The PT Marketing Newsletter | July

Why Online Bill Pay Is Key For PT Websites

Neil Trickett, PT

Inside:

• Investments vs. Expenses in a PT Clinic • 3 Tips to Get Maximum Reach With Facebook Videos • How often do you market to your customer list? • Target Your Facebook Ads to Your Website Visitors

NEIL’S MARKETING CORNER

The Difference Between Investments and Expenses in a PT Clinic

“Can I afford this expense?” Every practice owner will likely ask themselves this question at some point. No business is immune to financial pain and sometimes tightening the belt is very wise. But how do you know where to spend and not spend? As a practice owner, this is where it becomes VITAL to understand the difference between investments and expenses. A growth-minded practice owner avoids the temptation to view everything as an expense. A few of the biggest items in the investment category are People, Training, Physical Location, and Marketing. That said, each one of those can be expenses if not done correctly. When it’s time to make a decision, consider these key differences between investments and expenses: This one sounds straight-forward. After all, we talk about investments in terms of ROI, but ask about expenses “can I afford this?” But understandably, it can be easier said than done when it’s time to make the investment. This is where planning comes into place. Planning takes away a lot worry and gives you time to make carefully researched decisions. Investments Provide A Return, Expenses Drain Resources.

budget for companies with less than $5 Million revenue.)

knowing the results of the spend. Make a plan, set a goal, allocate an investment, but remember that keeping track of the results helps you plan even better next year. Investments ALWAYS have a statistic. Whether it’s new patients, total income, cancellation percentage, or anything else you can measure. The result of an expense is either harder to find or is strictly a matter of opinion. An example would be repainting the outside of your practice. One staff member could say “Oh this will attract more people because it looks so nice!” while another doesn’t like the color at all. Without a way to measure potential patients’ opinion of the building and if that lead to more consults, this categorizes as an expense. Investments Improve A Business, Expenses Just Keep It Going. Some expenses are necessary to keep your practice running. The electric bill, cleaning, equipment repairs, these are necessary but don’t improve your income. Investments do improve your income – but there’s one catch. Underspending on something that should be an investment can turn that thing into an expense that just keeps the business going without improvement. If you want to grow you need to INVEST in marketing – spending enough to improve your patient flow and income. Investing too little turns marketing into an expense – costing you money instead of making it back. (The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends: 7-8% of the

Investments Are Typically Consistent, Expenses Are Usually One-Time Spends. Just like a 401K, good investments are often made up of smaller, consistent investments with a big, long-term goal. To use the marketing example, practices that rely on an event here and there, or an “occasional” mailer rarely see a return from those efforts. Because of that, they qualify more as an expense than an investment. Now, don’t get me wrong. Events and one-time campaigns can work well as a supplement to a monthly or annual marketing plan, but if you want a consistent return, you have to start with a consistent set of systems and processes. You didn’t start a practice to struggle. You did it because you’re a growth-minded PT with a passion! Physical therapy is an industry built to help people live better – and that should include you. And if a marketing investment could radically improve your practice and your life, let’s get started right now.

Investments Can Be Measured Statistically, Expenses Are Often Measured by Opinion.

One major difference between spending money and investing in your business is

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Practice Promotions

Practice Promotions Physical Therapy Marketing

3 TIPS TO GET MAXIMUM REACH WITH FACEBOOK VIDEOS 1. Creative Content Stretching and exercise tips are always useful tools for your followers and make great videos to post on Facebook. Also, think about what’s on your blog or what you’re planning to publish. Chances are you could dual purpose some of that content (already written!) into a short, engaging video. It also never hurts to keep it fun! 2. Shoot for Mobile As more and more people are using their phone, don’t be afraid to shoot your videos vertically instead of horizontally. This will create a more natural mobile experience and take up more of the user’s screen as the scroll. 3. Always Use a Call to Action When the video is finished you have the option to click on the screen to learn more, shop now, or a variety of other call-to-actions. Using a call to action button at the bottom of your videos is the best way to drive traffic to your site directly through the video. How often do you market to your customer list? Are you missing out on many an opportunity to have people come back for care or send a friend/family member to you? Do you have patient superfans, or just happy customers? A superfan raves about your practice, leaves you online reviews, comes back for care, and sends more friends/family your way. The more superfans you can create, the faster your practice will rocket! Check out these 4 ways to build your superfans: • Building your online reviews - use your superfans to build a huge, growing, online reputation • Create a loyal fanbase - stay connected and top of mind with patient newsletters, blogs, social posts, and emails • Tell your patient’s stories - people love stories of success. Tell frequent patient success stories in your newsletters • Give them tools to spread the word - Arm your superfans with digital and patient marketing materials, like newsletters, brochures, and rack cards. Develop your marketing army

Jacob Siner Digital Marketing Director

Target Facebook Ads to Your Website Visitors Did you know you can target people on Facebook who have visited your website? Installing the Facebook Pixel on your website is the secret to retargeting those visitors. This increases engagement by ensuring the audience has expressed interest in your services. Also, new patients are more likely to convert after 3-7 site visits than they are on the first. Lastly, when we nurture prospects through several touch points, they will be more ready to complete their care once they get in the door (think trust building). To start, install your Facebook pixel on your website. Next, go to the Audiences tab and click Create Audience > Custom Audience > then select Website Traffic. Facebook will check your pixel and target people who have visited your page. Finally, name the audience and you will be able to select it while creating ads. This is a great tool, but don’t forget to create new content for this audience as they may have already seen other ads. Free consultations are a great offer for someone who is showing interest by visiting your page.

Inside This Issue:

Marketing Newsletter Powerful marketing to build your practice

• Investments vs. Expenses in a PT Clinic • Get Maximum Reach With Facebook Videos • How often do you market to your customers? • Target Facebook Ads to Your Website Visitors • Why Online Bill Pay Is Key For PT Websites

Why Online Bill Pay Is Key For Physical Therapy Websites

Shelley Worsham Web Designer & Front End Developer

the mail on their way home from work or at the end of the day. And, most patients will likely open the mail between 6pm and 9pm. Most Physical Therapy practices don’t offer Online Bill Pay. In that case, if your patients wanted to pay you immediately, they would have to set-up a reminder to call you during business hours or write a check and mail it to you. That’s why one single night that a bill gets set aside can turn into weeks. These functions are disruptive, inconvenient, and increase the time it takes for you to get paid. … And It Reduces Your Collections Stress A simple, easy to use, Online Bill Pay feature has proven to increase patient satisfaction and improve collections. Consider now the patients that receive their bill and can immediately go to your website to pay the remaining balance. Your patients will thank you for the convenience of paying their bill on their own terms. Additionally, you will see a decrease in collection time and fees associated with payment reminders. Everyone wins!

Let’s face it, a clean, fresh website, enabled withOnlineBillPay, iscriticalforyourPhysical Therapy practice. Many potential clients will use your website as the only deciding factor to visit your practice. Your patients also need a positive experience from any device. They need to understand exactly what you do and how to contact you. Most importantly, they need convenient features that offer flexibility for your patients to pay for any outstanding balances. … It’s About Customer Service Patients, to your business, are customers. More importantly, they are customers that you want to keep in the future! That’s why, even during bill collection, their experience with your practice has to be a positive one. Online bill pay could have a huge impact on patient retention rates! Consider the daily process your patients go through when they collect their mail and receive your bill. They will typically pick up So, Why Online Bill Pay? Because…

How Online Bill Pay Works While setting up payments on your website have historically been challenging for practices due to the significant compliance requirements createdbythePCIDSS (PaymentCard Industry Data Security Standards), solutions are now in place that keep your practice completely compliant. The Hosted Payment Page simply opens a new page for payment collection hosted by a third party. Therefore, your practice can offer an online bill pay link, or button, on your website without capturing or processing any credit card data. The new page is hosted by the payment processing company and manages the secure, encrypted payment.

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