The Complete Guide to Email Marketing for Physiotherapists

The vast majority of physical therapists — including those who eventually become practitioners — graduate from PT school without any formal marketing training. Unfortunately, by today’s business standards, you need a solid marketing strategy to stay competitive.

An often overlooked but vital component to expanding your practice is email marketing. Fortunately, email marketing for physical therapists is easier than it looks, and it offers a solid return on investment (ROI). How strong is it? According to Litmus, “For every $1 marketers spend on email marketing, they return $36.”

So, with that carrot in hand, let’s get started. We discuss some great tips for a successful PT practice, boil email marketing down to a science, combine these tips with the lessons I’ve learned growing an online physical therapy business, and blend them together to become The Complete Guide to Email Marketing for Physical Therapy Clinics.

Don’t think of email marketing, or any marketing for that matter, as a “sale.”

When you think about the “sale” you’re making, your entire approach to email marketing changes. Remember: You are a trained professional with the ability to dramatically improve the quality of life of your patients. You’re not selling; you’re giving people solutions and opportunities to improve their lives.

MSPT Brian Wilson of Catalyst Physical Therapy and Wellness is a strong proponent of this mindset. He runs a successful interdisciplinary clinic in the competitive San Diego market.

“I don’t think of marketing as ‘selling our services,’ but as helping people find what they can actually benefit from in life,” Wilson explained. Catalyst offers physical therapy, yoga, acupuncture, and massage, and there are many people who would greatly benefit from Catalyst’s convenience and collaboration. But, as Wilson points out, that’s only going to happen if they know those services exist in the first place.

be consistent.

As with any form of marketing (social media, blogging, doctor visits, or community outreach), consistency is key. We live in an age of information overload, and if your practice doesn’t consistently provide subtle reminders about your services, people will quickly forget about you.

Wilson recommends setting a fixed schedule for email sending. There are no hard and fast rules for how often you should use your email list, but it’s important to be consistent. Some practices send weekly e-blasts; others, like Catalyst, opt for lesser mailings—they send monthly emails with tons of useful content.

Make your physical therapist email list available to your audience.

One of the golden rules of any business owner or marketer is “know your audience” – a rule that certainly applies to physical therapy practices.

Any emails you create should reflect your practice’s brand, relate to your mission, and give people a good feeling about your practice’s personality. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that whoever manages your email communications truly understands the culture of your office.

Catalyst has a reputation for being fun, enthusiastic, young and relaxed – email correspondence reflects this vibe.

Segment your listing as much as possible.

Chances are, your full email list includes many readers, all with different interests. So a particular piece of content may be very valuable to some readers, but not relevant to others. That’s why savvy marketers segment their email recipients early on. Most email providers allow you to tag people who click on a specific link, and you can then capture that information and use it in the future to develop more targeted outreach.

For example, let’s say you own a PT clinic in Aspen, and you include an article about common skiing injuries in your monthly newsletter and send it to your entire list. You can tag readers who click on the article – putting them in an email database or a group called “skiing”. In the future, when you host an exclusive event on injury prevention for skiers, you could just send a series of targeted invitation emails to this group.

Some automated solutions—such as WebPT Reach, which is designed for rehabilitative therapy practices—even allow you to segment by diagnosis or patient type. Additionally, you can schedule them to be sent at different points throughout the treatment process or trigger them based on event type (for example, a progress note or hospital discharge).

Choose the right email provider for your needs.

Some email platforms are free for smaller audiences and then start charging when a user’s email list reaches a certain size. Others cost more to get started but offer extra features to help you get the most out of your email list. When looking at options, keep in mind that some providers allow more flexibility than others when it comes to design and appearance, audience segmentation, and sequencing.

A quick Google search will turn up countless email marketing platforms, but clicking on the first (or cheapest) you see is certainly not the best option to maximize your reach and engagement. To help, we’ve released a free guide to modern marketing practices that includes, you guessed it, some of the best email platforms for rehab therapy.

Use a clear call to action (CTA).

As with all marketing campaigns, there must always be a “call to action”. A CTA is just a line of text, a button, or anything else that prompts the reader to take action. For example, it could be a button that says “Book a free injury screen”; or, it could be a link to watch a video, driving potential patients to the clinic.

Wilson recommends using multiple CTAs throughout the email rather than just one at the end. Many people scan emails and it is easy to miss a CTA at first glance.

Match your CTA strategy to your end goal.

Catalyst’s newsletter is organized into unique service divisions, each of which may have its own news or articles to share. Therefore, in many cases, each section requires a separate CTA.

However, if the purpose of your email is to sell a single event, an injury screening, or a discounted product or service, you will need a CTA – but you will need to spread it throughout the email (possibly in a different format) so that People don’t miss it.

Match your CTAs to recipient types.

If you’re promoting the same campaign to different demographics, be sure to tailor your CTAs to each type of recipient. For example, let’s say you’re promoting free injury screenings. The CTA for a patient you’ve treated for one or more injuries in the past will be different than the CTA for a potential new patient whose email address you collected at your local 5K.

Wilson also points out that CTAs are only half the story: “Once someone follows the call-to-action, it’s a personalized follow-up.” For example, if someone clicks to book a free injury screening — and it takes a front-office manager three days to call and Arrange a date – you may lose interest in that person.

Learn the nuances of a good email.

Depending on your end goal, you’ll need to adjust the tone of your writing to grab the reader’s attention and take appropriate action. You don’t necessarily handle email the same way you would a blog post or research paper. Maybe you already have a talented copywriter on staff who can help craft your email message. If not, you might want to consider enlisting freelance help—or even PT-specific marketing software.

Choose your subject line carefully.

Speaking of writing, a good subject line can ensure readers actually open your email in the first place. Many of us suffer from “inbox fatigue,” where a boring or uninspired title can cause us to delete an email without even taking a cursory look. An interesting email subject line can make all the difference. Consider the difference between these two headings:

• Ski Injury Prevention Clinic
• Don’t let injuries steal your season on the slopes!

Which one will you click?

Think beyond what’s written.

Remember, your email content is not limited to the written word. Some clinics find that video resonates most with viewers. The key is to determine the type of message you want to convey, and then determine which medium (text, video, illustration, etc.) is best for conveying what you want to convey.

Ideally, all of your emails will be personalized (i.e. address individuals by name) and you will send them when potential customers are most likely to check their emails. Most email platforms allow you to track the performance of each send.

Don’t forget to maintain HIPAA compliance.

When emailing new or former patients, don’t ignore the elephant in the room: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA applies to email too, so don’t get caught sending protected health information (PHI) or “reply all” to your entire email list. To better help you understand the nuances of compliance, check out our blog post and email about HIPAA.

Set an end goal for every email – it’s not always about increasing revenue.

Depending on how often you deploy email, you might annoy people if you keep rushing them to come for treatment. Remember, half of growing a business is building real goodwill. Cultivating lasting relationships means providing value beyond the time patients spend at your facility.

If you write a blog post that you think your readers will love — and if you work with runners, think “5 Simple Ways to Prevent Common Running Injuries” — don’t be shy about sending it to your email list (at least if you’ve been tagged as a runner!). You can also share happy news—such as a new team member or extended office hours.

We all know how important a blog is to keeping your website fresh in the eyes of Google, so if you want to communicate something via email, explore the idea of ​​writing a blog post about it and have it sent to you email list.

There you have it – our guide to email marketing for physical therapists. Do you use email marketing in your practice? What tips can you share with other readers? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.