Industries · Allied health
Insurer rates are fixed. Self-pay is not
Bupa, AXA and Vitality work will keep arriving whatever your website says, at a rate they set. Self-pay is the only part of the diary where what you charge is up to you, and it is the only part marketing can move.
The problem
You cannot market your way to a better insurer rate
Insurer work is a volume business at a price somebody else sets, and that price has been going one way for years. Practices that depend on it are working harder for the same money and calling it growth.
Self-pay is different. It comes from local search, from reviews, and from people who were recommended, and it pays what you ask. It is also the part most practices do least about, because insurer referrals arrive without effort and fill the diary enough to hide the problem.
Then there is the middle of a course of treatment. A patient who was booked for six sessions and stops at three because the pain eased is the same lost revenue a chiropractor sees, and the same nothing notices it.
What actually works
What moves the needle for physiotherapists.
Be findable for the self-pay search
People search for the problem and the town, not for physiotherapy in general. A page per condition and per service is what puts you in front of the person paying their own money.
Finish the course of treatment
A missed session gets followed up the same week. It protects the outcome as well as the revenue, which makes it an easy thing to be comfortable about.
Answer while you are in a session
A physiotherapist cannot take a call mid-treatment. The text back means the enquiry does not go to the next clinic while you are with somebody.
The rules you work inside
What is true of physiotherapists and nothing else.
This is the part a generic agency does not know, and it is the part that decides whether the marketing is legal, let alone effective.
Who regulates you
The HCPC. Statutory, and physiotherapist and physical therapist are protected titles. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy membership is the additional mark.
What you cannot advertise
Treatment claims are restricted. Describe the assessment and the approach rather than promising a named outcome.
The software you already run
Cliniko, Jane, WriteUpp, PPS, TM3.
What an appointment is worth
£45 to £80 a session. The diary is split between insurer-funded work at a fixed rate and self-pay at yours, and only the second responds to anything you do.
When you are busy
January, and a spring run around marathon and event season.
The one lever
Shifting the mix towards self-pay, because that is the only revenue in the practice you actually control.
Regulatory positions change, and two of these families are changing now. I confirm the current position before writing your pages rather than copying what a competitor has up.
What you get
The same six things, pointed at your problem.
The package does not change by niche. What changes is what it is set up to do: which follow-up runs, on what interval, and what the website is built to be found for.
£297 a month. No build fee, no minimum term, live in 14 days.
- Your website
- Missed call text back
- Review funnel
- Lead follow-up
- All-in-one inbox
- Business phone
Questions
What physiotherapists ask me.
Most of my work comes from insurers. Is this worth it?
That depends whether you want it to. If you are happy with the mix, probably not, and I will say so. If you want more self-pay because the rates are better and you control them, this is the machinery for that.
Should I have a page for every condition?
For the ones you actually want more of, yes. That is how the search works. Not for the full textbook, which produces thin pages nobody reads.
Does it work with Cliniko or TM3?
Your system keeps the diary and the clinical records. This catches the enquiry and does the following up. I do not touch patient notes.
Can I say physiotherapy cures a specific condition?
No, and neither can I on your behalf. The copy describes the assessment and the approach. That is both the rule and, in practice, more persuasive than a claim a reader half-disbelieves.
Thirty minutes, and you will know if it is worth it.
No obligation, and nothing to pay to have the conversation.