Picking a domain name is the first step to creating your online presence.  It is also what you will need to tell your patients, clients, & customers how to find you on the web.  In this video tutorial I will give you some tips on how to choose a domain name your patients,  clients & customers will remember even when telling their friends.   You can watch the video above or view the slide presentation below.

Similar Posts:

• Improve Your Online Physical Therapy Marketing By Understanding Basic Keyword Research?

For physical therapists, just as for most business owners, marketing is a necessary tool if a business is to prosper. The overall goal, of course, is to increase the number of clients / patient referrals you have and to magnify the amount of revenue coming in.

Good marketing is about being proactively aware of the mistakes you could make, then taking steps to avoid those mistakes. Below are five significant marketing mistakes physical therapists will want to avoid making if 2010 is to be a profitable year.

1. Not having a “Target Audience” – As a physical therapist, not defining your target audience is a very big mistake. You can’t possibly expect to reach everyone, so you should really research which specific types of people can benefit the most from your particular services, products, and CEU courses.

   You’ll also want to target those who need the services you specialize in, as well as those who are close enough geographically to come to wherever your physical therapy practice or facility is located.

2. Not knowing what your prospective clients / patient needs are – Once you’ve found your target audience, you’ll need to do some further research to determine what they need if they’re to live a full life, what their main concerns are, what they’re expecting from the treatment they receive, and where they usually go to receive treatment.

   Once you find out this information, you’ll have a better understanding of the types of marketing strategies you should use to make them aware that you’re the physical therapist who will best meet those needs for them.

3. Not giving your business it’s own “personality” – You need to create a certain personality, or identity for your business. In the marketing field, this is called “building your brand.” Build it up and then stick to it. You’ll want to decide on your business’s personality before putting yourself in ads or on business cards because people will start associating your “brand” with you.

   Things to consider in this “branding” process are:

   - What you specialize in
   - The equipment you have available
   - Where you’re located
   - Your history and accomplishments
   - Who your staff is and what training they have
   - Your mission and vision for your physical therapy practice

   Add a little personality to your business by thinking of what you truly enjoy doing or what treatments in particular you feel very strongly about. Put all these things together to form your business’s personality. A “This is who we are” profile, if you will.

4. Not “Getting yourself out there”- By “getting yourself out there” I mean physically getting yourself in front of people who can help bring in new business for you, but also getting your name “out there” on the internet as well.

   The internet is fast becoming the main way people find information they need – from a good ice cream shop to the best physical therapist in their area. If you don’t have a well designed website that draws people to you and lets them know you’re the physical therapist they should rely on, your business will suffer greatly. And once you’ve built your website and it’s live on the internet, there are all kinds of online marketing strategies you can use to bring in new business.

   Also, don’t be afraid or ashamed to tell everyone you know, both friends and business associates, about what you do. Use phone calls, business cards, and emails to draw attention to your practice because you never know who you might be talking to that is either sending a new client your way or becomes your client themselves.

5. Not building your social contacts – Going right along with “not getting yourself out there,” is not building your social contacts to include other professionals who might be able to send new clients your way. This could be physicians, social workers, attorneys, etc. So, try to expand your contact list to include other professionals in addtion to doctors in the areas where you do business. This will work out well because if these professionals get to know you, and see the high quality of services you offer, they’ll most likely refer their patients or potential clients to you.

These five marketing mistakes should definitely be avoided in 2010 if you want your physical therapy practice to thrive this year. If you’ve been making any of these mistakes, don’t worry as all five are easily fixed. Make a list of ways you can stop making the mistake this year and set a goal for yourself so you can feel good when that mistake is no longer hindering your marketing efforts.

If you have made any of these mistakes in the past, please comment below and tell us what were the things you did to correct them. We would love to hear your thoughts!Similar Posts:

None Found

Keyword research is very important for making your physical therapy website or blog a success online. A lot of PT’s get websites or blogs developed and do not consider how people will find their website online.  Unfortunately what ends up happening is you have a nice looking website that no one can find. So it sits abandoned in cyberspace waiting for someone to visit.

When you optimize your website or blog with keywords you have researched you make it easier for online visitors to find you through the search engines.

Let’s take a deeper look at this topic and explore it further.

What is a keyword?

A keyword is a phrase or word that readers are most likely to use when looking for a certain product or service. For example: “Atlanta pediatric physical therapy” is a keyword because it is a popular phrase that people use when they are looking for a pediatric physical therapist in Atlanta.

Keyword research is finding out words or phrases that your potential reader will use when they are searching for something on the web. These keywords or phrases are also located on website or blog content.

Keyword research is especially important if you are in a niche of physical therapy where a lot of jargon is used. People who work within an industry tend to use a lot of jargon and fill their content with that. But, people who are looking for your products or services are most likely not familiar with the industry jargon and must be using their own phrases for searching a product or service. You have to make sure your content is using keywords or phrases that will relate to the people who will be using your product or service.

For example: “Atlanta Pediatric Physical Therapy” might be the right phrase when it comes to the location and service of your pediatric physical therapy private practice but how do you know that your potential visitors are also using the same term to find you? Isn’t it more likely that parents of children needing physical therapy maybe using search terms like: “physical therapy for kids” or “physical therapy for children”? The only way to know is by doing proper keyword research for your target audience.

You are much better off doing keyword research and finding out what phrases your readers are looking for instead of guessing what they use, or even worse fill up your content with jargon. Doing keyword research helps to laser target your visitors directly to your website.

Why you should use keyword research for your website or blog?

Keyword research simply helps you speak the language of your patients, clients  and customers so you are able to connect with them better.  These people are trying to seek you out and the only way they can find you is if you have optimized your website or blog with the keywords they type into Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

When you do keyword research on “Atlanta pediatric physical therapy”, you will find that people are also looking for “physical therapy for kids” , “occupational therapy for kids”, “physical therapy for kids with developmental disabilities” and etc. So now you have more topics that your potential reader or visitor are looking for. This gives you the opportunity to create more content on your website or blog to draw them in.

If you don’t do this kind of research it is very difficult to know what you should write about and how your content should be framed in order to get potential patients to find your website. Connecting visitors to your website or blog is the biggest benefit of doing keyword research and it increases the chances of having a visitor turn into a patient, client, or customer.

There is another powerful benefit of keyword research which I almost forgot to mention. That is knowing specific search terms which are more likely to bring laser targeted visitors and have your website or blog rank high in the search engine result pages. This is usually because there is no competition for these keyword terms.

Let me explain. Knowing that people are looking for “Atlanta pediatric physical therapy” is great because it is a widely used search term and a lot of people are looking for it locally in Atlanta. But because it is a popular keyword, a lot of websites are already optimized for it and you might find it difficult to rank at the top of search engine result pages for such keywords. Instead, if you know specific keywords which don’t have a lot of competition it would be easier for you to get on the top of search engine results. Examples would be “ Atlanta Orthopedic Pediatric Physical Therapy”, “Atlanta Pediatric Physical Therapy Sports Injuries”, “Atlanta Pediatric Physical Therapy Splinting And Casting”. This is also useful because if a patient is looking for something specifically and your web page is optimized for that specific keyword term, it will satisfy that web visitor doing the search and will result in a better experience for them.

These are the top reasons for you to seriously consider keyword research as an integral part of your online physical therapy marketing campaign. Think of it as serving your potential patients, clients, or customers by speaking their language.

Hopefully this post was of benefit to you. Please leave your comments below or share this post with a colleague on FaceBook or Twiiter.Similar Posts:

• How To Select An Unforgettable Domain Name For Your Physical Therapy Business

Similar Posts:

None Found

Online blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as sports, news, music or a hobby. Most blogs online function more as personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photos, audio podcasting, videos, or all combined together.

Many physical therapists who have private practices, physical therapy products, and continuing education courses can use blogs to keep in touch with their readers or create a community of readers interested in their subject matter. If you are a physical therapist who focuses on total knee rehab you can talk about total knee surgery and treatment. If your expertise is in rotator cuff injuries you can blog about rotator cuff injuries and treatments.  By offering quality expertise in your field you gain trust among your readers and possibly a potential patient or walk-in.

Blogs are affordable compared to the cost of building a website. Most blogs are free or have a low monthly fee to maintain. The most common blog programs available are wordpress blogs or blogger. Both are easy to use and update. Blogs are also very search engine friendly so it will also assist in getting you found easier online.

Here are some things you can do with a blog:

• Post daily tips and information to your readers.
• Share your expertise and become the go to blog for useful posts about a specific topic.
• Search Engines like to spider Blogs because the content is always fresh and constantly being updated!
• There are a lot of directories catering to Blogs online. Some directories allow you to Ping them when you add new content to keep their directories updated.
• Have your visitors subscribe to your blog by leaving a subscribe button on your blog so that interested visitors can get notified when you post.
• Have your blog offer RSS feeds and Podcast feeds of your posts.
• Place links to important information from your website like the services you offer, continuing education courses that you offer, your physical therapy product information, and etc.
• The important social and interactive aspect of blogs is its ability for visitors to post comments on your post. Creating dialogue shows your reader you are a live person behind the blog.
• You do not need to be a programmer or coder to get a blog up and running. For the most part it is very user friendly and easy to start one up.
• You can customize the design and layout of most blogs to cater to the look and feel of your business brand.

If you have not noticed blogs are here to remain in cyberspace. If you are a physical therapist with a private practice, a physical therapy product or an instructor for a continuing education course, you need to start planning on getting a blog running now. Any business looking to gain traffic and create a social presence in web 2.0 should have one.Similar Posts:

None Found

Welcome fellow colleagues to  PT Marketing Unleashed. This blog is for physical therapists wanting to learn how to market their business on the internet. My name is Samuel Awosolu. I am a PT but also a web developer and internet marketer. I have gather tons of experience over the years building and marketing websites for others. Now I want to pass that knowledge on to you. The first thing I want you to do is to sign up for the PT Internet Marketing Tips newsletter at the top  right of your screen. I will send you tips, techniques, tactics, and strategies on promoting your physical therapy business online. I will also send you blog updates every time I make a post here. I am excited and happy to share with you all the online marketing strategies I have learned over the years to help you promote your physical therapy business online successfully!

Thanks for stopping by!Similar Posts:

• Welcome!