When to Rebrand Your PT Practice! Lessons From PT Owner Andy Sotirokos, PT

What does it really take to rebrand a growing physical therapy practice — and come out stronger on the other side?

In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Sotirokos, owner of Full Strength Physical Therapy, to unpack one of the boldest moves a practice owner can make: changing the name, identity, and brand of a business you've already built. 

With 3 locations and 23 staff, Andrew shares what life looked like before the rebrand, what finally pushed him to make the leap, and how he navigated the fears and uncertainties that come with starting over — without actually starting over.

We also dig into the marketing engine behind Full Strength's growth, including how Google Ads has driven consistent new patient volume, real ROI, and opportunities Andrew says simply wouldn't have existed without it.

Whether you're a PT owner who's outgrown your current brand, curious about paid advertising, or just wondering if the risk of a rebrand is ever really worth it — this conversation delivers honest answers and hard-won perspective.

In this episode:

• Why Andrew decided to rebrand and what the process really looked like
• The fears he had going in — and how he moved through them
• The real impact on patient perception, team culture, and referrals
• How Google Ads fits into Full Strength's growth strategy
• The milestone Andrew says wouldn't have happened without consistent marketing investment
• His advice for PT owners sitting on the fence about a rebrand or paid ads

View their new website at FullStrengthPT.Com!

Need a new physical therapy website? Check out Practice Promotions' website designs and services at PracticePromotions.Net! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello and welcome to the Practice Marketing Podcast, highlighting successful strategies from North America's fastest growing clinics and experts. So you can learn from their wins and power your practice growth. I'm your host, Neil Trigott, CEO of Practice Promotions. And today we're going to talk about how when is it the right time to rebrand your PT practice and some lessons from an awesome physical therapy owner. And today we're talking with Andy Soterikos, who's the chief operating officer at Full Strength Physical Therapy, formerly Solutions Physical Therapy. And Andy is a doctor of PT, board certified orthopedic clinical specialist, and an experienced practice owner who has spent years helping patients move better while building a thriving private practice. He's also been with practice promotions as a client since 2017, so super excited in his growth and what he's been able to accomplish. And one of the biggest decisions Andy made along the way was rebranding his clinic from solutions physical therapy to full strength physical therapy. And in this episode, he'll share with us why he made that change, what he learned throughout the process, and whether the rebrand ultimately helped his position and his practice and set him up for future growth. So, Andy, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Thanks for having me, Neil. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Awesome. So tell us a little bit about you and your practice. Um, love to for our audience to know a little bit more about your story.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Yeah, so um our practice uh been out since 2009. Uh my wife and I own and run practice. And you know, we started off with one location and we've over time we're able to grow to three. And um we have three locations. Uh we're in Alexandria, Arlington, and Springfield, Virginia, and we have 25 providers. Uh, and we're looking to continue to grow the practice um and create more opportunities for for our team and uh and help you know the people in our communities that we live in and work with every day. So that's uh the big driver for us is you know, we want to try to um provide those team opportunities and and help people out.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

That's awesome. And so I think you said you're up to like 24, 25 staff now. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, 25 providers on staff now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

That's awesome. Yeah, it's been so great to see your growth and the hard work that you've put into that and and your ability. I always thought you had a great business mindset, um, marketing mindset, especially to um just helping yourself position yourself in that very competitive area around Washington, DC. Obviously, kind of northern Virginia is very, very competitive. But the things that you did at that time to really separate yourself, it's been fantastic to see. And then obviously, now going through the rebranding, uh, that's really been powerful. It's fantastic to see that growth too. So, what what led you to to consider? Okay, we've got a rebrand here. We've got to kind of reboot who we are as a practice. And so kind of just help us understand, and for other practice owners out there there too, that kind of thinking through this, like, hey, should I should I think about a different rebrand for my practice? Like, what was your thought process about going going into that?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah, it was definitely evolution. You know, I think um, you know, uh we had been thinking about trying, hey, should we change the name for a couple of years? You know, there was um some confusion as we started to grow from our one location, you know, as we expanded into Springfield and then into Sherwington, and we um we started to get a bit more aggressive with our marketing as we grew. There was some confusion at times between our company and another company with a similar name in the market. And so I think we had kind of toyed around, hey, should we should we change this name? And then as we started to grow and get more into really trying to understand, really understanding what our company's core purpose was and develop our team to prepare for more growth. Um, and really we we spent probably about the past year and a half, two years kind of taking a deep dive into the type of culture that we wanted to have and and the the the why of our company. And you know, when we combined the kind of some of the confusion around the name that we were having, and then we were trying to up our game in terms of building our culture um and moving that and moving forward as a company to the next stage of our of our of our existence, really, it kind of became clear, hey, this is something that we've got to do at this point um to kind of take us to the next level. Um, and so when we did that, you know, our name solutions physical therapy, you know, everybody's got lots of companies have solutions in their name, and it's kind of like felt like more of a legacy kind of early 2000s, you know, uh brand. And as we grew, we wanted to really think about having a more consumer-grade brand that resonated more with what the purpose of the company was. And so that was what how we kind of got to to the point of this deciding that we needed to make this move and it kind of influenced where we went with the rebrand and and uh the name change and everything too.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

That's really cool. And so did you look at it too from so you went from solutions physical therapy, which is kind of broad, generic, right? Kind of kind of hits all medical and uh orthopedic and things like that, to full strength physical therapy, right? So more of that consumer-facing, like people want to get back to full strength, right? Or they want to be at like stronger and more physical. Was that yeah, exactly?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

You know, yeah, we ended we and we went through a whole naming process, right? So it I I kind of spent about a year and a half trying to come up with some different names using Chat GPT and some other AI tools to try to help me get through the process a little bit. Um, and then you know, I got we it was probably January of last year, January 25, I think, that I came across this one. And I I I I ran it by my wife and she said, Well, I it's better than anything else you've come up with so far. And so that was kind of the first the first thing that told me I maybe I maybe had something here, right? Um, and then the uh the internet address happened to be available too, which is one of the big things when you look for renaming, like you've got to have uh ability to get the website, right? Yeah, and that was available, so I bought it just so I had it, just in case. And then, but I wanted to make sure we threw a very professional process when we did it. So we we hired a branding agency, went through a whole naming process with them, and I didn't tell anyone else the name that I had come up with. And so we came up with the names through the branding agency, um, a list of names that we thought we liked, and I threw mine in at the last minute and I said, here's the one in honesty, there was a lot of debate. Not everyone was really wild about what we came up with through the branding agency, and they did a phenomenal job, it was not a knock on them at all. Um and everybody really kind of liked the one that I come up with, which was full strength at the time. And I think for the reasons that you said, is exactly why it works, right? Our company's purpose is to empower people to live their lives at full strength. And so, you know, it means that's your purpose, and that's that can be your name at the same time. Like, yeah, it just seemed very powerful to us um as a team that that's the direction that we needed to go for. And it just creates a lot of alignment as a company now. Like, there's no confusion, like solutions, physical therapy. Like, yeah, you have lots of solutions, or full strength physical therapy. Every day I know what my purpose is, right? It's in the name, it's on my shirt, you know, it's on everything what we're what why we're here and doing this. So that's what my goal's got to be, right? Yeah, and that's that's why we really liked it.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

I love that. Yeah, and I like the way that you really approach that too, which is you got to be thoughtful, methodical, you really got to evaluate research. It's not it's not something that you just go haphazardly into and it's oh, we're just gonna redain, right? I I think there has to be a lot of thought and decision making behind it. And you obviously did your work towards it and investment towards that too, hiring a professional rebranding company and and um you know, kind of walking through that whole process there to do that. And and I'm curious, um, because part of rebranding a business, right, especially for our physical therapy business, we're thinking about our audience, we're thinking about our purpose and our vision of our business and where we're trying to go. I'm curious, you know, where where solutions uh had started and where it had evolved to. Did you start to serve more and more of the you know, athletic um audience out there, the public, and kind of more sports performance and kind of go in that direction? Was that part of the rebranding thought process too? Like trying to capitalize on that?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Not so much. I think um we've always had a segment of the bit, we've always been a good mix of orthopedic general outpatient orthopedic physical therapy and some return to sports patients, right? Some high school athletes. Um, we do, I think, wanted to solidify that a little bit more and make sure that we kept that. But it wasn't that it wasn't we didn't make the name change because we said, hey, we're gonna make a big push into sports performance and sports uh rehab. Um, we wanted to solidify our presence there, and so that was a a uh kind of a background thing that we want to make sure that our new name kind of helped us with that. Um but I think the bigger thing is, you know, if you look at trends in healthcare and in health in particular, I think we are at a point now where physical therapy is really at a key crossroads where we have a huge opportunity with people that now want to be more proactive in their health, right? The expectation for a lot of people, particularly in in higher income markets like we're in right now, um, but I think expanding throughout the country slowly is that you know, I want to live at full strength, right? Like I don't want to just make it to 90 or 95. You know, there's a lot of luck, that whole longevity market is out there now where people want to be make it to 90 and 95, but live like they're still 60, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Um, you know, how much of that is realistic or not is debatable, but um the goal is is moving in that direction. And so I think that's something I'm pretty passionate about. I have parents that are that are 70 in the 70s now, and you know, I'm trying to help them. You know, they they my dad's 70, and he's outside playing basketball with my kids right now. I think that's that's where I want to be at, right? When I'm 70, maybe hopefully being a little bit a little bit better still than where he's at right now. But um you know, that's what they want. And I know my mom particular was you know going around their physical therapy for her knee, and you know, you know, at one point she was saying, Hey, you know, I I need I need to be push harder, right? Because she was ready to quit um because she didn't think she was just kind of doing the same exercises over and over again. She lives up in Pennsylvania. Um and uh and I was talking with her and said, Well, are you doing this? You're doing that. And so then she asked her therapist about those things, and then I think you know the light bulb kind of clicked on there, and it's like and and and to his credit, you know, he realized that this was someone that was different. You know, that area hasn't in particular is not the same area we're here in northern Virginia, where the expectation is, you know, I want to be 60 and running marathons or 70 and you know, doing a lot of cycling and staying really active. There's a little bit of a different mindset culturally in Western PA, you know, where where my where my parents live in terms of what to expect with aging. They're not really pushing that boundary as much as people in more urban areas are. Um but that's kind of where we wanted to go. It's like, hey, that's that's the mindset that I want to have for our therapists and our patients as we as we grow.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Love it. I would say that that's that's exactly, you know, if you're thinking about rebranding, if you're kind of thinking about where you want your practice to go, like it's all about your audience, it's all about your customer, right? And so you you know, in like Northern Virginia, very heavily populated area, very you know, affluent areas of the country too. And so we have in the next four years, the health and wellness industry is going to reach $3 trillion. It's just growing and growing and growing. Like you said, people want to invest in their health, they want to live longer, but live healthier, right? They they want to move their bodies more, and there's so much investment by the public in that. So we have an incredible opportunity in physical therapy to serve that industry, to serve that market. And we've got to go beyond where we were uh, you know, a decade ago, which was to be more just general, outpatient, or recovery, your physician gives you a referral, and there you go do some PT and you're done. Like we have to go beyond that model. And I many people like you are at the forefront now of going beyond that and making the practice into this evolution, right? This hybrid model of PT, uh, you know, insurance, cash-based, health and wellness. We've got to do that, right? And and and I think the more I see clinics uh you know embrace that and serve their their public and their communities and their audience in that level, the more successful they are. And so I think clinics that are stuck in that older model, they're struggling, right? They're continuing, like, like it's harder to attract talent that wants to work in those kind of facilities. It's harder to obviously be profitable because you're so heavily reliant on insurance companies and you're not having these um adjacent uh programs that you can have in your practice. So you have to evolve your business and your practice to the times and take advantage of these huge opportunities that you have in the market because someone else is gonna take advantage of it if you aren't. So I think part of looking at that is if you do have that older model in your business, maybe it's the naming, maybe it's the look, the feel, your marketing, everything that's there. Like that could be a great opportunity with the rebranding. And I think seeing what you've done with your rebrand really has gone in that direction to capitalize on that market. So uh, you know, kudos to you for doing that. It's been fantastic to see. Just kind of curious, you know, it you know, rebranding takes a lot of research, work. It's also uh it's a risk, right? You're changing your name and all stuff. So, how did you address that risk or concerns, maybe from the team also in terms of rebranding the practice?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah, well, I think I definitely did my homework first in terms of, you know, I talked with a couple other therapy uh a couple practice owners that I knew who had gone through the process just to kind of see you know why they did it and and you know get a sense for what to expect, right? Um, and I think it was it was definitely one of the best decisions I made was to talk to them first, right? And then I also ultimately got some recommendations for some other companies to to look at and speak to from a branding agency standpoint. Um but that was the biggest thing is like I I wanted to make sure that I had gotten some personal experience from other people um so I kind of knew what I didn't know. Because this in this area particular was something I there was a lot of areas that a lot of things that I didn't know, right? Going into it. Um and so having some background that way was helpful. And then communicating to the team, um you know, we started the process, and I I honestly I can't remember when we communicate the the lead our leadership team, our clinic directors and our administrative manager and our and our marketing team um knew earlier on in the process that we were doing it. Um and then probably I think it was in August of 25 that we really communicated to the full team what was going on in the background. Um I could be wrong on that. It might have been a little bit earlier than that, but not a time. Um just so everyone knew what the process that this was happening and and the why behind it. And I think that was that was important. Yeah. And then it set the stage for whenever we actually did kind of a brand reveal to the to the full team. Um and uh it and and it made it you know easy, I think, to communicate at that point and and more of an exciting thing for them versus a scary thing for that was the big goal that we had was like we want this to be something that generates a lot of excitement for the team because we wanted to accelerate accelerate and generate a lot of momentum for us as a company. And so um we wanted to create that energetic vibe for the team as well, so that they were excited about what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

I love that. Did you I'm curious if you the way that you structured the reveal to the team and probably starting with the leaders first and then go through it? Because I mean, one of the things you can get a lot of input from different people and different ideas and and and they may not all align. So, how did you navigate that, right? Where people like, oh, I don't like that, or I don't like this, you know, and I'm just kind of curious how that went.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yeah, I think the key, the key thing is always keeping in mind, like like Stephen Covey says, begin with the end of mind, right? Like know where you want to finish and what you want the vision to be, and then take we took input for sure, right? But at the end of the day, it was Christina and my decision, you know. Uh, you know, it was our decision on what the final final say was. But you know, I I also value really valued the input. A lot of these people who worked for us for years, right? So they knew they understood what was happening on in the clinic on a daily basis, so they understood how we wanted the how we wanted care to be provided. They wanted they understood the emotion that we wanted people to experience when they were inside our clinics, but also whenever they were just seeing our name out on the street, right? And so I think we were fortunate that we had a good team that was aligned pretty strongly about where we wanted to go. And I think that was super helpful too, having that internal alignment. We had some some disagreements here and there, um, for sure about things, but then at a certain point, you know, as a leader, we got to pick a path and go with it. And then everybody really got on board once we did that.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Awesome. And so there's there's the marketing component, right? That the the PR, the the the rebrand itself, right? And then all the marketing stuff that has to happen from that. I'm curious too. Was there all did you also have to impact uh any insurance contracts or any kind of like financial stuff? Was that part of changing the name too?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah, so we did have to do that. So we just um we had to make sure that all the payers were aware of the name change. What we did too is we didn't change the legal name. So we just we uh we our legal name is still Solutions Physical Therapy and Sports Messenger. Um, but our doing business as name is full strength physical therapy. So some things we did have to change, some things we didn't, just it sometimes depended on on attorney preference in some situations, to be honest. But with the payers, we definitely changed the name because we we want to make sure that we were on the payer list as full strength physical therapy so there was no confusion there. Yeah, um, so we definitely made those changes uh with with all of the payers. And it's it really wasn't that hard. You just had to go to the the their you know, hop on Pico's, hop on uh all the payer websites and and make those changes. Um and generally speaking, it went smoothly. Uh there were some issues with some some uh difficulty with United Health at times where they were telling people we were out of network and we and and they told us that we weren't. They would say tell patients that we were out of network, but they told us that we were in network, and so their systems weren't you know uh weren't talking together well. Yeah. Um so I'm sure you can imagine uh that happened anyway.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Problems with United Healthcare? What?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

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SPEAKER_01 19:40

So after after you went through this whole process, right? And and obviously the rebranding of website, rebranding of LE Marketing. Um, kind of curious with the launch of the new brand, how what's the impact been like on the practice? Did it affect how like patient perception, referrals, marketing performance, teen culture? Like, can you kind of walk us through that? The impact of it?

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, you know, in terms of patients' response, it's was oh it's been really, really positive. Um, there were a few patients that, you know, uh had been with us for years and years and years that were, you know, that were just you know, kind of missed at the old name, I guess, a little bit. Um, but you know, they've all kind of gotten on board now with it. And um, and over overwhelming the response has really been positive. Um, and people get it too, right? Like, and most people got it. They're like, you know, one person I was working with actually said um we told her the name. She like, she said, I like it. You know, the goal is the name. I said, Yeah, that's exactly what we're going for, right? Um, so that was really positive. The the team, a lot of energy around it. Um, the team response was really positive too. It just feels more modern and more up to date than what the old name did. I think that's a lot of it right there. Um, but then it also is something that we can kind of reinforce um again, our purpose as we're as we're you know, on a daily basis, really, because it's it's built into the name. Um, so the response is overwhelmingly positive.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Yeah, I love that. And you know, one thing that I I think you've done very well over the years, and and I think this is part of part of your success too, is really your investment in your the look and feel of your brand, right? From your website to your marketing materials, you you do a lot too with making sure that you get great photography, videography within the clinic, and you promote that out there, and you can definitely see that through the website. So, for our audience out there, if you go to fullstrengthpt.com, you can see you know Andy's uh website there. And it's it's really cool how how you really brought in telling the story through the clinic through imagery, right? And using that within that. And so, just kind of curious for you like how important has that been for you in your practice? Um, and and what would you say to another practice owner there that that doesn't really do a lot with getting photography with within the clinic?

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yeah, I think um We made something we made a very concerted effort on to be to be to improve with this. I think we felt like our our old brand had gotten stale from a from a photography standpoint, color standpoint, name standpoint, the whole thing. Um and um so you know, getting professional photography um to to go with the the website rebr uh re remake for the rebrand was important for us. Um and then the types of imagery that we got um to to kind of show what we want to convey that portrait purpose, I think was really important too. Um and then getting uh you know a diversity of ages and ethnicities and those types of things are important for us uh to really reflect our our customer base.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Um it's really important, I think, and we're gonna probably switch up what we had done. I think do that again on a more regular basis as well, just to keep things fresh. I think that's something that we're we're we're actually planning right now a little bit of for how often we're gonna do those kind of updates um from a photography standpoint. Uh so yeah, I think it's super important to keep that momentum there. And I think you know, branding in particular is something that I've spent a lot paid a lot more attention to, I think, over the past two years, you know, in terms of again, when we started thinking about the name, like what is that emotion, right? The brand, you think about the great brands, the brands create an emotion in their customer, right? And that's what we want to try to do is really pay attention to what is the emotion that we're creating to create that connection with our customer going forward.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, so it's not just a name, it's not just a picture, it's not just a logo. I mean, we we have this misconception all the time that, oh, I'm gonna rebrand, I'm just gonna create a new logo, maybe a new name, right? And that that's not it, right? That's not your brand. Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Uh so like you said, that emotion, what's what it, what is, what is it telling them? What do they think about when they hear your name or see your site, right? That's that's the big part of it. So there's a big thought process through that. And you, and just the way that you've told us, like the research that you put into that and the effort that you put into that, like there's a lot that goes into that whole process. So that the the marketing part, right? The things that you're creating, like the pictures that you're gonna get, the video that you're gonna get, the the font that you're gonna use, the colors that you're gonna use, the logo that you're gonna use, like that's just the mechanics, right? But what like you say, what's the underlying why and what's what are you trying to accomplish emotionally in your audience or who you're trying to serve in your audience? And so if you're if you're going after, you know, uh sports performance, athletes, active adults, like the the colors, the looks, the feels, what how you say it, the fonts, like that has to spark that emotion of being competitive, wanting to get back to full strength, you know, being the best that you can be, right? Um if you're uh if you're a women's health clinic, it's gonna be very different. Imagery, colors, you know, soothing, confidence, um, you know, femininity, like that's part of like women's health clinics, pediatric clinics. It's gonna be fun, vibrant colors, it's gonna be imagery of kids having fun. Like, so you got to really know who you're trying to serve, and then everything else has to align to create that emotion, like you're saying, from uh from all your marketing, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Yeah, and and and our uh the agency that we worked with, Rugged, is the name of a couple of the company, they did a great job with our uh really putting bringing that to life in terms of once we kind of pick the name, you know, creating a great logo, great brand guidelines from a color scheme and how the photography should look and all of those types of things. So it was really a really good investment to do something very professional like that when we did it. Um, you know, because now we kind of piecemealed things a little bit before, but now we've got a very cohesive brand guidelines uh template that we can use to apply to in new locations, you know, print, email, uh, social media, all those types of things.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah. What was the name of the company, Andy?

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Uh rugged is the name of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Rugged, okay, yeah. So and I think this is like an important point here that maybe you can speak to, Andy. Also, is like you've grown your business, and I think you've done something very smart here, which is that knowing that you're not the expert in branding, right? And you're not the expert in digital marketing and SEO and all this stuff, right? Like you're a great business owner, practice owner. You know how to get people better, you know how to lead other people to get people better. But this is something that I've learned a lot too as I've grown in business that you seek advice from specialists and experts to help strengthen what you can offer in your business. And so going through this rebranding process, to me, you did a very smart thing, which is that you looked for external help to guide you in this elaborate process of rebranding your business, right? And so, uh, and then obviously we help you uh from the website creation and uh the SEO, the Google ads, the analytics and the tracking, like all this kind of stuff too. So just kind of speaking to that a little bit, because we do see practice owners that try to do everything themselves, or they they just maybe have a marketing director that tries to do everything themselves in clinic, and I see they hold themselves back because they don't they don't get that expert help um because they try to DIY stuff too much themselves.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Yeah, I made that mistake a lot. So you know I try to learn from those mistakes. Uh sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Um, but for something like this, like this was gonna be a huge deal, right? Like this is a this was a make or break moment, this wasn't amateur hour, right? So um this was the situation where it was I knew it was gonna be an investment and it was gonna be expensive. Um, but you know there's a time to there's a time to do it to do it yourself and a time to bring in professional help, and this was the time to bring in the professionals. Um you know, changing the name, re doing the rebrand, you know, this is something that's gonna affect us. We're setting the stage for the next 10 years. Um so now's the time to to definitely bring in some professional help to help us with that. Yeah. We also we also uh hired a fractional CMO to help basically manage the product project for us, which was great. Um, she did an outstanding job just because she had gone through the process before, right? So she knew things that I didn't know that that you know when you're working with a branding agency that that was a great resource for me, that I probably would have made some mistakes. Um and Ruggie did a great job, so not through no fault of their own, but just mistakes that I would have made just by not having the knowledge that she had, right? So um that combination for us was super helpful.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

So smart, so smart. Yeah, and I mean I absolutely love it when uh practice owners have a CMO, like a fractional CMO, or they have a marketing director in the clinic, or they have a again a uh a branding company that they want us to work with. And so, because we're we're bringing our expertise, right, and obviously the website bills, the SEO, the digital marketing, and all that kind of stuff there. But you do need that that decision process and guidance um from those specialists, right? And like you said, this is a large change for your practice, a large investment. So I think for for practices out there, just realize that it's okay to get help, right? In in taking your clinic to that next level, you need guidance, right? You need experts to help you with that. Uh just kind of curious, too, like obviously working through that whole process, obviously having your uh fractional CMO, having the um the branding company there. How did that work with us in rebuilding your website?

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Yeah, so it was great. So uh, you know, working with practice promotions and uh Shelly in particular, I think was was the the our main point of contact. Um we had a very rugged uh rugged had developed for us a very cool looking template for a website. Um and so we were uh able to really work with your team and Shelly to help us get that um bring that vision to life um through through practice promotions. And um, you know, there was a lot of you know back and forth and and trying to get things right and and the um the effort that your team put into to making sure we got things right to the vision that we wanted was was really helpful. Um and I think uh they they did a lot of work with us to customize the site to to what we were we wanted and what our expectations were.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Love it, love it. And I mean we've gone through together a few different uh redevelopments of of your sites over the years and well, I got probably like every three or four years, something like that, that we've done it, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, I think I think this was this is the third uh third revamp that we've done. And this was obviously the biggest for a lot for obvious reasons, but yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

So that's one of the key things too for our audience out there is that your website is like a key part of your business. It's your digital storefront, right? And so just like if you had a you you with your physical storefront, it it ages, right? And you need to you need to redevelop your storefront uh every so often. Um, and especially in the digital world, things just evolve, the market changes, like you know, you what you're doing with your business, who you're going, who you're trying to serve, uh like all that evolves and changes over time. But especially in the digital world, the the platforms change so fast. The way that you know AI is scraping websites now, the way that Google is scraping websites, that just evolves and changes so rapidly. Like every month there's something different. So if you're if your website is you know more than three years old, you it's like operating off an iPhone 8 versus an iPhone 17. And just think about that. So it is really critical that you do consider the redevelopment of your digital storefront, your website, about every three years. You know, it's it's a good practice to do. It gets you up to the latest coding and necessities for online softwares, um, how people interact through their, you know, their phones on your website, all those kind of things are impacted by the age of your website. So it's something that's dynamic, it's something that needs to change, it's not just something you put up. And going through a rebrand, of course, is in a critical time for uh updates in the website. But even if you're keeping your same name, the the redevelopment of your site is a good opportunity for the latest coding, but also an opportunity for you to refresh who you are. Like where are you at now, three, four years later, than when you were when you had that website you know built or redeveloped at that time. So I think it's a great um you know thing for you to think of in continually moving your business forward and the brand of your business moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

I think one of the other things too is making sure like it's never really done, right? Like we're always looking at what what do we need to update, what should we what should we be improving with it. Yeah. And yeah, I can probably make list five things that I want to change right now, not because of, and that's just because like we're there are things that, hey, we could make this better, right? And so I think it's it should be a living kind of document, not like this static thing that, hey, we're done and we're not gonna touch it again for three years. Yeah. And that is helpful too, I think.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

That's that's absolutely a hundred percent correct. It's a living thing, right? And it's a reflection, it's a direct representation of what is happening in your business, in your practice, right? Because you come up with adjustments to your programs, obviously, your uh new therapists are coming on board or they're going. Um, the way that you have new certifications or things that you're doing, or or if uh you add a location, right, or you change spots, things like that are always evolving, changing within your business. So your website should reflect that too, right? And that's why I think it's super important that at least, at least once a year you have professional photography come in so you can get updated uh imagery to reflect what's new in the practice, how you're changing and your business is evolving always. Uh how you reflect in that within your website, within your marketing, within your social media. Um, so it's very, very critical to have that updated imagery. I know that you've done a great job with that over the years. Um and so kind of just switching gears here a little bit, as part of also the what you've done for a long time and then kind of going into full strength physical therapy. Um, I know that you've done Google Ads as part of your marketing strategy. So just kind of curious, what was your decision process into investing in Google Ads and kind of like what you've seen the impact of that over time?

SPEAKER_02 34:27

Well, Neil, we started with you uh on Google Ads back in COVID, actually. I think it was uh summer of 2020 that we started Google Ads. And um, so obviously at that point in time everybody's trying to bring business back, right? And so Google Ads was a was a huge factor for us and super helpful for us in in you know in regaining and coming back from from uh from COVID. And then we've always maintained that ever since as a as a key part of our of our strategy. And when we got to rebrand now, you know, one of the things that I the pieces of feedback I got from people that from practice owners who had done the rebrand was was um different strategies to try to avoid the dip. Everyone I talked to had saw a dip in their new patient volume in the months after the rebrand. Um and so we were trying to say how can we mitigate that? And we were prepared for uh a decrease in new new patients to come for a couple months if necessary as part of that rebrand. We wanted to minimize that. And so uh making sure that we increased our Google Ad budget was one of the big things that we looked at uh and making sure that we did kind of post-rebrand. We didn't really think we started the the increase uh the week before actually the week of go live for the rebrand was when we really ramped up that Google Ad budget uh so that um we timed our name change with the website change and the Google ad push because we were really worried about the SEO drop. Um and then when people searched for us not being able to find us. So we we did a couple things. Uh obviously uh we are now I think our Google ads, our Google Local still says full strength physical therapy, formally solutions, physical therapy in sports and medicine. So we made sure that we try to drive the connection there. Our Google ads made made that connection as well. Um and uh and those were the those were two of the things that we did to help make sure that we didn't drop. Um we obviously messaged it through we message through direct mail, through fax actually to physic to physician referral sources. Um we message it via email to our to our email list, social media. So we hit pretty much every channel that we could. Um Google Ads is a very important piece of that though. And we saw um what we actually saw was we actually did not take a hit at all in terms of our new patient. Our new patients actually grew after the rebrand. Nice. Um our our local SEO actually improved after the rebrand. Um our organic SEO took a hit. Um, but again, part of the Google Ad growth was to get that name up to to keep that name in front of people while your organic SEO was was kind of recovering.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Um, and so it was a big part of our strategy to to do that. And it was successful. Uh, clearly, we we saw no drop-off in new patients, it actually grew our new patient volume. Uh, well done.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Well done. I mean, that's just so perfect, right? I mean, um when you go through a rebrand, sometimes that's not considered that well as the uh the impact of the rebrand. We think, oh, well, we're gonna pull in this new audience, we're gonna do this. That's a long-term thing that will happen, right, from the rebrand, but there's a short-term change, right? There's a short-term pain that happens. And like you said, like you you heard that there's a there's a natural dip that's gonna come because people don't know the new name. And you gotta try to obviously get that new name in front of them as fast as you can and get them to connect, and that takes some repetition. So you did the right thing, which is like, okay, we know that we're gonna change the name, there's gonna be this rebrand, there's gonna be a dip, right? Because Google has in Google's world, it's it is a new company almost, so you gotta give it a little time to recover, uh, get used to you, but you can supplement that with Google Ads, direct mail, social media, and like getting your name out there. So there's there is an initial investment to your rebranding, and that is that you just have to outflow a lot more temporarily to kind of offset that natural dip that's gonna occur. It might take two or three months of a of a time frame, but uh it's part of that strategic planning ahead of the rebrand is like, okay, how are we gonna mitigate and prevent this natural dip that will occur? And we need to offset that with more outflow. So kudos to you for a great job thinking about that and planning through it. Thanks. Awesome. And so uh just kind of curious, now that full strength physical therapy is rocking and rolling, kind of what's what's the future look like for you? What are some of your big goals for this year and next year?

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Yeah, well, uh we are uh we just uh started construction today on a fourth location. Uh more announcements come later by social media and email. But um, so we're pretty excited about that. And you know, we want to continue to grow the company um and provide more opportunities for our team and our uh and opportunities to to help you know treat pay people in our community and help them live at full strength, right? That's what we're all about. You know, we've got a couple uh other team members right now that you know have expressed interest in continuing to grow into some leadership roles. And so um we want to make sure that we have those opportunities for for those people on our team that want to take that next step. And so growth is a big part of where we're gonna go go going forward.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

I love it. I have no doubt that you're gonna get there quickly. So it's really exciting to hear. And just kind of curious, you know, obviously we've been working together for a long time here. Um, you know, how's practice promotions helped you in your in your practice over the years?

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Yeah, I think that you guys have been super, like we talked about, very responsive with helping us develop the website. And anytime we need to make edits, we always get great feedback from from the team and um and responsiveness from from your team as well. Um, and you know, I really appreciate when you came to me back in 2020 with the to to mention, hey, we're gonna start this Google Ads program. Would you like to be, you know, try this out with us? And um, so that was huge. I really again appreciate you coming to me to be one of your your test companies on that. Um, but you know, I think the key thing is trying to find someone that really can help you as a partner in your business. And I think practice version has really done a great job of that with us. Um, and whenever we need something, you know, on uh the Google Ads front, on you know, SEO, um, you know, website redevelopment, uh, your team has always been there to help us out. So I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Awesome. Thank you so much, Andy. Appreciate that. And sir, if if our audience wants to connect with you, is it great for them to reach out through LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, totally. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah, so it's uh Andrew Soterikos uh with Full Strength Physical Therapy. Check him out on LinkedIn and go to fullstrengthpt.com, check out their rebrand, it's amazing. They've done a fantastic job with it. Super exciting to see uh what where they're at now, and I'm so excited to see where you're gonna be uh in the future here as you get uh to full strength in your business. So, Andy, thanks so much for being on the podcast with us and giving your uh expertise to us.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

Thanks, I really appreciate it. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Awesome. And to our audience today, thank you so much for being on the Practice Marketing Podcast. Hope you got a lot out of today's conversation with uh Andy and full strength physical therapy. Don't forget to like and subscribe to our podcast for more future episodes, as well as check out our YouTube channels where all these interviews live, as well as other useful tips. And of course, on practicepromotions.net, where we've got tons of useful marketing ideas and advice for you there that's completely free. So this is uh Neil Trickett from the Practice Marketing Podcast, wishing you much success in your practice.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

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