The PT Marketing Newsletter | September

4 Fall Facebook Ideas TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT

Inside:

• How to Increase Patient Retention • The Best Tax Deduction for Your Practice • Blogging Your Practice Made Easy • The 3 R’s of Practice Growth: Retention, Referrals, & Reactivation

Neil Trickett, PT

NEIL’S MARKETING CORNER

Stop the Drop How to Increase Patient Retention According to a WebPT survey of almost 7000 rehab professionals nationwide, PT clinics across the US see only 7-25% of patients complete their plan of care? That means that less than 1 in 4 patients don’t fully complete care, amazing! 75% OF PATIENTS DROPPED BEFORE THEIR RECOMMENDED PLAN OF CARE HAD ENDED. THEY MAY NOT RETURN OR REFER FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T SEE THE RESULTS. The solution: Track your patient retention rate, help them overcome obstacles, and stay connected with your patients during and after discharging for a condition. Read below for more ways to do that! How to Calculate Patient Retention Rate To calculate your patient retention rate, use the average number of sessions attended divided by the average number of sessions recommended across all of your Plans of Care. Online Bill Pay and Financial Plans Help Overcome Financial Drop-Outs Copays aren’t cheap – it’s no secret. That said, if a patient does understand the value and benefit of feeling better, they’ll be willing to stretch their budget as long as it’s an easy, pleasant experience. Work on plans you can provide that stretch out payment to make your services more affordable. Give conveniences such as online bill pay, to make payments easier. Train Your Team to Retain More Patients In most practices, patients will spend the more time with your therapists, assistants, and front office staff than you personally. Every interaction is critical to both setting their expectations for recovery and keeping the goal of the NEXT appointment in mind. Here’s how to train your staff to market for patient retention.

THE BEST TAX DEDUCTION FOR YOUR PRACTICE

How to Save and Make Money Have you planned out your tax reduction strategy yet? Now is the time to start thinking about reducing your tax liability for this year and how to maximize your ability to grow next year. The best tax deduction in any business is one that is 100% tax deductible while creating new revenue the following year. That is why marketing is your best investment, it is 100% tax deductible and generates you income. End of Year Benefits Postcards and Letters are a powerful way to get your new patient numbers up to overcome the holiday season slow down. Let your patients know that their insurance benefits will soon be expiring for physical therapy, and to act now to use them or lose them. Go online now to place your order and increase your patient reactivations while reducing your tax liability! www.practicepromotions.net/physical-therapy- marketing-store

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CONNECT WITH Neil Trickett, PT 3 Get PT marketing tips from our blog 3 Access to marketing training videos 3 Connect with other practice owners

The Bottom Line Patient retention is a huge problem facing physical therapy owners today. There are many external factors that we don’t have control over, but there are still best practices that can improve your retention rates by enough to see a huge increase in revenue. Use your website, email, texting (HIPAA compliant), and in-person experiences to make each experience as convenient, friendly, fast, and easy as possible for your patients.

Practice Promotions Physical Therapy Marketing

Practice Promotions

Blogging Made Easy Most PTs and practice owners will readily admit that they are not copywriters. But, today’s digital world is demanding content—it fuels your website, adds value to your marketing and promotes PT to patients. So, here are 5 ideas for your next blog post: • Focus on a condition and area of the body (ie. Hip pain) • Consider what causes patients to come into PT (ie. Sports injuries) • Talk about general healthy habits (ie. Smart snacking) • Explain complimentary services you might offer (ie. Massage therapy, dry needling, sports programs, etc.) • Describe different techniques (ie. Cupping, acupuncture etc.)

Staff Training The amount of time most patients spend with office staff, PTA’s, techs, and even other therapists has a profound impact on their experience in your clinic. If service is impersonal, they don’t feel like they can talk openly, or they aren’t being consistently shown why this appointment AND the next one are beneficial, you’re likely to lose them due to cost or time commitment not equaling the perceived benefit. Patient Education Patientswhoareeducated in2keyareasaremore likelytocomplete their plan of care. The first, they need to know what physical therapists do and how it helps people in general. You should do this with welcome kits and as part of the initial evaluation. Second, they need to understand the value as it relates to their condition. Any additional print materials you can provide to them that are relatable will go a long way towards keeping them. Also, try to keep reviews and case studies of past patients easily accessible so you can share results from very similar cases (with HIPAA compliant anonymity or permission).

THE 3 R’S OF PRACTICE GROWTH Retention, Referrals, & Reactivation Retention, Referrals, Reactivation. The 3 R’s of rehab are a great way to stabilize your practice even before you factor in marketing for new patients. Let’s look at some tips and resources PT clinics can use to address these key areas: The most obvious use of these types of services are appointment reminders. When reminding them, try to keep things exciting and personal. Nothing feels more like an obligation than a robot calling them with a calendar reminder. You want to use automation to save time, but also include a personal touch. Lastly, social media can be a great way to stay connected. Look for ways to encourage followers in your office such as contests or other fun events. Online Bill Pay It’s no secret that copays are more painful than some conditions you treat. That’s why it’s important like we discussed to make their treatment and their goals as valuable as possible. But in addition, you need to make the process of paying for care as convenient and hassle-free as you can. Thankfully there are services now to securely accept payments through your website without you having to handle credit card liability. Patient Retention: The 5 Best Tools Email and Text Marketing

Referrals: Turning Happy Patients into PT Super-Fans Getting more patients boils down to three things:

• Impressing patients from the start • Asking for referrals without being “salesy”

• Giving them the tools needed to tell friends & family without having to remember details about pain conditions (rack cards, referral incentives in direct-mail, email, etc) Repeat Business: The Multi-Billion Dollar ‘Apple’ Secret Just ask Apple (or any successful retail company) and they’ll tell you one of the top ways to scale growth is to ensure your customers don’t just buy once. When a patient returns, or reactivates, you have doubled the value of that patient with very little additional cost of acquisition. In English, reactivating patients is cheap.

Here are the best practices for reactivating past patients:

• Monthly Newsletters • Monthly/bi-weekly emails • Blog posts • Social Media (especially personal, engaging video tips!) • Follow-up phone calls

Inside This Issue:

Marketing Newsletter Powerful marketing to build your practice

• How to Increase Patient Retention • The Best Tax Deduction for Your Practice • Blogging Made Easy • The 3 R’s of Rehab Growth: Retention, Referrals, & Reactivation

Connect Seasonal Activities to PT Social media content needs to be relevant and current to appeal to users as their scroll through their newsfeeds. For example, fall is a big sports season for football, soccer and running. Share preventative tips, home exercises and articles on how PT can improve performance and recovery times in sports. Also, be sure to have visually engaging images that capture the core of your content. Create Content for the Holidays Every season has its big holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving in the fall. And, there are also smaller holidays or causes that provide great content to share online. Here are some seasonal holidays that you can post about on social media:

• Labor Day • Grandparent’s Day • Oktoberfest • Physical Therapy Month • Breast Cancer Awareness Month • Halloween

• Veteran’s Day • Thanksgiving

Share Seasonal Activities, Ideas or Recipes Think about what you like to read on social media. It might not always be articles or blog posts. Sometimes, we just want simple ideas or inspiration for something fun to do. Try using one day a week to share something fun and not directly related to physical therapy. You could post about pumpkin painting ideas, local apple picking spots, healthy snacks etc. Think about your patient demographics and tailor your posts to their interests. For example, if you treat mostly seniors think about activities for them to do with grandchildren. Or, if you see a lot of young professionals choose active and local ideas that are a fun option for the weekend. Post Fun Pictures/Video of Your Team or Practice Events A picture or video is worth a 1000 words (and lots of clicks and engagement on social media). Start by bringing your practice’s personality to life with photos of the team and events. It could be as simple as “Doughnut Friday” in the office or a group photo of everyone dressed up for Halloween. Are you sponsoring a workshop or community event? Take pictures to post to Facebook both during and after the event. Make sure to get written consent if patients are involved.

4 Fall Facebook Ideas to Increase Engagement It’s about time to embrace a new season! Social media is often an underrated marketing program for PT practices. It’s more than just a way to get new patients. It builds awareness and consideration for physical therapy, its benefits, and your practice’s expertise. Therefore, social media like Facebook and Twitter should be a key component of your marketing plan, and viewed as a public relations platform. Let’s see how you can leverage fun, seasonal themes to create social media content for your PT practice.

www.PracticePromotions.net

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