How To Use Facebook To Get More “Self Referrals” At Your PT Clinic – Even If No One “Likes” You

by · 21st February 2015

Rate this post

Facebook remains one of the best ways to generate more self-referrals at your pt clinic.

But it’s not always as simple as posting a few status updates about what you or you clinic is up too – despite what you might have been told by “social media experts” out there.

So let’s look at a slightly different strategy to boost self referrals from Facebook.

One that I’m currently using at my own clinic so I can say for sure that it does work at delivering more self-referrals:

Essentially you’re going to pay for adverts to be placed right in the news feed of a specific target market.

Here’s how this one works:

Basically, you set up an advertising account on Facebook and choose a custom or target audience.

It could be people aged 50+, of a certain income level, say $50’000 +, who live within 10 miles of your clinic.

That will produce a list of about a few thousand people at least (depending upon where you live) and if you wanted to make that list even more targeted, you can select to only serve your ads to people who like to be “active”, and who have children or grandchildren.

Why?

Well, it’s been my experience that one of the biggest reasons for people to come and see me is NOT their back or knee pain.

No.

It’s what their back or knee pain STOPS them for doing.

And if it’s from being socially active with friends or from playing with grandchildren, then they’re much more likely to want to come and see me (and not feel as though they “have” to – a.k.a a “grudge purchase” with lots of resistance to care plans).

And why would I target people aged 50+?

Because those people are MUCH more likely to care enough about their health to spend money on it and value the freedom that better health brings – than those younger.

So my ads from Facebook are going to people I don’t even know.

People who haven’t “liked” me and most probably don’t even know who I am!

But it doesn’t matter.

Because with the style of ads that I run, I’m not trying to convince anyone to come and see me – not yet, anyways!

See, Facebook “advertising” lends its self to running adverts that offer free tips and advice reports – like a pdf or an ebook that they can instantly download.

A bit like this one I currently run to begin a relationship with people suffering with neck pain:

Pt marketing ideas

So what happens is when that person sees this ad (which is served in their newsfeed), they click it, get taken to another webpage where they are then asked to enter their contact details in order for me to send the pdf to them.

I request their email address and I also insist on telephone number too.

And they’re nearly always happy to give it as the free tips report is of perceived value to them!

And when they give it to me (after clicking on my ad which they saw in their newsfeed), I send the pdf to them via an automated email.

This is a style of marketing known as “Lead Generation”.

Click Here To Get Regular Tips To Boost Self-Referrals Sent To You >>>

(And is pretty much how grew my clinic from one… to a chain of 4, in just a few short years).

See, I’m AWLAYS happy to give away free advice in exchange for contact details – because once I have their contact details, my FOLLOW UP SYSTEM can get to work automatically and explain all about how I can help ease their back pain *more quickly* (than going it alone with my tips report) and how easy it to self-refer to my clinic.

I send emails, follow up on the phone and even send direct mail if I can get their address – which we ask for the very first time we call them (usually about 24 hours after they opt in for the freebie pdf) and all we do is just start by answering any questions and over coming objections, until they say “yes” and decide to become a paying patient.

This strategy works like crazy and can be replicated across any advertising media – like newspapers, magazines or even google ad words too!

More:

And what often happens as a result of getting these types of ads served into peoples newsfeed on Facebook is that people begin to “comment” and share the ad, or like it.

And sometimes, other people who do know you who see the ad, they begin to comment beneath it and say how good you are, or how positive the experiences are that they’ve had with you.

(A community of people talking about you is therefore created as a happy by product).

So as an added bonus to the lead generation that is happening and is my goal, I also get calls from people who saw the add, noticed the nice comments from other people, hopped on over to my website and decided to give us a call.

So we get self referrals even from people who don’t follow out intended path – which is to first take the tips pdf.

The “lead generation” strategy requires a follow up system and if you have one, will often deliver a self referred patient not long after they request the pdf.

The people who you’re targeting have a problem you can solve — they’ve told you that by requesting the report – now send them some more information via email or in the post to show how pt can help them get there faster.

To recap, here’s the 5 steps you need to make this work:

1.) Choose a custom audience inside Facebook

2.) Show adverts to that group that promise to solve a problem i.e. a free back pain tips report (not advertising you or your clinic)

3.) Have a webpage ready to collect contact details

4.) Send the free report via automated email

5.) Follow up with your new lead 24 hours later (and then again at regular intervals their after until they say “yes”).

Hope this helps.

Click Here To Get Regular Tips To Boost Self-Referrals Sent To You >>>

Paul Gough
Author, Clinic Owner, And Founder at PT Profit Academy

P.S If you want an idea of numbers and how much to spend…

I allocate the equivalent of just $500 per month for each “Pocket of People” I want to reach.

(A pocket of people being people with a specific injury – such as knee pain, back pain, shoulder pain etc etc).

And my return on investment, can, at certain times of the year reach as high as 6 : 1.

So for every $1 dollar I spend, I recoup about $6 back.

Lets break it down:

If your average patient value is $1000 (initially), then lets say 100 people each month request your free pdf guide (which could easily happen with a $500 budget), even if just 3% of those people said “yes” to pt, you’d show a net profit of $2500 upfront.

(3 patients x $1000 value = $3000 – $500 ad spend on Facebook = $2500)

That’s a 600% return on investment just by opting for a lead generation strategy that begins a relationship by offering to help people FIRST.

And then telling them more about you and pt, later.

And who knows what that figure might rise too in the long run…

Because if those 3 patients refer friends, tell people about you, come back to see you, or buy other products and services from you in the future, then you’re going to make even more by running these types of ads and adopting this type of strategy.

Click Here To Get Regular Tips To Boost Self-Referrals Sent To You >>>

About Paul Gough

PAUL GOUGH is one of the top Marketing and Business Coaches in the physical therapy industry and his Systems are helping clinic owners all across America run more profitable clinics. He is a published Author, Newspaper Columnist and before his stunning success in business was hired by top professional soccer teams. HIS SUCCESS STORY is one that inspires many pt's around the world - at the age of 26 Paul QUIT a high profile job in professional soccer to begin his own clinic. He had NO money, NO business or marketing skills and NO experience - and yet now owns and runs 4 pt clinics and has a proven track record of growing a physical therapy business from 0 - $2m in record time.
Want more referrals from direct access at your physical therapy clinic? Download PDF now