In home health marketing and physical therapy marketing, past patients prove to be the second-most lucrative target audience for marketing efforts. If your agency or practice has any budget at all dedicated to direct-to-consumer marketing, the first place to look for advertising opportunities is your own past patients.
Why are past patients such an important marketing constituency?
- They are more likely to need your services again in the future, compared to the general public.
- You already know they have a payor with whom you can work.
- If doctor’s orders are needed, you already know they have a doctor with whom you can work.
- They have a pattern of choosing you.
People often overlook past patients in home health and physical therapy marketing because of false assumptions:
- False assumption: “They will be loyal to me if a need arises.”
- Loyalties fade over time, but can be strengthened through excellent marketing. In home health, seniors can often remember the name of their nurse but not the name of the agency.
- False assumption: “Now they know how we can help, so they will call us if our services are needed again.”
- Doctors aren’t even fully aware of everything you can do for their patients. Patients are only aware of how you helped them in the past, and, without explicit teaching activities, they will not be aware of all the ways you may be able to help them in the future. Furthermore, it’s just a truth of human nature that people often need an explicit invitation before they will take action – even if it’s an action they want to take.
Top ways to maintain loyalties, educate, and activate past patients:
- Follow-up phone calls months after the last episode. Click here for details on customer service that increases census.
- Leave reminder items in your patient’s home. Consider refrigerator magnets, wall calendars, branded pill boxes, etc.
- Direct mail:
- Quarterly patient newsletters sent by mail. Newsletters are a top option due to thier ability to reach almost any of your past patients and their strong capacity to be an educational tool. This sounds great but can be a very difficult effort to maintain for most agencies that do not have a formal marketing department. Brazzell Marketing Agency makes it easy to conduct this effort in a way that is affordable, professional, and sustainable: Patient Newsletters.
- Holiday cards. Want a custom-designed holiday card with a logo on the front? Brazzell Marketing Agency does this, too: Company Christmas Cards and Thank You Cards.
- Wall calendars. Here’s a good selection: Logo Wall Calendars
- Email Newsletters: Due to the extremely low cost of email newsletters, all home health agencies and physical therapy practices should be doing this. Top considerations:
- Visitors to your website will submit email newsletter sign-up forms sparingly. Instead, have a practice of collecting email addresses for your patients and their caretakers. More help: Strategies for building an email list in home health and physical therapy.
- Don’t think that you should build your email list and then start your newsletter generation efforts. People are much more likely to sign up for your email newsletters if they see the nature of content you will be delivering upfront. (By the way, are you receiving BMA email newsletters? If not, please find the free subscribe form on this page – usually top right).
- Consistently coming up with content for newsletters is very difficult for most home health agencies and physical therapy practices. Brazzell Marketing Agency has a very low-cost solution for automating your email newsletter process and consistently offering fresh, practice-promoting content: Home Health Email Newsletters / Physical Therapy Email Newsletters.
- Social Media: Despite its limitations, social media is a powerful tool that should not be ignored. Brazzell Marketing Agency helps home health agencies, physical therapy practices, and home care agencies automate this effort: All Points Bulletin. Important considerations:
- With roughly 2/3 of Americans on Facebook and an aging audience in this social network, Facebook has the largest potential for home health and physical therapy.
- When a person “likes” your company Facebook page, this is the equivalent of signing up for your email newsletters.
- While people change their addresses and email addresses, they generally keep their Facebook profiles intact – making Facebook a great tool for keeping in touch with people long-term.
- Facebook works more like a newspaper than direct mail or email. Every person and company a user has “liked” on the social network has articles and posts showing up in the user’s “newsfeed.” It’s easy for your posts to get lost in the mix, but frequent content, engaging content, and a very modest promotional budget can help ensure that your audience is reached with thoroughness.