Getting Doctors to Refer to your massage business

Getting doctors to refer clients to your massage business is a big challenge still today even with massage being more accepted and having more research available. Doctors are usually very busy and don’t have time to learn about something like massage. There are many doctors and health care providers that would really be helping their patients if they referred more to massage. Here is a short list of some:

Doctors – OBGyn, Orthopedic doctors, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, General practitioners
Acupuncturists
Physical therapists
Dentists

One of first things you want to do though is to actually take the time to find out something about the doctor/provider that you are looking for referrals from. You may not want everyone to refer to you. I once had a chiropractor that used less than ideal billing practices that clients were unhappy with. It is difficult to actually find out things like that right from the beginning. I actually have gone in as a client to a few different chiropractors and got treatments from them to learn what type of work they were doing and see what their offices were like. You can also do something like just drop into an area office and ask for a brochure or business card and say you are looking for that type of provider to refer your massage clients to. Once you get some info and decide you would like to work with these professionals you can then begin a campaign to create relationships with them

Sometimes just starting out as a client of theirs can be enough. But you of course can’t go to everyone out there. Another idea is to go to places where they might be like classes or workshops or health fairs and talk to them. There are sometimes buildings in downtown Seattle that offer small health fairs for people to go and meet practitioners.

If you are starting out blindly with a letter campaign I would suggest writing letters with the intent of referring to them first and ask about their business etc and tell them how you might need to use their services. You can tell them what kind of clients you work with a lot. For example a sports medicine doctor may be needed if you work with athletes. You can tell them what your athletes do and what kind of issues they may need help with of course without naming names due to privacy issues. Ask if they can handle that sort of patient. Also if you are writing letters just randomly to doctors/others in your area, don’t be discouraged if they don’t reply or if nothing happens for awhile. Send a few letters spaced out a few months apart or as you can. Send different materials such as research studies or more proof of how massage works or case studies you have had. If you are sending out mailings the best thing you can do really is develop a section on your website for doctors/health care providers and provide research or other insights into how massage works and what it can do. You can make it password protected to make it seem special or just have it available for clients to read too. You will have to be sure to write so that both can understand.

You can also take the approach a step farther and ask the practitioner/doctor if they would write a short article for your website or find out if they have something on their website that you can use. Some websites such as Site Build it! or WordPress will allow people to post articles and then they can put a link back to their website. You can also ask the provider for a link to your website and maybe offer an article that they can put on their website. Trading links is part of search engine optimization. Search engines look for how many other sites link to your site and rank your site accordingly. It isn’t just about the possibility that someone will click through the link and you can get a direct client or at least visitor to your website – it is creating a network of sites that link to your website.

I personally have not sent any letters to physicians to try to start the networking. I always seem to meet them in person or through someone directly. If you were going to write a letter be sure to start it out by asking about them. Keep it short and to the point and tell them to visit your website for more info or to call or email with questions.

After you get a referral from a doctor/health care provider the most important thing is to follow up and send a progress report even if they don’t ask for one. More are asking for them these days from what I have experienced. It is a great way to show them what is working for clients. When the clients go back into their office and report back the success that is also good for marketing. Be sure to write chart notes to follow their progress. The best source for learning about charting is a book called Hands Heal: Communication, Documentation, and Insurance Billing for Manual Therapists
by Diana Thompson

If you have a good letter that you have used to successfully contact doctors/health care providers please share in the comments! Or if you have any other tips and tricks for networking with health care providers.