Get Physical Therapy Customers: Build Top-of-Mind Awareness

The Get Physical Therapy Customers series is designed for outpatient therapy business owners and leaders. Over the next several weeks, we will explore strategies focused on your clinic’s most prized asset – its customers.

The political campaign season never seems to end, does it? Though the next presidential election is a few years away, rallies have already begun. And congressional midterms are right around the corner, prompting debates, commercials, and public appearances.

Savvy candidates know they have to get out early. Because if there’s one thing on candidates’ minds, it is name identification. Any chance of winning the favor of the general public starts with name identification.

And for good reason.

Campaigns are, by definition, are a popularity contest. He or she with the most votes wins, and rallying together a population that aligns in favor of a single decision (read: vote) is no easy task. While substance and policy surely play an important role as voters cast their ballots months from now, the early phases of any campaign are dominated by an emphasis on name recognition — for, without awareness, the policy falls on deaf ears.

Believe it or not, it’s the same for us in the world of physical therapy marketing.

Despite the fact that you provide ‘the best’ physical therapy in your market, others do too. At least, that’s what they’ll tell your customers. Speaking on behalf of your bottom line, being the best only matters if you’re well known. It’s a popularity contest not just for our political candidates. It is for us as well.

This concept carries many titles: name identification, brand recognition, top-of-mind awareness, to name a few. But the reality is the same. You have to be popular in order to win favor with the public, and it’s important early in your campaign just as it is for those you will put into government office.

Here are a few tips that work for your candidates, and can work for you as well:

It’s a numbers game. The number of times your brand, or name, is seen matters. Known in the marketing world as ‘impressions’, the name of the game is to attract, earn, or buy eyeballs. You want as many as you can get.

Simplicity is key. When you’re working on top-of-mind awareness, you won’t get much time to explain why you’re the best. Being the best is not what it’s about with awareness. Being popular means being simple. Look to your candidates for examples of this.

Hit them from all angles. A multi-channel strategy which positions your brand through as many touchpoints as possible will beat a single-channel strategy any day of the week. You’ll find your candidates on television, radio, social media, print media and more. How many angles are you using?

Be consistent. Awareness is about recognition, and recognition requires that your market is able to recognize you, not countless versions of you. Be consistent with your look, feel, message, and naming in order to keep this element intact throughout your campaign.

Start thinking of your own campaign in this way, and you’ll quickly be able to dissect and understand those marketing efforts that work from those that don’t. Get out ahead of your competition and see those customer ‘votes’ coming to you instead.

6 Patient Engagement Strategies for Rehab Therapy Clinics

Actionable tactics your team can implement right away to stimulate patient engagement.

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