Let’s be honest for a second. We live in a world where consumers no longer want their attention bought. They want you to earn it. Long gone are the days when you could assault your audience with advertising messages with no real way for them to escape the heavy bombardment. Nowadays, they have tools that allow them to block any unsolicited communication. More than that, they expect more than just a plain, general marketing message. They want personalized communication that caters to their specific needs and desires.
So, it begs to ask the question: what can a small physical therapy clinic do to meet the needs of its target audience and get them interested in their service?
To answer this question, take a second and ask yourself, what’s the real reasons visitors are willing to give you their email addresses? Is it because you have competitive prices or the CTA button has the right color?
Could be, but more often than not, people convert into leads because they get something in return.
With that in mind, let’s learn how to create lead magnets that could change your physical therapy clinic’s trajectory.
First Thing First, What Is a Lead Magnet?
Let’s start with the basics and try to define the role and purpose of a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is anything of value that you offer to your prospects in exchange for their contact information. Ideally, the goal isn’t just to increase your email list with a few addresses but to use this as an opportunity to start building trust between you and your prospects and persuade them to convert into patients.
Probably the most common type of lead magnet is a free eBook usually offered in a PDF format. However, as you are about to learn, there are other creative ways to improve your lead generation.
Why Do You Need One?
In the old days of the internet, people would sign up for almost anything just because they were excited about using their emails. Nowadays, however, things have changed dramatically. Tired of spam and phishing scams, online users have become wary of the value their Inbox holds. They protect their email real estate and rarely give up their contact information without making sure that they will benefit from this transaction.
This is where lead magnets can come in handy.
An irresistible one can grab the attention of your target audience, make them understand the value of your offer, and get them interested in starting a relationship with you. To benefit from this exchange, though, you have to keep two essential things in mind:
Making Sure Your Lead Magnet Attract the Right Type of Audience
Just as with everything else in life, a good first impression can make the difference between a prospective patient that will consider your physical therapy clinic and one that will choose your competition instead. It may sound vain, but that’s the reality of today’s digital world.
Online users are targeted by thousands of marketing messages every day, so they have to make snap decisions about the products and brands that could help them solve their problems and those that don’t meet their interest.
The right lead magnet should encompass the following basic rules:
Take a good look at your lead magnet and ask yourself: does it add any value to your prospects’ life? Try to create something that helps your patients solve a problem they have quickly and easily. That’s an excellent way to get your target audience to see you as someone that can help them.
Another key aspect of a successful lead magnet is that your audience should be able to digest the content you're providing quickly. Just because your lead magnet is short, it doesn’t make it less valuable than other types of content.
Your lead magnet should address your ideal patient and their problems directly. Sure, you can create different lead magnets, but make sure that they are specific to each audience segment.
Don’t lie nor bait your prospective patients into giving you their contact details. You might get away with it the first time around, but you don’t want to build a reputation for being deceptive and unprofessional. Be honest about the value you’re providing and build trust with your audience from the beginning.
How to Create a Lead Magnet
Here are the steps you need to follow to create an effective lead magnet.
1) Create a Buyer Persona
One of the biggest mistakes most physical therapy clinics make when creating lead magnets is that they try to please and attract every audience segment. As we already mentioned, your lead magnet needs to be highly specific and address concrete needs and problems.
That’s where the buyer persona comes in handy.
Here’s the thing: every inbound marketing strategy, whether we talk about content, email marketing or lead generation should start with a clear understanding of who your audience is - from basic information such as age, gender, and location to psychological traits like motivations and needs.
If you aren’t confident in your abilities to create accurate buyer personas, then it’s best to work with a specialist who can guide you appropriately towards your target audience.
2) Determine Your Unique Value Proposition
Now that you know who you want to target, you need to give your prospective patients a compelling reason to download your lead magnet. Don’t try to create something that you think your audience may want, instead figure out what they need and deliver just that.
For example, don’t write a massive eBook about Osteoporosis causes, symptoms, and treatments. Your audience isn’t necessarily interested in learning everything there is about this bone disease. What they want to know instead is what they can do to alleviate and manage their pain better. So, a simple one-page checklist with tips and exercises they can perform on their own at home will be far more effective than extensive medical content.
3) Generate Lead Magnet Ideas
The primary reasons why you need to take the time to define your target audience and identify your value propositions are that it makes the entire process significantly easier. Just think about it: trying to come up with lead magnet ideas without knowing who you are targeting or what you want to communicate is like entering a contest without knowing the rules. Sure, you may be taking action and doing your best, but your efforts are useless unless you know who you’re talking to or what they’re looking for.
With this in mind, create a list of some of the most common situations your target audience faces daily. Let’s imagine that you’re targeting patients that struggle with postoperative knee rehabilitation. On the left side of the list write down the problems they are facing and on the right side note the steps they would need to take to achieve the desired result (reduce pain and speed up recovery.) Try to then convert the solutions into actionable tips you can offer to your audience in the form of cheat sheets, checklists, guides, and so on. There is no limit on how creative you can be, so don’t hesitate in coming up with a unique and different strategy.
4) Create Your Magnet
The strategic part is over. Now, it’s time to sit down and create your magnet. Try to remember that most often than not, bigger isn’t necessarily better. Your target audience has a limited time and attention span and wants their solutions to be delivered in bite-sized formats. Abstain yourself from creating long-form content that beats around the bush and delivers no real value.
Here are some rules to keep in mind to help you write amazing lead magnets:
5) Keep It Simple:
A lot of the times, physical therapists tend to go above and beyond and create overly-complicated lead magnets that are hard to read and comprehend. If your audience is having a difficult time digesting your content, then they won’t appreciate it. Keep your content simple, concise, and relevant.
6) Know Your Strengths:
Are you a wordsmith? Then a how-to-guide will probably be the best format. Do you have an analytical mind? Then create an insightful report and offer it as a lead magnet to your audience.
Killer Lead Magnet Ideas to Grow Your PT Clinic’s Website
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about creating a lead magnet? Most probably, you think about writing an eBook. And, for a good reason: they are easy to create and adapt to any audience segment. This is why, at PatientSites, we encourage and promote the use of high-quality eBooks that improve user engagement and lead generation.
But, as we’ve mentioned before, among the things that make a lead magnet effective are fast delivery and consumption. An eBook takes time to create and read through, and your audience wants quick solutions. More likely than not, you also want to speed up the buying process and move the prospect to the next stage of the funnel faster.
Here are some of the best lead magnet formats that can deliver impressive results.
One of the things that make this lead magnet format effective is its specificity to the subject at hand. A guide or report allows you to focus on a specific goal and feed your audience the exact type of content that interests them. Of course, you need to ensure that your content is helpful, valuable, and provides relevant educational information to your audience.
Cheat sheets work because they promise your audience to simplify a task for them. Imagine that you’ve created a helpful article about the benefits of physical therapy during pregnancy. At the end of the blog post, you can offer a cheat sheet with five exercises that will strengthen pelvic muscles. Make sure to let them know that these exercises were designed by experts and are proven to be highly effective. At the very least, this lead magnet will trigger your audience’s curiosity, but if it turns out to be helpful, it might convert them into patients.
Coupons can provide your lead generation a significant boost - coupons will work as an incentive for people who are truly interested in your services while also persuading prospects to give your physical therapy clinic a try. For example, you could offer a 15% discount on their visit and encourage your target audience to sign up and convert into patients. Then, you can continue to nurture them with an amazing email marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Learn how to effectively create lead magnets, and lead magnets can be an effective way to convert prospective clients into leads and, eventually, into customers. With the right strategy in place and a strong funnel, your physical therapy clinic can become a lead generation machine.
If the thought of building your email list through lead magnets overwhelms you, we’ve got you covered!
PatientSites.com is your go-to resource for acquiring new patients, nurturing existing one, and taking your business to the next level. We’ve helped thousands of physical therapy clinics boost their online marketing activities using these lead generation techniques.
Send us a quick email at support@patientsites.com to learn what we can do for you!
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