As a physical therapy professional you have something special to offer. Marketing is simply offering this something special to others. You owe it to them.
1. Not learning to market successfully
Maybe for you just thinking about marketing makes you anxious. Or maybe you put it off, opting instead to stay busy with anything else but marketing your practice.
At the same time, you know that you won't get clients if you don't market.
As with any skill, you need knowledge and practice to become good at it. Believe that you can learn to market your physical therapy practice successfully, professionally, and with integrity.
Learn about, and apply, the strategies that work for physical therapy practices. Eliminate your biases, and approach marketing with this positive self talk:
"I will do what it takes to find the easiest and most effective way to reach and serve my ideal clients. And I'll have fun doing it."
2. Assuming people know about you
Because you are very good at what you do is no reason to assume that clients will come knocking at your door.
You can be the best in your field but if no one knows about your services, being the best doesn't do you one bit of good, does it?
What you can do...
- Make no assumptions that people in your community, in your target market, and other providers know what you do, or know enough about you to use your services.
- Regularly and consistently let your community know what you are doing, who your target market is, and that you are open to referrals.
- Regularly and consistently let your current clients know about all of the services you provide, what you do particularly well, and that you would appreciate referrals.
Be sure other providers in your community are well informed about your clinic and its services.
3. Failing to market as you deliver your services
Many of us make the mistake of chasing new markets instead of maximizing the business we could get from our existing clients and prospective clients.
One great example of marketing as you deliver your services is to provide excellent services to your clients and also make a personal connection with each and every one.
Here are some ways to make personal connections with your clients:
1. Show interest and ask for feedback by asking questions about:
- how they did things before they used your services;
- how your services helped them fix their problem and the goals your services helped them achieve.
- what more you could have offered them.
2. When your clients have a memorable experience with you, they will tell others. When clients give you unsolicited positive feedback, this is the moment you can professionally ask them for referrals. Give them your card to make it easy for them to pass along a referral.
3. You must also remind your clients about your services on a regular basis. Make sure they know all of what you offer and how your services can help them.
Nothing contributes more to successful marketing as forging a special bond with your clients. It's a relationship in which your clients say: "I believe this person and this clinic not only can and will help me, they truly want to help me."
4. Avoiding client satisfaction surveying
4 great reasons to conduct regular client satisfaction surveys
1. Surveying your clients lets them know that what is important to them matters to you.
2. It is a way to market your clinic. It can serve as a tool to help you improve and expand your practice.
3. Surveying is a way to find out how aware your clients are of all of the services you offer, and what other services they want from you.
4. Surveying allows you to clear up misunderstandings about your services and their expectations of your services.
5. Depending on physician referrals
Today patients have access to much more information that allows them to understand diagnoses, treatment options and service provider options. Physicians are no longer considered the only source of information by patients. This not only opens the doors to a larger market for clinics to access, it also means that you need to learn to compete for business in an open market.
What you can do...
Even if your prospective clients and referral sources have more information to access, they still need help making the best choice for their care. This is where you come in. This is called marketing. You need to provide prospective patients and referral sources information on the treatment options available to patients, the benefits of these options, so they can select the best service provider for them.
6. Not telling others or asking for help
One of the most overlooked secrets to successful marketing is getting a hand from people you already know. The truth is that people who already know you, both personally and professionally, are likely to be the best contributors to your success.
If you always remember to tell everyone you know what you are doing and ask for their help, this simple one habit may bring you all the clients you need.
A simple strategy...
Send an email to your entire family and circle of friends to tell them what you do and what is new in your clinic. Tell them clearly that you are growing your clinic and would like their help spreading the word and bringing in new referrals. Be sure to also tell them about your target market. Do this at least twice a year!
7. Failing to Track the Results of Your Marketing Initiatives
If you don't track the results of your marketing there really is no point in spending your time, energy, and money on marketing. When you track the results you'll know how to change your approaches, eliminate a certain strategy, or where to spend more of your money in the future.
A very simple and often unappreciated tracking method is to always ask new clients how they heard about you or came to you. This is so easy and provides you with useful information about where your marketing is working.
You can also get clinic management software and programs that have great market planning and tracking tools.
8. Not target marketing
Many physical therapy professionals feel they need to appeal to all types of people with all sorts of problems. In the competitive market of today, it is much more effective to target your marketing efforts to a specific population or populations you want to work with.
People like to hire those who they see as experts; they think they will get the best service possible from this expert. When you target your marketing efforts to a specific population, your marketing message, strategies, and dollars will be much more effective. When you have a clear target market you will become better known for what you do and do best, you will attract more suitable clients, and you'll provide a higher quality service.
9. Using a self-centered marketing message
I find many of you telling others in your marketing materials when your clinic was opened, what services you offer, how many therapists work there, and what process you use in providing your services. These are self-centered messages. They do not speak to your clients in a way that is meaningful to them.
Yes, it is important to value yourself and your services and believe that you have something highly valuable to offer people and be proud and confident in telling them about it. What is more important is how you communicate this from a prospective client's point of view or point of interest.
As such, learn to speak about the benefits of your services not the features! Your prospective clients are most interested in hearing what you have done for others with the same problem and what a difference your services have made to their short and long term futures. They need to know you are skilled in helping them get better. They need a sense of hope!
10. Using the hop and drop approach to marketing, or giving up too soon
Any worthwhile skill takes practice, and so it is with marketing. Yet most physical therapy clinic owners abandon each marketing tactic after just one try, without giving themselves a chance to get good at it. It's like a running rabbit - switching direction with every hop.
Before abandoning your marketing strategy entirely, it is very important to try and figure out what went wrong. A number of factors could be coming into play here: your message may not have reached your target audience, meaning that you need to look at how you can better find and locate your audience; your marketing message may not have a strong enough appeal to your target audience, meaning that they don't clearly see the benefits of using your services; or you may not have put your message out to your target often enough (it often takes seven touches to "sell" your services).
You must not only monitor carefully the results of your strategies but you must also be willing to tweak them and keep trying until you are more successful.
In closing...
Marketing is not as complex as you think! Understand that you are building a business. You must have a viable plan to build it. Yes, I mean market it!
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