Imagine this. You’ve just moved to your physical therapy clinic’s new location. Right after the doors open, a past client – one you haven’t seen in at least two years – comes in. She’s holding the physical therapy postcard you just sent out. She wants to know more about the new services you’re offering in your new place.
At this juncture, you’re probably pretty convinced. Physical therapy postcards really do work.
The Rationale Behind Physical Therapy Postcard Marketing
Like most small business owners who make good on their plans to expand their reach by opening additional locations (or by moving into a bigger one), you’re concerned
- If you’ll be profitable
- If it’ll attract old and new patients alike
- If you can fill your schedule… If…If…If…
Here are some stats worth talking about before we move on to how to announce your move via a rehab therapy postcard marketing campaign.
According to The Business Research Company, direct mail grew by $1.67 billion dollars from 2021 to 2022. In 2021, global direct mail marketing brought in $71.57 billion. In 2022, that number rose to $73.24 billion (and the year isn’t over yet as of this writing).
Further, the response rate for direct mail marketing, including postcards, comes in at between 2.7% and 4.4%. The email response rate isn’t quite so good. It’s only about 0.6%.
As these stats point out, you’re more likely to get the kind of response that you hope for from your marketing campaign if you include direct mail marketing, like postcards. It’s the reason why so many physical therapists use postcard marketing as a part of their overall marketing strategy.
How to Use Postcards to Announce Your Move
1. Working With PT Postcard Marketing: Be Clear On Your Goal
The first step in this process doesn’t involve designing a rehab therapy postcard at all. Instead, it asks you to decide on your goals for the postcard marketing campaign.
For example, do you want:
- To encourage past and present patients to come into the NEW location for their treatments?
- To let them know that they can still get physical therapy in your old location?
- To increase the number of referrals you get from both past patients and the doctors you work with?
- To attract local gym owners as referral partners
- To announce a new suite of services that you’ll offer at your new location
Knowing the answer to this question determines not only the end result you hope to get but also the design and copy of the physical therapy postcard itself.
2. Pull A List Of Past Patients To Send Your Rehab Therapy Postcard To
Statistically speaking, you’ll make the most money by marketing to your past clientele because you’ve already sold to them before. However, if they haven’t been to your clinic in a while, then they may not know that you have plans to move.
To remedy this, pull up a list of your past patients. If your list needs to be segmented into different groups, do that now, too.
3. Design A Physical Therapy Postcard To Announce Your Move
Some specific messaging and design elements go into this kind of physical therapy postcard.
The most effective postcards usually include beautiful but simple design elements, easy-to-read fonts, and the most important takeaway or message that you want people to get from reading your postcard. All of the components of the card work together to create a strong message.
You should include:
- An attention-grabbing, happy opening headline
- A photo of the new building and/ or of you
- A map of the new location with directions that shows pins of your current location and new location
- The new address, phone number, email (if it’s different from your main one), etc. of the new clinic
- Clarification about whether both of your locations will be open, or if you’ll close your current one
- Any new goods and services you’ll be offering at your new location
- A powerful and clear call-to-action (CTA), encouraging past patients to come BACK to care
4. Print And Mail Your Physical Therapy Postcard To Past Patients
Once you finish designing your postcards, have them printed off and dropped into the mail. If your goal is to have a grand opening (and maybe even a launch party), be sure to offer a longer lead time.
Sending the postcards out far in advance allows people to save the date and more importantly, plan to attend. It’s a subtle, low-key way to get them back into your office and back onto your schedule again.
5. Other Places To Market Your Postcard: Doctors And Gyms
It’s important to note that you’re not limited to just marketing to past (and current) patients. There are other businesses, like local gyms and doctors’ offices, that also exist in your target market.
Given that this audience doesn’t know you like your past and current patients do, you may want to create a second or third postcard for each additional audience you plan on marketing to. This is a more specific way to deal with the concept of segmentation that we mentioned earlier.
What If I’m Not a Designer or Don’t Have the Time?
If you’re like many of our clients, then you probably worry about lacking the time or design skills you need to create an effective postcard design and start a postcard marketing campaign.
If that’s the case, then use our expertise. We create specialty postcards to help physical therapists market their clinics. We know that this is a big move for you and how critical it is for your success. Why not let us help you with your postcard campaign, from the written message to the visual design?
Or allow us to create a unified whole between all of your marketing properties. In addition to custom-postcard design, we can also help you:
- Create an effective PT website
- Work with some advanced SEO tactics
- Run successful Google Ad campaigns
- Reach out to your past patients
- And more!