Brooke Monroe
Fill your PTs’ schedules with email marketing!
As a physical therapy clinic owner, one of the most effective ways to reach patients is through email marketing!
The problem is, lots of PTs are confused about how to use email marketing in the physical therapy industry. Is it legal? Is it effective? Is this going to cost a lot? What is HIPAA compliant and what isn’t?
In this blog, I’ll show you how to use email to fill your PTs’ schedules, without wasting a lot of time or money:
- The Benefits of Email Marketing
- 5 Ways to Build Your Email List
- 3 Ways to Segment Email Blasts
- 4 Must-Have Automated Email Campaigns
- 3 Components of a Great Email
- When and How Often to Send Emails
- 5 Marketing Metrics You Can Use to Track Your Success
- How to Ensure Your Email Blasts Are HIPAA Compliant
This guide will help you figure out the best practices for email marketing in the physical therapy industry and get more patients in your clinic!
The Benefits of Email Marketing
The truth is that physical therapists NEED to be marketing consistently to their list of past and prospective patients. Period! There’s no negotiating around it.
If you aren’t marketing, you’re actively choosing NOT to bring more revenue into your practice.
You might think that email is a dead method of communication, but you’re wrong. Let’s look at some numbers!
According to Hubspot, 74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel of receiving communication from brands and businesses. This statistic is followed by 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millenials, and 60% of Gen Z’ers.
That’s probably way more than you expected, right? And if you’re like most physical therapy clinic owners, many of your patients from the Baby Boomer generation (60-80+ years old).
That means you must engage in email marketing.
Email marketing has been around for a while now, and it has proven to be one of the most effective marketing strategies. It is inexpensive and can be used to reach a large audience. Emails generate an average of $36 for every dollar spent (Litmus) which is excellent news for you because email sending systems aren’t very expensive. This is probably why 64% of small businesses choose email marketing to reach their customers! (Campaign Monitor)
Email marketing is also an effective way to build relationships with customers by providing valuable information and updates on your business. The use of email marketing for physical therapists can have many benefits, such as:
- Attracting new patients
- Reactivating past patients
- Increasing the number of appointments
- Generating referrals from satisfied patients
So now that you understand the benefits of email marketing for physical therapy clinics, it’s time to start building your email list!
5 Ways to Build Your Email List
You might be thinking, “This sounds great, but I have a problem..I just opened my clinic, and I don’t have a large email list! In fact, my past patient list only has about 80 names.”
The good news is there are ways to build your email list. Here are five ways to begin collecting names and addresses quickly and efficiently.
- Require an email address from your current patients. Ask your front desk to ask patients for their email addresses ASAP!
- Collect email leads from your PT website with a “lead generator.” What is a lead generator? Storybrand’s website explains the idea behind them!
“You offer a piece of valuable content in exchange for an email address. The simplest format for this content is a downloadable PDF, but videos work, too. Then, with a series of emails, you can build a relationship with your potential customers. They’ll see your authority and your empathy for their struggles, and making that sale will become a lot easier.”
A few examples of lead generators are:
- eBooks or PDFs: Creating eBooks on your website is a great way for you to gain new patient leads for your physical therapy email marketing campaigns. When a person sees your eBook pop up, your website will prompt them to enter their address in order to gain access to the eBook.
- Online Workshops For Shoulder/Back Pain: Online PT workshops have gained lots of attention, especially since the beginning of the pandemic. They are a great way to generate leads for your email campaigns, not to mention they are cost-effective, time-efficient, and scalable. Our partners at Breakthrough has created a free online workshop template that shows you how to create a presentation that will maximize conversions!
- Ask for referrals. You could send cards to your list of 50-100 people and ask if there was anyone they’d like to refer to your practice!
- Train your front desk to ask for patient information immediately. Make sure that for every phone call that comes in, your front desk immediately asks for the patient’s name, telephone, and email address in case the call gets cut off. That’s worth everything! That is a person who was willing to make a conversion; they just weren’t willing to do it at that time or for that pricepoint.
Later down the line, this can easily change, especially if they receive your marketing materials in their mailboxes. For more information on how to capture patient details quickly, check out our friends at CallHero.
- If you buy a practice, make sure you get their patient list! Colin Sisco, PT and successful owner of Kaizen PT, says that when he bought his practice from the past owners, “The most important thing in the buy and sell agreement was: how good is this past patient list that they have?”
You can listen to the full podcast here: How to Empower Your Staff & Get More Referrals with Colin Sisco, PT
Bonus tip: Although it might be tempting, DON’T buy a list online; it’s probably terrible quality. You don’t want to learn that the hard way!
But now that you have a list of emails…what are you supposed to do with it? Next step: split (or “segment”) that list into 3 lists.
Divide Your Email List Into 3 Segments
We’ve all opened our email inboxes and seen the same sender’s address below the subject line before immediately pressing “select all” and “send to trash.” Why are they sending us four different emails in one day? What’s the point?
The truth is, there is no point. Every email should not go to every person. Too many emails equal overload, and it only succeeds in annoying the recipient, which is not what you want to do!
You also want to make sure that different patients and potential patients are receiving different verbiage. For example, a current patient should not be receiving emails asking them if they’re in need of PT!
Segment your physical therapy email campaigns into these 3 lists:
You can prevent email overload by dividing your audience into segments. Marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue. (HubSpot).
- Leads: People whose contact information you have, but who have never been a patient. These leads can come from eBook downloads, Google Ads, workshops, or any community events you do!
- Current patients: Patients actively participating in treatment.
- Past patients: Patients you have treated at any point in the past.
If you’re not using an email platform, you can “segment” these lists into separate excel spreadsheets. However, I strongly recommend you use a HIPPA-compliant email-sending software system like ConstantContact. These systems will help you break your email campaigns into the segments above, making it easy to send the right emails to the right people. They also make automated email campaigns WAY easier. Basically; an email software program is a must-have for any PT clinic that wants to grow.
Now that you have a segmented list, let’s create some automated email campaigns!
4 Must-Have Automated Email Campaigns
An automated email campaign is a series of emails that goes out automatically, without you having to hit “send” every time. Automated campaigns streamline your marketing efforts, saves you time, and delivers relevant emails to the people you care about! It’s a great way to stay top-of-mind with your past and present patients, and you can use it for lead generation, patient retention, or any other type of marketing objective!
Another benefit is that you don’t have to worry about forgetting what you want to say in an email because it’s all automated! You also get the benefit of measuring the success of your campaign by tracking how many people open each message and click on internal links.
Here are 4 must-have automated email campaigns:
- Lead generation follow-up campaign: One successful example in this scenario would be a patient converting from an eBook download to a free consultation. For a FREE automated ebook follow-up campaign, click here.
- Welcome email series for new patients: A welcome email series is a series of emails sent to the new patients in your practice. It is usually sent within the first few days or weeks of their treatment. More than 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email types.(GetResponse, 2020)
Welcome email series have been proven to be an effective tool for engaging new members and increasing patient retention rates. The first email in the series welcomes your new patients and informs them about all the benefits they will enjoy during their physical therapy treatment.
The subsequent emails in this series provide information about upcoming clinic events, workshops, health tips, and other opportunities for them to get engaged with your practice!
Don’t know how to create a welcome email series? Check out our email marketing cheat sheet for PTs! It details a step-by-step process of creating 5 types of emails for your welcome series and what each one should include, as well as when to send it!
If you don’t have the time to create your own welcome email series, no problem. With Practice Promotions, your website comes equipped with powerful email tools designed to:
- Welcome & educate new patients with an automated welcome series
- Fill workshops or book appointments with past patients
- Follow up with eBook leads from your website guiding them to become patients
- Promote your blogs & digital newsletters
We’ll even create custom email templates to match your website & branding!
- Past patient nurture campaign: The goal of this campaign is to keep past patients engaged and increase referrals. You can accomplish this by providing them with useful content. For example, if you bring up a common pain problem in the email, you can then explain how physical therapy treatment can help to solve it.
Past patient nurture campaigns are also a great place to roll out your monthly digital newsletter as well! Email marketing for PT practices can include a variety of campaigns and promotions. From monthly email newsletters to bi-weekly offers and discounts, you can quickly and easily communicate with past patients and generate new appointments.
Start with a catchy subject line—this is the first thing read in your inbox and determines whether you will open the email. If you already sent email marketing campaigns, go back and look at the open rates for those emails.
Then, pick the subject lines with the highest open rates. From there, you can use that copy as a starting point to craft a successful subject line. Now that you got the patient to open your email, you can continue to attract their interest with informative and educational newsletter content.
Other nurture campaigns can include information about your practice, new services, and any changes in the office or with the staff. You can also send out reminders about appointments and other important information.
Finally, consider sending digital holiday cards or gifts during the year, especially around major holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, or your patients’ birthday!
- Past patient reactivation/sales campaign: This type of physical therapy email marketing blast is aimed at getting past patients back into the clinic.
AgencyBoon, drawing on principles from Storybrand Marketing, lists 5 kinds of emails that are useful to have in this campaign:
- Pain problem and how physical therapy offers a solution
- Patient testimonial
- Overcome an objection (i.e, “Physical therapy is not only for X condition)
- Showcase the difference between your clinic and others
- A sales email that closes the deal and offers a discount or added benefit to beginning treatment.
Awesome! Now you know what kinds of email campaigns you want to roll out in your clinic. But…how do you write an email that actually works to bring in patients? Let’s find out.
3 Components of a Great PT Email
The three components of a great physical therapy email are the subject line, informative content, and a clear call to action.
- Subject line: Having a good subject line is essential if you want anyone to open your email! It is pivotal that you write a statement that captures the reader’s attention and encourages them to click through for more information. Physical therapy marketing email subject lines should accurately describe the purpose of the message.
Here are a few good example subject lines you can use:
- New Year, New You! Read your [Practice name] January newsletter
- Got Aches and Pains? Call [Practice name] today for your free consultation
- April Special: 20% Off Ultrasound Therapy Treatments
Read more example subject lines on our website here!
- Relevant, helpful content: Creating irresistible offers and providing helpful information to patients is key to grabbing and keeping their attention. Speak to their pain. Ask questions that get them nodding in agreement and make it personal as if you’re sending a message to a close friend!
You can also include images in your emails that clearly show the offer you’re extending. For example, if your referral program has a postcard or graphic to go along with it, place it in the email itself to grab their attention.
Still feeling stumped? Here are 8 Creative Physical Therapy Email Ideas to Try This Year!
- Call to Action (CTA): CTA’s are critical. Not having a CTA in your copy is like inviting someone over to your house and then slamming the door in their face once they get there. What action do you want a patient to take upon reading your email? Give people something to ACCEPT or REJECT.
Examples:
“Physical therapy can provide you with natural ways to manage and alleviate your pain symptoms. Call our clinic today to schedule an appointment, and let us help you return to feeling your best.” The idea the patient is accepting is that physical therapy can help to relieve their pain naturally.
“Are you going to let chronic pain take control over your life? With physical therapy, this doesn’t have to be the case. Request an appointment today!” The idea that the patient is rejecting is that chronic pain will take over their life.
Sending Emails At the Perfect Time
Timing truly is everything, especially when it comes to physical therapy email marketing blasts.
When trying to figure out the time of day and how often your emails should go out, you’re going to have to experiment!
We’ll be upfront with you. Practice Promotions used to:
- Send emails from 9 am to 5 pm to PTs (Why? You’re treating patients!)
- See low open rates – around 18%, maybe 25%.
We realized things needed to be adjusted a bit if we wanted better results, so we:
- Changed to mornings + evenings only–when PTs are actually free!
- Now have a 40% regular open rate.
The lesson here is to understand your patients as people. Know when your patients are in their email inboxes. Experiment with times of day related to your buyer persona (are these younger patients who are on their cell phones and laptops? Older patients who check their emails once a day and may not be technologically savvy?)
Think about their lives and how you can adjust your marketing email campaigns to get higher open and click-through rates.
Do My Emails Work? 5 Email Marketing Metrics to Track Success
You’ve now built up your email list, split your list into segments, and set up automated email campaigns! You’ve written emails with compelling subject lines, bodies, and calls to action, and you’ve scheduled the emails to go out at just the right time of day.
So how do you know if your emails are bringing you new patients? Or if people are even reading them? Are you shooting off emails into the void and wasting everyone’s time?
Relax. There are a lot of ways to track if your emails are working. Understanding open rates, click rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates are key to measuring and tracking a physical therapy email marketing campaign.
- Open rate: According to Constant Contact, across all industries, the average email open rate is 19.8%, the click-through rate is 11.3%, and the bounce rate is 9.4%. If you have a 30% or above open rate, you’re doing great!
- Click rate: Click-through rates vary. One way to have a higher chance of someone clicking is to include a clear call to action. This can be done by providing a link to book an appointment, a link to a blog, or a number to call.
- Conversion rate: Your conversion rate is measured by the number of people who claim your offer or discount or become a patient. You can measure this by counting the number of people who reply to emails or click on links in the emails before becoming a patient. Another way to measure is by simply asking people when they walk into the clinic, “How did you find out about us? Why did you choose us?” If they bring up your email, you know your marketing is working!
Measuring conversion rates can require hard work and digging for numbers in random places, which is why you need a marketing staff on hand.
- Unsubscribe rates: Yes, some people will unsubscribe from your emails, and that’s okay! They aren’t interested.
Campaign Monitor’s site takes the burn out of the word “unsubscribe,” explaining: “Keeping an eye on your unsubscribe rate can tell you a lot about the people reading your emails, the content they love, and what you can improve to keep them engaged. With that in mind, unsubscribe rates under 2% are within industry norms.”
- Growth / shrinking of email list: This one goes hand in hand with unsubscribe rates. Just track the size of your list and make sure it’s not shrinking. That’s why direct mail is so important–we see great success with sending mail to people who’ve unsubscribed from our email lists!
You always want to be growing, so if you aren’t, it’s time to take a look at what isn’t working for you anymore.
How Can I Email My Patients and Still Be HIPAA Compliant?
HIPAA compliance is a high priority for healthcare professionals. There are a few ways to stay compliant while still connecting with your patients.
Simple Practice states, “…if you need the functionality of email, there are encrypted options you can use. Services like Hushmail for Healthcare, GSuite, and Virtru allow you to send HIPAA-compliant, secure emails at a variety of price points, so you can find one that fits your practice’s budget while still protecting your client’s data.”
Practice Promotions provides HIPAA-compliant email marketing for PT clinics. All of our systems for marketing to your patients feature necessary security measures to make sure all information stays safe and private.
Frequently Asked Questions
I’m a bad writer. How should I write an email?
Most physical therapists are not born writers and we don’t have the skills to write good emails for our marketing campaigns. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn how to do it!
It’s really important to know how to write a good email because it can make or break the success of your practice. It’s not just about what you say in your emails, but also how you say it.
Here are six simple steps to writing a good email:
1. Be clear and concise.
2. Use the subject line to make a clear statement about what the email is about.
3. Keep it short and sweet.
4. Start with a greeting that is friendly, but not too informal.
5. Include an introduction or preface that briefly states your purpose in writing the email.
6. Add a strong call-to-action statement at the end, encouraging recipients to take action on your request (aka, schedule an appointment or refer a friend!)
For a pre-written “14-Day Email Campaign To Get You More New Patients”, click here.
How regularly should I send emails? Won’t I annoy my patients if I send them too often?
As previously stated, the trick here is to know your patients. Figure out when patients are in their email inboxes. Experiment with times of day related to your patient demographic.
Older patients aren’t in their email inboxes as often throughout the day, but still rely on email as a main channel of contact.
Younger patients are more likely to have their email notifications on their phones.
This is where that segmenting tip we talked about earlier comes in handy!
You can avoid annoying your patients by segmenting email addresses into lists and sending your messages out at different times of the day.
What are the best email providers that are HIPAA compliant?
Total HIPAA states “Barracuda, Egress, Hushmail, Indentillect, LuxSci, MailHippo, Protected Trust, Rmail, and Virtru all have extensive experience working with HIPAA compliant clients.”
What do I do if people unsubscribe? Should I go cry and maybe fire my marketing coordinator?
If people unsubscribe, it just means you’re that much closer to figuring out what you need to do with your messaging in order to perfect it. Some people drink coffee when you only offer tea — and that’s okay!
We definitely don’t recommend firing your marketing team by any means. Unsubscribing is inevitable, and if you notice a lot of people are doing it, it’s time to take a look at what’s NOT working with your physical therapy email marketing campaigns.
Some questions to ask yourself if you notice high unsubscribe rates:
- Am I sending emails too often?
- Am I targeting my demographic?
- Are my subject headlines clear and concise? Do they confuse readers?
Looking at this data can help you determine ways for your email marketing efforts to pay off better in the future.
I really don’t have time for this…can Practice Promotions set up my email marketing systems for me?
We have one word for you: ABSOLUTELY!
We understand that you’re busy, but still want to invest in your marketing. Practice Promotions specializes in physical therapy marketing for clinics just like yours, all over the US and Canada. We provide HIPAA-compliant email marketing for PT clinics and take the correct security measures to make sure all information stays safe and private.
You Can’t Afford to Waste Any More Time
There’s no better way to say it: you can’t procrastinate when it comes to marketing in your physical therapy clinic. Doing so is a total waste of time and money!
You should be sending consistent messaging out to your past and prospective patients if you want to keep your therapists busy and your cash flow steady.
The sooner you begin utilizing these tips for your physical therapy email marketing campaigns, the quicker your phones will begin ringing off the hook!
If you want to begin:
- Attracting new patients
- Reactivating past patients
- Increasing the number of appointments on your schedule
- Generating referrals and 5-star reviews from satisfied patients
…you absolutely must crack down on your clinic’s email marketing campaigns.
We hope this guide offered you some valuable pointers and information so that you can level up your marketing efforts and take advantage of the benefits email marketing has to offer.
If you have questions, Practice Promotions is here to help! We assist hundreds of clinics just like yours to maximize their marketing efforts and get the highest return on investment possible.
Want to get started with email marketing NOW? Download our Simple 14-Day Email Campaign to Get More New PT Patients. It includes 6 prewritten, easy-to-use email templates that you can start using today!
