Do you know what content marketing is? Maybe you do, but, according to our survey results, the chances are you aren’t doing it. You should, though, because this is the side of marketing that lets you do what you do best: share your knowledge and enthusiasm of a subject you love, which will build trust with your audience who, in turn, will be more likely to become your clients when they decide that they need help from a physiotherapist. This article will show you the many different faces of content marketing and how it can be done quickly and easily.
If you’re not using ‘content’ as part of your marketing efforts yet, this article will explain why you should be, and more importantly how you can do this.
Along with search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing is the most predominant marketing strategy in the world. Every major business is using it, and it’s not new (Video. 1) (1). The first example of a brand using content to educate its customers was in 1895 when John Deere, the agriculture equipment manufacturer, launched its customer magazine The Furrow. Since then, it has just grown more and more popular.
Video 1: Content Marketing Isn’t New Courtesy of the Content Marketing Institute
Content marketing is the past, present and future of marketing because it builds trust – and all purchasing is based on trust. Content marketing is about education – it’s not about what you ‘sell’. Content marketing is about your audience and what matters to them.
I commissioned a whiteboard animation to explain in more detail how content marketing can benefit physical therapists in particular (you can watch it at this link:) (Video. 2).
Video 2: Why Content Marketing is Such a Powerful Marketing Strategy For Physical Therapists
It is the single most powerful strategy that any company can use to promote its products and services. But never has that been more true for people working in healthcare, because here, more than in most other businesses, the importance of trust cannot be overstated.
A client needs to feel confident that you are the right person to trust with something that is causing them physical pain. It can be easy for us as therapists, to forget that acknowledging physical pain in the first place, can be difficult for many and surrendering that pain to someone else’s expertise, requires trust.
Anyone who’s heard me present, will have heard me refer to something I like to call the ‘clinical tipping point’. Often people will survive or self-manage their pain or injury until they hit a point when they can’t any longer. Either it stops them from doing things they love (like participating in sport, or playing with their kids) or whatever they’ve been doing to manage the pain until that point isn’t working any longer.
This happens over a period of time. Most people don’t wake up in the morning saying, “Oh I must book an appointment with my physio today – I’ve got a slight niggle in my knee.” They wait until it stops them doing the things they love or leading the life they want to lead, and some of us wait even longer!
Which is exactly why the long content game works so well in a physical or manual therapy environment. Something as simple as a regular monthly email offering some content of value, which doesn’t ‘product push’, and builds trust, is all you need to nurture that relationship, until that person is ready to call you.
It’s so simple, and yet unfortunately 83.5% of you don’t do it (2) (Fig. 1)!
Figure 1: Do You Send Nurture Emails?
Thankfully that percentage has gone down a little from a few months ago (hopefully on account of some of my education efforts), but it’s still a massively wasted opportunity. Particularly as, according to our Marketing Grader survey results, the average amount of time spent on marketing every month is 9.3 hours.
Apart from the fact that you could run our whole Co-Kinetic marketing strategy in half that time, and make returns on that investment of over 30 times, I’m quite frustrated (that’s putting it mildly) that only 17% of people bother with that one single monthly, value-add nurture email.
If that was the ONLY activity you did every month, I’m willing to guarantee that it would be significantly more effective at generating business for you, than whatever else you’re doing in those 10 hours.
I’m now going to run through all the types of content that physical and manual therapists could use, with some ideas on how to use each one.
Remember I’m focusing completely on education-based content because that’s the goal of content marketing. That’s not to say, you couldn’t throw in the occasional sales-driven piece of content, just keep the ratio heavily in favour of educational content so you don’t lose trust.
I’m not going to beat about the bush here, this is an increasingly large part of what I do through Co-Kinetic. My goal is to create as much content as I can for you, in order to save you time and money, while at the same time giving you a more professional result. All our subscriptions include many of the content types covered below and where that is the case, I’ve added a Co-Kinetic note, to explain what we provide.
But whether you have a subscription to Co-Kinetic or not, all the principles still apply.
1. Social Media Posts Ideally as many of the social media post types as possible would be aimed specifically at achieving one or more of the following, as this will either increase your post exposure or give you some tangible, quantifiable marketing benefit (ie. collecting emails):
Types of social media posts include:
Co-Kinetic note: we create 25–50 social media posts on a new topic each month (the number depends on which subscription you’re on). It includes many of the types covered above and each is focused on collecting email leads on your behalf, with the system taking care of everything, including posting the posts to your social networks. It takes 5 minutes to set up a campaign that will run for one month and which requires absolutely no technical skills.
2. Emails Emails can be:
Co-Kinetic note: we write a nurture email for you each month as part of the Full Site subscription, provide you with images to accompany it and we include a link back to the high value resources that we’ve produced on your behalf.
3. Blog Posts Blog posts have a number of advantages. They:
Co-Kinetic note: we write a new blog post for you each month as part of the Full Site subscription and provide you with images to accompany it. It’s copyright free and there for you to use/modify/rewrite as you wish.
4. Podcasts Podcasts can be in the following forms.
5. Videos Again, videos can take a variety of forms as follows.
Co-Kinetic note: we produce explainer videos and animations as part of the Full Site subscription.
People tend to forget the power of printed content and ironically it’s cheaper and easier to produce these days than it’s ever been.
6. Postal/Mailed Content
Customer newsletters (content-driven). Instead of sending people boring stuff about your clinic, that they’re probably not interested in, send them information they actually want to read, or share with others.
Postcards. Similar to newsletters above, these:
Co-Kinetic note: we write and design one of these newsletters for you every month and we also create postcards to promote new campaigns – both are included in the Full Site subscription.
7. Posters These can be:
Co-Kinetic note: we have produced a range of posters and infographics you can print out for your clinic walls.
8. Newspaper/Magazine Articles This is still an extremely effective way to promote your business and as a publisher myself, it’s something I would encourage you to do more of.
Co-Kinetic note: as a Co-Kinetic subscriber to any of our patient information resources, I would actively encourage you to use those resources to promote your own business in this way. Our customer newsletters in particular, are provided completely copyright free meaning you can take all the credit. Attach your biog and let the local magazines publish them under your name.
9. Face-to-Face Presentations/Webinars/Open Clinic Events I know many practitioners using these strategies incredibly effectively. It’s a great way to get in front of people, build trust, triage who is most in need of your help, and build relationships. Examples of things you could do follow below.
Co-Kinetic note: We write off-the-shelf PowerPoint presentations which you can use within these sessions, and also provide an editable sign up web page through which you can take event registrations. There are also posters and leaflets you can use to promote the event. These are only included under the Full Site subscription.
10. Leaflet-Based Resources Last but not least, the simplest but most versatile of all content types, leaflet-based material can be printable and/or downloadable resources. You can:
Leaflet-based content types include:
Co-Kinetic note: I almost don’t know where to start here, because all our subscriptions include these resources, AND they are also rebrandable, allowing you to add your own business details and logo to them. For their simplicity, they are phenomenally effective both for patient satisfaction of existing clients, as well as for promoting your business and brand in a completely value-added and unsalesy way.
In order to make this resource as comprehensive as it can be, here are some ideas of the kind of display and distribution devices you could make use of, with some of the offline resources mentioned above:
The UK-based website XL Displays had the widest range of ideas I could find, but it provides inspiration wherever you are in the world.
Again, in a mission to make this article as user-friendly and practical as it can possibly be, and to give you some focus (because I appreciate I may have blown a mental fuse by giving you so many ideas) – here are my thoughts on what I would consider your quickest and most cost-effective wins, in priority order.
What is it? A monthly email, ideally with a link to an additional resource (so you can increase your email click rates) like a downloadable advice leaflet or exercise handout on a specific topic.
Why is this a priority? Because most likely you already have a database to start warming up your relationships with, and we’re looking for quick wins. Just because it’s not new and sexy, don’t dismiss it. It can also be done quickly. This should be the one activity you tick off, every single month without fail. You may not see results instantaneously, but I guarantee you will over time, if you’re consistent with it.
Set-up requirements (one-off job for all future emails):
Creation notes
Why is it a priority? Because it’s cheap to create the resources (especially with a Co-Kinetic subscription where we do it for you). And it benefits everyone – it delivers a great customer experience to your existing clients, and it gives you huge reach for promoting your business more widely locally, while offering value to everyone who comes into contact with the resources. They’re also easy to share with colleagues and friends.
Creation notes I’ve got to be brutally honest here – just get one of our subscriptions! The Massage Therapy subscription at just £9 a month is the cheapest of all our subscriptions and gives you a never-ending supply of all these resources. You’d be mad not to take advantage of it. You can also access them under all the other subscriptions we offer. You’re not going to find a quicker, cheaper, more professional resource that you can trust, for anything close to that price. Not even in China or India!!
Why is it a priority? It helps you get found (and if you don’t already, please make sure you have a Google Business listing set up – it’s super-simple, super-quick and free). Reviews are heavily favoured by Google when deciding how to rank pages, they even take into account Facebook Reviews, despite them being a ‘competitor’ business, that’s how highly they rate them. The review ratings also appear in your Google Business listing. The more good reviews, the more likely you’ll appear high in search results.
Creation notes Set up your listing here and then get proactive about asking your customers to review you on either Facebook or Google.
Why is it a priority?
Why is it a priority? Mainly for the SEO benefits (although this would ideally be supported by an SEO strategy which usually don’t come cheap). It also helps you turn your website into an email lead generation tool which if you’re doing your monthly nurture emails, is good news.
Creation notes We provide a new monthly blog post in our Full Site subscription but equally you can write your own, or outsource it to a blog writer (you can find plenty on sites like Upwork.com). The only downside is if possible pick someone who is medically trained so that you know you can trust the content, and so you don’t need to rewrite the whole thing yourself. If you outsource, it MUST save you the time, otherwise you may as well do it yourself (or subscribe to us!).
I think that’s pretty conclusive and there’s not much to add. What I would say, though, is please be aware of the time you spend on your marketing. Are you making the most effective use of your time?
Assuming you had customers to treat in the time you spend on marketing, how much does that make your time worth? Have this figure in your head every time you spend time on marketing activities. Is it £35, £55, £75 an hour?
If you’re spending the average 9.3 hours a month that our survey reveals most practitioners are spending on marketing, calculate what that would be worth, in revenue if you were seeing clients in that time.
In most cases, the time you are spending marketing will be costing you anything from £350 to £750 in lost patient-time. If you can find a way of doing your marketing more quickly, and getting better results (ie. actually generating new paying customers), while also spending less time on things you don’t like doing (ie. marketing), and more time on things you do like doing (ie. treating patients), then it should be a no-brainer.
Remember, if you can generate the client bookings, then your time is not free.
Content marketing is the past, present and future of marketing because it builds trust – and all purchasing is based on trust Content marketing is about education – it’s not about what you sell Content marketing is about your audience and what matters to them
Content marketing is the past, present and future of marketing because it builds trust – and all purchasing is based on trust
Content marketing is about education – it’s not about what you sell
Content marketing is about your audience and what matters to them
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Tor began her professional life training as a physiotherapist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK. She went on to complete a BSc in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham whilst also achieving a WTA international tennis ranking.
After graduation she worked for a London marketing agency and then moved into medical journalism where her passion for publishing was born.
At 27 she established sportEX medicine, a quarterly journal for general practitioners focusing on sport and exercise medicine.
sportEX grew into an internationally known journal for all sports medicine practitioners, including physical and manual therapists; articles covered the practical application of evidenced-based research alongside professional development with expert contributors drawn from across the world of medicine and rehabilitation.
With a passion for technology as well as publishing and sport, Tor's leadership grew sportEX into the Co-Kinetic journal and website which included a more collaborative, royalty-based form of publishing as well as a wider content remit. As well as the quarterly magazine Co-Kinetic, offerings now include e-learning opportunities, breaking clinical research infographics, marketing kits for therapists, business growth tools, and a business discount club.
Tor's focus is providing resources to help practitioners and therapists develop their businesses and to work more efficiently and effectively, a topic that she speaks regularly on at global conferences.
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