Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Physical Therapy Outpatient Clinic

Posted by Anonymous on 5/1/2013 at 1:35 PM ET 25 Points
I own an outpatient physical therapy clinic in South Florida and I am in search for tactics to market to nearby physicians and hospitals to increase our patient census. I am interested in hearing any ideas or information anyone can provide me with.
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  • Posted by Moriarty on 5/1/2013 at 1:51 PM Member
    Have you tried anything yet? Have any worked? How are your customers/patients/doctors finding you now? On the other hand, what makes your clinic special and why do people choose you instead of the others available?

    All of these can help form a strategy that focuses on the strengths of your clinic.

    Because you can do PPC, display network advertising, newspapers or even just parking a car outside a hospital with the clinic's name painted on the side. The point I want to make is which is most likely to be most effective. Just to say that PPC/display network are the best for fine-tuning the headlines of your other advertisements - it'll make a TV commercial 10x more effective if it has been optimized online first. That's why the PPC guys get paid so much - yet their actual campaigns brought in way less money than they were paid. They were employed to find out what the company's customers liked by way of advertisements. That was then leveraged across the big-time advertising media that cost millions.

    Over to you!
  • Posted on 5/1/2013 at 1:58 PM Author
    Hi Yes I have tried participating in EXPOS, word of mouth, touching base with previous patients and flyers. The problem I have is targeting the physicians. Im sorry but when you refer to PPC, I am not familiar with that network. We have been receiving a lot of workman comp patients and referrals from insurance companies. Thanks for you info!
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/1/2013 at 3:58 PM Accepted
    Are you dependent upon the local healthcare provides for referrals or can patients in your area choose to work with you (with or without their referral)? If the former, you need to "get on their list/radar". If the latter, then you need to focus on your marketing strategy - specifically why someone would choose to work with you instead of your competition.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 5/1/2013 at 4:03 PM Accepted
    Firstly, PPC is the Google search advertising - when you enter a search term, you get little ads in the top right-hand corner. This is where someone is ACTIVELY looking. Their display network is all the little ads that show up almost everywhere (even here!) - and people don't have to be looking. They just appear in (?) healthcare magazines, golfing magazines, anywhere.

    Your problem is the typical "gatekeeper" problem. You always find that you're talking to the secretary or their PA - but never the guy you want to speak to. Mr Goodman has some good ideas on this - if he deigns to make an appearance. For myself I use the display network - only it's tricky to know where these doctors will be looking online when they're not thinking about work. This is the most effective time to speak to them as their defenses will be down. With the network you can target age groups, magazine types and geographical areas - plus a myriad other things. Those'll do for a start.

    It won't cost you a fortune either and the info you get back will be worth 100x what you paid. You can also find out what motivates them to find out more about what you can do for them.

    If you've been getting a lot of workmen as patients, what are the companies/managers doing about this? Is there a way to get them to ask their physician to use you, or just hint?

    How could you get more referrals from insurance companies - I'm not in the US so I really don't know. Things are a little more 'mechanical' in Europe, insurance companies are state-regulated to the point of strangulation. Somehow it all works.
  • Posted on 5/3/2013 at 1:18 PM Author
    Well, thank you both for your comments and great information. I will be doing my research and attempting to market more as soon as possible.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 5/3/2013 at 2:27 PM Member
    Let's hear from you when you do! That's what we're here for, especially when the author gets involved.
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