For a local Physical Therapy practice, what are some proven online/offline marketing channels & strategies to spread the word and get more clients?

I imagine that most recommendations for physical therapist comes from a Dr. I had an injury on my shoulder and he gave me a suggested PT to go to for help. That would be one place to go offline to see how you get to be a qualified supplier to an orthopedists. One creative approach to this might be to start a podcast where you interview orthopedists about the role of PT. That way, you get to meet them in person and build a connection with them. The podcast could build your personal brand nationally but the real objective is getting to meet orthopedists. It can be done by phone to make it easy for them but at least you get to connect with them directly.
For more ideas, give me a call through Clarity.
Regards, Jeff

I'm sure the inbound marketing purists might gnash their teeth at what I'm about to say, but 20+ years in the marketing field has proven to me that an integrated approach works best.

Frankly, the vast majority of physical therapy referrals come from physicians or other allied to the medical field. Others may be referred by insurance companies.

In this instance, having a strong content-driven presence online is a must-have, including a blog that talks about what you do, but offline is crucial. I'm not talking about advertising as such, although a little bit of targeted promotion would not hurt.

Networking with those who provide referrals and growing relationships with them are arguably the best methods to grow a practice. There is not much point in spending a lot of marketing resources on potentially attracting eyeballs from areas beyond your local market. Of course, that will need to be tweaked if you are in a small city or huge metropolis. However, few people will want to travel more than a few miles for physical therapy. In this case, all marketing is definitely local.

I just looked up "physical therapy" online and saw – what I expected to see – 1 local practice paying per click to rank above the others.

That (AdWords in the case of Google) can be an effective component in a broader marketing strategy. Unfortunately for the business I happened to see, they were wasting some of their money.

If you've good budget, then I'd like to recommend you go after 2 options as part of your major strategy:

#1 - Use Pay Per Click program from Google

#2 - Use Local Citations, since if you search for few search terms, then websites like yellow pages, Google maps and other similar are turned up. ***I can guide you in 5-10 minutes, with a full fledged plan on how you can achieve this YOURSELF.***

#3 - Doing organic optimization, that's a long term solution.

Just throwing it out there that I own www.simplyappointments.com

My question to you is how large is your city? Sometimes people try and promote too large when customers will no do the travelling to get to you.

Google/Facebook allow you to specify your target market, age, location, and much more.

Word of mouth in your business I think is king though. Make sure your current customers are super happy and let them know you want more customers.

And yes, being able to book appointments online is pretty damn important. for me anyways.

Hope this helps you some.
Aneil

I agree with most of what the above experts have mentioned. I would add something somewhat contrarian - instead of looking to compete - look to see where you can create a monopoly. e.g. in areas that you have specialized skills or processes that are hand to duplicate. Then brand and message to doctors and create content appropriately. Also look to network at a higher level: creating joint ventures to exploit the specialized skills.

To spread the word to get more clients I believe that you are looking for Word of Mouth Marketing Techniques which is one of the best offline marketing technique Word of mouth marketing, also called word of mouth advertising, is the social media era’s version of simple word of mouth. In today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation can have far greater impact – leading to word of mouth marketing or word of mouth advertising strategies to capitalize on the opportunity. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising. I have seen ecommerce brands blow up by developing a Facebook Group, having YouTube influencers talk about them, and by getting on podcasts. The two have inherent overlaps –– and over a good WOM marketing strategy will cause increased organic WOM. But there’s much more to word of mouth advertising and marketing than just ‘do a good job and hope for a referral. Tactics such as setting up a cool social media ad or experimenting with AI in ecommerce may sound more exciting. A positive word of mouth advertising and marketing strategy keeps customers coming back. And referring other customers. Suddenly, you have got a machine that is pumping out new customers who are all loyal to your brand. People trust friends, family more than they do ads. Word of mouth marketing means your brand is being recommended in the most trustworthy context possible. But the only way to create a genuine buzz about your brand is to have impartial people shouting about you in the media and on social networks. And a good word of mouth marketing strategy severely increases the likelihood of this happening.
If someone sees that your company is giving him a 15% discount on website purchases on a nearby billboard but a 10% discount on the Facebook page, he is likely going to be a bit turned off. Customers want an experience that they can depend on. This means offering the same promotions across multiple channels. It also means using consistent branding, including your business name, company's logo, colours, and language so that they can recognize your business regardless of the platform they happen to find you on. You would be surprised how many companies have a business name that differs from their website, or multiple variations of a logo that are inconsistent and unrecognizable across marketing channels. The easiest way to blend your online and offline marketing is to be consistent across all your platforms. Curiosity is a powerful emotion.
When you advertise on any form of offline media, the information that you can convey is limited by time and space. In cases like that, it is best to tease offline and direct consumers online. But it is possible to tease an offline campaign online as well. Tease your event online through your social media channels or an exclusive email campaign to motivate customers to attend. Tease that online so that shoppers are primed to jump into action when the opportunity presents itself. Pitch your awesome content to print publications that your audience is likely to read. Or even plan a class that consumers can attend to study that content in more depth. Spread access to your valuable content online and off, and you will build trust and recognition as an expert in your field. Personalized URLs can help you create trackable, customized interactions with your customers. They can also help to integrate your online and offline marketing efforts. A personalized URL is a unique and personalized Landing Page created especially for each recipient of your direct mail or email marketing campaign. If you are looking to integrate your online and offline marketing, reaching out via direct mail printed with PURLs for the recipients is a fantastic blend of old and new marketing techniques.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath