Are POPTS, HOPTS and Insurance Companies dragging your PT Private Practice down? Do you want to learn the Single Most Important PT Marketing System that allowed me to go from disaster to 600% growth in less than three years?
Quick Background for this article:
The ONE Thing by Gary Keller is a must read.
I’m fresh off reading this book over the weekend and am fairly excited to share with you what I see as the #1 Single Most Important Marketing System.
I’m going to share that with you in a minute. Plus my reasoning behind WHY I believe it’s the best for you to focus on if you’re legit about wanting to take your Private Practice to the next level.
But first, a coincidental email exchange with another private practice owner. First is his question – then my answer.
Question:
“What is the single most important thing for a practice owner to know about marketing?”
My answer:
It seems to be the understanding of what marketing actually is…and the discernment between what works and what doesn’t.
When I first started in Private Practice, I thought marketing was branding – my logo, my slogan, my website.
What I found out was branding doesn’t work.
What does work is “Content Marketing” or it’s more advanced off-shoot “Direct Response Marketing”.
Content Marketing allows us to position ourselves within the marketplace by providing value through videos, reports, books or workshops.
It allows us to be scientific or evidence-based with our marketing spend.
And it’s the sure path to overcome the major obstacles to Private Practice Owners today – HOPTS, POPTS and Insurance Companies.”
So here, I have room to expand on that answer.
And I want to for you.
If I had to pick one action, one marketing system to focus on, it would be…
Use Workshops to Create A Flood of New Patients!
Why?
Well, adding to the email above
If we’re going to win the battle with hospital systems and POPTS practices and absolutely revolutionize Private Practice PT together,
We need to get super smart about our marketing (marketing defined as “our positioning in the way the market sees us”).
If we’re no longer going to rely on physician referrals which the aforementioned HOPTS and POPTS are “forcing us” to do.
Then we need to be able to attract patients directly from the public.
(As an aside, I’m not sure we thought this through with Vision 2020. Autonomous practice. Direct Access. We had a huge advantage with physician referrals. Now PrivatePractice PTs must figure out how to get patients from the general public and we haven’t really done a sound job of educating PTs how to do that. In retrospect, we should have figured this out FIRST but hindsight is always 20/20… pun intended).
This is a very possible game to win especially with Workshops.
In attracting patients from the general public, we have 3 major categories.
- Products, for example BioFreeze or Theraband.
- Services, for example a Free Screen (which I do not recommend using here).
- Information…my favorite. Examples include videos, reports, books and workshops.
Have The Best New Patients Self-Selecting To Work With You
Patients who see an ad raise their hand saying, “Yes, I have back pain” call in to register. Show up to the workshop. Complete a worksheet and listen to you or I babble on about the 3 Common Causes of Back Pain and Sciatica for an hour.
This is someone I want to work with.
The chances that they’ll be compliant with their PT plan of care?
Excellent.
The likelihood they’ll respect my staff and I throughout the PT experience?
Fantastic.
The possibility that they’ll return to me for future care…thereby improving their lifetime customer value AND lowering my relative marketing costs?
Through the roof (close to 100%).
Books, reports, videos…I can make those from the Workshop or use information packaged in those formats to support the Workshop.
Workshops are the best form of Content Marketing that I know.
Marketing for Workshops is Direct Response Marketing by default.
It’s the #1 Top Priority Marketing System I would build if I were a Private Practice PT in need of New Patient flow today.
A Quick Personal Story of Redemption (Learn From My Mistakes)
In October of 2007, my Private Practice was on a rocket ride.
It was the first time we really had made money and I had about $44,000 saved in a business reserve account.
Pretty Pumped.
Over the next few months, specifically November and December, our practice completely crashed.
We went from 154 New Patients in October to 106 in November, down to 66 in December.
It was UGLY!!
I fired our Marketing person December 27th. Very tough to do!
And threw myself in to studying marketing (and learning mostly OUTSIDE of the industry – Private Practice PT).
Within 3 months, we hit an all-time high of 183 New Patients in one month.
And went on to grow 600% in 30 consecutive months.
What did it for us? What was the “magic bullet?”
You guessed it– Workshops!
Dozens of PTs Are Using Workshops To Dominate POPTS – Will You?
You can do the same.
The thing I like most about Workshops is it requires a bit of planning and skill development to pull it off.
(What do I mean by “pull it off?” We’ve had PTs book 43 New Patients in one hour from a Workshop. It wasn’t me but I can share what he did.)
You can’t fake it.
It quickly separates you from other PTs, chiropractors, massage therapists, personal trainers, POPTS and HOPTS in your area.
And that’s exactly what marketing is
The positioning of your PT services relative to the other services in your community in the eyes of the general public.
Want to Learn More About Hosting Killer Workshops?
I put a presentation together that covers this about Workshops:
- How to get butts in seats (how to market for your Workshop)
- How to get the people who show up to schedule
- How to convert the people who schedule to a full plan of care
How Do You Sign Up?
If you’re a Private Practice PT and you want to separate yourself from HOPTS, POPTS and other PTs in your area,
Go to the Workshop URL to register and I’ll share what I’ve learned with you.
Dedicated to the Success of Private Practice PT,
Chad
PS – Best success I’ve heard so far on Workshops is an owner I work with in Arkansas filled 3 Workshops (capped each one at 48 registrants) for $6. I’ll show you how when you register for the Workshop Webinar…
