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How to Grow a Physiotherapy Practice
By: Nataliya Zlotnikov, HBSc, MSc

Importance of Marketing Your Practice

Healthcare marketing helps your practice grow, that much is obvious. Although marketing tends to be a rather unpalatable idea for many healthcare practitioners, there is just no escaping it. 

Without marketing, there would be no influx of new patients and even loyal patients may slowly drop off. 

But marketing is not solely about your bottom line, it is now an essential part of your patient's care.  

Quote about marketing in health care 

 

These Are Not Your Grandmother's Clients

These days clients are thoroughly researching their HCPs and playing more active roles in their own care and the selection of their practitioners. 

Due to this, it is imperative for healthcare practices to take steps to understand customer behaviour and preferences and to meet client expectations in a personalized manner (Butt et al., 2019)

A successful business (or practice) is one that can identify the needs of the customer and then provide a proper solution to those needs (Prescription PR, 2021).

Patient satisfaction must be the main objective of any healthcare organization. To be able to meet this objective, clinics and HCPs must possess a thorough knowledge of patient needs and expectations; knowledge that can be gained through marketing (Purcarea, 2019).

 

Patient HCP Selection Habits Today

 

Patient healthcare practitioner (HCP) Selection Habits

 

Marketing Today

Butt et al., 2019 also recommend that healthcare organizations make use of advancements in technology in order to enhance customer communication.

This includes the use of social media, telehealth, and virtual reality to engage more closely with customers.

Marketing expenditure in healthcare seems to follow this advice closely: Digital marketing expenses are now the highest of all time.

Healthcare companies are now spending over $2.5 billion on marketing and rising (Purcarea, 2019).

 

Who Is at the Center of Healthcare?

As mentioned above, patients are now playing much more active roles in their care. 

In this world of patient-centered care, marketing is even more important.

What used to be a volume-based industry centered around the practitioner, is now a quality-based industry centered around the patient (Levo, 2021)

Successful marketing focus on clients not on products or services

 

A Few Benefits of Marketing Your Practice

Nowadays clients often have countless options regarding the choice of provider and service. 

The only way that you can really distinguish yourself from the crowd is by establishing a well-differentiated, memorable, and unique proposal alongside a marketing strategy adapted to the digital era (Purcarea, 2019).

Some of the benefits of implementing marketing strategies include:

  • Improving competitive advantage
  • Increasing visibility
  • Creating a solid reputation among patients
  • Understanding patient needs and expectations 
  • Building a strong, effective, dominant brand in the health services market (Purcarea, 2019)
  • Patient retention 
  • Increased patient satisfaction 
  • Increased revenue 

Marketing...Are You Doing it Right?

A google search for 'physiotherapy marketing' yields around 33,200,000 results.

Many of these results offer different and unique methods for marketing your business and getting more clients. 

It's hard not to feel overwhelmed, especially if you are a sole proprietor or owner of a small to medium-sized practice. 

You might not have a marketing team to advise you on the best methods, and you probably do not have the time to sift through all these sources yourself. 

When resources are scarce but sources are plentiful, what do you do? Simplify.

 

The 8 Most Important Marketing Strategies for a Healthcare Practice 

According to Hirsch Healthcare Consulting, these are the 8 most important marketing strategies for a healthcare practice.

Of course, even these 8 can seem quite overwhelming with their many branches.

It may be hard to know which basket to place your eggs into first.

 

8 important marketing strategies in healthcare practices

 

Your Eggs Are Safe With Ben & Jerry

Dr. Ben Fung and Jerry Durham are two experienced physiotherapists with a passion for marketing and client experience. 

You can read more about them in their respective bios at the end of this blog. 

But in short, they can help you navigate the confusing world of physiotherapy marketing.  

 

One Social Media Platform 

Here is a 1-minute video from their course on Embodia, 'How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business or Personal Brand'.

In this course, Ben Fung and Jerry Durham were asked "if a practitioner had to choose just one social media platform to promote their practice, which would you suggest?"

Watch the below video for their answer.

 

Choosing One Social Media Platform for Your Practice 

 

Click here for the full course

 


What You Will Learn in This Online Healthcare Course: 

  • The biggest lessons Ben Fung and Jerry Durham learned in their careers and how those lessons can help you succeed and grow your practice
  • How to choose the best social media platform to use for your marketing?
  • How to play the social media "game"
  • How to create brand awareness
  • How to create consistency of message
  • The importance of nurturing vs. converting clients 
  • Software that can help you create lead scores and improve your physiotherapy business 
  • How to display authenticity on social media 
  • How much and what to share on social media
  • What do millennials care about and how do you incentivize them?
  • How to use your interview and hiring process to get the right people into your practice
  • What are the six primary compensation dimensions for your business and interview process?


Click here for the full course

 


More of Ben & Jerry's Courses

If you would like to take a look at some of the other healthcare business courses from Ben Fung and Jerry Durham on Embodia, we have listed a few below that may be of interest:

 

Check out all of Ben & Jerry's courses on Embodia


Read More

Check out another one of our healthcare business blogs, The Future Is Female! Why It's Good For Business That Women Are Neurologically Different Than Men

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Date written: 25 May 2021 
Last update: 17 March 2023

Jerry Durham
PT

Jerry Durham helps Physical Therapy Practice owners engage patients for great results. Following graduation from Physical Therapy school, Jerry practiced in a variety of settings, inpatient and outpatient, from small independent clinics to large hospitals and from the very beginning, Jerry questioned why there wasn’t an emphasis placed on treating patients as individuals, with unique concerns and objectives and why more effort wasn’t being made to develop true relationships with patients.

Jerry’s experiences in these settings fueled his drive to prove that you can increase arrivals, decrease no shows and cancellations and achieve great results all through the relationship between your clinic and your patients.

 


Dr. Ben Fung
PT, Co-Founder UpDoc Media

With a previous background in Bioengineering & Psychology, Ben has experienced every level of work in clinical healthcare, from laboring as an aide to serving as a program director; in settings such as major trauma hospitals to rural home care.

His career path has thematically revolved around innovation, business strategy, and public roles. Such roles have provided him substantial experience in organizational behavior, public outreach through news media and national conferences, multiple service line developments, market analysis, and operational optimization to which he has also had the privilege in consulting for venture capitalists, healthcare executives, and small business owners.

Ben is currently the COO & Co-Founder for UpDoc Media as well as CFO & Co-Founder for Recharge, a novel blend of Physio, CrossFit, and Mindfulness.

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