One way to promote the profession, as well as get more clients, is community outreach. Being a part of local races is always a great way to do this. Have a booth that helps provide gait assessment, or other screen. Participants and their families now know your local clinic is one to call when they need services.
Another avenue to pursue is reaching out to local corporations. As a business, they are trying to contain their health care costs – offer to give an inservice to their employees about simple exercises that can prevent injuries on the job, or education about the detriments of prolonged sitting, etc. Any topic about health or wellness.
This will likely be welcomed by the management, it will promote the profession, and it will market your services. It will be well received by the employees who now have higher out-of-pocket costs, and are aware of this. And your audience can have varied mobility goals; simply being a health care profession whom they can access will be seen as a welcome resource. It would be good to know your fellow local PTs who may better treat some of the issues these employees have that do not fit into your personal niche (see: Know What You Don’t Know.) Because of this, you may be able to get a group of physical therapists to lead a monthly lunch and learn. You are all likely to get new clients – if not from the people in the room, than from their friends and loved ones who they go tell about the awesome talk they had at work!
This could lead to many fun ideas. Offer to lead a weekly lunch time walking group, and if anyone sticks with it for 12 weeks, give them a tee shirt with your logo – they will literally be a walking advertisement! Marketing does not need to be expensive.
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