Affiliate Marketing for Physical Therapists in Private Practice
If you are like me, you hate the thought of feeling pressured to keep a patient in the clinic 3 more minutes so you can charge 1 more unit.
You hate the feeling of threatening patients with cancelation fees and no-show fees when they just don’t feel up to come to treatment.
Doing therapy the way therapy has always been done is for LOSERS!
Affiliate marketing offers therapists a way to increase passive revenue and as a result be less dependent on third-party reimbursement for profitability.
How does affiliate marketing work in physical therapy?
Affiliate Marketing for Physical Therapists
There are a hundreds if not thousands of affiliate programs available to physical therapists.
In a nutshell, the way affiliate marketing works is a business owner decides to pay you a percentage of sales or a flat referral fee when you send customers to the business’s website and that customer purchases a product.
For example, RangeMaster Shoulder Therapy has an affiliate program. Rather than buying and stocking pulley systems, I can just email my patient a home exercise program and within the program, I can embed an affiliate link to buy the shoulder pulleys. If my patient chooses to make the purchase, he can use my link and I receive a 10% commission on the purchase.
I never feel like I am pressuring my client to purchase. I disclose that it is an affiliate link and I will receive a small commission on the purchase, but that does not increase the cost of the item.
What are the best affiliate programs for physical therapists?
Amazon is by far the most popular affiliate program.
Pros: Easy and free to join. Lots of products to promote. Commission based on full cart value. They are amazing at upsells. Amazon has the customer’s credit card on file and a HUGE amount of consumer trust.
Cons: Low commission percentage. Only a 24-hour cookie. Easy to get kicked out of the program for not following their rules.
Shareasale is a large affiliate network with lots of different companies.
Pros: You are able to browse hundreds of retailers and service providers. You are able to apply to multiple affiliate programs and coordinate them all through a single dashboard.
Cons: You must be approved by each company you apply for. You must go to the Shareasale website to get affiliate links from each merchant’s account. You might be declined.
Thinkific is an online course hosting platform.
Pros: I love Thinkific and use it to host several of my online courses. They allow you to create a course for free and start selling that course without fees. The platform is easy to use and perfect for other therapists who may want to start selling digital products and home exercise programs. You can join the Thinkific affiliate program through Shareasale.
ClickBank is an affiliate program marketplace.
Pros: Physical therapists can search the marketplace for products related to health and fitness, sports, meditation, and much more. It is easy to navigate. They have affiliate programs for physical products as well as digital products. Commissions can range from 50% to 75% and more.
Cons: The sales pages are very scammy looking and the products might not be of the highest quality. Customers will easily request refunds for digital products which results in lost commissions.
How much money can a physical therapist earn with affiliate marketing?
* Here is a screenshot from my Amazon affiliate account for year to date January 01, 2021 to October 28, 2021:
* Here is a screenshot from my Amazon affiliate account showing you a list of the most popular items sold, the number of items shipped and the total commission paid.
* Here is a screenshot from my Thinkific account for digital courses sold between January 1, 2021, and October 28, 2021.
Disclosure – the screenshot below is not affiliate income. It is income from digital courses I have sold. But buy showing you how much I made in passive revenue from a handful of digital courses my hope is that you see the value and use my affiliate link to start creating your own digital courses on Thinkific.
For more information on how a physical therapist can earn more money take a look at these articles:
3 EASY Ways To Make More Money As A Physical Therapist in 2022
How do I add affiliate marketing links to my physical therapy website?
The following video tutorial will walk you through the process of finding Amazon affiliate links and adding them to your website.
As an affiliate marketer, one of my favorite things is to put the power of choice in my patient’s hands. I can recommend specific products, but I never want my client to feel pressured to buy that product.
When I create a webpage that has a home exercise program I can embed the affiliate links for recommended products then allow the client to decide if it is something he wants to buy or not.
Anthony Maritato, PT
Physical Therapist
As a private practice owner since 2001 and licensed physical therapist since 2006, Anthony Maritato, PT spends much of his time treating patients in the morning and teaching other therapists how to start and operate their private practice.
