2020-08-06
How to Reach Out to Patients During COVID-19

History is filled with challenges and stories of overcoming obstacles. As we live in the time of a pandemic, the entire world finds itself making changes. Not only in doing business, but in their personal lives as well. So how do you reach out to your patients effectively in the time of COVID-19?

As the days pass and your patients realize that sanitizing and staying home more is the new normal, it will be more and more important for you to find new ways to reach out to your patients. Staying focused on the patient's perspective, redefining your priorities, as well as making your digital world more human are all ways to reach out. Not to mention planning together and maintaining an open line of communication with your clientele. 

Since experts and scientists don’t have a definitive timeline for the end to this world crisis, it is important that you make changes. Not to mention find new and creative ways to get new patients as well! Here are some actionable ways you can reach out to your patients and make certain your website stays afloat. 

Stay Focused

The more time we spend at home social isolating, the more we realize that time can go by SLOWLY. Not only that but also living and working in our homes can lead to a lot of distractions! One of the best ways you can connect with your patients is to stay focused.

However, staying focused can mean a lot of different things for someone who runs their own PT blog and website. 

Maintain the patients’ needs first, before anything else. By keeping your focus on your patients and prioritizing making them feel heard. Not to mention making sure their needs are cared for in such a crazy time. Though it sounds quite simple, always putting the patient first can be a big challenge. 

Learning how to prioritize your patients may mean shifting how you work and how you approach your physical therapy web design. This could include changing the content to reflect patient feedback, as well as keeping yourself from distractions at home! 

Don’t do those dishes during office hours, or fold that laundry, or spend an hour playing with the dog. Stay on task when it’s time for work. This will give your patients better content, as well as give you a clearer mindset when it comes to getting your work done!  

Redefine Your Priorities

The world can be a complicated place right now. With everything going on, it’s hard to maintain what used to be your normal routine and content. However, with change and growth comes exciting new challenges! One way to reach out to your patients in the time of COVID-19 is to redefine your priorities.

Here are some excellent examples of what redefining your priorities may mean during this particular world crisis:

  • Make Content for What is Happening NOW – Don’t write PT blog posts about when the pandemic is over. Don’t focus on things that have happened in the past. Write about what is going on NOW. Perhaps you can make your content more at-home friendly, or even find ways to incorporate social distancing into your suggested content. All in all, one priority should be what your patients are going through right now.
  • Keep a Relaxed Schedule – The world is a much different place than it was a year ago. This means that the rigid posting and content schedule you had last year may not work during COVID. That being said, you should reprioritize a more relaxed content schedule. Focus on what will keep your stress levels low, and your content GOOD. You don’t need to post every other day like before the pandemic. Your patients have more than enough access to their phones and the internet than before. Don’t overwhelm them. Make sure your schedule reflects what is best for your patients, as well as yourself!
  • Make Content that Matters – You don’t need to fill your website with the content just to release a blog post for the week. Find content that will connect and resonate with your patients while you all work through this pandemic together. Not only will this reach them on a personal level, but it will really show your clientele that you care about what you’re putting out for them!

All things considered, redefining how you work and what matters on your website is key to connecting with your customers. Find ways to not only prioritize quality content, as well as a more flexible schedule but also prioritize what is happening in the world. Your readers will connect with you better because they are going through the same thing!

Blend Digital and Personal

The world hasn’t seen a pandemic of this scale in over a hundred years. This is new for nearly every human being alive right now. Therefore, it’s best to lead with the fact that you are, of course, human.

Bring more personal aspects to your content than you ever have before. Whether you are expressing more personal anecdotes about your life in quarantine, or you simply need to express how this crisis is impacting you. People are in need of connecting on a deeper level than just a few words on a screen. Therefore, it’s important that you reach out to your patients in a more personal way.

As you change how you approach your workday, as well as focusing more on the patients, it is definitely ok to mention that you are going through this pandemic too. Don’t be afraid to bring a more human, as well as humble, aspect to your content! This will not only help you relate to your patients, but they can also more personally relate to your website.

Plan for the Future

An excellent way to reach not only your current patients, as well as new patients, is to plan for the future! With everything going on right now, everyone is searching for something to look forward to in the long-run.

All in all, it could be something that is a week from now, or six months! However, it’s important that you reach patients by offering them something for the future that isn’t all about COVID. 

Here are some fun ways you can plan for the future with your patients and give them something to look forward to during the pandemic:

  • Announce a fun at home PT plan!
  • Plan a giveaway
  • Do a community, online event
  • Plan individual content
  • Plan one on one zoom calls
  • Fun promotional offers

When you put something out there for your patients to participate in, as well as plan for, you are creating more than content. You are creating a community for your website! This is an excellent way to promote your physical therapist website and blog, and make your patients happy.

There are lots of ways you can reach your patients by planning for the future! Whether you offer promotional giveaways on your website, or you do an online community event, there are LOTS of ways to keep your patients coming back. Not to mention keep them connected to your content!

Share and Communicate

The internet allows human beings to stay connected in such an incredible way. Whether you have a video chat with grandma, or you’re checking in with your kids at college, there are so many ways to communicate. Therefore, with so many different ways to keep in touch, it’s imperative that you keep an open line of communication with your clientele.

Sharing with your patients, as well as openly communicating how you are managing this pandemic is crucial. Whether you’re using social media, your website or you’re taking out a weekly email blast, being able to reach out to your patients and communicate openly is crucial right now.

Not only for you to share, but also allow them to share with you as well! There are several ways you can let your patients communicate with you on your PT blog. You can choose to create an online forum for your patients to talk directly with you, as well as with each other. Not to mention keeping an open comments section so your website visitors can actively participate in your content.

Sharing and communicating are important factors in reaching your patients during this trying time. Find ways to make certain that they are not only able to communicate, but that they are actually heard as well! This can mean taking content suggestions and actively listening to the needs of your clientele.

Reach Out to Your Clients in this Time of Crisis and Beyond!

The pandemic of 2020 has brought the world to a staggering stop. When it comes to finding ways to reach out to patients in the time of COVID-19 it is most important to remember that we are in this together!

Make content that highlights your humanity, that focuses on the patients’ needs, as well as leaves an open line of communication between your community and you. Your physical therapy website content and your PT blog should prioritize what is happening right now in the world. While at the same time, giving your customers insightful information. Not to mention something to look forward to!

As we all strive for a new normal, you can not only use these tips to reach out to patients now but also in the future. We don’t know what next year or even next month may hold for us. But as your website grows to cater to the needs of people during the pandemic, you may find new ways to make your website even more successful!

Do you need some help with your physical therapy website and marketing? Download our Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint for Physical Therapists and start creating long-term assets that generate new patient bookings for years to come.