The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO for Physical Therapy Private Practices

 

In today’s digital-first world, local SEO stands as a beacon for physical therapy private practices aiming to share their services for the local community. It’s not just about being seen; it’s about being found by the right people at the right time. Here’s how to harness the power of local SEO to elevate your practice.

Understanding Local SEO and Its Importance

Local SEO is the compass that guides potential patients to your Google Business Listing, your website, and ultimately your practice when they’re searching for the services you offer. For physical therapy clinics, this means appearing in search results for “your business name”, “physical therapy near me”, “physical therapy”, and “physical therapy city”.  But why is local SEO so critical?

Imagine a person recovering from knee surgery in need of a reputable physical therapist in their area. They turn to Google, typing in “physical therapy near me.” Your practice appears at the top of the search results, not by chance, but because you’ve mastered the art of local SEO.

The Path to Dominating the Local Search

The journey through local SEO is multi-faceted, involving meticulous optimization both on and off your website. Here’s how to embark on this path:

1. Optimizing for Google’s Map Pack

The Map Pack, a set of three local business listings highlighted at the top of Google’s search results, is prime digital real estate. To secure your spot here:

  • Ensure your Google Business Profile is impeccable. Fill out every detail: your practice’s name, address, phone number (NAP), services, and operating hours. Regular updates and high-quality photos of your clinic can enhance your profile’s appeal.
  • Solicit and manage reviews. Encourage happy patients to leave positive reviews and respond thoughtfully to each one, showcasing your practice’s commitment to patient satisfaction.  Doing so on a consistent basis can help establish your practice as a prominent business in the community.
  • Add content to your Google Business Profile.  Adding images and video can help differentiate your practice from others.  SEO companies that have done some statistical research have suggested that adding content may help improve your search rankings.

2. Diving Deep into Local Keyword Research

Understanding what potential patients are searching for is pivotal. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Moz Local can uncover the terms and phrases your target audience uses. For instance, you might find that “post-surgery physical therapy in [City]” is a popular search query, signaling a valuable keyword to include on your website.

3. Voice Search Optimization

With the rise of voice search, optimizing for conversational queries is increasingly important. People often use longer, more natural sentences when using voice search. For example, instead of typing “physical therapy NYC,” they might ask, “Where can I find a physical therapist for ankle injury near me?” While you may choose to incorporate these conversational phrases into your content, the Google search algorithm is so good that it isn’t absolutely necessary for the very narrow niche of physical therapy.

4. Crafting Local Content

Your website should be a treasure trove of information not just about your services, but also about how they relate to your local area. Posts about the location and areas you serve within your city can position your practice as both an expert physical therapy provider and a community authority.

5. Harnessing the Power of Backlinks

Backlinks from reputable local websites can significantly boost your SEO efforts. Participate in local health fairs or sponsor a community sports team, and then share these stories online. Local news outlets or community websites might cover the event and link back to your website, enhancing your local SEO.

6. Leveraging Social Media

While not a direct ranking factor for SEO, social media can amplify your local visibility. Regular posts about your services, team, and happy patient testimonials, especially when tagged with your location, can drive local engagement and traffic to your website.

In Conclusion

Local SEO for physical therapy private practices is an ongoing journey, requiring consistent effort and adaptation to changing search trends. By implementing the strategies outlined above, you can improve your online visibility, attract more local patients, and establish your practice as a pillar of the community.

Remember, the goal of local SEO is not just to lead the search engine rankings but to connect your practice with individuals in need of your expertise and care. By focusing on these strategies, you’re not just optimizing for algorithms; you’re paving the way for healthier, happier communities.

Looking For A Physical Therapy Marketing Company That Can Do All Of This For You?

For over 20 years we’ve been helping physical therapy private practices efficiently, effectively, and affordably marketing their practices online.   If you’d like to connect with us, simply request a time on David Straight, DPT’s calendar https://davidstraight.youcanbook.me

Physical Therapy Local Online Marketing with Social Media

Online marketing has a lot of advantages. It’s relatively inexpensive, easy to track, and a great way to reach a patient pool that spends an increasing amount of time in front of screens.

Practice owners looking to leverage social media in their area can turn to three social media channels that will allow them to build a reputation as the local physical therapy expert in the area and/or affordably advertise to their community.

Become a Member of Your Local Facebook Groups

 

Telling you that you can advertise on Facebook doesn’t qualify as news, but you may not realize just how many ways there are to use Facebook to build name recognition in your community.

One way to promote your practice is to get involved with local Facebook Groups.  I’m not talking about creating your own group, I’m suggesting that you get involved in some of your neighborhood groups that contain members within the neighborhood you serve.

Here’s where most can start.

  1. Join Local Neighborhood Groups: Do you belong to any local community Facebook Groups?  How about your significant other? Many are private and you’ll need to be a member yourself or you will need a patient, or an administrator of the group to invite you.  So, step one is to join the group, browse the group, make sure it has several hundred members, and there are one or more posts within the group on a daily basis.  
  2. Do Your Research: Browse around the group.  What topics do people post on?  Identify the influencers in the group.  Who is leading the group?  Who writes the most for the group?  Who has had physical therapy from YOUR practice and commented in the group?  What are others saying about your practice and other PT practices in the group?  Use the group search function to gain a better understanding of the group dynamics and content they post.  Often these groups consist of moms that are sharing recommendations about professional services as well as events and news about the community.
  3. Contribute content:  Be careful here. Do NOT write about yourself.  You need to gain trust and credibility in the group.  Once you part of the group, give value.  Don’t promote your practice.  Comment on questions that are relevant to your PT professional skill set.  Ask the administrator if you can write in informative blog post and then paste a link to it the group.  
  4. Look for advertising opportunities: Another option is to pay the group admin to promote you to the group.  See if you can share any of your upcoming events to the group as well.

Facebook Groups within your neighborhood are a good way to get an idea of what others think of you, they’re a good place to identify influencers in your community, an opportunity to help and educate, and sometimes they are a great place to organically promote your physical therapy services.

Leverage the Nextdoor App & Community

Nextdoor is a bit like a hyper-localized Facebook. In order for users to join the network, they need to verify property ownership at a given address by phone or they can receive a piece of physical mail to validate that they live in the area. Due to the extra authentication, when businesses advertise on Nextdoor, practice owners can be certain that they’re reaching actual residents. However, unlike Facebook Groups, which is huge everywhere, the popularity of Nextdoor can vary by city or town.

Simply Instructions to Get Started

You’ll want to see how active the network is in your area before committing a portion of your marketing time and budget to it.  Simply download the app, find your neighborhood, and sign up yourself.  If there is a Nextdoor presence in your neighborhood, search for your business. 

If you find a Nextdoor member that was also your patient, connect with them again offline.  See if they are willing to comment on your services or even recommend you go others.  Also, remind patients of the Nextdoor app and have them recommend you as well.

Nextdoor does have some advertising options as well.  It’s not our top recommendation but for some practice owners, it might be a viable alternative.

Advertise Your Practice on Waze

Did you know you can put a billboard inside an app? That may sound crazy, but in a world where so many drivers use the Waze app, advertising on Waze instead of on street signs can put a lot of eyeballs on your practice in a hurry.

Waze Local is an easy way to advertise your practice. You can show more information about your practice on the app when people drive by. You can drop a pin of your practice on their map. You pay only for ad activity and their are a couple of different options.  The basic advertising option will be best for most small practices.

The company also provides analytics on your ads, which can help you better strategize how to reach potential patients.  If you practice is right next to a busy freeway or highway, it’s  an affordable option to keep your name in front of a bunch of commuters. 

You can learn more at https://www.waze.com/business/

 

Get Better Results From Your Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing

Not where you’d like to be with your social media presence? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – social media is a challenge (and perhaps even a mystery) for many physical therapy practices!

The good news is that the pace of change in today’s private practice marketing world means that it’s never too late to jump in and compete, no matter where you’re starting from.

Here are seven things you can do right now to improve your social media presence and get better results from your social media efforts:

1. Understand Your Audience

This is perhaps the most important part of your social media strategy.  While many get lost in the content development, planning, and technical use of social networks, physical therapy marketing is all about reaching your target market. The fundamental question that you need to ask is, “Do patients seeking out physical therapy or past patients seeking out my physical therapy services, use social media?”  In our opinion here at E-rehab, past patients do use social networks to continue the relationship with a clinician/clinic they’ve had treatment at.  Therefore, it does make sense to use them.  In doing so, it is always important to focus on three things – educating past patients, entertaining them to maintain engagement (continued interaction on your the social network you’ve connect with them on), and making occasional offers.

NOTE: Years ago, at a WebPT conference, I was speaking with the director of marketing, he made an interesting comment that has stuck with me to this day.  He said, “If you want to try to measure ROI with social media, don’t.  It’s the wrong question to ask.”  While I can appreciate this from his context, I was speaking with a dedicated marketing expert that had a team of people and a health budget.  Why am I bringing this up?  You need to make peace with the inability to measure ROI, and you need to make sure that other marketing strategies, that do provide a measurable ROI are a higher priority.

2. Sharpen Your Physical Therapy Social Media Strategy

Simply posting content on social media isn’t enough. Before you can expect to generate a tribe of fans, followers, or community on a social network, you need to take a sharp look at your current strategy, and be realistic about what’s working and what’s not.

Start, consider the following questions:

  • Which social media platforms are you active on?
  • Which social media platforms are relevant to your business goals?
  • Which social media platforms are providing the most traffic and conversions?
  • Which social media platforms are underperforming?
  • What kind of content are you most effective at creating?
  • What kind of content will most effectively accomplish our social media goals?

Take a step back and really consider these questions. When it comes to the business of physical therapy, and I can’t overstate this enough, you may find that you’re wasting your efforts on platforms that don’t get results, you’re not using the platform’s features to the fullest, or you’re spreading yourself too thin. Don’t be afraid to change directions in your pursuit of your goals.

Important Concept: Physical Therapy isn’t very social.  No one wants to go to physical therapy and you can’t make people have pain or induce demand for it.  Yes, people “need” physical therapy and it’s important for your brand name and expertise to be present in your prospects’ minds when they do have a problem.  It’s super important to understand this.

3. Optimize Current Accounts

Once you’ve decided on your social media platforms and strategy, you should consider how you can strengthen your presence by optimizing your accounts.

To start, ensure your profile and header images are current and clear, and reflect your brand wherever possible.

Next, make sure you are making full use of any opportunities to add copy, a call to action, and hashtags. Also, check all links to be sure that they’re working properly.

Finally, remember that your profile shouldn’t be static, but rather a living asset that changes to reflect current seasons, campaigns and promotional themes.

4. Identify Clear Goals

What gets measured, gets managed…and improved. It’s time to identify clear goals that you will commit to monitoring and measuring moving forward.

You’ve likely checked your analytics in the process of evaluating your current social media accounts, so you already have the information you need to set your goals for the following year.

Remember, your goals don’t need to be elaborate or involved. A goal can be as simple as increasing your content posting or mixture. In any case, create goals that inspire you and share them with your team or peers and mentors that will hold you accountable.

5. Create a Schedule – Consistency is the Key

We’ve found that in almost 100% of cases, the most effective social media pros have a thoughtful posting schedule that they adhere to.

As a result, a big part of the execution of your social media strategy should be finding out the ideal timing for your content to maximize reach and engagement, and then creating a schedule around those times.

A schedule is more than just an alarm clock to time your posts by though – it also forces you to think ahead about your content plan. This keeps you from having gaps in your content, and ensures that you are giving yourself enough time to thoughtfully create your social content to tie into your greater marketing plans.

6. Use Video

In March of 2019, we attended Social Media Marketing World conference.  If there was one underlying theme that crossed many discussions, it was this…use video!  Video on Facebook, live video, YouTube video, Instagram video…video is where it’s at.

Many practices shy away from video marketing, but it’s effectiveness in unquestionable. Videos are easy and fun to consume, more engaging, and more likely to hold the attention of your audience for longer periods of time. In other words, you can’t afford to skip it!

Keep in mind that videos don’t need to be professionally done to work. In fact, in most cases, an informal and more relatable video will beat a Hollywood production any day!

A great way to capitalize on video that anyone can do is to go live. Many social media platforms offer live video options now, and it’s as simple as turning on your phone or webcam and hitting ‘broadcast’.

Don’t overthink it…just do it!

7. Don’t Wait – Get Started Now

Developing a strong social media presence is incredibly important for physical therapy private practices, today and for the future. Given that most people with musculoskeletal problems never see a physical therapist, social networks are a great way to reach many.

Hopefully, these tips will help you enhance your social media strategy and smash your goals!

7 Easy ways to turn Facebook into your  Physical Therapy Blog’s best distribution vehicle.

Do you ever wonder why your Facebook likes and posts seem to be from the same people? It’s true, you may have 100s of friends, but you only hear from the same group of people.  There are ways to reach a broader scope, but first you have to understand the techniques facebook uses to disseminate content.

Love it or hate it, Facebook is apart of our American culture.  It is estimated that 68% of Americans regularly check their Facebook accounts.  It is installed on 81% of mobile devices, and since the majority of internet traffic is viewed on a mobile device, this is something worth looking into and understanding.  Once you have a better knowledge of how Facebook can be one of your most efficient and cost-effective marketing tools, you will have a hard time arguing it’s not your best distribution module for reaching new and returning patients to your blog.  

1. Every blog you write should be shared on Facebook

Realize your reader is not sitting on pins and needles waiting for your next blog, checking it regularly to see what the newest addition is.  You need to utilizing the popularity of Facebook, to help deliver your message. Remember most Americans are checking their Facebook accounts multiple times a day.

2. Both quantity and quality matter

You will want to post often to Facebook, one to two times a day is acceptable, but the key is to keep it interesting and intriguing.  Don’t jeopardize your practice’s reputation by inundating readers with trivial posts. Be selective to what information you would like to be identified with. Posts that are just fluff information will turn patients away from regarding you as a leader in the industry, to seeing you more as a nuisance.

3. Consider Advertising on Facebook

At Facebook’s inception, a business had a pretty good shot of reaching a wide audience.  Today, however, organic reaches are falling rapidly. There is just too much supply of information available.  Facebook is constantly evolving to keep their subscribers happy, and to do this they are cherry picking the most relevant content based on their informational data algorithms.  This decisive feature of who see’s what is not necessarily a bad thing. All this gathered data and algorithm crunching, works in your favor too. By boosting your post thru paid advertising Facebook is exposing your post to a targeted audience, who actually have an interest on what your blog is about.  Factors such as where they live, their age, their interest and hobbies are just a fraction of the information used to funnel millions of viewers to those with real odds of becoming a future patient. One way to see how this might work for you is to give it a test run. Try boosting one or two blogs that you feel are your best, and measure the outcome.

4. Mobilize your Blog Site

Facebook is mobil is your blog site?  Again you need to keep it as easy as possible for your reader, if they have to work to view your blog they will move on to the next story.  Be mindful of your image sizes, and make sure your blog is mobile optimized.

5. Watch your Headlines

You have seconds to capture your reader’s attention, before they scroll to the next post.  How are you capturing their attention? Remember to start with a catchy headline without getting cliche, then funnel your most important facts down to the end with your call to action.  Consider how much information is out there, at any point of losing your reader’s interest they will move on.

6. Use Images

Facebook readers love images.  A relevant picture already begins to tell the story without even reading a word. Just remember to keep your images related to the subject of your blog, and use pictures that will stir an emotion for the reader.  

7. Finally do your own research

Try testing the same blog post with different variables to see the response you get from your audience.  Post the same blog, but use a different headline, or change up the image. Review the data from your previous blogs.  What worked for your popular posts in the past, is there a common denominator? Was it the way you approached your headline, or the subject addressed?  Perhaps a blog about sports injuries for children showed amazing results, but the blog about balance did not. This might give an insight to the demographics of who is seeing your Facebook posts.

Need Help?

I hope you found this advice helpful.  If you have additional questions about Facebook, blogging, or how we can help you generate more patients to your practice. please give me a call at (760) 585-9097 or email me at dave@e-rehab.com .

 

Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing Tips

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.

Businesses that use video marketing generate 66% more qualified customer leads and earn 54% more brand awareness  compared to those that don’t use any video. Even more impressive, 77% of small practice owners who use video report significant benefits and positive ROI.

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.

Physical Therapy Website Design: Creating a Brand That Stands Apart from Competitors

Physical therapy website design is a great opportunity for a private practice to differentiate themselves from the competition. If you run a physical therapy clinic, you know who your competitors are, and you know what makes you different from them. So, how do you convey what makes you different from the rest when crafting a physical therapy website design?

Astute branding choices, plus specific attention to SEO, so you’re found easier online, is the right strategic formula. Additionally, you need a site that is patient friendly, loads fast, offers the right information to your viewers (i.e. services and specialties), and has clear calls to action throughout.  Of course, you want your website to work well on not only desktop computers but tablets and smartphones too (this is called a responsive website and you can read more about what that means by clicking here).

Here at E-rehab.com, we’re an experienced team that gets your business there, step by step.

Branding in Your PT Practice Web Design

Your physical therapy practice needs to demonstrate how it stands apart from others. While it’s important to use quality images, graphics, and a consistent color palette to make a statement, branding should also be about the information you share with your prospective patients.  Here are some ways you can differentiate your practice:

  • Share innovative physical therapy techniques others don’t offer?
  • List special credentials and the benefits of seeing a PT that has them (perhaps you have and OCS and/or doctoral degree)
  • Do your outcomes set you apart? If so, list them.  FOTO has a widget for that.  Ask for the code and we can include it.
  • Do you have a unique physical location?
  • Do you treat/touch every patient every visit?  While it’s getting harder to do so with declining payment, this is a good differentiator and something the big box clinics don’t do much of anymore.

Include Your Own Physical Therapy Images & Video – Images and Video are Everywhere and You Should Leverage This Too

In the age of visuals, providing videos on your website that showcase what you offer, is a great method of branding.  Don’t just do a video about a treatment technique, create a series of videos on the conditions you treat, why physical therapy is a great choice, and then why someone should choose you.

Patient Video Testimonials and Social Proof

Also, patient testimonials are one of the best methods of branding for websites. Real results are everything when it comes to patients choosing physical therapy, and they’ll hear it directly from your best cases.  This is called social proof.  Here’s what social proof means:

…often in situations where we are uncertain about what to do (i.e. I don’t know which physical therapist I should choose), we would assume that the people around us (experts, celebrities, friends, patients.) have more knowledge about what’s going on and what should be done.  Reference: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-proof

Effective SEO

Your website should be optimized not only for your brand name but also for the keywords “physical therapy + city your business is in”, so those in your local area find you easier on search engines.

It’s also important to include appropriate titles, include keywords, and alt tags for your images and videos, so the search engines have a better idea of who you are and where your business is located.

While keywords in text are still important, be careful in being too general. Developing unique long-tail keywords pertaining to specialized physical therapy procedures you provide, will help you get found easier too.

Easy Integration with Social Media

Integrating a website with social media is essential in order to provide content about the physical therapy services you offer. You can do this by creating social media buttons that link to your social properties as well as easy shares on your web pages, blog, and videos.

Creating educational information on your site for social media sharing is important to alert your followers about services and specials you offer. The more detail you include in your content, the more apt it is that visitors will share. Just be sure the content you create for social media is information not found anywhere else. You want to get all the “juice” you can which will help with your search engine rankings.

Customizing Your Site for Mobile

Responsive design for mobile devices is more essential than ever for your physical therapy site. As more and more people use mobile devices to look up information (statistics indicate that approximately 35% of PT website viewers are using mobile devices now), your site needs to be optimized for mobile platforms as well.  If you aren’t sure if your current website is mobile optimized, we recommend you check it out here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

15+ Years of Experience – We’ve Got You Covered

We’ll help make your site easy to use so those searching for you will find exactly what they need and fast. This means possibly restructuring the desktop version of your site, so the most essential information gets seen first.

Stand out and show prospective patients that you’re there to help. Contact us here at E-rehab.com, so we can create a unique website for your physical therapy practice.

Increase Visibility and Perform Market Research via Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing

social media marketing for physical therapists

It appears to be more useful on a personal level but physical therapy social media marketing can help greatly in increasing the visibility of your business.  By promoting interaction with your patients, it can also help you to perform market research.

The Aura of Authenticity About Facebook “Likes”

Since Facebook is largely an informal space, people feel free to comment on it, either positively or negatively.  And a positive Facebook comment counts for a lot more than an advertisement, because those who read it know that there was no coercion involved.  If someone “likes” a post, it’s generally because they genuinely like it, and not because they were paid to say so.  So there’s an aura of genuineness and authenticity about physical therapy references you might get via Facebook or Twitter.

Celebrity Endorsements vs. Reviews from Friends

The skeptics among us might point out that celebrities are often paid to endorse products or services online.  This is true but most of us are more likely to be swayed by what our Facebook friends tell us rather than what a celebrity might say.  This is because there are many similarities between us and our friends.  We perceive them as being at the same or only a slightly different level of attractiveness, economic class and intellectual understanding.  We pay more attention to their “likes” because they’re like us!

Coming up with a Social Media Marketing Plan

If you’re unconvinced about the role of social media marketing companies, keep in mind that you can come up with a social media marketing plan, as suggested by this Hootsuite article.  Depending on your business objectives, your social media marketing plan may include an evaluation of what your current social media accounts are doing for you, the creation of new accounts, the development of accounts you already have and the addition of new, relevant content.  Checking out what your competitors are up to can also help you to figure out where your business is going and how social media can help you to get there.

Interacting with Prospects via Social Media

Social media helps you to stay in touch with your audience.  It’s an interactive space from which you can learn what your patient prospects are looking for.  For example, if you put up an update regarding a new type of physical therapy you’re offering, it’s possible that you’ll get a number of positive or negative comments with regard to it.  Depending on what your patients are saying, you can decide whether you want to make any changes to your service.

Staying Alert to Figure Out The Tipping Point

If you stay alert on social media, you can also figure out which way the wind is blowing, before it actually gets there.  In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about Hush Puppies, a type of shoe that had slowly been declining in popularity.  The makers of Hush Puppies had almost decided to stop producing them when there was a sudden upswing in their sales.  Although the middle-aged, conservative demographic had stopped wearing them, they had suddenly become popular with hipsters.

Using Social Media for Market Research of “Niche” Services

What happened with Hush Puppies came as a surprise to many people.  But this is the kind of change that soon becomes noticeable via comments or likes on social media.  Although a number of people might feel the same way about a certain product or service, there might be undiscovered market segments/audiences that feel differently.  If it’s possible for your niche service to start appealing to a new demographic, social media is a great way to find this out first.  In this sense, social media is not just a marketing platform to increase sales; it’s also a great place to perform a bit of market research and change direction if need be.

Experiment with the marketing of niche services – sports performance, vestibular rehab, women’s health, tmj treatment, and more.  Run an ad, point the viewers to a page on your website about that niche service, give them something of value (this is called a lead magnet or a trust trigger product) in exchange for their name and email address, and see what happens.

Contact us for more great ideas to come up with your own social media marketing plan.

Physical Therapy Clinic Marketing: Using Social Media to Learn About Prospective Patients

physical therapy clinic marketing

If you haven’t already noticed, we’ve reached a point where the process of physical therapy clinic marketing now has to include social media, almost by default. While this should hopefully be clear to you, what it means may be a little different from what you might expect.

Why You Need Two Accounts in Physical Therapy Clinic Marketing

Many experts are now recommending that if you own a physical therapy practice, you should create two separate accounts. One is a personal account for yourself that connects to another account, which is designed specifically for your clinic. You can see the logic in this, even if places like LinkedIn consolidate both of these onto one page. [pullquote3 align=”right” textColor=”#000000″]Nurturing relationships online is a growing way to generate leads on social media so you have a more targeted audience for your later marketing content.[/pullquote3] Nevertheless, you give yourself an advantage by having a personal account because it’s there where you can start conversations with prospective patients. Nurturing relationships online is a growing way to generate leads on social media so you have a more targeted audience for your later marketing content.

But when you start conversations on places like Twitter, how do you approach talking to someone? Instead of trying to hard-sell your physical therapy practice, the best approach should be a more natural conversation that simply proves your expertise in the field of physical therapy. At the same time, you can use these social media conversations as a way to create a patient persona so you understand what they’re looking for in doctors providing the best physical therapy techniques.

Where Should You Start Your Social Media Conversations?

Conversations can take place on any social media platform, though Twitter is one of the best places to search for discussions and join in. Through a simple hashtag search, you can find conversations underway related to physical therapy.

Because Twitter has discussions underway about virtually everything, you likely won’t have trouble finding numerous people discussing physical therapy issues. When you join in on a conversation, make it a natural progression without mentioning how you’re a physical therapist or own a clinic. Any hint that you’re trying to sell yourself could risk you being blocked.

This is why it’s important to write a compelling Twitter bio so those who click on your profile can see that you already have credibility. As you start a conversation, you can start to learn some things about the type of patients you want to connect with. Here’s some things to find out about prospective patients so you can further target your marketing toward them.

What You Can Determine from General Information

Once you become friends with the above people on Twitter, they’ll start following you. Don’t let the conversations end, though, because you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll get to know about them as you continue talking with one another.

You’ll want to know a few things outside of general points like their age and what they do for a living. Here are some areas to focus on:

1. Pain Points

Finding out the pain points of a prospective patient is essential because you determine exactly what kind of physical pain they’re experiencing and how you can help solve it. Once you get to know your followers, you can find out what kind of physical pain they’re having and how it affects them during their work day.

2. Is Pain Stopping Them from Reaching a Goal?

As an adjunct to pain points, is the physical pain in any person above preventing them from accomplishing something? Find out what that pain is, because your marketing content can hone in on this to prove your techniques. You can do this later by showing past examples of solving pain problems so patients could function physically again in their careers.

3. What They Expect from Physical Therapy

Try to find out what physical therapy techniques these prospective patients are looking for in particular. Can they wrap their busy schedules around yours? Finding out what they expect can help you tweak things further in your physical therapy clinic marketing content so you attract like-minded people to your social media accounts without seeking them first.

[info_box]If this is a new pursuit for you and your practice, it may sound a bit daunting at first. This response is normal, but that’s exactly where we can come in to help. Contact E-Rehab once you’re ready to take control of your physical therapy clinic marketing, so we can assist you by finding unique social media marketing tactics for your physical therapy practice.[/info_box]

Why You Need a Blog to Improve Your Physical Therapy Reputation Marketing

physical therapy reputation marketing

Are you struggling to create a successful physical therapy reputation marketing approach? If so, you should strongly consider writing blogs if you’re not already doing so. Although blogs are often treated like an afterthought by many businesses, they can be a powerful tool for boosting the reputation of your physical therapy practice.

Why You Should Blog to Improve Your Physical Therapy Reputation Marketing

Business owners often neglect the importance of a blog when it comes to reputation marketing, but that is a huge mistake: [highlight4]blogs are actually one of the most effective ways to spread your brand and reach a potential audience.[/highlight4]

This is even true of a physical therapist like you: a well-written, fun, and informative blog can provide your patients with information about common physical problems, easy self-fixes, unique personal stories, and treatment angles they would have never considered otherwise.

Build Your Authority

By way of illustration, marketing expert Steve Olenski of Forbes magazine delved deeply into the world of blog-based marketing and found that it offered a unique approach to the following: content strategy; demographic marketing, and authority building.

The latter point is especially important: if you come across like a true expert on physical therapy (by offering well-researched and engaging blog content), your reputation will grow by leaps and bounds.[blockquote align=”center”]Blogging also offers a unique way for your patients to interact with you via the comment section found in most high-quality blogs. Here, they can praise your blog content and your services, which will create a positive feedback loop that will continually enhance your reputation for years to come.[/blockquote]

Even if they come to your blog to complain, you can still turn that into an advantage by directly addressing their concerns and soothe their fears by offering a free examination. You will come away looking humble and willing to fix your mistakes: a major reputation boost.

Researching Blog Topics

Consistently updating a worthwhile blog requires finding topics you want to write about. That’s actually much trickier than it seems, especially as a physical therapy expert, since you already have an extremely extensive understanding of the subject matter. On the other hand, the audience of your website doesn’t have this same understanding, and figuring out what they’d like to learn about can be a struggle.

In this circumstance, it’s best to step back and think about an industry or service which you know little about, such as auto repair, and consider what confuses you about it. Then, you should brainstorm similar topics for your blog, such as:

  • Common injuries or painful conditions
  • Relevant treatments used to address these issues
  • Other techniques and services you may use during treatment
  • How long each treatment session takes, and how many sessions may be needed for certain injuries

Next, try to center each of your blogs around these ideas, such as ACL tear rehabilitation, to create a plethora of possible blog topics. If you get stuck trying to find a good topic, use a tool like Google AdWords to pinpoint commonly searched keywords that are relevant to physical therapy.

For example, keywords and phrases like “torn ACL” and “did I break my ankle?” commonly show up in Google searches. Pitch your blog around these keywords, adding a unique twist, such as “home remedies for a broken toe,” and you have a potential blog topic.

Always Utilize a Reputable “Author” for All Content

Creating a blog without a reputable author is one of the biggest ways you can destroy the effectiveness of your physical therapy reputation marketing. Don’t farm it out to just anyone: either write the blog yourself, find a skilled intern willing to do it for some extra cash, or find reputable physical therapists willing to occasionally guest blog for you.

Focusing your blog on truly informative and knowledgeable writers creates a sense of “author authority” that will make your blog stand out in an over-saturated market. People will immediately trust what you have to say and, as a result, your blog—and your reputation—will grow exponentially.

[squeeze_box5]By now, it should be apparent that you simply can’t avoid setting up a blog for your physical therapy practice. The boost to your reputation will be too immense for you to ignore. However, if you’re still struggling to set up a good blog or come up with a great reputation marketing strategy, please don’t hesitate to contact us at E-Rehab right away. Our physical therapy reputation marketing experts will help fine-tune your marketing approach, help you design an eye-catching and memorable blog, and get you on the road to success. After that, the hard work of keeping up with your blog should be a heck of a lot easier.[/squeeze_box5]

Local Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing 101

physical therapy social media marketing

You’re already a talented and invested physical therapist. You’ve probably got a steady stream of patients who trust you and are seeing results. What’s next? How can you grow your client base and keep your patients healthy, even after their sessions are wrapped up?  We suggest physical therapy social media marketing.

You don’t need to be a trained marketing professional to develop your online community. In fact, sometimes that authentic novice approach can help your business stand out among all the cookie cutter stick-to-the-book traditional tactics. So, in between sessions, give a few of these channels a try.

Pinterest

If you’re not on Pinterest already and think it’s just for crafters and bakers, it’s time to get reacquainted. Pinterest was the fastest growing social network over the past year, and it has qualities that you won’t quite find on Facebook. “At their core, the difference between Pinterest and other social networks is why people use it,” Kevin Roose explains, “— to plan for the future, rather than exhuming the past or analyzing the present.” On Pinterest, health-and-recovery-minded users, like your patients, plan for the future by pinning wellness tips, healthy recipes, and inspirational quotes. “Pinning says ‘I want this.’ It’s aspirational.”

Your physical therapy practice can be a hub for such holistic aspirations. Of course you’ll have boards dedicated to PT-specific topics (i.e. Knee Pain, Spine Rehab, Shoulder Problems, etc.) and other subjects that would be a perfect fit for Pinterest‘s “Health & Fitness” category, but you should also tap into the most popular categories like “Food & Drink.” For example, you could pin anti-inflammatory foods, therapeutic teas, protein-rich smoothies, and so on. Latch on to another popular category, “Women’s Fashion,” by pinning workout gear that your active or working-to-become active clients would be interested in. Think beyond the walls of your practice and consider the entire lifestyle of a person on the road to wellness. The topic“Physical Therapy” has 1.78 thousand followers; start showing a few of them why your PT brand is worth following.

Blog

Don’t freak out just yet—you don’t need to write a novel or post every day to have a quality blog for your practice. You also don’t need to be a tech wiz. With platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr (the second fastest growing social network over the past year), it takes minutes to set up a blog and begin participating in one of the biggest trends in marketing: content marketing. Content marketing is an approach which focuses on creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and engage with an audience. Blog posts are an excellent vehicle for such content, whose keyword-rich format can also help your business by improving your search engine optimization.

Okay, enough jargon. Think about what your client base would find compelling, informative, and shareable. You could write a 300-word piece about five ways to improve shoulder mobility. You could invite a guest blogger (i.e. a patient) to share how PT has changed her life. You could ask your chef neighbor to type up her favorite smoothie recipe and share a few tips on healthy eating. Compile a list of your top ten favorite outdoor activities in your city. Host a giveaway, like a free resistance band, for a randomly selected commenter. Are your own ideas flowing yet?

Facebook & Twitter

You have a Facebook Page, right? Maybe a Twitter profile, too (if not, we can set these up for you)?  These platforms are easy to get started on and are an effective way to build and engage with your online community. Like with other digital tools, it comes down to sharing high-quality, relevant content and interacting with your audience in a meaningful, authentic way. Since Facebook and Twitter are typically more well-known than the other channels we’ve mentioned, we won’t go too in-depth on the mechanics, but do know that having an active presence on these sites is becoming more of an expectation than a bonus for businesses. If a patient is in a work meeting and has a quick question (“Is the office cancelled today because of the snow?”), they’re probably going to pop on over to your (hopefully existent and active) Facebook Page or Twitter profile for real-time, up-to-date info. Trying to build up a collection of testimonials? Encouraging people to review you on Facebook is a great way to do so. You can then take these positive reviews and highlight them on your other channels, perhaps after turning the quotes into mini works of art with some free, easy design programs (i.e. Canva).

Practice patience

Be patient with yourself as you experiment with what works for your audience. You may be surprised by what resonates (or doesn’t), and just as your practice was built brick by brick, it will take time to develop your online community. Trust that the new growth you’re cultivating online will circle back to a more enriching experience at your clinic, for you and your clients.

How We Can Help

[note_box]E-rehab.com publishes regular, fresh, and engaging content for its members.  From videos to memes, we provide a variety of content to compliment your social media marketing strategy.  Contact us us to learn more about how we can help you with your social media marketing.[/note_box]

A Simple Physical Therapy Social Media Marketing Strategy

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]