Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Rehab with Ronnie podcast. Today I want to get into strategies that I have found to be effective when it comes to promoting my physical therapy business. If you don't know by now, I'll tell you right now, I own my own physical therapy business and it's a one woman show. It's just me. I am in a space in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I treat patients five days a week. I have been doing this solo, april 1st of 2024 will be a year.
And so I think right now is a good time to sit back and reflect and Remember, what kinds of things I've implemented over the past year that have been helpful for the business, what sort of things didn't really bring anything into fruition. And that way you guys can also sort of learn from it too if you are in a similar boat. I think it's important to start off by being so realistic with you guys. I was not. a marketer or an advertiser, nor did I think that I really had to.
And, that's more so because of my own ignorance. It's not like I thought, Oh my gosh, my business is just going to take off and there's no need for me to advertise. It was more so I didn't know where to start. And so therefore I just.
I was, I overthought it so much that I just went ahead and did nothing for a couple of weeks, a couple of months, even I really just relied on the fact that I had a pretty good reputation amongst the people that I had treated in the past and they would refer friends, family members, and that was sort of how I operated for A little bit, but if you're a physical therapist and you know what you're doing to any capacity, people will start to get better and then those people will discharge and then
you will be left sort of empty handed with an empty schedule. And that was kind of me in the beginning. I. Truly just didn't know where to begin.
And so, hopefully, by documenting sort of the things that I've done over the past few months, If you are considering opening your own business, and it doesn't even have to be a PT business, it can be anything, I think a lot of the things that I've done So one of the first things that I did once I realized that simple word of mouth wasn't going to completely cut it and replace the salary that I was earning at my full time job, I started to do in person seminars.
And so before I was in my own stand alone I had worked inside of a personal training gym. So I was in a private room inside of a personal training gym. And so therefore I had access to the clients in that gym, the personal trainers in that gym. And I spoke with the owner and I said, Hey, I would love for your members and your trainers to be aware of the things that I'm doing, the services that I offer. So basically I would set up a little workshop and I only did a few of them.
Now that I'm saying this out loud, I'm thinking I should probably do this again just to kind of revamp it. But I did a dry needling seminar. I did a low back pain seminar. I did a pelvic floor seminar back when I was a little bit more interested in that. And it was me sitting on my fold out table passing out handouts.
I think handouts are important because it gives the audience something with your name on it, something with your contact information, your brand, your logo, and also hopefully something short and sweet that is. educational to some capacity. And these workshops were really more so formatted sort of like a class in the beginning, maybe the first 10 or 15 minutes I'm just talking.
And then I open up the floor for discussion because a lot of times people come to those and they might be experiencing some type of pain or have some type of physical therapy related question. And that gives you a lot of room to showcase your skills and showcase the education that you're able to provide and talk through, well, you know, if you were my patient, this is kind of what we would do. Here's how we would start. And why don't you talk to me afterwards?
Like, let's get, let me give you my card. So it's a good way to get your foot in the door. It's also a good way to shake the fear of public speaking. In the past, I would definitely avoid talking to the public, meaning any group of more than two or three people.
I would avoid that like the plague, but I also recognized around the time that I started my business, I have to get over this because I have to go out and show my face and showcase my skills and have people realize that I'm a normal human being that can work a crowd and that can be confident amongst their peers. So it's good practice for that. These workshops were never more than 15, maybe 20 people max. And I thought it was great.
I would say everyone that I've done has resulted in at least a few initial evaluations. I think the first one I did, I asked some people to volunteer if they wanted to, to try some dry needling. And this guy volunteered, and I put one needle in his neck, maybe two. And he texted me a week later, and he said, Ronnie, I just want to let you know, I haven't had any neck pain whatsoever. So that kind of is just You know, luck of the draw.
I don't think that's super common, but the point is I was able to show what tools I have in my tool belt, things that I can use, modalities I can use to mitigate pain. And he felt that firsthand. And then later on that summer, he ended up becoming a patient of mine for back pain. So just a really cool thing to implement. I, I think.
So if you are afraid of public speaking and you have the knowledge and you're confident in things that you could say, it's time to get out there and do a workshop, do a seminar, do something in front of people to number one, get over that fear because we're all adults here. We got to get over it. Right? And number two, show people what you're all about. I think it's great.
So then Workshops were going well, but I also recognized that if I only limited myself to the characters inside of the gym that I was working in, I'd still have a pretty small pool of people who knew who I was and what I was doing. And so, from there I formatted in my brain what my ideal client would look like. Like who do I want to work with on a regular basis? I want somebody for me personally who is motivated to get better.
I don't want someone coming into physical therapy and I have to convince them to exercise and I have to basically. harass them into doing their home exercise programs. That's, I'm not interested in that. So I want somebody motivated. I want somebody between the age of 25 and 65. I want them to be athletically inclined. You do not have to be a professional athlete. You don't even have to play sports, but somebody that's interested in staying active, whether that be just.
gardening or whether that be trying to go to the CrossFit Games. I like somebody that's trying to keep their body moving or if they're trying to get back into keeping their body moving. You get where I'm going with this. I was picturing the clientele that I wanted to treat, that I thought would want to be treated by me, and then brainstorming where are these people located? Where can I find them? Where else are they going for medical care? And so I made a list.
And I still have this running list in my notes app on my phone. Different gyms that I think they go to, different chiropractors, wellness centers, holistic doctors, concierge medicine doctors, places where these people might be used to paying a premium for some type of health service that they find valuable and that they So once I have this base of people that I'm looking for, then I go out and I do my thing. No, I, I go to OfficeMax. First off, hold on. I go on Canva I get Canva Pro.
I create little flyers that have maybe a picture of my face, my phone number, website, a QR code. Oh, that's important. That's important. This is a lesson that I've learned over the months. A QR code that will take you directly to a free injury screen. Why don't I circle back to that in a second? But, okay, I have a flyer that shows, here's Ronnie, she's a physical therapist, she's cash based, she likes the athletic population, and this is where she's located.
And from there, I just Hop in my car and I zip around town and I shake hands and I meet with anybody and everybody who is willing to listen to me do my little elevator pitch. Here's a funny little aside. The first gym that I went to the first day that I decided to Start in person marketing like this. Literally door to door sales, as I guess what you could consider this to be. I had just ate a smoothie, or I guess drank a smoothie. A blueberry smoothie, okay?
And I'm mapping out where I'm gonna go, and the gym closest to me is this personal training gym. And I go and meet the owner. I think she was the owner, this beautiful blonde lady, and shaking her hand, I'm smiling at her, and I'm a little nervous, I'll be honest, but I think I mask it well. I'm like, Hey, my name is Ronnie. This is my physical therapy business. It's relatively new. I'm based inside of a personal training gym. These are common injuries that I see.
These are the services that I offer. Blah, blah, blah. You get it. I think it's going well. But, she seems to be a little distracted. And, I'm like, okay, whatever. I leave the flyers with her. We have a good little chat. I get in the car. I'm like, I think that did good. I think I say that out loud. I'm like, good job, Ronnie. I pull down the car mirror, little flip down mirror, just to double check myself, smile, huge chunk of blueberry in my teeth.
Like, not even the back teeth, like the front tooth. I was like, oh my god. She was probably so grossed out. Anyway, that's really not a, a marketing tactic that you should learn from, but, no, actually it is. Check yourself in the mirror before you hop in on that first marketing call. Uh, because Yeah, that was embarrassing. I actually ended up going back a couple months later, and she wasn't there, and I was like, Oh, thank God.
But you, you bet your bottom dollar I triple double flossed before I went. So embarrassing. Anyways, not the point, but a funny story. A good point to make that things don't always go as planned.
But I went places like Orange Theory, I went to a chiropractor's office that day, I stopped at a holistic medicine doctor that day, and pretty much any of my free time that I had that wasn't taken up by patient care or creating content for social media was spent creating the marketing materials, printing them, and distributing them. And I think that's been probably one of the most effective ways for me to get my name out there.
As cliche as it sounds, the practice definitely does help make it more perfect because those first few weeks and months that I was going out and passing out flyers, business cards, it was a little awkward. I would trip on my words, I'd be a little sweaty, I'd be nervous. I mean, it's natural to be nervous. You are walking into an establishment that is already established and then basically having to sell yourself. I mean, it's sales. And It can be a little nerve wracking.
And so, with that I would say, try to prepare yourself a little bit better than I did. Learn from my mistakes. I never practiced in front of the mirror or really even practiced what I would say. Me being me, I went in there and I was like, this will be fine. I'll just do it. And I, I mean it did work, but I think it could have gone a little bit better if I had prepped a little bit more.
I think key things that people want to know when you're doing your little elevator pitch, let's just say for the sake of this podcast, that you're a physical therapist. And obviously I know other people follow along that are different types of providers, but you're a PT. And you're going into a, let's say, a personal training gym and they're like, Yeah, you know, I know Susie down the road and Bobby Joe, he's also a PT. What do you specialize in?
And they want to know, what can I send people to you for? Because, I don't know about you guys and where you live, but in Chattanooga, it's a highly PT saturated town. There's physical therapists on every block. And so what is it that sets you apart? And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to specialize in something, but you can talk about, I work with mostly geriatrics or I see a lot of pelvic floor postpartum. I see a lot of bikers or climbers. give the people that you're.
speaking to something to remember you by in that way. If you just say, I'm a physical therapist, I treat anything. Like, just send them to me for anything. That's a blanket, bland overstatement, and they're not gonna remember that. So for me, I say, I think it's kind of lame, but I say, I'd say I treat the weekend warriors of Chattanooga. And it's true. A lot of my people are working full time jobs.
They're adults working, they have families, but they're also training for a half marathon or the iron man, or they're getting back into the gym. They're active, but they also have a lot of other things going on. And I tell people, I see mostly low back, hip and shoulder. Like those are the most common things I see. I'll see. Um, but you know, if it's foot, ankle, wrist, and hand, I see less of it, if, if they ask. I also harp on the fact that it's always a one on one session.
I finish offering the free injury screens for anybody who's interested. And that will, then we can, let's circle back now to the free injury screen thing that I was talking about on the flyers. So with Canva flyers, I have trial and errored so many times. I look back at some of my original documents that I made back in April and May of last year, and I am so embarrassed for myself. I'm like, Ronnie, that is disgusting. What is this?
But now, I have finally Perfected the product, at least for this month, you know, it changes all the time and my idea of what looks good changes all the time. But what I have found works best and what pleases my eye the best, and so, you know, that's what I feel the most comfortable passing out. He's a small, I'm not talking a business card, I'm talking a flyer, but small, 4x6. I think 4x6 is better than 5x7. 5x7 is a little bit too big. Stock card. Something very thick.
Your face on one side with a very short description. I think mine says Dr. Ronnie Glassman, physical therapist, dry needling certified. Well, I don't even know what it says. I should have it open. You know what? Let me pull it up. One second. Alright, I've got it up. So, one side is black and then it has a picture of my face. And a good picture, where you can actually see it. And then one line says Dr. Ronnie Glossman, line below. Orthopedic and sports rehab physical therapist, line below.
Trigger point dry needling certified, line below. It says guaranteed one on one sessions. Flip to the other side. It's all turquoise, teal, blue, which is like my brand color. And then in the big center, there's a QR code. And at the bottom it says free injury screen rehab with Ronnie. And that's basically it. I think at the bottom it, it also has my email and contact information and my website, but very simple, very popping to the eye.
And so the QR code that leads you straight to my schedule is something that I think is super helpful for a couple of reasons. Number one, when people see a flyer and they see the word free immediately, something in their brain is like, Ooh, Ooh, piece of candy. People love free and free injury screens are something that I offer for anybody that's local to the area that isn't sure that they. They need physical therapy or they haven't been before and they're just on the fence.
Whatever the reasoning is, that's something that I offer, a little 30 minute session, although typically, honestly, they end up being like an hour. But that's a huge piece for buy in for people. And it's not always a buy in. I mean, sometimes I do an injury screen and I go, you know, I think if you just do these few things, you'll be okay. And text me if you're not, but I don't think we need to get you back on the schedule. And then sometimes it's the opposite.
And I'm like, Hey. This could use several follow up visits to physical therapy, like let's get you on for initial evaluation, but offering that up as the first kind of foot in the door item I think is really helpful. And so learn from me when it comes to your handouts, have them be a little bit bigger than a business card because I think business cards are sort of a lost art.
I think they're cool and they have their purpose, but they often get lost in all of the noise of Office paperwork and magazines on the desk and they, someone puts it in their pocket. It's, it's just hard to keep track of. But a flyer that's too big to fit in your pocket and too nice feeling to just throw out. I mean, mine's the expensive card stock, you know, make that a business expense. Give yourself that extra little, that extra little oomph. And, and do the, the thick paper.
I think I went to Office Depot and I was like, what is the thickest one that I can have? I want it to be unbendable, but that makes it look cool. And you, you kind of want to look cool. You know what I mean? So we've covered in person workshops. In person marketing. And honestly, I think the sky is the limit in terms of places that you can go. Places that I'm planning on going in the next couple of weeks are different than the places that I've gone in the past. Oh, but let me be so clear.
One time is not enough. Have you ever worked at a job and there's the marketing people that come in and try and sell you things? For example, when I worked for My corporate PT job, there were sales reps that would come in and try to sell us TENS units and orthotics and whatever it was and those guys came back again and again and again. I knew their face, I knew their name, I knew what they did.
Now you don't necessarily have to be I'm not that adamant about it, especially if you're getting the vibe that they're not interested in whatever you're selling, but you can't go to a gym one time or you can't go to a provider or a yoga studio one time and expect them to just fall in love and be all over it and send all of their people to you. You have to be a little bit more tenacious than that. After a few months have passed.
I look at it as if these companies have never met me before and I have to go right back in and reintroduce myself. Because oftentimes that's sort of the case. They might be under new ownership. There might be new employees at the front desk and the, the one that you met two months ago never passed along your stuff and they just threw it in the trash. I mean, so many things happen once those doors close behind you and you leave.
So to think that they're just going to meet you once and have this fantastic impression Which they will they will right because you're going to make a great first impression but you have to go back again and again I still on a weekly to monthly basis am stopping into different places. Some of them are the same places though. You don't have to spread all your eggs out over across town. You can put them, you can put more of them into fewer baskets.
So if there's a gym owner that you really vibed with or, a primary care provider or an orthopedic surgeon that you just hit it off with, then take advantage of that relationship.
Well, don't take advantage of it, but nurture that relationship because they're going to appreciate the fact that you remembered them and that you are tenacious in your ability to go back in and go back in again and just remind them like, Hey, this is what I offer X, Y, Z. And if you have established a good relationship, for example, I keep going back to the gym owner, but that's because I go to a lot of gyms to market. Say you really love the person that you talked to. You love the trainers.
You could offer. a discounted rate for the trainers, or, you know, your first visit is free, or, if you refer anybody to me, your first visit is free. There's ways that you can sort of create connections if you're having a good time marketing and advertising to somebody so that it can be mutually beneficial. All right. I think I've sort of beat the dead horse in terms of in person marketing. I am a large proponent of it. I think it works wonders.
And my last little closing statement on that is it can be fun. I want to talk now about social media marketing because, and I think I've mentioned this before, but I do get the impression that people think, Oh, because you have followers on social media, you must get so many clients from there. And I would say yes and no. I think I could probably push my services a little bit harder on my Instagram page, but.
It's, uh, it's an inner war within me with that because part of me wants to just post really good informative content and, brand deals if I come upon them and not, force people onto my schedule from the internet, but part of me also thinks that, I could benefit from giving people the option and showing them them. how to book and putting more links on my stories. So I've, I've tussled with that idea. I've gone back and forth. I guess stay tuned on that. We'll see.
But overarchingly, I think social media can be a good marketing tool if used correctly. Inadvertently, people have found me from my Instagram reels and then realized that I was in Chattanooga and then booked from there. And I can say that with some confidence because just yesterday I had an initial evaluation for some guy with bilateral elbow pain. And when I asked him how he found me, he said, I was actually watching Instagram reels.
And you did a reel with your husband in this gym that I go to, and I was like, wait, she's in Chattanooga. And that's how he got to my profile, clicked on the link in my bio, found my scheduling website, and it went from there. So it can be. a really good tool, but I just can't say that I'm the best at, at pushing my services in that way.
I think over the past few months, I've tried to market a little bit more the fact that I offer virtual mentoring sessions and virtual training sessions, like programming for people. That has definitely helped, but I don't know. I do think Instagram is a good tool to showcase what it would look like to work with you.
And so that's kind of why I will do the day in my life videos or Showcase exercises that I'm doing with my patients or exercises that I often prescribe as a physical therapist, because then if there is a prospective patient and they're going through my feed, they sort of get a good outline of what it's going to look like to be a patient of mine. If you don't post anything at all, then there's a lot of question marks. You know, there's a lot of gray area. Like what, I don't know what they do.
I don't really know what they see. I don't know if I'm a good fit for them. So to that, I will say social media is helpful. Now that I'm saying this out loud, I think I should probably Promote my online schedule a little bit more. And so maybe you guys hold me to that. Let me, let me do that after this episode. I'll start posting it more. I don't know. I don't want to abuse my followers and be like, Hey guys, schedule with me. So it's a tough balance. It's a, it's a delicate walk.
I also want to talk about things that I don't think have been effective. But before I do that, I have to tell a really funny story. So there's one more form of marketing that comes to mind, like right off the top of my head. And that is billboards and this is a good story because it's sort of proven to be effective in August of last year, I got a DM from somebody, and they said, Hey Ronnie, look what I saw downtown, love your ad.
And then it was her, smiling with a thumbs up, next to a picture of my face. And the billboard said, Fix your posture. And with a QR code on it. And I was mortified. I was like, what are you talking about? I did not make these ads. I thought I'm going to have to get involved with a lawyer. Somebody is using my face on their ad without consulting me first. I was spiraling. And so I freaked out for a second and then I was like, ah, wait a second. I feel like I might know what's going on here.
So I go downtown and I'm like, let me find this thing. So I find the ad, I scan the QR code. It actually takes you to my Instagram page. And it says, I think it says like, Dr. Ronnie Glassman, physical therapist, fix your posture. And, it's kind of a humorous ad, but also it would, it was directing you to my services. So nobody was using my face without asking so my greatest fears were not true. And so I'm looking at this ad and I'm like, I know who did this.
I text my little brother, AJ, a picture of the ad. And I said, was this you? And he goes, I wouldn't know anything about that. But also I think there's 12 more. And uh, sure enough, there were, I think there's 20 or 30 something bike stations in Chattanooga. You know, the places where you go and you, you rent a bike and you unlock it and then you ride it around and you go put it back up.
Well, About half of those had my big fat face on it, and I just thought it was hilarious, but all of this to say, I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out in terms of getting any return on his investment, but there are actually several patients of mine that Either came to me from the ad or I met them in person and they said, I recognize you from this ad. can I schedule with you? So kind of funny, kind of unexpected.
I, in my mind billboards are sort of a lost art, but I definitely think it's been helpful. Now, I don't know what the cost of that is, and I'm not sure I would foot the bill myself, but I do think it's kind of a funny little side story. So things that I don't think are as effective are, number one, I would say direct email marketing. And I'm not sure if this is just because I'm biased and when I get an email marketing campaign, I immediately am X ing out or I'm unsubscribing.
I'm just not interested, but I have tried a few on my own. I mean, gathered all different emails from all sorts of providers around town, sent out special offers and, different deals, percentages off and literally zero replies and zero action coming from those. I'm sure that might not be the case for other people. I'm sure other people might be better at it or have a little bit bigger pool of people, a larger email contact list. But for me, it has not been great.
So I don't think it's completely worthless, but I think if it's going to be an email offer, it really needs to pop and it really needs to be something that they don't just automatically click out of. Instagram ads and Facebook ads. I have paid for those multiple times. I've spent some serious time crafting the video, doing the voiceover, having my husband help me stage everything. And although it was kind of fun to do, I don't think I got a single patient from those.
So I don't know, maybe again. I'm not knocking it. I'm just saying in my personal experience, it has not been very helpful at all. In terms of things that don't work, I feel like those are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head. But as I'm thinking, I'm also remembering two more things that have been helpful that you can just sort of add to your arsenal of advertising tricks. So first off, definitely, I can't believe I forgot to mention this, Google reviews.
So first you have to be a legitimate Google Maps location and that's a pretty short and easy process. It's pretty straightforward, but then getting people to write reviews when They've had a good experience, so typically I wait until their last visit or around their last visit and I say, Hey, I'd really appreciate it if you would write a Google review. I typically do this over text because if I say in person to do it, they're gonna go, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do that, and then they never do.
So I wait until a few days later. I go, Hey, it's Ronnie. Hope you're doing well. Like, how's your shoulder doing? How's it holding up? Then I send my Google location, so they already have the link, they don't have to go searching for it. And I say, it would mean a lot if you could write a Google review about your experience. And also, while I have them, I'm like, also, if there's anybody that you can think of that would benefit from my services, I would love to see them.
And you know, it was great working with you and I would, I love treating people like you. So you are strengthening that patient.
Therapist connection and at the same time they're going to go and they're going to write you a rave review and it's not just a review what I've come to learn, which sort of surprised me is people will just get on Google maps and search physical therapy near me or cash based PT near me and from there my website pops up and my Google reviews pop up and there's enough of them that I look legitimate but I don't look like I I paid somebody to automate 500 nice Google reviews, you know, it's they're
all true reviews. And I've had multiple patients of mine who just sort of pop up on the schedule. You know, I just get an email one day, so and so is on for an eval on Friday. And when I asked them how they found me, they say, Oh, I saw your Google reviews, or I saw you on Google Maps. So that's huge. And I think Apple Maps is helpful too, but for some reason, Google Maps and Google Reviews just takes the cake. All right, last one, tabling.
And that means setting up a table and being at an event. And I can only speak on this just briefly because I've only done it briefly, but it did gain me some good experience. So a few months ago. I became, I guess, a marketing partner with Crunch, which is a big gym. It's a big chain. And doing that allows you access to sort of their lobby during days that they're having partnership days.
And so I would set up a table, set up my flag, my laptop, be in my Rehab with Ronnie gear, and anybody and everybody that would walk by. I had my husband with me because he's way more outgoing. He'd be like, hey, you need physical therapy? But we would talk to them, and so many people will not take you up on it, but if you're there for, I don't know, two hours, three hours, and you get one eval, I would say that's worth it. And that works for me.
I would say out of all of the things that I've mentioned, it's probably the most time consuming and potentially the least rewarding. But still worth a shot. And I also think it depends on the event that you're tabling out. I mean, this is a big chain gym where people are just trying to go in and get their workout in and leave. like say, maybe there's a, there's a run club and everybody is running and you want to set up a little table before that.
Or I'm trying to think of what other fitness things happen. Or even, uh, I've done this at CrossFit competitions, so I totally forgot about that. But at CrossFit competitions, I would set up a table and bring my massage gun and do little injury screens and talk to people. And I got several patients from that. It takes confidence because you have to be pretty much on the entire time, but people are going to remember you from that for sure.
Especially if you can give them a little bit of value, you know, say you, you give them 10 minutes of your time and you massage gun their quad and tape their knee or whatever you need to do. That's going to be pretty helpful. I think this pretty much sums up advertising for my one woman show business, doing marketing, doing PR, going face to face, getting my name out there. Overarchingly, I think the point should be.
That you have to continue just because you did it once two months ago and you didn't get anything from it doesn't mean that it doesn't work. It just means that you're not doing it enough. And that's, I say that from experience. So stay positive with it. Stay patient.
Know that every interaction you have and connection you make, as long as it's a genuine one that you feel was mutually positive, I think those things will sort of accumulate over time and snowball into a much bigger, more beautiful thing, you know? And I guess in closing I will say, and I mentioned this a little bit in the beginning, word of mouth is really powerful. And although you can't just go off of that, like I tried to in the beginning of my business venture, it is so, so powerful.
And if you have patients that you know are well connected or have big families or big friend groups that Are all in need of some type of physical therapy, hone in on that and say, look, I've loved working with you. If you send anybody my way, your next visit is on me or, your next three visits, maybe you don't need them right now, but if you ever need to come back in, it's on the house.
So. Forging those relationships and then making a good impression so that they go home and they tell their husbands or their wives or their friends or their run club members or I don't know, you get the point. I think word of mouth is, could be the most powerful tool, but it takes time to build. So in the meantime, implement the things that I've talked about over the past 30 minutes and, uh, good luck.