Pediatric Therapy Marketing and Advertising

Best Marketing Ideas for Pediatric Physical, Occupational, and Speech-Language Therapy

Are you struggling with INCONSISTENT patient volume at your pediatric clinic? When you boost your pediatric physical therapy marketing, you can take back control of the growth of your clinic! Pediatric PT, OT, and speech-language therapy clinics face a host of problems today:

• Low reimbursements
• Declining doctor referrals
• A healthcare economy that doesn’t value private practices
• Big-money competitors
• Inflation and hiring troubles
• Tough experience with past marketing practices

But here’s the good news: Practice Promotions provides powerful pediatric marketing services, including pediatric website design, SEO services, Google Ads PPC, and newsletter marketing! Click below to watch an instant demo on our services!

You need fresh pediatric therapy marketing ideas from Practice Promotions to break this cycle, so you can take back control of your marketing dollars. The benefits of properly marketing your clinic are clear:

• Revenue stability
• Freedom to focus on what you do best — treating patients
• Controlling clinic growth
• You stop LOSING patients to common marketing mistakes

Read this blog to get the BEST pediatric marketing ideas.

Pediatric Therapy Marketing Must Appeal to Parents and Kids

One thing that private clinics sometimes forget is that pediatric physiotherapy marketing has to appeal to both parents and their children. Therapists tend to load their websites with jargon to showcase their technical expertise. That’s not what potential clients are looking for!

Parents are often scared and are looking for someone with empathy who can help their child walk or talk again. If they look at your website with their child, the child sees the website differently. They want to see vibrant colors, photos of smiling and happy children, and a sense that your clinic is a safe and friendly place. 

Practice Promotions provides powerful marketing services that help you grow your practice, including: pediatric therapy website design, search engine optimization, Google Ads, email marketing, blogging, direct mail marketing, physician referrals, and more. We’ve helped more than 1,400 private clinics GROW their number of patients consistently and CONTROL the expansion of their clinics. 

Condition-Based Marketing for Pediatric Physiotherapy 

When parents first have their child diagnosed, they search online for solutions to that specific problem. They’re most likely to be searching for autism, ADHD, balance and gait difficulties, muscle weakness, dyspraxia, speech apraxia, and the other most common problems that children are facing.

Your website needs to highlight the fact that you can treat these specific conditions. From your website to Google Ads, to SEO, to in-clinic marketing and brochures, all of your pediatric therapy marketing needs to focus on specific conditions!

If you are a one-stop shop that provides pediatric PT, OT, and SLT, emphasize that! If you are a specialty clinic, focus on that specialty. For example, focus on speech language therapy marketing if you are a speech-language clinic only. 

Digital Marketing Strategies For Pediatric Therapy Clinics 

Building your online presence is the first step to successful pediatric therapy marketing.

Online search is the #1 place where you are losing patients. Why?

• 86% of clicks on Google are received by the top 10 search results. You have to be in the top 10. But….
• The top 3 results get 54.4% of all clicks!

The bottom line is: you’re not in the top ten, you’re missing out on 86 percent of potential patients. If you’re not in the top 3, you’re missing out on more than half your potential audience. 

These sub-strategies from Practice Promotions will help you grow your online presence and attract more pediatric patients consistently.

Search Engine Optimization

Data published in the Interactive Journal of Medical Research shows that 98 percent of parents search the internet for information about their child’s health, whether it’s for the sniffles or a PT/OT condition. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the hidden tool that helps parents find you when they search online.

When Google ranks websites to list in search results, it says, “This website will answer your questions.” Google favors local SEO results based on a parent’s geolocation when they are searching for their child’s condition. 

You’ll want keywords on your website that describe specific conditions in ways that parents will be searching for them. SEO is also improved with backlinks to your site from other sources and by having a Google Business Profile.

20 Best SEO Keywords for Pediatric Physical Therapy

The top things that parents will be searching for when their child receives a diagnosis are services and conditions. Your pediatric occupational therapy marketing can be improved by listing the specific services your clinic provides, such as:

• Aquatic Therapy
• Assistive Augmentative Communication (AAC)
• Assistive Technology (AT) Services
• Feeding Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Physical Therapy
• Social Skill Group Therapy
• Speech-Language Therapy
• Bike Riding Instruction

When it comes to conditions your clinic treats, you should have individual pages for each of them, such as:

• Apraxia
• Delayed Gross Motor Development
• Sensory-Processing Challenges
• Cerebral Palsy
• Torticollis
• Executive Functioning Disorder
• Stuttering and Fluency Difficulties
• Sports Injuries

Practice Promotions is here to provide your clinic with expert SEO strategies and pediatric occupational therapy marketing ideas!

Want to learn more? Check out this instant demo on our services!

Content and Blog Marketing for Pediatric PT, OT, and Speech-Language Therapy Clinics 

Providing content and blog posts is another way to increase your Google search rank while providing information that patients are looking for. A pediatric physical therapy blog provides the following benefits:

• More useful content on your site
• Helpful & relevant info for potential patients
• Builds credibility & showcases your expertise
• Improved search engine ranking

Blog posts should provide descriptions of common problems children are diagnosed with and then explain how pediatric PT, OT or SLT can help improve their condition. Here are some examples of potential blog titles:

• How Pediatric Therapy Can Address Muscle Weakness
• Social Skill Group Therapy Will Help Your Child Thrive
• Understanding Assistive Augmentative Communication (AAC)
• How Pediatric Therapy Can Help Your Child’s Balance and Gait Disorders
• Could Your Child Have Dysgraphia?

Online Reputation Management – Get More Reviews 

Around 50 percent of people trust online reviews of your pediatric clinic just as much as a personal recommendation, according to research from BrightLocal.

Patients who leave you good reviews are really brand ambassadors for your practice.

With the customer’s permission, you can post their review on your website or use it in additional marketing materials, such as direct mail postcards. 

Practice Promotions provides Reputation Review Management software and other services to help streamline this process and make it easy for you. 

Email Marketing Ideas for Pediatric Physical Therapy 

To use email marketing as a strategy, you first need to “capture” the email addresses of patients and potential patients.

Offering a free resource on your website, such as an eBook about various conditions or treatment methods, can be an easy way to do this. Prospective patients visiting your website can download the eBook for free when they provide their email address.

Potential eBook topics you could provide include:

• Developmental Milestones Timeline
• Top 10 Toys to Develop Motor Skills Age 0 – 12 Months
• What Is Pediatric Occupational Therapy?
• Strategies for Children with Sensory or Motor Skills Challenges
• Early Strategies for Your Child with Autism

All Practice Promotions clients receive access to our ENGAGE email marketing system. It contains hundreds of beautiful, pre-made email templates to choose from to minimize the time needed for email marketing.

Online Advertising for Pediatric Physiotherapy Clinics

Google Ads is one of the best clinical and speech language therapy marketing ideas you can deploy.

When your site lands on page 1 of Google’s search results, you are reaching the vast majority of parents seeking help and are more likely to have them click on your website via an ad. Our proven pediatric physical therapy marketing via online advertising can help you get an ROI regardless of your budget.

When you use Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC), you ONLY pay when someone clicks on your ad! This helps control your online advertising budget and get the most bank for your buck. Let our Practice Promotions marketing experts do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to online advertising.

Social Media Marketing Ideas for Your Pediatric Occupational Therapy Business

Social media marketing is an important part of your digital marketing strategy.

However, clinics should understand that most of their new patients are going to come from Google Ads and their SEO practices.

Social media is a useful tool when it comes to establishing your expertise and sharing your website’s content and blogs.

Keep your social media content upbeat and engaging to reach more people.

Pediatric Physical Therapy Marketing and Website Design

The main goal of your website is to convert cyber-visitors to patients who will come to your clinic.

The problem is, the vast majority of clinics fail to convert website visitors into patients. In fact, most clinics only have a 2 percent conversion rate — meaning 98 percent of potential patients leave their websites without scheduling an appointment! Yikes! 

Practice Promotions uses proven techniques to increase private clinics’ website conversion by 4X. On average, our clients convert 8% of visitors to patients! That’s more like it.

If you are able to convert 8 percent of your website’s visitors, you will have four times as many new patients every month as you do now!

Could you use 4x more patients from your website? Then you should request a demo of our Pediatric Therapy Web Design Services.

10 Website Design Tips for Pediatric Therapists

Here are 10 essential components that every PT/OT/SLT website should have:

• A clear explanation of how to become a patient
• One dominant call-to-action (CTA) on every page
• Social proof (testimonials) featured on every page
• Solutions to common pediatric conditions
• Provide images showing successful results & happy, smiling patients
• Easy-to-read text with minimal technical jargon
• Mobile-friendly design that works on tablets & smartphones
• Method for patients to leave online reviews
• Multiple ways to contact you for an appointment (phone, online)
• Helpful patient resources so they can learn more

Market to Your List of Past Pediatric Therapy Patients 

Life is busy and patients can easily forget about you over time. This is why you should utilize email marketing and direct mail marketing to continue communicating with past patients. Your past customer list is a gold mine when it comes to repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals. 

Email and Newsletter Marketing for Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Email marketing and customized patient newsletters are a method we help our clients use to reactivate past patients every month. When you periodically market to past patients and share success stories, they’ll be reminded of how your clinic has helped their child. This will help get them back on the schedule.

Without consistent marketing to past patients, they WILL forget you and are more likely to go to your competitor the next time they need services.

Referral Marketing for PT, OT, and SLP Clinics

Referral marketing is another important reason to keep in touch with past patients.

Parents are likely to know other parents through school or play groups who have children with common pediatric conditions. Don’t assume that patients are going to sing your clinic’s praises to others. Ask them to do it! Both your website and your email marketing should encourage people to refer family members, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances for pediatric therapy services. When you’re providing great services to your patients, they are more likely to be open to making referrals.

Direct Mail Marketing to Bring Back Past Patients

Direct mail is not dead, contrary to popular belief. A piece of physical mail in the hands of a past patient is much more personalized and much more likely to be seen than an email.

Most direct mail is seen by 80 to 90 percent of people who open up their mailbox, compared to only 20 to 30 percent of emails. 

Practice Promotions can handle every aspect of your clinic’s direct mail promotions, including writing, design, printing, mailing, and providing quarterly ROI reports. Direct mail works, and it’s a great way to consistently stay in touch with past patients.

Bonus: Doctor / Physician Marketing for Pediatric Therapy

You can’t RELY on referrals from pediatricians, but you shouldn’t ignore them either. There are some simple strategies you can use to increase doctor referrals to your clinic.

• Provide a “Physician Referrals” page on your website. This lets pediatricians know that you take referrals (since some clinics don’t). Make it easy for them to refer patients to them, and also provide a dedicated phone number on the page for them to call to make direct referrals.
• Sending out a monthly pediatrician mailer can be a simple strategy for attracting more referrals as well. You can showcase patient success stories and provide testimonials from other pediatricians.
• If you have an established relationship with a doctor or pediatrician, ask if you can provide brochures to leave at their practice.

Benefits of Working with a Marketing Agency for Pediatric Occupational Therapy

A full-spectrum digital and print marketing strategy requires the help of many different specialists. If you were to do it all yourself, you’d need to hire…

• Graphic designer
• Copywriter
• Print marketer
• SEO Specialist
• Google Ads specialist
• Digital marketer
• Referral specialist

That’s easily 4-6 employees and salaries!

Working With a Marketing Agency Saves Money

Working with a marketing agency to provide your pediatric therapy marketing allows you to bundle all of those specialized skills in one place — for less than the cost of hiring ONE full-time employee.

Save Time For Your Marketing Staff

With your digital marketing strategy handled by an agency, it frees up your own marketing staffer(s) to focus on in-house promotions and other marketing tasks.

Practice Promotions doesn’t REPLACE the 1-2 marketing employees you may have. It frees up their time!

Get 4x New Patients With a Marketing Agency

Practice Promotions has a proven track record of helping pediatric therapy clinics increase their website conversions from 2 percent to 8 percent. That’s four times as many new patients every month who end up booking appointments at your clinic!

Plus, we can dramatically increase the likelihood of local patients finding you online and clicking on your site to learn more. 98 percent of parents search online for information about their child’s condition, and we can help make your clinic list among the top sources of information for them. 

We have helped more than 1,400 clinics across North America to step up their marketing game, attain more consistent numbers of new patients, and take charge of their clinic’s growth. We’ve launched more than 800 new clinic websites during our time in business, and we send more than 500,000 newsletters per year on behalf of our clients.

Take Control of Your Pediatric Therapy Marketing

When you control your marketing, you control the growth and success of your pediatric therapy clinic. Contact Practice Promotions today to schedule a demo and learn how our digital and print marketing experts can assist you!

FAQs

Is it important to have a mobile-friendly website?

Most internet traffic still comes from desktop computers in this day and age. However, as of 2023, about one-third of search traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. As Generation Z is becoming parents, search traffic is expected to become even more reliant on mobile devices. Think of it this way: If one-third of your potential business could be coming from mobile, doesn’t it make sense to have a mobile-friendly site? If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, those potential patients will look somewhere else for help.

How do I start the process?

Contact us here at Practice Promotions to schedule a product demo. Whether you are preparing to launch a new clinic, or you are an established multi-clinic agency looking to expand even further, we can provide enterprise services to help you grow. After the demo, our marketing experts will discuss your clinic’s specific marketing challenges and needs. From there, we will come up with a customized marketing plan to help you achieve your goals and take your clinic to the next level when it comes to consistency and profitability.

Will I really save money hiring a pediatric therapy marketing agency?

You definitely will! Imagine paying a full-time marketing employee a salary, plus benefits and insurance. Working with a pediatric therapy marketing agency allows you to receive more specialized services for less than the cost of that full-time employee.

What services do I get working with Practice Promotions?

Our services run the gamut when it comes to digital marketing and direct mail marketing. People who sign up for our Ultimate or Pro systems receive more monthly services than those using our Platinum or Launch systems. Every client, regardless of which service level they sign up for, has access to our Rank-High SEO System, our Lead Analysis System, our ENGAGE Email System, and a Patient Performance Website.

Isn’t social media marketing the best way to get new patients?

Some people believe this, but it’s not true. When you think about the services that a pediatric PT/OT/SLT clinic provides, parents aren’t looking to social media for answers (usually). People use social media for entertainment and news purposes, rather than for information about medical clinics. Social media marketing should not be neglected, but the reality is that your website’s SEO combined with Google Ads is where most of your new patients will come from.

How can you help with my clinic’s newsletters?

We can do everything for you when it comes to engaging with patients via newsletters. When you work with us, we will write, design, print, and mail your newsletters out. Finally, we’ll keep you up to date with reporting that shows just how much of an ROI you’re getting from your newsletters. If we end up with extra newsletters after printing, we’ll send them to your clinic, so you can hand them out as promotional materials for your services. Check out our portfolio of past newsletters to see examples of the high quality we can provide.