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Clinical Solutions Blog

Don't Get Left Behind: 5 Physiotherapy Marketing Hacks Every Clinic Owner Should Know

Posted by Rick Lau on Sep 16, 2015 11:26:00 AM

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A while back I met Wendy Coombs for lunch in Calgary.

Wendy was a finalist for the RBC 2009 Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Award, and is the owner of Momentum Health, a company with 6 multidisciplinary clinics in Calgary. They have physiotherapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, and even naturopathic medicine doctors working at the clinics.

I’ve known Wendy for 10 years, as a friend, and we’ve also done business together. We’re both a part of Entrepreneurs Organization, and we do some work together at the CPA Private Practice Division

When we were having lunch we were talking about Wendy’s startups and expansion plans in Calgary.

Then she stopped and asked me:

"Rick, what is your all time favorite marketing book?"

It had me stumped for a minute. It’s a difficult question to answer because there are so many - but I told her a few I could think of.

It got me thinking about marketing and how we always need resources and hacks to help us grow.

And that's exactly what I'd like to share with you today - 5 great marketing resources that you can use to learn everything about physiotherapy marketing and healthcare sales. And 5 awesome physical therapy marketing hacks you can implement for rapid growth, starting today.

5 Great Marketing Resources

1. BOOK: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

The first resource is a book by Al Ries and Jack Trout titled The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk.

This book is a great place to learn about the fundamental laws for physiotherapy marketing.

Just like Apple, McDonald’s or any other big company follows laws to maintain their huge brand status, when we do healthcare marketing we can apply the same laws and principles to grow and maintain our clinics.

They really lay out the rules to understanding and succeeding in your market place.

For example, the Law of Leadership. Once you read about what this is you can look around at other physiotherapy clinics, or evaluate your competitor’s chiropractic marketing strategies and see where you can outperform them as a leader in with your practice.

It’s not as difficult as you might think and these guys lay it all out in detail in their book.

 

 

2. PEER SUPPORT: Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)

I’ve been a part of EO Vancouver for over 5 years. I’ve found it’s a great place to grow through peer-to-peer learning.

Our peers have valuable insight and experience to offer us. They can share the mistakes they’ve made so we can avoid them. They can share tips to help us get more patient calls and expand faster. And they are there if we get stuck and need to ask a question.

That support is really something of high value because it’s so helpful. All of this value happens in the EO member’s forum, it’s the place to share business tips and learn what makes your peers successful.  

The EO forum is not for everyone because membership fees are rather expensive, upward of $5000 per year. If your annual revenue exceeds $1M USD annually, I’d definitely recommend you apply. It’s worth the investment because your business will sky rocket – I know mine has.

If that’s a little out of your price range, try looking around your local area for groups. You could even create your own business network. The point is, that having peer support is a priceless resource.

 

3. BLOG: Neil Patel

Neil Patel is my hero in the digital marketing space. He writes on topics from email marketing, to getting more website visitors, creating content that sells, how to attract more customers, how to sell more knee braces, and using social media effectively for business.

Really, Neil’s blog is where I go to learn everything related to digital marketing. 

Many clinic owners don’t utilize digital marketing enough. If you have a website, then there are ways that you can use it to gain more customers, boost referrals, and drive more sales.

Have you noticed that everyone walks around with a mini computer in hand these days – their smart phone?

If you’re not using digital marketing, you’re leaving customers and money on the table. Finding great blogs like Neil Patel's are a great way to stay up to date.

 

4. PODCAST: Tim Ferris

Tim Ferris is a multi time Amazon bestseller, author of books like the 4 Hour Work Week.

Tim has a great podcast where he interviews other highly successful people and there are always awesome marketing legends to listen to, and gain insight from. The great thing about the podcast is he tries to deconstruct all the successful tactics and tricks you can use. 

The thing is, it doesn’t matter what industry successful business owners are in, there is always great insight to be learned. Sure it may be different to being a physiotherapist, chiropractor, or massage therapist, but the more you listen to the podcast, the more you’ll start to see a thread of similar tips and strategies coming through.

When I listen to the podcast I think about how I can apply those tips to my business, then use what I can.  

 

5. BOOK: Cashvertising

Another book I highly recommend as a resource is Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman.

As clinic owners we all need to get new customers through our doors and most of the time we need advertising to do it. The thing is, it’s our headlines and the offers we make that either convert people or leave them heading for our competitors.

So this Cashvertising book is a great resource to learn how great advertisers write copy, headlines, and offers. As clinic owners, this is a valuable skill we can learn to help grow your practice.  

 

5 Awesome Physical Therapy Marketing Hacks

 

MARKETING HACK #1: Outrank Your Competitors in Google Reviews

One of the physio marketing challenges everyone now faces is ranking well in Google. When people ask me a question I don’t know I often say: “Ask the Google God” (LOL)!

Let’s face it, Google seems to know everything these days. But Google needs to know more about who you are so people can find you. Competition for new clients is as fierce as ever and clinic owners all over the world are fighting tooth and nail to be at the top of Google’s search results.

What you need to do is look for an advantage.

That advantage is Google Reviews.

A comprehensive survey by Zendesk showed that 88% of people are influenced by online customer reviews whenever they make a buying decision. Not to mention, the Google God will rank your site higher if you have more reviews.

One of Google’s objectives is to help people find the best products, services and info on the web, so help them out by encouraging customers to leave reviews. Google Reviews are real currency, they are social proof, and in Google's eyes they make your business reputation stand out online.

You need to build the review process into your customer service routine, making sure you ask patients to leave reviews at certain touch points of their journey.

Read a few more tips about Google reviews over here.

 

MARKETING HACK #2: Answer The Phones And Fix Your New Patient Funnel

What's the point of spending money on marketing if you can't even answer the phones?

This may sound like a stupid question but a very relevant one because most clinics are not answering all their calls. In fact, CallHero recently graded over 200 clinics across the country and found that clinics were only answering an average 73% of calls.

That’s 27% of your marketing budget down the drain!

Considering how much effort clinic owners put into their marketing strategies, it’s strange to see how little effort some clinics put into call tracking and converting phone calls into bookings. All the physical therapy marketing in the world isn’t going to make up for the fact that you and your staff can’t seem to translate those calls into new clients.

Start paying attention to your inbound calls. It really will make all the difference!

I’ve got 4 great tips over here, or even better, get your call performance graded for free with CallHero.

 

 
IS YOUR FRONT DESK ANSWERING THE PHONES?
 
You already have new patients calling. If you’re not answering the phones or putting too many calls on hold, you're just wasting your hard earned money.

CLICK HERE to get your call performance graded

 

 

MARKETING HACK #3: Outrank Your Competitors in Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing like the Yellow Pages and print ads is almost redundant. It’s just not as effective as digital marketing because everyone is online now.

But when it comes to physical therapy digital marketing, most people run scared. Understandable, it is a big learning curve for most. And people lack the time, too. I get that but I highly recommend you invest.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will know I share weekly content here to help clinic owners. In 2015 CSC SEO grew by 300%. Some of this growth was due to paid Google Adwords but majority was from organic SEO - meaning my traffic here came by default of the great content I share. Thanks Google!

I can tell you first hand, the time and investment is well worth the effort because it also results in more sales. The more leads you acquire, the more opportunities you have to turn those leads into customers. So make sure you invest in your digital marketing.

 

MARKETING HACK #4: Learn What Other Clinic Owners Are Doing

Take a look around at your competitors. Observe other websites or online platforms in your industry. What are they doing for their physical therapy marketing?

When it comes to marketing, it’s not necessarily about reinventing the wheel - meaning you don’t have to start from scratch. It’s more about taking what you can from others and modeling those strategies to fit with your business. And especially focusing on the strategies that do work.

Take the Clinic Owner Interview Series we run here on the CSC blog. Clinic owners share loads of powerful insights you can put into practice. Next time you read one of those blogs, don’t just read it. Think about how you can take the lessons they’ve learned, the strategies they share and the insights they reveal and put them to work in your own business. Model the success of others!

You can also check out this 4 Hour Grow your Physiotherapy Marketing Challenge.

 

MARKETING HACK #5: Win Back Doctors Who Stop Referring

Another marketing tactic that is still very effective is doctor marketing. Since they are the ones seeing the types of patients you need, it makes sense that you should be making connections with them to get referrals.

But, most clinics don’t put a system in place to ensure this continues to occur.

What most clinic owners do is get lucky with one or two doctors who start referring for a while, they think - great this is awesome I don’t even have to do marketing - then the referrals stop. Chances are they may have started referring to someone else who has been communicating with them.

You see, a referral marketing strategy is based on building relationships with the key stakeholders - the doctors, and their front desk team (because they are the gatekeepers).

You can’t just expect those referrals without solidifying those relationships.

Learn how to get past the gatekeeper at the doctor's office.

Next, make sure you implement what you learn into a routine system that you continue to do.That way you'll ensure those referrals continue to roll in over the long term.

I’m a long-term student of learning and love marketing, especially digital marketing. If you want to keep growing and improving your business I know that investing time in yourself, in your own skills, and in marketing knowledge is well worth it.

I’ve chosen just 5 of my top resources and 6 of my top marketing hacks to share that you can use to achieve more growth and revenue. I hope you’ll check them out for yourself and start investing in yourself and your health business as well.

Having built a highly successful business, I also share lots of business tips here on the CSC blog. So while you’re here, CLICK HERE to subscribe for future tips and updates.

Do you have a marketing resource to share? Something that has helped you business grow? Share your comments below. I’d love to hear about it.

 

Related Articles

The 4-Hour Grow Your Clinic Challenge: What Would the Experts Do?

Avoid These 4 Deadly Sins That Ruin New Patient Phone Calls

Who Else Wants More New Patients Using my Google Review Process

How to Get Past the Gatekeeper in a Doctor's Office

How to Win Back Doctors Who Stop Referring

 

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