Why No One Is Calling Your Practice: 60 Second Marketing Tip 80% of New Practice Owners Forget

I was talking to someone today about their practice and how they feel they are struggling to get people to find them, struggling to get patients. I wanted to share what I am calling this “60 Second Tip” because I feel like so many practice owners are forgetting about this.

I want patients to be able to find you and your practice. I feel like at least 80% (← Morgan stats) of us forget when getting started: People need to be able to find your business online.

I know that there are a lot of different opinions on if you need a website. Whether you use a website or not, you do use Facebook (I know this because the original video was in my Facebook group!). If someone goes to your personal profile or uses the search bar to search your name or the name of your business and they cannot find you, they’re not going to work with you.

Here’s an example: Whenever Kyle and I try to find somewhere to go out to eat. If I Google the name of a restaurant and can’t find them or I look up “XYZ food near me” and there’s a business name that comes up but they don’t have a website or any kind of online presence, I don’t go there because I’m looking for more information on that business or restaurant. If I don’t see it, if I don’t find it, I’m probably not going to go there.

Just imagine that with your practice. Let's say someone hears about you from their friend or they look up “Physical Therapy” or “Speech Therapy” or “OT near me”. If your business does not come up, it does not have a Facebook page, and nothing on your personal social media profile reflects the fact that you have a business, it’s going to be really hard to get people to call you if they don’t know that your business exists and cannot find your contact information. This is the #1 thing I recommend. You need to show up if you want people to come to you and find you.

What if most of my marketing is through networking and putting on workshops locally?

If you were out hustling and going out door to door, making connections and getting referrals through local marketing, great! But why not take it a step further and actually make a network connection, give someone your card with your contact information and your website on it so then people can find you. You need to make yourself available. That’s one of the biggest things I feel a lot of new practice owners forget about. People looking on Google have a very limited attention span. I’m not saying to make Google your entire marketing strategy, but people need to be able to find you.

The practice owner I was talking about, no shame, I just want to put this out because it really does matter. It took me, someone who’s on the internet all the time, almost 10 minutes to find her website. If it’s taking me that long, just imagine your potential clients – they are not going to stick around that long when they have a problem they need resolved now. They’re going to look for someone else or another practice.

What can I do to fix this?

Great question. Your action steps right now: Google yourself in an incognito tab and ask friends, family, spouse, other people to Google your business or name to see what comes up. It might not all be what you’re hoping for, but we’re looking for your business. If your business comes up, great. If it doesn’t, then we need to take steps towards making it come up.

The other action step: update your Facebook profile. You can tag your business’ Facebook page in your personal bio, under work experience.

Here’s another example of something to try. I’ll show you with my own practice below. This is me and my Chrome browser. I looked up “Physical Therapy in Henderson” (where I live) and wouldn’t you know it, my practice comes up right at the top!

Why does that happen? Tell me if I’m wrong, but I am located inside my practice so Google is going to show me practices that are closest to me. That’s why I’m showing up in the location but if I scroll down my practice does not show up down here.

I’m not on the first page or the second page in search results, but I do show up for people in neighborhoods near me under the Maps results.

There are neighborhoods around where I live that are looking for physical therapy and I pop up because I’m located near them. That’s another good reason to have your location on your website and on your Google business profile because then just based on the searcher’s location, you're more likely to come up around them.

I also wanted to show you something everyone is not aware of: an incognito tab! Go to the settings and then click on “new incognito window”.

Basically, it makes it so this browser window doesn’t know anything about the person using the browser window. If I use the incognito tab, it's a blank slate of someone searching on the internet. If you’re really curious as to where you’re showing up in Google search results without using any other software, use an incognito tab. There’s going to be a difference versus if you’re in the regular tab.

If inbound leads are something that you really want, then this is your first step. Put your contact information up and make your business easy to find. Otherwise how will people contact you?

Want to learn more marketing tips? Please reach out! You can email me at morgan@thewellphysio.com or book a call with me to figure out your next best steps.

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