Are you ignoring a potentially AMAZING way to bring past patients back in the clinic?
Postcards are a proven, effective way to get past patients back in for treatment– or even to encourage them to refer a friend or family member!
As many as 98% of people who receive postcards read them. Postcards naturally grab attention because their entire message is out in the open- there’s no need to open an envelope to see it. Postcards get a high response rate- about 3%. For every thousand physical therapy postcards you send out, you can expect about 30 good leads. This is one of the highest rates for advertising!
What Will Make My Postcard Campaigns Attract More New Patients?
Physiotherapy postcards are made to grab the potential customer’s attention in one compact space. The standard size of a postcard is 4″ by 6″. This size allows the postcards to qualify for First-Class mail, keeping your postcards cost-effective. It may not seem like much room for marketing your practice, but it’s plenty of room for a lot of great marketing messages. And since it’s so easy to read postcards, and they get so many readers, you will know that your message is getting out there to fresh eyes.
Having a big, eye-catching headline that attracts interested parties is one of the keys to a great postcard. It should also have plenty of information about your practice and how you can help them. Images that capture attention are also helpful for grabbing eyes and getting your message out there.
Who Should I Send Postcards To?
The best audience for your physical therapy postcards is your past patients. There are many occasions that can spur a new postcard campaign that works. Your past patients are people who already know about your practice and have already gotten some help for their problems from your practice. Who better to send a marketing message to? They are the perfect audience for what you have to offer. Remind them about your practice with your eye-catching, easy-to-read postcards.
7 Types of Postcard Campaigns Every Practice Owner Should Send
1. New Year’s Postcards
People want to start over when the new year comes around. Going to the gym, anyone? The buzz around New Year’s generally includes new plans for health and wellness. That makes it the perfect time to send out physical therapy postcards. People are concentrating on their health, and part of that may be getting the physical therapy they need. If patients have been putting it off, or they need pre-rehabilitation before surgery, they’re likely to be open to getting the therapy that’s needed. It may just take a postcard to remind them how they can help their health in the new year.
2. End-of-the-Year Deductible Postcards
The new year is a great time for postcards, but so is the end of the year! For financial reasons, it often makes sense for patients to get their physical therapy at that time of year. By this time of year, most people have met their insurance deductibles, so it’s the perfect time to use their benefits before deductibles reset. For people who have health savings accounts, it’s also a good idea to use them before the year ends. And with just the right postcard reminders, you may find that more patients are happy to call and come in.
3. Holiday Postcards
The holidays are a great time to market your practice. It’s a time when people are in a good mood, and there are so many opportunities to give your practice a festive face. Many practices like to include an employee holiday photo to personalize your practice. A holiday photo always grabs the eyes, and it will go perfectly with the season. It’s a good idea to mail these postcards at the beginning of December so that people get them before they have their holiday plans. These postcards also remind people that they should be healthier for the holidays so that they can enjoy them more.
It’s also a great time to get in on community events. There may be groups like the local chamber of commerce, country clubs, Junior League, etc., that will have holiday events and/or give out gift bags. Getting your postcards into those events can be a great way to spread the word about your practice. The holidays are the perfect time for networking, so always have some holiday postcards to help you do so.
4. Free Evaluations
What better to grab patient attention than a free offer? Everyone loves something for free, and if it may be good for their health, that’s a double win. Many practices send out physical therapy postcards to advertise a free screening. You can even do this twice a year to keep people coming in the door. For past patients, there may be an ongoing need for physical therapy. With the free screening, you can find out whether you can help a past patient to feel and function better. It may sound like an expensive way to get repeat customers, but these are only 15-minute consultations rather than a full-hour appointment. In fact, you can take a day or two and fill them with nothing but these appointments to get them all done efficiently. This can end up bringing you a ton of returning patients if just a quarter of those evaluations convert into patients. Those 15-minute evaluations can build trust, and that builds loyalty.
5. Rehab and Training in the Summer
Summertime brings a lot of sports and other physical activity, and that can mean that physical therapy is especially needed during this season. When you send out postcards to market to athletes in the summer, you will be reaching out at just the right time. You might offer sports rehab or training and prevention, depending on the specialty of your practice. Whichever you offer, summer and athletes go together perfectly. There aren’t as many teams playing in the summer, so the schedules of athletes will be lighter during that time. However, they will want to stay in shape and take care of any problems they have. Many parents of student-athletes will be interested in giving their child an edge over the other players. A great way to market to them is to mail a postcard to those on your patient list who are in their 30-50s, the right age to be parents of students.
With these postcards, you aren’t selling exercise or training, as there is too much competition for those at a lower price point. Instead, you’re offering your unique method of restoring movement or recovering from surgery. Use the postcard to market your specific services and the benefits of them. Then, give the services a specific timeframe! This makes those services sound even more valuable.
6. Market a Workshop and Bring a Guest
Another way to bring in past patients is to hold a workshop and encourage them to bring a guest along with them. It may be a good idea to hold a number of workshops during different times of the year to keep people coming in and to keep your marketing message getting to them. The workshops can be focused on your specialty treatments or on a common topic that is of interest to your clientele. When you connect about a specific condition, you’ve got a great way to generate leads. It’s also a fun idea to have a contest for everyone who brings a guest with them.
7. Postcards for Cash-Based Services
If you have cash-based services available at your practice, postcards are an ideal way to both tell patients about them and to remind them that they’re available. There are a number of non-insurance-based services that are often offered by physical therapy practices, and postcards can help you to bring people in to get them. Selling packages for these services is a smart way to interest a wide range of past patients.
8. Bonus – Physician Referral Postcards
These are postcards that work to boost your physician referrals. These can work very well by getting you on the radar of local physicians. By touting your services and their benefits, physicians will know where to refer their patients.
How Do I Create Successful Therapy Postcards?
Successful physical therapy postcards grab attention right away. A great palette of colors, bright images, and masterful marketing copy can get you the patients you’re looking for. Because of the small size of postcards, the copy should be concise and yet deliver a lot of information. Every word counts on a postcard! Have a great headline that imparts information as well as catches the eye. A headline about a problem that patients are having, such as back pain, will attract the attention of those who have it.
What If I’m Not a Writer or Designer or Don’t Have the Time?
If you don’t think you have the skills needed to create a great postcard, or you can’t spare the time to create them, we have postcards that you can use to reach your past patients. They’ve got all the color and design you’re looking for in a compact space that really gets people looking.
View our postcard gallery and get a custom quote at PTMarketingStore.com. We’ll use your logo, branding, and colors on the postcards!
Key to Remember
It’s important to remember how many people will read postcards they receive and how polished those postcards should be. Postcards should be geared toward not only grabbing the readers’ attention but toward getting them to call and to come in. They can be a great addition to your overall marketing strategy.
Ready to get started? Convinced that postcards can bring past patients in for treatment?
Kickstart your custom postcard campaign at PTMarketingStore.com.