We say all the time that good healthcare marketing requires more educational content, and less of the brag-and-boast “we have great experience, get good results, and care about you” brand-building. Our subscribers seem to understand the difference, but understanding it and executing it as a marketing strategy are two entirely different things.
The big institutions and most marketing consultants have a tough time looking past their logo and cute tag line long enough to provide consumers with anything of substance, and it is the small independent practitioner who can take full advantage of this.
Today Dr. Yoav Suprun shares another strategic marketing success story from the trenches built from good educational content. We hope you enjoy it, and for more ideas you can use immediately to market your practice, we invite you to share 60 minutes with one of our senior consultants on a webinar where you will see live concepts and the results they have produced. See the webinar schedule here.
Thanks for reading, and thank you Dr Suprun.
David C Steinberg
The PT Referral Machine
Simple Strategy Helps Change Referral Patterns
By Dr. Yoav Suprun, DPT, Dip. MDT,CSCS
Tired of chasing doctors in your area for business? Four years ago, I decided something needed to change. Doctors must learn about MDT from their patients via word of mouth. Since opening my clinic in Miami Beach (www.sobespine.com), I chose to focus on marketing to patients and teach them about MDT. Can you do this without spending money? Sure you can!
How do you get your patients to tell their doctor “ I want to see that McKenzie practitioner because I think my problem is mechanical”, well, it starts with “Educational marketing”. Teach the possibilities of where aches and pains may come from and they will often want to know more. The language of MDT makes sense to people. They can relate to it because the majority of aches and pains have a mechanical component.
Coffee shops, a local gym, church sponsored events, farmers markets, bonus affairs for company employees are a great start. In my case, I chose a coffee shop 2 blocks from my office inside “Whole foods”. I posted a sign on their free corkboard titled: “The truth about lower back pain and Sciatica”. “You are invited to join a physical therapist for a free educational breakfast lecture. Learn about common causes and a method that teaches you SELF treatment for back pain and Sciatica”.
On a Friday morning, three people came to my first talk. We each had breakfast while sitting around my laptop. We were discussing mechanical LBP and sciatica. I had with me a PowerPoint presentation, 3 different spine models, a lumbar roll, Robin McKenzie’s “Treat your own back” book and Dr. Donelson’s book “Rapidly reversible lower back pain”.
The coffee shop is located just in front of the registers so people looked at us sitting around my laptop and 4 more joined the conversation. I handed my business cards to prospects and got office bookings and one home care. The following week I had 8 people waiting including the sister of a guy that came to my first talk. She came to see me for neck pain (“I have good and bad days. I saw a chiropractor which helped but it keeps coming back..”).
After resolving her problem in a couple of visits, she was so thankful that she called her physician who is also a friend as well as connected me to a local gym where she is a member. I treated her physician and as a result, I have now 2 doctors (his partner is on board as well) who refer to me although I never marketed directly to his office. Also, I gave a talk to the trainers who started referring clients to me and see me as the “go to” person. I became the Gym’s “mechanic” as I am helping the trainers keep their clients from taking time off due to injury. Exercise program that is built on Mechanically determined directional preference (MDDP) has been proven in the literature to be appropriate (Long et al “Spine” 2004 Dec 1;29(23):2593-602.)
The breakfast talks continue to generate business. Last month I gave a talk to a forum of business women at a local bank that also wanted to know more about the true causes and self treatment options for lower back pains. Other enticing titles are “Pain in the neck?”, “Is your workout making you worse?”, and “Tips and tricks for healthy living”. When the curiosity of the listeners turns on and they start asking questions pertaining to their own problem, I always say, “I owe you a good and solid evaluation which we can’t obviously do here…”
Word of mouth works BEST. However, you must do what is right by the patient and not sell them the old and tired story of “You need to see me 3x a week for 4-6 weeks”.
Important tip – even if one person shows up, you never know how that person can boost your business. Keep pursuing education of the public and they will come. Search in your area for a good opportunity to give even once a month free talk and see what will happen to your business. I am sure you will be surprised.
Dr. Yoav Suprun is the owner of “SoBe Spine, PA” in Miami Beach (www.sobespine.com), He is the producer of Robin McKenzie’s new DVD “Treat your own back © 2012” (www.optp.com), a probationary faculty with the McKenzie Institute International (US branch), a McKenzie physical therapist at Canyon Ranch Hotel and Spa in Miami Beach (www.canyonranch.com), and an adjunct faculty in Florida International University (FIU) DPT program.
Questions or comments on the article above? Post them on our blog here: PTRMblog.com “From The Trenches”. We’d love to hear from you directly- email us at info@ptreferralmachine.com or call 774-255-1125 in the US or 403-510-7051 in Canada.
Last month for the first time we included a guest feature with our monthly email marketing tips, and the feedback was really exciting. That’s why we are sharing another contributed by Jamey Schrier. Jamey’s physical therapy business was one of the PT Referral Machine “pioneer” clients, and his input has helped shape many of the programs and services we offer today. We hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.
David C Steinberg
The PT Referral Machine
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Jamey Schrier, PT, DPT, OCS
Why Every Physical Therapy Clinic Manager Should Eat At McDonald’s (No, Not For The Food)…
By Jamey Schrier, PT, DPT, OCS
McDonald’s restaurants can teach us (practice owners) a lot about marketing. What McDonald’s does better than any other company in the world is systematize. Most of us can immediately see and appreciate the McDonald’s system for product delivery simply by walking up to the counter and placing an order. But did you ever think about their system for marketing? Could they possibly be so successful without systematizing both the food operations and the marketing operations?
The greatest food operations system in the world would go underutilized or fade away without the customers to feed it – that’s why the McDonald’s marketing system is such a critical part of the entire McDonald’s system.
And today marketing in today’s healthcare world is more important than ever. The competition is fierce. The hospital systems are becoming huge conglomerates and directing the patients to their own ancillary services (ie: physical therapy). Orthopedists are continually creating their own outpatient physical therapy clinics to offset their rising costs, and it seems every other profession is promoting that they do “PT”. It’s scary out there.
However, now is NOT the time to retract and hide. Quite the contrary, it’s time to promote and expand! It is more important than ever to promote and educate your target audience about you. The best money you can spend right now is that in which generates revenue (ie: new patients). Moreover, although the responsibility for marketing belongs with you the owner, your process should be a systematized business function that can run without you. But the challenge is that profit margins are slim, cash flow is tight, and most owners are too busy trying to treat patients AND manage the clinic. If this is the case, and it is for a lot of private practice owners, then the choices are simple:
- Continue to do what you’re doing and hope that the market will throw you enough crumbs to keep you busy enough to make a living.
- Hire someone to manage your marketing program – a pretty expensive option, especially if it takes you 6-12 months to find out if they can actually get results.
- Outsource – hire a company to manage your marketing program, or
- Do it all yourself.
All four options will work (except # 1) although option number two is significantly more expensive and option four is usually not the core competency of the owner. Option three makes sense if you have a small budget and the company you hire can get you a solid ROI while limiting your direct involvement in the day to day implementation of the marketing process.
Remember the example of McDoanld’s? The key to marketing is to systematize the process by either having an employee do it or an outside company. If you feel you’re able to market the company the best then by all means get out there and sell it, but you will still need help organizing and managing the plan. By systematizing the process, you’ll stop worrying every second (like I used to) about where new patients are coming from. The secret is to monitor the effectiveness of each campaign and make adjustments as necessary.
Most of the conversations I read and hear about in the physical therapy practice development world revolve around not having enough new patients, or the inconsistency of new patients. The answer is having a well thought out, cost conscientious, consistent marketing program. In 12 years as a business owner, I have never heard of a PT practice that did not generate a significant amount of new patients with this type of marketing system.
Decide on the right approach for you…Options 1, 2, 3, or 4. Regardless of the option you choose, make sure your marketing plan can be systematized. The more systematized the process, the less stressful it will be for the owner. Start simple, systematize, and…
Achieve your goals!
Jamey Schrier is a physical therapist, private practice owner and consultant. In 2001, he opened up Schrier Physical Therapy, and in 2007 expanded into a second location. In 2010, Jamey began shifting his focus on helping private practice owners with their business challenges. The following year, Jamey launched Elite Coaching, a consulting company designed to provide PT owners proven business solutions. Jamey has lectured to other PT’s on “Leadership and Entrepreneurism” and is currently a member on the PR and Marketing Committee of the Private Practice Section. During free days, Jamey enjoys spending time with his family – wife Colleen, son Jack and daughter Gracie, as well as playing basketball, golf, and tennis. He can be reached at jameys@schrierpt.com
Balance assessments and Fall Prevention planning – a great case study in marketing. Materials that address the problem and offer educational information on diagnosis and treatment work very effectively. These stories, like the one here in the Globe make great content for FB and website blogs, but the real impact on the practice comes from targeted direct mail, physician letters, and other strategic marketing activities. The typical consumer has no idea this problem is treated by specialized PT. An ROI is possible even on very small budgets. A recent campaign out west spent less than $850 and activated 6 new patients within the first 30 days. You need the right content to pull this off – we know, as we have done this over and over. Other ailment topics work as well.
Another point of interest in this example: In addition to the 6 new patients this client had 49 people request information from the website. This is significant for 2 reasons: 1) it is important to understand the total impact of a marketing campaign not just the immediate response from those that pick up the phone and call. (there is a high probability that many of those who have requested the info from the site will call later to book as new patients or pass the info along to friends or family that may benefit) 2) it is important to use tracking devices in your marketing so you know what your response rate is from both phone calls, web traffic and web requests.
Learning to restore balance – The Boston Globe bostonglobe.com
At any given time, an estimated 6.2 million Americans report a chronic problem of balance, dizziness or both, according to federal data. The problem tends to increase with age, and with the aging population, specialists say the… read more
It’s been six years since we launched PTreferralMachine.com, and we still have the same quote at the bottom of our homepage:
“Physical therapy services may offer the best value in healthcare, and this seems to be the best kept industry secret. Unless the physical therapy industry finds ways to communicate its value to the marketplace efficiently, it’s likely to remain that way. That would be a shame, because everybody loses – therapist, patient, and doctor alike.”
So for 6 years Trent and I have been writing about communication programs and strategies for physical therapists that we use with our clients to fight this battle, but today we get a day off as our old friend and industry insider Jeff Hathaway, PT, DPT shares his thoughts on this critical subject.
Jeff’s thoughts are of special significance in this new year of 2012 where changes with the rules for access to care and payor regulations loom larger than ever.
Thank you, Jeff, for adding to the conversation.
We hope you enjoy Jeff’s article, and thank you for reading.
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Physical Therapy – Commodity or Value Driven Profession?
Part 1 of 2
By Jeffrey W. Hathaway, PT, DPT
When you hear the word commodity your mind goes to “gold”, “coffee”, “corn” and other commodities bought and sold in the various stock exchanges. What is the definition of commodity then and how does that relate to Physical Therapy?
A commodity is defined as a good or service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. How does this definition and concept apply to the profession of Physical Therapy?
The good news is that we certainly offer a service that is in demand, however the real question is whether the second half of that definition applies – “without qualitative differentiation”. Remember that the important thing is not necessarily how WE define ourselves but how the consumer (MD, Insurance Payer, Case Manager, Public, Media, etc.…) defines and perceives our profession.
Unfortunately, we are seen by insurance payers, many MD’s and the general public as a commodity, similar to “gold”, “corn” etc. One ounce of gold has the same exchangeable value, determined by supply and demand regardless of where you buy it.
In our consumer minds “PT is PT”, “gold is gold”, “corn is corn”; much like an MRI tech is an MRI tech – that is because the MRI machine is the important thing not so much the tech who performs it. Physical therapy is many times seen as “things” that techs (PT’s) do to patients.
How else do you explain common phrases like “they have had PT” or “PT has been tried”? Like it is “an event” or a “thing” that a person gets in the course of their care. Think about that phrase – I am sure we are all guilty of using it. We need to abolish that phrase from our language. Have you ever said to a patient – “have you had doctoring?” That sounds completely silly – because MDs are professionals and if you have seen one MD and are not better, you seek out a more highly trained or specialized MD. Medical Doctor is not a thing – it is a highly trained professional. In our profession, if you went to any Physical Therapist then it can be determined if “it” worked according to our consumers.
Many times accountants are more valued by consumers as individual professionals. You never hear from people: “did you have accounting for your taxes”, but you definitely hear “do you have a good accountant who can save me some money in my taxes?”
We need to create a huge paradigm shift in the minds of the consumers. A shift that can change consumer perception about our profession and ultimately lead to the full meaning of an “autonomous practice”.
First let’s examine how we may have gotten to this place.
Much of this appears to be self-inflicted. For years we focused on new machines or equipment that we were using in our clinics. We marketed the “things” that we use. The “new laser unit” or the “new electrical stimulator” or “kinesiotaping” become fads that we rely on them to appeal to our consumers.
Secondly we tend to market programs (back program, knee program, aquatic program, or the new pilates program etc.…), which are again “things”.
At the same time we seem to be fixated as a profession as to what is “skilled” activities (things) versus “non-skilled”. MD’s never have such discussions. PT’s for some reason want to breakdown our patient visits into things – falling right into the commodity trap. It is no wonder that consumers associate “things” when they think of PT. If most PT clinics have the same specialty equipment, a back program, and provide the same codes or skilled services – then which one you go to doesn’t matter in their mind; “an ounce of gold is an ounce of gold”.
Hence we are seen as a commodity. Instead our value should be related to the expertise of the physical therapist – their ability to assess and direct a treatment plan to reach the goals determined. And if one PT is unsuccessful then another more experienced and specialized PT may get better results.
An environment that does not perceive physical therapy as a commodity; consumers who value physical therapists as the first choice in the primary care of neuromusculoskeletal disorders would lead the profession to unimaginable high levels of value in the marketplace.
What to do about it?
Part 2 of 2
Physical Therapy – Commodity or Value Driven Profession?
(Part II)
In Part I, we discussed how physical therapy has become viewed and treated as a commodity. We defined a commodity as a good or service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. If we are seen as a commodity then we will be treated as a commodity by the marketplace. In short that means we will be seen as a uniform service and there will be constant forces to pay the least for the service given the supply and demand levels. A car is a commodity. Wouldn’t you shop around for the car dealer who can give you the best possible price for the same car? I bet that sometimes you bargain for the best price. Same thing happens when viewing PT as a commodity.
The results of being a commodity are painfully clear in todays PT marketplace – especially in NY.
How does one fight this commodity trap? It is simple but not easy. The key to getting out of the commodity trap for any business or profession is to move the business model from a demand fulfillment model to a value creation model. Most clinics today work in the demand fulfillment model. This model is the classic “find a need and fill it” approach. However, as the supply reaches the demand level the price becomes the primary differentiator and begins to drop to what the market will bear. In a third party payer system this downward pressure is more dramatic and is not driven down in the classic manner of competition price wars but rather of seeing how much can be squeezed by a third party.
In order to operate in a value creation model the business needs to create a level of value that creates the willingness of the market to pay a premium for the service. Once a business has created that value then the market will seek out that product or service and willingly pay more for it. There are two classic examples of companies that are in the business of selling a commodity who have successfully done this. First is Apple selling technology that has seen the price drop dramatically over the years and the second is Starbucks which sells the commodity of coffee. They both demand premium prices for a product that is in most circles a commodity. How did they do it? They applied the de-commoditization formula. That formula is a three-part formula:
- Understand your customer’s problem better than they do.
- Develop solutions to their problems that they do not see.
- Exceed expectations.
In the case of Apple they took portable music industry and created the i-pod. The i-pod was far and away beyond what any consumer could have possibly imagined to be possible. It solved the problems with portable music that we had (bulkiness, skipping of CD’s, limited content, etc…) but it also solved those at a level that the average customer could not imagine. Starbucks took coffee and built an environment and attachment that was far beyond what coffee drinkers could have imagined. Starbucks created a culture around coffee. In both cases they followed the formula and created such demand that they are not only very profitable but get consumers to pay considerably more for their commodity than their competitors. They now reside in the value creation model.
I believe that PT is at a crossroads. If we do not figure out how to apply the formula to our businesses then we will continue down this road we are headed on, which for private practice is unsustainable.
I also believe we can apply the formula to our practices. It will take creativity, changes in our practice models and the willingness to take risks. It is a completely different mindset. Most, if they were in charge of Apple, would reduce their price as it would undoubtedly increase volume and revenue. But Apple understands that it is in the value creation business not the demand fulfillment business. We must re-think our mindsets, our language, our image and what we really bring to the table. We need to start promoting the profession from the neck up, start becoming part of the solution for payers, start thinking outside the box for ideas that leverage our value in ways our customers (MD, payers, the public, etc…) don’t see yet. Then do it in a way that exceeds their expectations. We must let go of the victim mentality and be bold in how we claim our rightful place in the healthcare system. What say you?
You probably hear advice from marketing people like us about how “blogging” will help you get found on the internet, and we always hear from most physical therapy and dental clients that blogging is just another chore with a limited impact on the business.
So, realistically, what should you expect from your blog? We thought a real example might help provide a fresh perspective.
We want to share an example that comes from a physiotherapy business we work with in Halifax, Nova Scotia, One to One Wellness.*
The owner takes full advantage of the blogging feature on his clinic website by collaborating with key staff members, all taking turns writing posts. With eight contributors, each person only has to write a post once every two months. Over time (about two years now), the blog has increased traffic to the site by gaining authority with key search engines. It even attracted enough attention to be quoted in a national magazine, Canadian Living. And, while doing research, another reporter from Progress Magazine found a relevant post from the blog and was impressed enough to feature their clinic in a wellness article. Not long after that, they received another inquiry from blogging expert Linda Dessau, asking to use their blog as an example of team collaboration. As far as customers go, their website and blog was recently voted Silver for “Best of Halifax.” The publicity continues to be a boon to their brand.
This did not happen after one or two posts. It was the result of good leadership, patience, and the basic discipline of routine over two years. The reward is strategic advantage. The simple process of blogging has created a team activity, boosted moral, and provided the foundation for good strategic content-driven marketing. A commitment to the discipline of blogging will pay dividends to all healthcare providers who embrace it and feed it with worthy content.
In preparing to write this post, I asked Nick (owner of One to One) a question:
Q: As the CEO, what benefits (so far) in the organization have you seen from your approach to blogging? What costs? Were any of the benefits/costs anticipated?
A: There have not really been any costs associated, except the cost that we pay you to support our marketing and develop our site. And I guess the opportunity cost of our time; however, it seems to be something most enjoy.
I think everyone has a writer in them. Most of us just need a deadline to actually get us to put something down in writing. There have been several benefits of us blogging as a team, including:
- simply doing something as a team – everyone participates
- giving everyone a voice and a way to speak to prospects and clients
- extending conversations; ie. allowing people to hear what we have to say without us being there to say it
- fresh content on our website that could increase engagement
- ability for people to check us out ahead of time and understand our offering more fully – several have read our posts to validate a recommendation before booking an appointment
- more far-reaching connections, such as a journalist who contacted us for her magazine article and a blogging advisor who wanted to more about team blogging
- multiple perspectives expressed
- ability to share our own content through other channels, such as Facebook or Twitter
- possibly improvement on search engine rankings*******
Why A Good Blog Can Be As Important As A Business Plan For Many Small Businesses
A conventional business plan has value for two main reasons; first, it demands disciplined input from the management team in order to complete, and second, the plan lays out key aspects of the venture so that others can understand and evaluate it using common business language.
A business plan reflects the nature and character of the management. It also describes the value proposition for the product and service. It is the quality of the plan, the content (along with a track record), that attracts investors, employees, and other strategic partners to support the business.
But what about attracting customers, the lifeblood of business? Attracting customers is no different, but instead of calling the result of the disciplined internal process a “business plan,” we call it “marketing.” As consumers of everything from A-Z, we all use the information we collect from advertising and the internet about a business to make buying decisions. Assuming an attractive value proposition, the business with the best system for communicating this value will dominate the marketplace. Businesses that deliver superior value will die or never reach their potential if they can’t get the word out while their mediocre competition thrives on the strength of superior marketing.
Every Business, No Matter How Big Or Small, Can Market Effectively With The Right Content, And Blogging Provides A Disciplined Process For Building Foundational Content – FOR FREE (almost).
Learn More – Related Article: Enter Content Management – The New Frontier In Practice Management
*Thank you to Nick and Lori Matheson, Jen Sheppard, and the entire team at One To One Wellness for permission to share their blogging success story. Visit their blog at www.121wellnessblog.ca
As we continue develop concepts for communicating with physicians about the benefits of the MDT process, we wanted to announce some important updates. A new physician letter is now available that focuses on the centralization phenomenon.
Also, previous versions of the MDT executive letter series included oversized patient guides. Now there is an additional option to substitute 4″ x 9″ patient education service cards for the full sized Guides. This addition to the library reduces mailing and printing costs substantially. We also want to point out that the 4″ x 9″ service cards are ideal for waiting rooms and other points of contact with patients.
The 4″ x 9″ cards are also being made available for all other “ailments.” The designs are customized with your edits (Platinum and Premium clients), logo and contact information (Standard). The cards also present well together as a “family” in your Physician Resource Kit.
Current subscribers who would like to include these new concepts with their current campaigns can post a Task on their Marketing Dashboard.
For those who would like more information on these and/or other concepts, please visit our Contact Us page. Or call us at 888-PT-HELPS (888-784- 3577)
Read More About Planning An Effective Physician Letter Campaign
Repost from archive.
I recently read an article written by the Senior Editor of Medical Economics, Gail Garfinkel Weiss, titled The New Doctor-Patient Paradigm (June 2008). The article describes how information technology and insurance has fundamentally changed the doctor-patient relationship. She begins,
“The Norman Rockwell image of the doctor-patient bond, typified by an all-knowing, paternalistic doctor focusing on an admiring patient, has evolved into something very different. Now it’s a relationship in which patients, empowered by Internet-acquired information and buffeted by frequent changes in insurance coverage, have few qualms about challenging medical advice or moving on to the next physician.”
Her article clearly describes a new frontier, a paradigm shift, to consumer-driven healthcare. The problem is that the consumer’s demand for the type of information she refers to is ahead of the industry’s ability to provide it. Hence, her article describes frustrated physicians dealing with information and mis-information brought into the exam room by information-starved patients trying to make good healthcare decisions.
So how will all practitioners and institutions, including physical therapy and rehab specialists, meet these new demands?
Enter Content Management – The New Frontier
Innovative content providers and practice managers are beginning to take more control of the content served up to prospective patients and other professionals. While the last generation has focused on transactional data-driven practice management, the next generation will be busy tackling the demand for information about diagnosis, treatment options, and provider selection. For example, as a physical therapist with a special approach to lower back pain, having and delivering educational materials to consumers requesting information through search engines or their family doctor will become a required business function. Launching a website and handing out a brochure with your hours of operation and a menu board of services, CVs, and bold claims about exceptional care just will not cut it. Hanging on to those old brochures and letters is like coming to work with spurs on your boots – they are a relic. Instead, your content (electronic, paper, digital, audio), needs to be specific enough to answer 80% of the typical questions about your type of care from a problem-solution market oriented perspective. The content needs to facilitate collaborative care and indications for referral.
I know this all may sound obvious, but take a look at your content and ask yourself how it educates on consumer problems and solution options. Is it good enough to light up a search engine filter? Is it good enough for a referring physician to actually want to share your content with a patient because it facilitates a conversation about diagnosis and treatment options?
Answers to these questions are what will separate emerging providers of choice from the rest. Answers to these questions will be provided by content management – The New Frontier Of Practice Management.
Learn More About Joining The New Frontier In Practice Management Now.
Thinking About Printing A New PT Practice Brochure or Updating Your Website?
Take This 5 Minute Evaluation And Avoid The 4 Most Common Goofs That Discourage Response
Practice brochures and websites are essential, but how do you avoid investing in concepts that won’t do the job? You want something that gets read and separates you from your competition. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that a graphically pleasing piece of eye-candy decorated with your logo and a menu board of services with self-serving platitudes will get the job done – it won’t. Only your printer and web/graphic designer will be well served by that type of expensive commercial art.
So here are a few tips and evaluations to help you get the results you deserve from your next printed brochure or website update:
|
Goof |
Tip |
Evaluation |
| Goof#1: Platitudinous Cover or Homepage Headline or No Headline |
Use a problem-solving headline on your cover or homepage Avoid making your focus cute phrases, taglines, or your logo by itself (you are not Coca Cola). You can still have beautiful graphics, but don’t forget an engaging headline. |
Interrupt Format When you look at the cover or homepage, does it provide the promise of helpful educational information inside, or does the reader quickly draw the conclusion that it is just another puff piece? Typically, just pictures, logos, and taglines SCREAM “puff piece.” |
| Goof #2: Wrong copy points |
Organize your information by “what readers want to know,” not by what you want to tell them. Your readers’ interest is in learning quickly (in a Cliff Note fashion) why they should trust you to provide the best care when it comes to diagnosis and treatment. This means explaining your process and how it compares to some industry standard of care. Avoid making the focus of your content a menu board of services or the “I am so glad I found you” testimonial. |
Need to Know Information When you scan the brochure or website, does it quickly guide the reader through diagnosis and treatment? Can the scanner become a reader and stop on a topic to learn more? |
| Goof #3: Offers missing, hard to find, or not as appealing as they could be. |
Provide clear offers for more educational information and encourage some form of free consultation. Your hours, website, physical address, and your phone number are critical pieces of information, but you should do more. Consider offering free educational resources like seminars and free consultations. Give these offers a “marketing handle” with features and benefits to make them stand out as something of special value. For example, you could appeal to joint replacement candidates with a handle like “30 Minute Pre-Surgical Readiness Assessment.” |
Offer Strategy Other than providing contact information, do you have appealing offers of value that can be easily identified without reading through the text in the brochure or going on a random clicking spree on the website? |
| Goof #4: Format Driven, Not Content Driven | Determine the size and format of the brochure based on content. Determine website layout, graphics, and navigation based on the content.Avoid selecting the format or website platform before you complete the content. First, determine what to say and how to say it. Only then should you select the size and length of the brochure. (Hint – if you are producing a tri-fold pocket brochure from a single 8-1/2” x 11” sheet, chances are the content will miss key strategic elements). | Is Content King? Did you select the size and page layout before completing the content? Did you contact an agency or designer who asked you what format limitations you had before discussing your content needs? Did the agency or designer ask you to direct the copy points? An experienced PT marketer will already know how to provide good strategic content after learning about what you do. |
(If the tips and evaluations below make sense to you, we invite you to take advantage of a Complimentary PT Brochure & Website Power Level Evaluation and submit your materials for review at http://ptreferralmachine.com/free_resources).
Thank you for reading, David C. Steinberg
Physical Therapists: Why Whining About Not Having Direct Access Is A Waste Of Time –
Innovation Strategies Overcome Restrictive Barriers
According to the APTA, 29 states in the US have restrictions on direct access, and the organization is determined to facilitate unrestricted access in all states by 2020. This is an important objective, especially for those practitioners who point to restrictions as an excuse for lack of control over the growth of their practice. We can all agree that direct access makes sense, but, are the restrictions really an obstacle to growth?
We don’t think so. In fact, the restrictions may be a powerful catalyst for practice innovation. We see it every day; faced with the frustration of being subject to referral patterns controlled by physicians, the entrepreneurial PT finds ways to innovate and set themselves apart from their competition.
Most successful innovations build on existing programs, products, and services incrementally. It may help to think of innovations in categories. You can use a simple tool like our Innovation Table to identify some possible categories for innovation. As a professional health care services provider, those categories could include:
1. Specialized Programs and Facilities
2. Quantifying Expected Results
3. Alliances and Joint Ventures
4. Value Added Services
5. Variety of Services
6. Patient Experience
7. Convenience
8. Price
The experienced practice innovator also knows that a valuable innovation has little impact if no one outside the practice knows about or understands it. As you can see from the case study below, it is important to communicate your innovations to BOTH referral sources and consumers. Today’s consumer is now having more and more influence on physicians and how they refer, regardless of the direct access status of your state.
If you provide a superior experience, and you continually look for ways to innovate your practice to stay ahead of your competition, and you can find ways to market and advertise that experience so the differences become instantly evident, then you will dominate your market – direct access or not.
Case Study – Actual Results – Innovation In The Trenches
Situation: An independently owned physical therapy practice needed more patient traffic to meet fixed overhead (This is an example of a simple innovation. Our next e Tip will explore a more complex one).
Innovation Strategy: Create a Back Pain Survival program including free educational materials and assessments. Setup an alliance with an experienced licensed massage therapist who provides free 30 minute massages in exchange for promoting the massage business.
Execution: Promote the Back Pain Survival program with targeted direct mail to consumers. Results tracked with unique URL, website analytics, and tracking phone number.
Results: An immediate 1233% increase in web traffic. 37 phone inquiries, 8 patient bookings*, and one documented new physician referral source**.
Thank you for reading,
David C. Steinberg
The PT Referral Machine
Questions or comments on the article above? Post them on our blog here: PTRMblog.com “From The Trenches”. We’d love to hear from you directly- email us at info@ptreferralmachine.com or call 508-444-0056 in the US or 403-510-7051 in Canada.
Notes:
*This case was in the state of NY, with provisionally restricted access. In restricted states, this type of Innovation Strategy requires a physician alliance.
**A consumer brought the direct mailer to a physician, and the physician’s office called to establish a referral relationship.
| For those of you who know us, it’s likely you have heard us teach and demonstrate the “Results Formula” like a math class. You can’t engage us in a conversation about physical therapy marketing strategy without hearing about specific ads or direct mail and how the formula helps predict how they will work. This formula has been around for about 150 years. It can be easily taught to anybody (we teach it in 60 minutes on our webinars) – but success applying the formula takes lots of experience and a ton of discipline. What makes the formula so powerful is that it flies in the face of creativity and demands a more scientific approach we like to call tested methods.
For more than five years now, Trent and I have been applying the formula to specific industries like physical therapy and dentistry, accumulating results that lead to “predictive outcomes” for different kinds of marketing activities. What works in an email blast? Website? Search engines? Print? Direct mail? Broadcast? Physician letters? We have the answers to all these questions. Just ask the physical therapist who got his “welcome” to the Machine with 7 new patients from his first $600 ad – he never imagined that kind of return on investment was possible. For the rest of you, we say check it out before your competition beats you to it. Register for one of our webinars today – it’s no charge. Thank you for reading, David C. Steinberg The PT Referral Machine |
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