Challenge: Given the challenges facing small, emerging businesses, TPTZ needed to be strategic about the marketing tactics it employed as momentum was building. TPTZ was interested in doubling the number of patients it saw per week gradually so that it could hire additional physical therapists without compromising patient wait times or care. Budget was certainly a consideration but it was difficult at this early stage for Lori to articulate what her marketing budget was. She needed a set of opportunities that she could layer in when the time was right and an understanding of how to approach each marketing channel.
Solution: Since TPTZ is a business where patients visit the office for treatment, 3 Ways Digital created a marketing plan that outlined tactics offering geographical targeting. Given a modest budget, there could be little waste so local, digital media such as Yelp, Angie’s List, online insurance company referrals, tie-ins with physicaltherapy.com and healthfairsplus.com provided the best opportunities.
Overview: TPTZ has had an amazing first year in business. Lori Alexander’s dedication paid off and her reputation was yielding positive word-of-mouth and walk-in patients. The next phase of TPTZ’s business development would be a marketing plan that leveraged the positive feedback being received while more clearly establishing Lori’s credentials (and competitive advantage) as a physical therapist and introducing programs that continued to increase referral traffic. The marketing plan was created under the direction of CensusUp and was broken into four parts.
- Section I: Introduction – includes key points from the documents and interviews shared with us and reflects the points which most influenced our recommendations
- Section II: Recommendations – provided detail on each of our recommendations along with our rationale
- Section III: Timeline – illustrated how each of the tactics will worked together and provided detail on resources necessary and how long each would take to accomplish
- Section IV: Budget – outlined the costs associated with implementing each part of the plan
Deliverables: A tactical marketing plan that included recommendations and resourcing information for strategically introducing the following marketing channels:
- Search engine optimizing The Physical Therapy Zone website through online education about the benefits of physical therapy, use of images, tweaking of navigation architecture, introduction of strategic keywords (provided in the marketing plan)
- Strategies about working with referring physicians
- Strategies for improving referrals from insurance company websites
- Ways to leverage the local Chamber of Commerce
- Improving the impact of Angie’s List
- Improving the impact of Yelp
- Further leveraging physicaltherapy.com
- Leveraging Health Fairs Plus
- Use of “gorilla marketing tactics” such as sidewalk assessments, speaking at local schools, cross promoting with other local businesses
- Washington Post geo-targeting
Each of these tactics were thoroughly researched and priced at the level that made sense for TPTZ.
Results: The plan provided an ongoing marketing road map for TPTZ so that elements could be integrated when time and money allowed.
