Am I Expected to Market?

The Importance of Marketing in Physical Therapy

Part 1: The Why

Imagine a physical therapy job where you have the freedom to build a career you love—welcome to MovementX.

At MovementX, we are redefining what the best physical therapy job looks like… one where autonomy, flexibility, and transparency lie at the core of building a career you love.

While many things set MovementX apart from the typical physical therapy practice, two key aspects are the fact that we provide out-of-network PT services, and the fact that marketing is essential to building your patient caseload.

That second area—marketing cash-based physical therapy—is one where PTs often have questions about as they get started in their journey.

As a MovementX provider, are you expected to market?

Absolutely! It’s critical for success. It enables the creation of a sustainable, flexible physical therapy job that wards away burnout and fires you up every day!

And here’s the great thing—it’s not as scary or even as challenging as it sounds. In fact, most physical therapists find it both enjoyable and fun!

Let’s walk you through our approach to marketing out-of-network PT for providers at MovementX.

Demystifying Physical Therapy Marketing

When most people think of marketing, images of used car salesmen and telemarketers often come to mind. But at MovementX, we redefine marketing as relationship building.

It’s something that, at your best, you do on a daily basis as a professional physical therapist or personal trainer. If you are building strong relationships, you are functionally creating a network of people who, when an injury or pain happens, are likely to seek your physical therapy services.

Aside from the simple act of building relationships, here are the top 3 reasons (plus one bonus reason we couldn’t resist) why we think marketing out-of-network PT is so important.

4 Reasons Why Marketing Matters for Physical Therapists

1. It Lets You Build a Caseload You Love

When you are operating in a traditional physical therapy environment, you have no control over what patient populations you see. Whether you feel most passionate about treating athletes, older adults, weekend warriors, or children, you have to treat whoever walks through the door.

And what dictates who walks through the door? Where your clinic goes to market.

A reality most physical therapists and personal trainers often don’t think about is that where you market dictates what type of patients you see.

In the MovementX model, we strategically place you in locations filled with your ideal patient populations. Treating populations that give you energy is one of the many ways we fight burn out and keep you fired up to provide great physical therapy care. It also positions you in high-paying physical therapy jobs where you thrive.

Not only that, we will help you optimize your digital presence so that your ideal patients find your physical therapy services online. Here are some quick examples of how we boost your digital presence…

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Ensuring your MX profile ranks highly on Google.
• Digital Advertisements: Running targeted ads on Google, ZocDoc, and other platforms.
• Website Development: Creating and maintaining a professional and user-friendly website.
• Content Marketing: Producing high-quality blogs and social media posts to engage new patients.
• Email Campaigns: Automating personalized emails to nurture leads and connect with patients.
• Online Reviews Management: Encouraging satisfied patients to leave positive reviews.
• Community Engagement: Highlighting your involvement in local events.
• Patient Testimonial Videos: Showcasing real patient success stories to build trust and credibility.

2. It Helps You Educate Your Local Community

A big problem often talked about across the physical therapy profession is that nobody understands what we do. It’s not a stretch to say that we could do a better job as PTs spreading public awareness about our essential services.

What is one of the best ways you can be part of the solution? Get out into the community and tell people about yourself! Whether it’s through workshops, local events, or online forums, your consistent presence will build trust and referrals.

Our approach to marketing physical therapy facilitates connections with your local community. We aim for you to become the go-to expert within your particular niche or area of expertise.

One of our favorite definitions of trust is: consistency over time. If you show up consistently, effectively communicate what you do as a professional physical therapist, and do it over a meaningful period of time, your community will trust you and the new patient referrals will start flowing.

Worst case scenario, you don’t get any referrals, but more people know what quality physical therapy looks like. That is still a win for our profession and a great outcome!

3. It Builds Your Professional Network

As the saying goes, A+ talent wants to work with other A+ talent.

The most effective healthcare providers and best physical therapists have a network of other professionals they refer to when the patient has needs outside of their scope of practice.

It’s critical that these are not just any healthcare providers under the sun—they should be providers you deeply trust and would see yourself, or send your parents to if they needed care.

Quick communication here is critical—we want our providers to be able to take care of emerging needs as they arise, get our patients to the right healthcare providers quickly, and ensure a seamless transition.

Having a network you can trust is a critical step in delivering the best physical therapy care that helps patients move and live their best.

4. It’s a Rising Tide That Lifts All Boats

Here’s something cool to think about—you not only get the benefits from your personal marketing efforts, but at MovementX, you also get the benefits from the entire community marketing itself!

For example, think about a physician you have a great relationship with who refers you a number of patients. Chances are they will refer you someone outside your coverage radius or someone you cannot fit in from time-to-time.

Where does that referral go if you cannot cover them? Most likely, to another MX provider!

Our approach to marketing cash based physical therapy gives us an army of on-the-ground providers, educating the public about the best PT services, and building strong care networks. It’s good for you, good for the company, good for your community, and dare we say good for society!

Conclusion

With MovementX, you’re not just finding a job; you’re building a career in one of the best physical therapy environments, where every effort you make is supported by a community committed to excellence.

One of our social expectations is Lead with Love. We hope your marketing efforts facilitate and help us live by that motto. If we do this well, you’ll be working with:

• Patient populations you love
• In communities you love
• With referral sources you love

…All while supporting others MXers as you see your own success. In other words, with a team we know you will love!

Okay, that sounds great, but how does it actually work?

Check out “Am I expected to market? Part 2: The How” to dive into the details.

Join us at MovementX and be part of a team that values autonomy, flexibility, and the passion for helping others. If we can build more flexible physical therapy careers, we can retain more amazing healthcare professionals who are committed to delivering great care for their patients.