Physical Therapy Marketing Secrets - Step-by-Step Instruction

Physical therapy marketing is the single most important aspect of your private practice. Everything else can be figured out as you go but without paying patients coming in through your doors, you will fail.

You might be the best clinician with the greatest manual skills but a lack of new business will force you to close your doors. It's sad but I've seen this happen. You might know everything there is to know about billing and collections but without enough business you will close your doors.

What is the secret to generating new business and PT marketing?

First of all, let me start by saying that you, the owner, the PT, cannot do it all. The amount that's involved in running a physical therapy business, even a small one, is great. All the way from treating to cleaning, to accounting to billing, to training to advertising, to hiring to bookkeeping, you can NOT do it all. It literally takes a minimum of four people to adequately do all the things necessary to effectively run a private practice successfully.

If you don't have enough funds or business to hire more people than you have to start with the tasks that are most important. Here is a quick list of the most important tasks for a private practice.

1. Have something exciting to say. And it can't be "I'm good with my hands." It's not exciting. Every therapist is good with their hands. Determine what you enjoy and are good at or find out what your community is lacking. Create a special technique, name it and build a reputation with it. Develop a special program specific for elbow injuries, name it and create a demand with it.

2. Advertise it. The number one reason people will not come to your practice is because they do not know about you. Advertising will let people know about you. There are many affordable ways to accomplish physical therapy advertising that have a high return on the money spent. Postcards and mailers work well if they are designed by a professional, not your cousin that's a graphic artist but an advertising specialist.

3. Promote it. Create a brochure that details your special message and start a class or "Open Clinic" that gives your community a taste of it, then ask them to give your brochures to friends, family and physicians. This spreads more quickly than you think.

4. Sell it. Charge a one-fee, all inclusive price to gain access to it. Do NOT charge per treatment but per goal met such as a 60-day program for $599 and at the end of care they will walk away being able to sleep through the night painfree, run painfree, etc. Make it a fee-for-service program. If they wish to use insurance they can attempt to get reimbursement on their own (you give codes).

Let other tasks wait or let others do them. The tasks above are the $1,000/hour tasks that NEED to be done. And when done, generating business will be easy to automate. If you have a good product like one mentioned above you can eventually automate new business flow. The alternative is to wait for physicians to "send" you patients...which may take time. Less than 5% of people who would benefit from physical therapy services actually get referred for it by physicians. You can tap into this market if you wish, if you have something exciting to offer. Remember that to someone who can't play golf due to their elbow pain, a program that alleviates elbow pain quickly is EXCITING!