
Of course! Patient visits fill your schedule and full schedule means you have the revenue you planned to meet goals and grow.
There are 4 primary ways physical therapy clinics boost patient visits:
When you spend even a little time each week improving these areas, you’ll have a clear-cut plan to boost patient visits which greatly reduces marketing stress or confusion.
Of these, “new patients” is probably the most desirable, most highly-discussed area in the industry right now for 2 great reasons: It presents the biggest opportunity, and it takes the most effort. That said, it’s second on the list on purpose. You don’t want to spend time and money marketing directly to consumers only to have them drop out at a rapid rate.
That’s why, for your clinic to get the most physical therapy visits you need to have a plan for each of these areas.
Here are some tips for getting started:
When you get a new patient, whether or not they stay makes a huge difference in your revenue. A patient who comes for 12 visits is (obviously) 3X more valuable as a patient who comes for just 4.
In fact, it’s significantly cheaper to retain a patient than replace them. Invesp has a great infographic on this. My favorite points are:
(The infographic is available here with much more nerdy, marketing data if you’re into that)
All that to say that allocating a portion of your marketing budget to keeping patients longer is a proven, successful action you can use to get more patient visits.
How? The most common tactics include:
This is it. The big one.
It’s big because there are literally thousands of new patient opportunities all around you. Turning those prospects into patients boils down to one thing: Market Directly To Consumers.
NOTE: marketing to consumers isn’t necessarily all about direct access. PT clinics need to market to consumers whether or not you have good direct access laws.
“Our Newsletter… also very custom brochures for specific programs. It has really helped us with patient referrals AND patients informing their doctors where they are choosing to go for physical therapy.”
-Jay, Owner
Done correctly, new patient marketing makes people 1) aware of physical therapy as a solution to pain, and 2) aware of you as a trusted source. If you accomplish those two things new patients will find their way to you direct access or not.
Here are the most effective strategies we’ve seen and use for our clients. Budgeting and planning for these areas will start you on the path to more new patients. This is an overview, but if you want to dive deeper into this I recommend hopping over to our free training “The Ultimate PT Marketing Funnel.”
Again, for a more detailed look check out the free training here.
Just like keeping current patients, getting patients to return for more physical therapy visits can is generally cheaper than finding new patients.
But this doesn’t happen on accident! Sadly, even patients who had a great experience with you are likely to forget about it unless you intentionally stay on the top of their minds throughout the year.
Here’s how:
Every physical therapy clinic should allocate a portion of their budget to past patient marketing.
The final area to increase PT visits is referrals. This includes both patients referring friends & family as well as doctor referrals.
The good news is patient referrals will generally increase with things like newsletters and social media which we’ve already covered. But, you also want to keep marketing materials on hand because patients don’t want to be your salespeople – you need to make it easy for them to give their friends information.
>> For more on patient referrals check out this article about referral habits with Practice Freedom founder Jamey Schrier.
Lastly, doctor referrals. They aren’t what they used to be, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help you. Just don’t blow your entire budget on gift baskets. Here are some realistic goals for doctor referrals in today’s PT landscape:
Putting attention on these 4 things will help you increase patient visits:
Want more? Click Here to Download “The Ultimate PT Marketing Funnel” + Get immediate access to a 10-minute training video with Neil Trickett, PT Marketing Expert.
“I’ve doubled my growth in just a few months. I hired another therapist and now am looking at moving into a larger building!” -Leo, Biosport PT
“I’ve doubled my growth in just a few months. I hired another therapist and now am looking at moving into a larger building!” -Leo, Biosport PT