Do you want to advertise your cash pay physical therapy programs…but don’t know how to start?
Some PTs are worried that if they advertise their cash pay services, their patients may get confused or may not see the value. But if you get lots of your patients to participate in cash pay physical therapy services, the revenue in your clinic may SKYROCKET.
Here’s a simple guide to advertising cash pay physical therapy services to your past & current patients…
What Are Cash Pay Physical Therapy Services?
Cash pay physical therapy services are services that you offer in your clinic that your patients pay for with cash instead of insurance.
It’s not that you discontinue offering insurance-based services. Rather, you’re going to add services that complement your main physical therapy offerings, but on a cash basis.
Here are some examples of cash pay PT services you could advertise.
- Laser treatments
- Yoga and meditation classes
- Massage therapy
- Reiki and acupuncture
- Nutrition counseling
- Fitness programs
What Is The Benefit Of Cash Pay Physical Therapy?
How Cash Pay PT Services Benefit Patients
Adopting this type of service offers many benefits to your patients. Many of these services, like acupuncture or yoga, add value above and beyond the value that your patients already get from you, but insurance may not pay for those services.
However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer them. For example, recent studies suggest that yoga and meditation have the power to mitigate some of the effects of PTSD.
To entice patients to sign up, you could offer a 20% discount to those who sign up for an annual cash pay membership. They pay less money out-of-pocket during the year for these services, which saves them money in the long run.
How Cash Pay PT Services Benefit Your Business
For you, adopting a cash pay model means that your clinic gets extra money, particularly if you encourage a large number of your patients to sign up for a yearly subscription. This one step could mean thousands of extra dollars a year for your clinic.
Aside from this, cash pay PT services allow you to skip dealing with the middleman – the insurance companies – and get paid quicker.
Additionally, any of the restrictions that normally come from third-party payers go away with this system. Your patients and you both benefit from this one because you’re free to offer the kinds of treatments that can help your patients heal more completely.
What Is The Best Way To Advertise Your Cash Pay Services?
There are a couple of ways that we recommend to our clients that are both logical and natural.
Advertise cash pay physical therapy services via your email newsletter.
When you’re writing your newsletters, be sure to include a short blurb about the program in each of your emails. Include a link to the program’s sales page in the email blurb.
Tell your patients about the program while they’re in the clinic for treatment.
You and your staff can tell them about it when you’re at a point-of-contact with them. You can also have posters and brochures made that introduce the program in your office, where patients can see them.
Send postcards (and other direct mail) to them.
One of our clients, James Pumarada, sends direct mail pieces out to his clients throughout the year. He noticed that his clinic’s numbers went way down when it stopped sending mail to patients. His numbers bounced back once he resumed the practice.
How to Use Postcards to Advertise Cash Pay Services
1. Create a plan for your cash pay services.
Setting up your cash pay PT services will require a bit of planning. In the planning stage, you’re going to determine the following:
- How much it’s going to cost patients per usage. Will you do a membership, like a health club, where the usage is fairly open for services? For example, can they take unlimited yoga or meditation classes?
- Or will you offer tiered subscriptions and concierge services? These plans may offer unlimited usage for some services, but charge per use for other services, like the laser services. In the latter case, they’ll still get a discount on the service, but they’ll pay per use.
Once you know the details of the backend of this program, you’ll then want to determine the offer/s you’ll make in the program.
2. Assemble a list of patients and their addresses.
If you’ve been in business for a while, you should have a large list of past & current patients and their addresses! Make sure all the addresses are well-formatted in a spreadsheet.
3. Figure out the value of the offer.
Make the cash pay offer very, very clear on the postcard and other mailers. This reduces confusion and misunderstandings about the nature of the services. If you’re still taking insurance for your normal physical therapy services, make that clear too!
4. Create a standout postcard.
According to Agility PR, nearly 50% of online – and presumably, offline – shoppers say that visuals are the most important factor when it comes to buying.
5. End with a strong call-to-action (CTA).
A call to action like “learn more” is weak. Instead, write a call-to-action that inspires real action – like “Call Now” or “Schedule Your Laser Therapy Appointment Today.”
6. Send the postcard out to the people on your list.
Use a mailing service like Mailing.com to send the postcard you’ve designed to your list of past patients!
7. Keep track of the results.
You can track results by adding a QR to each postcard in your direct mail campaign. Use a different code for each campaign. When customers respond, ask them about the code.
You can also keep track of the number of new sign ups you get, paying close attention when upticks in membership happen right after you send a postcard out.
Some Final Do’s and Don’ts
3 Do’s For Your Cash Pay Physical Therapy Services
- Show the high value of what patients will be getting.
- Show a picture of your potential service.
- Send out postcards regularly.
3 Don’ts For Your Cash Pay PT Program
- Don’t be confusing. Make it clear that people have to pay cash for the services. In other words, insurance won’t cover these services.
- Don’t forget to include a CTA.
- Don’t get discouraged. It may take a few months to get your new subscription membership / cash pay service up and running.
What if…
I’m not a designer or don’t have time to design a postcard?
No problem. Practice Promotions can create postcards for you that look stunning and inspire your patients to take action.
Reach out to us to learn more about our postcard design services as well as about your monthly design and marketing services for physical therapists.