We’ve all made marketing mistakes at some point…
So we surveyed over 2,000 practice owners asking the question:
“Have you ever been burnt or spent money on marketing that did not work? Or that you looked at as a mistake?”
Why did we do this? Check out our 1st full post “How We Waste Money on our Physical Therapy Marketing” to learn more.
Pressures from changes in healthcare like POPTS, Hospital Systems, and Big Corporate PT groups eating away at referral sources and shrinking reimbursements are making it difficult to grow and for some, even to stay in business. As Private Practice Owners in Physical Therapy we believe we need to stick together. We work directly with many practice owners and have heard a lot of horror stories where people are wasting money when they invest in different types of marketing.
We put this list together in hopes of sharing this knowledge so that we can learn from others mistakes.
To us, the results were quite shocking. Here they are:
- Ads in local magazine
- Newspaper ads
- Radio ads
- Local print ads
- TV ads
- Banners and ads at local schools
- Luncheons
- Yelp
- Hangtags
- Local Websites
- YouTube
- Post cards
- Sports guides
- Sponsorship of local sports teams
- Golf tournaments
- Race sponsorships
- SEO
- Movie theater ads
- Yellow pages
- Pizza boxes
The list goes on…
As you can see, this list is quite expansive. In fact, it includes almost all possible channels PT practice owners can market through!
So what does this mean?
Does this mean all advertising is a waste of money?
Doubtful. At my Private Practice in Harrisburg we have 32 different profitable channels that we acquire patients through. Many of our Breakthrough Physical Therapy Marketing members have implemented measurable advertising strategies including radio, direct mail, print ads, and many of the others listed above.
So what is the problem?
IF YOU READ ANYTHING, READ THIS
In working with 81 different practice owners we’ve diagnosed this issue and it comes down 3 different problems.
The first is choosing the right place to advertise. The second is having the right message, a message and an offer that attracts the patients you want to see.
But I’m not going to focus on those now (we’ll cover it another time) because today I want to focus on the biggest issue we’ve seen for most PT private practices… We call it “Leaky Patient Funnel”.
So what is “Leaky PT Patient Funnel”?
Let’s assume for a moment you’ve chosen a good market and media to advertise in and you’ve written a compelling ad that attracts the type of patient you want to see.
What else could go wrong?
To understand this let’s follow the path of a prospective patient through the process.
Step 1 – The patient sees your advertisement and calls your office (or enters their email, fills out a form, does whatever you asked them to do)
Step 2 – The patient has a conversation with whoever answers the phone
Step 3 – Hopefully the patient schedules a their first visit or exam
Step 4 – Hopefully the patient shows up for their first visit
Step 5 – Hopefully your therapist does a good job explaining and selling your services so that the patient continues and completes their plan of care.
Step 6 – Hopefully the patient then completes a testimonial for you, recommends you to their friends and family, and if they have another issue in the future, comes back for more.
What we’ve just walked through is your entire patient funnel.
Each step in this process must be “air tight” in order to maximize the return on your marketing efforts.
How can you fix this?
We have good news for you.
Over the next 14 days we’re putting out a Direct Access Marketing course that will teach you more about how to solve “leaky funnel” so you never waste money on marketing again. To enroll all you have to do is click the link below and enter your info.
Click Here To Take Join Direct Access Marketing Course”
And I’d also love to hear from you. Like this post below and leave me a comment. Do you think you’ve experienced “Leaky Patient Funnel”? What are you’re challenges with it?
To Your Private Practice Success,
PS – Can you help me with something? Can you think of a friend in PT Private that this article might help? If so, I’d appreciate it if you could share it with them.
