During the 2022 PPS event in Denver, Breakthrough co-founder, Chad Madden, gave a presentation on How to Generate Consistent Patient Demand by Marketing Across All Stages of Awareness.
In the presentation, Chad revealed how physical therapists could generate consistent demand for their services by marketing across the 5 Stages of Awareness.
Keep reading to learn more about Chad’s session at the event and information on how you can get involved in a national campaign to make PT the first choice for people in pain.
The Current healthcare System is Broken
Right now, the US healthcare system is number one in the world in terms of cost. In 2021, we were spending $12,956 on healthcare per person for a total of $4.3 trillion annually.
And over the past 40 years, health spending as a percent of GDP has risen dramatically—from 9.9% in 1982 to 13.2% in 1997 to 19.7% in 2021. In comparison, the average health spending as a share of GDP amongst the OECD countries was only 9.5% of GDP.
The vast majority of US health expenditure goes toward prescription medications, surgeries, and hospital care.
You’d think that with such a steep price tag, the US would have top scores for health in categories like longevity, suicide rates, maternal mortality, and satisfaction. But the opposite is true:
The US ranks at the bottom of nearly every major health statistic.
According to Robert H. Schmerling, MD of Harvard Health Publishing, “Our investments in healthcare emphasize technology and specialty care, and we overemphasize procedures and drugs. Our healthcare system is not sustainable.”
Increasing Patient Demand
What’s clear is that this trend is not going to get better on its own.
As practitioners, we need to do a better job of marketing direct to the consumer and educating patients about the benefits of PT.
And the most effective way to do this by marketing across all the stages of awareness to increase patient demand for physical therapy.
5 Stages of Awareness
The 5 Stages of Awareness is a marketing framework first popularized by Eugene Schwartz in his book Breakthrough Advertising.
The basic idea is that it’s no longer enough to simply provide a great service or to have all your marketing talk about how great you are. To succeed in today’s healthcare economy, you need to meet your potential patients where they’re at, in their current frame of mind.
On one end of Schwartz’s spectrum you have the people who are highly Aware of you, your company and your services. They like, know, and trust you already.
On the other end, you have people who are completely Unaware of you and how you can help them. This is where most of the general population is at when it comes to Physical therapy. They don’t realize that PT can often provide better results than surgery. As a result, far too many patients end up addicted to painkillers or in debt from repeated surgeries that often cause more harm than good.
Patient Demand is educational marketing and business strategy designed to increase awareness for your practice and conservative care as a whole. It meets people where they are at. Whether they know nothing about PT or they are a current patient, it strategically engages them.
It puts you in the driver’s seat and helps your community better understand why PT is important. The goal is to educate patients about their options and drive more people in your community to PT, rather than surgery, medications, or injections.
Take the PT Pledge and Increase Demand for PT
At PPS, Breakthrough launched a major industry initiative: The Physical Therapists’ Pledge.
The pledge includes:
- A commitment to educating the public about the truth of the US Health System, and the solutions that conservative care provides,
- A commitment to building patient demand and putting the choice of care in the hands of the patients themselves.
Once we have 1000 Private Practice clinics in America committed to the pledge, our goal is to a national tv campaign exposing the truth of the US Health System and the solution that Physical Therapy provides.
We got off to a great start at PPS, with more than 100 signatures.
Help us hit our goal of 1,000: Visit PatientDemand.com to participate in this National Campaign for a healthcare system that is affordable, accessible, and effective.
