5 Tips to Optimize Your Private Practice’s Press Releases

In today’s private practice world, we are often tasked with the need to stretch the marketing dollar further. But sometimes this can make it difficult for us to show our physical therapy patients who we really are and what we do.

For physical therapy practices to which this holds true, we can soon find that that there is no closer friend than the media and no greater tool than the press release. To begin with, press releases are affordable, easy to send, and can be efficiently rolled out on a regular basis. Taking the time to employ a press release plan whereby it’s sent out on a monthly or regular basis can be a great way to produce content that is worthy of press attention.

Follow these five, simple tips for ideas on how to roll out your monthly press release strategy:

1. Create a Media Calendar

For the next 12-month period, consider putting together a list of newsworthy items you can share with the media in your community. You can include in your calendar the following items: expansion plans, new employees, new service offerings, marketing campaigns, seasonal tips for avoiding injury, and more.

2. Simplify the Editor’s Job

Think about writing your press release yourself. Then you can sprinkle in some quotes from your or your staff members and include some specifics about your announcement. This will allow the the writer or editor who makes the decision about newsworthiness to have the essential criteria met without too much extra work – a must for gaining the attention of a busy editorial staff.

3. Cultivate and Maintain Media Relationships

The press is no different from any other important relationship needed to grow your practice.  The better relationship you have with the media, the easier it is to develop the trust and rapport necessary to access a press audience.  Networking with media contacts should parallel your efforts to network with professional referral sources and community leaders.

4. Demonstrate Value to Your Audience

It’s important to keep in the mind that in order to reach the consumer audience through a press channel, we need demonstrate value to readership (or viewership, listenership). Taking too aggressive a stance on self-promotion is a sure-fire way to push back an important audience.

5. Get Mileage When You’re Successful

More often than not, private practice owners leave opportunity on the table once published, by assuming their work is finished when they see their name in print.  Getting press mentions is a big deal in a local market. But that’s not all. Leveraging this into additional mileage by posting in your clinic, sharing on social media, and sending announcements to referral sources and patients is an opportunity ripe for the taking.

How Patient Engagement Drives Your Rehab Therapy Business

Highly engaged patients are at the heart of successful rehab facilities

Download the ebook