2015-02-11
Steer Clear of These Popular Online Marketing Practices for Your PT Website

There are a number of online marketing strategies which have become very popular over the years, largely because of the great results that they can achieve. However, some of these strategies may not actually be the best option for marketing a physical therapy practice. Let's take a look at some of the online marketing techniques that you should avoid when devising a marketing strategy for your physiotherapy clinic.

Steer Clear of These Popular Online Marketing Practices For Your PT Website

You Don't Need A Huge Advertising Budget

When it comes to marketing your clinic one thing that you should understand is that spending money on advertising is not necessarily going to be helpful. Advertising is going to raise your clinic's profile which may seem like a good thing, but just because people have heard of you does not necessarily mean that they will end up choosing you when they find themselves in need of physical therapy services.

Your marketing strategy should focus less on raising awareness of your clinic and more on promoting the reasons why people should choose your clinic over the others. If your marketing strategy is to provide a return on your investment then you need to be promoting the meaningful reasons that are going to attract patients. Statistics show that in most cases, the number of people who have heard of your clinic will be 4.5 times more than the number who will actually become patients.

Media Packages Are Not Always the Best Option

If you are not experienced in online marketing then you might be tempted to purchase an 'off the shelf' media package. However, these are not always the best option because they are not individually tailored to your business. That same package you are considering for your physiotherapy practice is also being sold to the local mechanic and the dry cleaner around the corner.

Your PT clinic does not need a generic marketing plan, so don't purchase a ready-made package – develop a plan that is specifically tailored not just to physical therapy clinics in general, but to your individual practice. That doesn't mean you can't get help from experts, just be sure to use a provider that understands PT clinics so that they can offer you exactly what you need.

Don't Highlight Your Brand

One of the most commonly held assumptions when it comes to marketing a business is that the main goal is to highlight your brand. However, as noted when we discussed advertising budgets, when it comes to promoting a physical therapy clinic, this is not always the best course of action.

Instead of telling everybody how great your practice is, your marketing needs to focus on how your services can benefit people. Focus on creating content that addresses the problems that your potential patients have and offers a solution. That is why Patient Sites offers website content and social media posts that will both attract and educate patients.

Your clinic is about more than just you and your staff – it is about providing a service, so highlight that fact. If you specialize in a particular area of physical therapy then do not be afraid to shout about it in your ads, flyers and website content.

If you don't have an area of specialism then consider rotating through campaigns that focus on different areas on a regular basis. For example, you might work on promoting back pain rehab for a few months before switching to sports injuries for the next time period. The important thing is that you focus on promoting what your practice has to offer so that potential patients realize that you are able to solve their problems.

These are just some of the techniques that you should avoid when marketing your physical therapy practice online. For more information on the sorts of marketing that you should be focusing more of your energy on, check out the features offered by our service or get in contact to discuss how we can help you to build up your practice through targeted online promotion.