5 Ways to Become a Marketing Star for Your PT Practice
Coming off the heels of what will go down as the most successful podcast of all time (in the Riley household at least), I wanted to elaborate on some of the points of discussion to help you easily implement marketing and communications best practices to tell the world about your successful physical therapy practice.
Starting simple is key, so just like learning a new certification or exercise, you need to dedicate time to marketing but it should pay off in the long run.
- Social media is technically free, but not really -The algorithms social media sites like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram (owned by Facebook) use to decide who sees what content. Sure, you can post your article or video to your followers and assume they all will see it, but that is not the case. These social sites prefer content people want to see, so the more likes, comments and views a post gets, the more it may show up in front of your audience. However, these sites want to make money, so sponsoring posts is a good way to help make sure your audience sees what you have created. Start with low bids, pick a small audience and test, test test.
- Resharing is key – Just because there is a chance a follower may see your content, there is a good chance they are not online at the same time you are, so they may miss it completely. Resharing content multiple times a day and again days or weeks later is helpful to maximize the number of people who follow your social media sites that may see it. Tools like MeetEdgar are easy to use to help take the work out of resharing, and while there is a cost, what better cost savings is there than your time? Pay attention to the frequency so as not to overshare too much, it is a fine line.
- Video can build the internet star – Video can be intimidating and assumed to be too expensive for anyone but a big brand, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone has a HD-quality camera in their pocket nowadays, so getting started is not as hard as it seems. People like authenticity over a highly-polished production, so decide which stretching exercises you want to show as helpful content and follow these tips to start using video in your PT marketing arsenal.
- Find your niche – As I discussed on the PT Pintcast, it’s hard to be everything to everyone. You are better off finding your niche and similar audience to cater to them. Do you focus on movement for specific sports? Helpful stretching tips for that sport are better aligned that general information. Work with a lot of 9-to-5ers? Show them proactive desk ergonomic ideas as opposed to reactive exercises after they get hurt. Combining specific content with a targeted social media presence (which you can get really specific by playing around with the ad builders) will cost you much less in marketing dollars and should deliver better results because you are speaking directly to who may have an interest in your story.
- The F-Word you should use, Fun – Marketing should be fun, not one like boring or hearing the same thing everyone else says. You don’t need to act like a wild used car salesman, but show your personality and the human side of your practice since you probably work with real humans and they will remember you the next time they next your expertise.
Marketing your PT business the right way can take a lot of time and be expensive, but you don’t need it to be. Start small, be authentic and have fun. Test different ideas and examples and see what works and what could use some editing.