Marketing your own practice is one of the most challenging parts of business. Most physiotherapists go into private practice because they want to help people, not because they want to own their own small business. Unfortunately, a lot of what you do as the professional is to do the daily work of running a small business. Marketing is an important aspect of this.

Physio123 recommend three fundamental internal marketing practices that you can follow to help your practice develop. Internal marketing is the least expensive and most profitable type of marketing that exists. Internal means you are marketing to your own base of patients/clients. If you do each of the steps listed below you will find success in marketing your practice is not that hard after all.

1. Understand that you are a sales person
2. An important part of increasing your referrals - answering the phone
3. Look after your patients and they will look after you.


1. Understand that you are a sales person

Many physiotherapists feel that physiotherapists are not salespeople! Remember, yes you are a physiotherapist, but we all need to be sales people.

You sell your patients on procedures or services that they need. You sell your staff on the benefits of working hard for you. You sell everyday. The sooner you claim it, the sooner you’ll be able to use your sales techniques to improve your practice.

2. An important part of increasing your referrals - answering the phone

The first person to whom a potential patient speaks is usually the front office person, receptionist or, in smaller practices, the practitioner. This person sets the tone of the patients experience. He/she is the person who answers the phone, gives them information about the practice, and arranges their appointments, in many cases, deals with their anxiety about the pain they are in.

Answering the phone is one of the simplest, yet most important, tasks for the success of a new practice.

3. Look after your patients and they will look after you

Many physiotherapists do not realise the power of their own patient base. They are working, working, working and one day look up to find that half of their patients have gone some where else. The most important thing that you must do in your practice is to make sure that your patients remain your patients and refer to you.

It is a lot easier to retain existing patients than it is to create new patients. Look after the patients you have!

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