The social media strategies we used to fully book my partner's physio practice in less than a year
Next to my own social media pages, there is only ONE other account I run full-time, 12 months a year: my partner's physiotherapy business. In this blog post, I’ll share the social media strategies we used in the last 1.5 years to fill his calendar from scratch, in a country where physiotherapy isn't super popular.
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4 strategies I would recommend to grow your business with social media:
Use (local) Facebook groups:
Since my partner Jeroen had worked at another local practice before starting his own, we couldn’t simply email all his previous patients to inform them that he had his own practice now. But we obviously still wanted them to know, so we heavily focused on sharing his content in local Facebook groups.
In 2024, 16% of what people see in their Facebook feed is group content - that’s quite a lot! (Meta, 2024)
We focused on creating content that was really valuable for group members but, at the same time, highlighted his approach to physiotherapy (very different to what most local practices offer!).
Here’s an example:
Aside from that, we also made sure to mention that he participated in the local park run (he’s also a running coach) and we filmed a variety of videos at our local beach to help people make that connection:
What’s important: Don’t just create content & share it to a variety of Facebook groups. Instead, take the time to read posts, understand what questions people have and THEN create content around that.
For example, we posted this one after someone had asked if they had to see a GP to get an X-ray for their back pain:
If you aren’t a local business, you can still leverage Facebook groups: focus on groups around interests that are relevant to your business, e.g. a reading group if you sell books or a group with meal ideas as a nutritionist.
Have regular brainstorming & content sessions:
Some couples go out for date night, we scheduled regular content brainstorming sessions instead 😅.
Every 2 weeks, we would meet for an hour to brainstorm ideas together and fill that month’s content calendar.
Not only is this helpful because it creates space & time for content creation, but it also allows us to combine both of our expertise. I am obviously not a physio myself, so I don’t have that specialised knowledge. And Jeroen isn’t a social media expert, so combining our skills makes sense. Jeroen would tell me about common pathologies, frequently asked questions, or injuries he wanted to discuss and I adapted them for social media.
Every so often, we would also have filming sessions at his practice: we would prepare a list of ideas, film them all after each other and have a month’s worth of content ready after an hour of work.
This allowed us to post 3 times per week, consistently for over 1.5 years now.
Use your Google reviews:
Another type of content that worked really well for us was using J’s Google reviews on reels. Instead of just copying the text of a review and putting it into a Canva template, I would find some footage of him running or even some stock videos from Canva, put that in the background and then show a screenshot of the actual review.
Here’s an example:
Not only does it help with credibility, but it also feels organic to social media. This strategy usually helped us book a few more spots in his week when we shared the reels to his stories with a link to his calendar.
👀 For this strategy to work, you obviously need to have enough reviews, so make sure to regularly ask your clients to leave you a testimonial!
Running info sessions/webinars:
This isn’t strictly a social media strategy but we did use social media to fill up workshop spots and at the same time create awareness for his business on social media.
So far, we have run two free info sessions on how to improve your half marathon time, both fully booked, with over 20 people attending. And, more importantly, each time quite a few of those people either booked a personalised running plan with him, became patients and/or referred friends and family to him.
This year’s ad results blew my mind:
We spent $30 to have 14 people sign up for the session! I only ran this ad for a week and had to stop it early since we had reached our capacity.
It just goes to show how incredibly easy it is to fill up a session like this with a small budget if you know how to set up your ads properly. Need help with your ads? Book a 1:1 session & we’ll do them together!
Conclusion:
I want to acknowledge that marketing is ONE part of the equation that helps us to get more awareness, it helps people to know about us and build a connection through our content but the other part is actually being good at your job. A lot of Jeroen’s patients hear about him through friends and family but I do like to believe that some of them will check out his socials and his website and that it helps them with the decision.
It's always a combination of things that makes something successful and not just one specific marketing strategy. It's that combination of highlighting his expertise, making people aware through posting in Facebook groups, showing testimonials and running these local events. Because you can be amazing at your job but if nobody knows you exist, you're not going to go far.
Before you leave make sure to give The Running Collective a follow to get inspired by the content we're posting & see my work in the wild!
Talk soon,
Hanna