be accurate (e.g., number of leads & page views) and try to convince them them they are missing out.
I thought I would share my perspective on their advertising program.
Here’s what Yelp offered one of my PT clients:
“We offer 6 programs that vary based on how aggressively you want to advertise your business on Yelp. All packages include the mentioned* features and are based on an annual agreement.
Ultra Premium- $2,200/mo – includes 6,500 targeted ads per month
Super Premium- $1,600/mo – includes 4,650 targeted ads per month
Premium- $1,050/mo – includes 3,000 targeted ads per month
Standard- $800/mo – includes 2,100 targeted ads per month
Basic- $550/mo – includes 1,200 targeted ads per month
Intro- $350/mo – includes 500 targeted ads per month
*Mentioned features include: video production, video hosting, picture slideshow, Call to Action button, competitors ad removal, tracking in your business owners account, and an Account Manager.”
[note_box]
Most of these things aren’t clear.
Video production – who produces the content for the video? Who owns the video? Can the video be used on your website?
Call to action button – what is that?
Competitor ad removal – does that mean that others that are advertising on Yelp, will be removed? I bet not.
Tracking – how is this accomplished to demonstrate if a patient truly came into the practice?
These are not easy questions to answer.
[/note_box]
Will Yelp Pay for Itself…Probably Not
Financially, there are 3 ways that I see you can analyze this opportunity and see if it makes sense for you.
A. Straight Profit and Loss Analysis
Remember, you have costs to treat/run your business (i.e,. salary & overhead) for every patient and what you have left over is profit of course.
Each one of you is different but the typical profit on a patient case is 10-20% and average revenue per patient about $800 (so, profit per patient case is $80).
If you aren’t getting a minimum of 4 patients from your Yelp advertising, you are losing money.
Conclusion: No one I have spoken with (well over PT practice owners about this) has used Yelp’s paid advertising and made a profit. Note: 1-3 patient per month, for most PT clinics, even if they advertise at the cheapest level, will not result in a break even ROI.
B. Lifetime Market Value Analysis
In this analysis you take into account the number of patients (generated from your advertising campaign) that will return when calculating ROI.
For example. Let’s say you spent $550/mo on Yelp ads (the basic package noted above). You have a year contract as well so your annual expense is $6600. Applying the rationale from Straight Profit and Loss Analysis, you need to generate at least $6600 in new patient revenue to break even.
Let’s say you generate 5 patients/mo (this is very aggressive and unlikely but let’s use this number). That is 60 patients per year. Your profit is $80/patient and your ROI from your Yelp advertising is 60 x $80 or $4800.
Now, let’s consider that 30% of those patients will come back (that’s 18 total over the course of the year). The number of new patients you generated from your Yelp campaign might be considered to be 60+18 returning or 78.
Now multiply 78 x $80 and you get $6240 of profit.
You still don’t break even.
Obviously, this analysis depends on a number of factors. The total number of patients you get per month, your profit margin, and the percentage of patients that return to you (i.e., Lifetime Market Value of your patient).
Conclusion: Looking at ROI over the long haul. This is a reasonable way to analyze your ROI for an ad campaign but your ROI is recovered over a longer period of time (i.e., the time it takes for the patients to come back a second time, or even a third time).
C. Gross Revenue Out and In Model
In this analysis of your campaign spend, you aren’t concerned about profit. Rather, your objective is just to cover your costs, pay your salary, your staff and your overhead. In other words, you want to keep your doors open It looks something like this.
You generate 60 patients (5 per month) in one year from your Yelp advertising at a cost of $6600.
Your gross income generated from the advertising campaign is 60 new patients created from Yelp ads x $800 of revenue/case = $48,000 of gross revenue from Yelp Ads.
Assuming a 10% profit per case, your profit is $4800 (i.e., 10% of $48,000 gross revenue).
Your cost to do the Yelp ads, again is $6600.
Your total $4800 in profit – $6600 in Yelp ad costs = ($1800) loss.
NOTE: if you consider Lifetime market value (i.e., your ads generated 78 patients), your profit is $6240-$6600 in ad costs and you still lose $360.
Conclusion: If you are more interested in getting people in the door, then this might be a way to analyze your advertising costs. In the end, you are still losing money and most practices can’t afford to do that anymore.
Things to Consider
These analyses heavily depend on the number of patients you get from the Yelp advertising. Five new patients per month, that would have NOT come to you anyway, is a large number. I don’t think this is possible except in the largest markets like San Francisco and NYC.
Opportunity Costs: Finally, you need to ask yourself, if I am committing to spend this kind of money (i.e., $350/mo+) on marketing, is there a better use of this money doing something else? For example, Google Ads, Doctor Lunches, Novelty Items like shirts, postcards mailing, patient follow up campaigns, etc., etc. I think there might be some better options. What do you think?
[colored_box variation=”deepblue”]Take Home Message: I don’t believe, based on the input of many others that have advertised, and the financial analysis, that Yelp advertising is a good use of your dollars. However, you have to plug in your own values (percentage of profit margin/case, number of patients you get from Yelp ads, lifetime market value, and the number of months you are committing to run the Yelp ads) to arrive at your own conclusions.[/colored_box]
Please share your thoughts too and help your colleagues and help your colleagues make good decisions about how they spend their ad dollars.
If you’ve done a geographic search for physical therapy clinics in your area, you’ve probably noticed a link to one or more Yelp listings on the search results page. If you’ve asked yourself, “How can I get my business listed on Yelp?”, this post should help. Claiming your listing might get your business listed when someone searches for a physical therapy practice in your area. Also, having a completed business listing will also count as a good “citation” which helps with Google Local search rankings.
3. If you can’t find your business, click “Add your business to Yelp link”. If Yelp does find your business you will skip this and go to Step 7.
4. Fill in the necessary information and make sure it is complete! If Yelp does find your business you will skip this.
5. Check the email box you used when signing up with Yelp and click the “confirm your email address link”. If Yelp does find your business you will skip this.
6. Your business Submission will be reviewed by Yelp. If Yelp does find your business you will skip this.
7. After your submission has been approved, you will have a basic listing. If your business was found, then this is where you will add additional information.
8. Next, fill in and complete all of the form fields and options for your business listing.
9. Add photos by uploading them into Yelp’s system.
10. Then, include captions for each photo you upload. Note: add in some keywords that describe your business. For example, “physical therapy Carlsbad”. Do NOT keyword stuff the caption (use the same phrases over and over again).
11. Make sure you watch your email for a message from Yelp to “unlock” their business tools. Click that link.
12. Review the section on Yelp’s business tools page about how to obtain Yelp reviews.
13. Verify your business on Yelp.
That’s it. Assuming you completely filled out your listing and uploaded photos, your Yelp business listing should be complete.
Now it is time to go get some Yelp reviews which will be the subject of our next post.
NOTE: if you see any inconsistencies, let us know with a comment below. Yelp is always changing its process.
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