If you’re like a lot of PTs, you’re wondering: how can I get more referrals from doctors?
These days, every single PT practice needs to be marketing direct-to-consumer. But boosting doctor referrals is also a great way to boost your monthly patient volume.
A simple, effective way to increase physician referrals to physical therapy is through direct mail marketing – sending postcards, letters, and newsletters that the doctor can’t ignore.
“But isn’t direct mail dead?”
No! Direct mail marketing isn’t dead.
- 90% of direct mail gets seen by the recipient.
- Only 30% of emails are read because people, especially doctors, get inundated with email marketing.
- Direct mail marketing campaigns to physicians help you get around that.
So let’s get started! In this post, we look at five tips to help you implement physiotherapy direct mail marketing strategies in your PT practice.
1. Assemble Your Mailing List of Doctors
Your physiotherapy direct mail marketing is only as good as your list of recipients! This is particularly true if you have an email list of clients you’ve served in the past. If a client has already spent money on your services once, statistics show that that client will be inclined to spend money on your services again.
According to Business.com, the customers that you already have will, on average, spend nearly 70% more on your services compared to new customers. It also costs up to 10 times more to acquire a new customer rather than keep the one you have.
That said, if you don’t have a list of doctors that you work with already, then you’ll want to assemble a list of names of doctors in your area. You may want to work with a company like DataAxle that creates mailing lists.
Tip: Don’t want to assemble and clean your own list? When you work with Practice Promotions for your print marketing campaigns, your designated Print Marketing Specialist makes it easy to buy and clean lists of doctors!
Buying a mailing list saves you time because physical therapy physician marketing is a highly targeted niche. You may not have time to do the necessary research yourself to create a list of qualified leads.
Additionally, given that you’re interested in creating a physical therapy doctor marketing campaign that’s specifically geared toward direct mail, it’s essential that you get the complete contact information for the physicians on the list. This includes….
- Name
- Physical address or PO box
- Phone number, etc.
You should get an email for the physicians because you may want to also include them in later email marketing campaigns (like email newsletter campaigns). However, for the purposes of your current direct mail campaign, having the physicians’ email addresses is less critical than having their street addresses.
One final note before we move on if you’ve never dealt with a list-building company like DataAxle before and require some guidance, reach out to us.
Over the years, we’ve developed the expertise required to compile the right list for your firm. It’ll be highly targeted, which increases the odds of success for your direct mail marketing campaign.
2. Don’t Assume Doctors Know the Benefits of PT
You know it, I know: doctors often have NO IDEA how physical therapy can help their patients! But it’s not because they woke up that day and decided to be a villain. There are lots of reasons why doctors don’t immediately turn to PT.
In the long history of medicine, physical therapy represents a fairly new field of endeavor. It wasn’t until the early 1900s and the polio epidemic that physical therapy really came into being. Then, as now, physical therapists concerned themselves with restoring mobility and function in polio patients. They also worked with pain management and relief.
We say all of this to remind PTs that physical therapy is a separate treatment option for patients who experience limited mobility and pain. While well-meaning physicians can and do treat these conditions from time to time, this may not be their area of expertise.
But because some physicians may occasionally treat these issues, it may make them blind to the fact that there may be a better way to help their patients: physical therapy.
We say this to remind you that as a physical therapist, you may need to educate the doctors you’d like to work with about the benefits of physical therapy. You can accomplish this effectively and subtly through your physiotherapy direct mail marketing campaign. Instead of thinking of physicians as the enemy, we recommend thinking of them like a patient: someone who may have some fears and misconceptions about physical therapy, but who will ultimately be helped once they are educated about the benefits of physical therapy
For example, most doctors have less experience realigning a shoulder that gets out of whack than a physical therapist does. Sending the doctors on your list a newsletter that includes a step-by-step diagram of a shoulder realignment procedure is a subtle way to let doctors know about your skillset.
It’s also something that the doctor may keep as a reference, which also keeps your name and contact information in front of them when they need a PT.
3. Hook Their Attention With a Fun Print Design
The evidence is conclusive. Messages that contain visuals not only stick in the brain for longer but also connect with a person’s emotions in the process. According to ShiftLearning.com, the brain processes emotions in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. Visual images are also processed in the same region of the brain.
Due to how the brain is constructed, it’s easy to bind visual images and emotions. What’s more, the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it processes text.
Additionally, text-based messages go to the short-term memory, where they’re quickly lost. Images are remembered because they go to the long-term memory, where they stay.
Some studies suggest that people remember about 10% to 20% of what they read and hear three days after being exposed to the message. However, after three days have passed, they remember 65% of what they see.
After three days, people remember 65% of the message they’ve seen.
All of this is to say that using a well-designed piece of printed mail like a newsletter in your physical therapy direct mail marketing campaign cuts through the clutter faster than any text-based email you could send, so be sure to include fun and engaging designs on all of your physical therapy direct mail marketing pieces.
4. Provide a Clear Offer & Call to Action
Physicians have always been busy. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical healthcare workers have seen a 50% jump in the number of hours they work, according to HealthAffairs.org. If doctors already didn’t have much time before the pandemic to look at your physical therapy direct mail marketing pieces, they have even less time now.
The solution to this issue is simple. Get straight to the point in your physiotherapy doctor marketing materials.
For example, if you’ve embarked on a postcard or newsletter campaign, then make sure that the graphic on the front page of the newsletter gets straight to the point — that you’re taking new client referrals.
Doctors know if their patients need physical therapy or not. However, they may not have time to go looking for a new physical therapist to refer their patients to, even if they need to do so.
In light of that, when you’re creating your physical therapy physician marketing campaigns, tell them upfront on the first page of your marketing collateral that you’re available.
Additionally, once you have extended the invitation to them, you want to create a strong call-to-action (CTA) to get them to act right away. Because they’re busy, they may put your marketing materials aside so that they can address them at a later time when they’re less busy.
They’ll probably never be less busy than they are today, so make sure that your CTA is strong enough to get them to act now. Give them a great and compelling reason to act now. For example, let’s say you’ve sent a beautiful physiotherapy doctor marketing piece to doctors that explains how PT is better suited for pain management and mobility.
In this case, your CTA might have something to do with freeing up the doctors’ time by asking them to send those types of patients to you. This type of CTA helps them because it addresses their lack of time and it helps them better help their patients.
5. Be consistent
As with most things in life, good things come to those who are consistent. Your physiotherapy direct mail marketing campaigns can’t rest on one postcard, newsletter, or brochure.
To get consistent results, you must commit to sending out your marketing materials at least once a month.
There is a “rule” in marketing that says that a prospect needs to see your ad at least seven times before he/ she even responds.
Physical therapists who send out regular newsletters and other direct mail first see a trickle of clients, and then, a steady stream of them. Some physical therapists have also reported that they see their numbers drop significantly when they stop sending direct mail.
Your physical therapy doctor marketing campaign also offers you the opportunity to show how strong your brand is.
Think of it this way. By sending regular direct mail pieces to the physicians on your list, you’re sending a message to the doctors you want to work with. It isn’t just your direct mail postcards and newsletters that are consistent. You are, too.
6. Experiment With Types Of Direct Mail
A/B testing represents a common practice in marketing circles. According to the Harvard Business Review, it’s a practice where two versions of an advertising message are tested against each other to see which version has better ROI (return on investment).
Here’s an example of how it could work. In your physical therapy direct mail marketing campaigns, you send out a newsletter filled with photos and graphics, as well as text.
It has a specific message. Let’s go back to the shoulder adjustment example earlier. In this newsletter, you provide step-by-step instructions, with visuals to one set of names on your list.
In the second set of names on your list, you send a written letter, with basically the same content but no pictures or graphics. You’ll then send a postcard with basically the same information but abbreviated to the third segment on your list.
The goal is to see which piece of direct mail gets the most responses. Whichever does, can be a control for later marketing campaigns.
It’s also important to remember that it’s always good to shake up your marketing efforts in general. Even if you don’t A/B test your list, it’s to your benefit to try sending out different media to prevent advertising fatigue and to see which types of physical therapy doctor marketing pieces work best for your niche audience.
For example, in today’s marketing environment, it’s sometimes better to send out a quick postcard than to send out a longer piece. In general, people are really busy these days, doctors and other medical professionals even more so.
Don’t be fooled into thinking they can’t be as effective as a longer newsletter or brochure. Remember what we said about the power of great visuals. Your potential clients will remember both the beauty of your design and the fact that you were considerate of their time.
7. Offer an Intro Special
There’s a certain trust factor that needs to come with patient care. What this means is that a doctor may well need to refer patients to a new PT, but that doctor may not yet know you. Therefore, he/ she may feel hesitant to send patients to a PT he/ she hasn’t worked with yet.
However, your secondary services, like meditation or vegan cooking classes, massage therapy, or reiki, may give you a backdoor that can help you build a relationship with that physician. This allows you to build trust with the physician logically and easily. Once this relationship is established, you can talk more with the physician about referring your PT services, too.
Here’s how. Create a postcard campaign offering a certain percentage off the services for a limited time, like 10% or 15% off your subscription services for the first month. Put a QR code on the postcard to track the campaign to see how many responses you get.
8. Try Piggyback Marketing
Once you build a relationship with a few doctors in your area, you’re then in the position to suggest a piggyback marketing campaign to them. While it’s understandable that you want your advertising efforts to focus on benefiting you, it’s human nature for the recipient of those efforts — physicians, in this case — to also want the same thing. That is, “What’s in it for me?” comes into play.
Instead of ignoring this in your marketing strategies, go with the flow of it. The easiest way to do this is to offer to do a piggyback marketing campaign with a doctor you’d like to get to know better.
Basically, what you’re going to do here is share advertising costs with the doctor in question by sharing your mailing lists. You’ll come up with a special that you can both send to both of your mailing lists.
For example, let’s say that the doctor you’re working with offers yearly medical checkups to patients who have recovered from cancer surgery. You offer physical therapy services and nutrition advice to the same demographic.
Once you decide on the direct mail marketing campaign, have postcards printed that feature both the doctor’s contact information and your contact information. Both you and the physician will then send the postcards out to your respective mailing lists to drum up new business.
Because you’re offering complementary services to the doctor’s services, you’re not competing. You’re helping each other out and expanding your mailing lists in the process.
More importantly, you’re supporting the doctor’s business and creating goodwill in the process. A good print marketing campaign may just be the thing that keeps both of you in business during challenging times.
Bonus Tip for Choosing Images for Your Direct Mail Marketing to Doctors
When you’re choosing graphics for your physical therapy direct mail marketing campaign, keep this in mind: If the right graphics enhance your overall message, the wrong graphics can be absolutely detrimental to it. In short, they can have the opposite effect of what you want.
Instead of subconsciously absorbing your marketing message, your prospective clients will spend their time trying to figure out what the picture or graphic means in relation to the text. While all of this happens at the subconscious level, the negative effects of the wrong images definitely happen at the concrete, tangible level. Instead of improving the comprehensiveness of your message, they encourage the reader to tune out because it doesn’t make sense.
Generally speaking, the images you use in your physical therapy doctor marketing materials should:
- Clarify abstract or complex PT concepts
- Show real people, objects, or places
- Provide a connection between what the client already knows about PT and what he/ she can learn from you
If you need help creating the right kind of graphics, reach out to us. One of our expert graphic designers can create personalized industry-standard graphics that make your marketing materials stand out.
Overcoming Your Challenges in PT Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns
At this juncture, you may be wondering how you can implement these direct mail marketing strategies, particularly if you don’t feel like graphic design or copywriting is your forte.
Honestly, it’s okay if they aren’t. You became a physical therapist because you love physical therapy. You want to be known as an expert in the field.
Here’s the good news about that. You don’t have to be an expert in design and copywriting. You can hire those tasks out to people who are experts in those areas. That is, they specialize in physical therapy marketing.
That’s where we can help. You’re the expert in physical therapy. We’re the experts in physical therapy marketing. Our team of graphic designers and specialized copywriters can turn your best physical therapy marketing ideas into stunning brochures, postcards, and other direct mail pieces.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you promote your PT businesses to the doctors in your area. We specialize in creating designs and promotions that specifically target physical therapy professionals.
