Who Said Direct Mail For Marketing Physical Therapy Is Dead?

If your marketing manager tells you that direct mail for marketing physical therapy won’t work and that you should focus most of your attention on internet strategies, you may want to read on.

Sure, internet marketing is important, but direct mail is far from dead. In fact, the National Mail Order Association projects spending in direct mail to rise 3.6% annually. Why? Many experts write about the increasing difficulty with reaching prospects online, and suggest that direct mail is still one of the most effective and efficient ways to reach your target audience. For example, we are currently running a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign for a manual therapy provider that started at $1.52 per click, and now, less than 120 days later, the average bid for the same search terms has climbed to more than $5.00 per click. We also know from our experience tracking internet and direct mail leads that a direct mail lead is 5-10 times more likely to convert.

Here are a few more reasons why direct mail continues to be an important part of any physical therapy (and healthcare) provider’s marketing mix:

1. Gaining access to prospects online is becoming increasingly difficult.
2. With the deluge of electronic information getting dumped on us every day, prospects you do reach have difficulty sorting through the pile.
3. Many of your competitors have abandoned direct mail, putting your message at the forefront.
4. New technologies like QR-Codes* are making it easier and easier for prospects to respond to your print messages with their mobile devices. Your website or landing pages are just a click away – no more typing in those long URL’s.
5. Search engine marketing has become the modern day “Yellow Pages” where people only find you if they know what service they are looking for, and then you’re at the mercy of the online advertising service to place you near the top of the list. Have you ever paid for an online advertising package and then discovered you are buried near the bottom of an endless list of local competitors?

Here is what a couple of our clients are saying:

“When we stop our direct mail we have a noticeable decline in new patients, when we start it up again the new patient flow goes back up.  We like to keep something going out every 2 weeks or we get spikes in business when the postcards go out and dead times about 2 weeks later” – Sean Strang, DPT

“I would never cut out direct mail – that is where the majority of our patient flow comes from” – M. Ulmer, PT

So, one way to supercharge your online presence, is to broaden your reach by including traditional direct mail with a technological twist in your marketing toolbox.

If you are contemplating putting all of your marketing budget into some SEO expert’s pocket maybe you should think again.

The PT Referral Machine

• List: Instead of sending to everyone, define who your ideal patient is and then send to that type of person. You can get lists based on many different criteria.
• Headlines: The headline is the “ad for the ad” – messing up here means no one will read your message.
• Offer: This does not have to be expensive. Be sure to include offers for more information as well as incentive offers.
• Testing: Before you blow your entire budget on a concept you are “sure” will work, test and track the results.
• Set goals that are appropriate: Everything depends on the average value of a patient.  Determine your break-even point based on this value.
• Postage: with postage running about 40%- 50% of your direct mail costs you should be aware of 2 key factors
  • The size and weight of your mail can have a major impact on your costs.
  • Choosing the right bulk mail program can save 50% or more.