Marketing coordinator, agency or do it yourself?
Three honest options for a physio or chiro clinic. Each one is right for some clinics. Here is how to tell which is yours.
- Numbers you can check
Our figures come from a public scan of clinic homepages, and we publish how we counted.
How we count - Your accounts stay yours
Your domain, website and online profile are in your name from day one.
How we work - Month to month
No long contract. Thirty days’ notice, and your accounts and numbers stay with you.
Read the FAQ - No patient information needed
We work on your website, profiles and settings. Patient records stay in your clinic.
Privacy policy
Match the option to your clinic, not to a sales pitch
- Do it yourself fits when you have more time than money and are happy to learn.
- Hire in-house fits when you have enough marketing work for a full-time person and the budget to support them.
- Use an agency fits when you want specialist work done without managing it, and you can’t justify a full hire.
Many clinics mix: an in-house front-desk lead who handles reviews and replies, with outside help on the website and Google.
Do it yourself: cheapest in cash, expensive in hours
What it is good for
- Small clinics that are full or nearly full.
- Owners who like writing and enjoy tinkering.
- Getting the basics right at no cost. Most of our online profile checklist takes twenty minutes.
Where it struggles
- Marketing is the first thing dropped on a busy week.
- You are learning from blog posts while treating patients.
- Without tracking, you won’t know what is working.
A fair rule: do the no-cost basics yourself. Get help when the work stops moving.
Hire in-house: more control, a bigger commitment
What it is good for
- Clinics with several locations or a steady stream of events, content and community work.
- Having someone who knows your people and your culture.
- Fast changes, because they sit in your building.
Where it struggles
- One person is rarely a web developer, a search specialist, a writer and an ads manager at once. Good coordinators are strong in some of these and weaker in others.
- Salary, benefits, software and training are ongoing costs, and it takes months to see whether the hire works.
- If they leave, the knowledge often leaves with them. Make sure every login is in the clinic’s name from day one.
- Management time. Someone has to set goals and check the work.
Agency: specialist skills without the payroll, if you choose well
What it is good for
- Specialist skills you would not hire full time: web, local search, ads, reporting.
- Starting fast, with a process that has already been tried.
- Flexing up or down with your needs.
Where it struggles
- It still needs management. You still need to approve work and give timely answers.
- Some agencies lock you in, keep the website, or report on vanity numbers.
- A generalist agency may not know how a clinic works.
How to choose well: ask who owns the accounts, how long the contract is, what you will see each month, and who does the work. Our list of questions to ask any agency is a good start. Also read how to choose a clinic marketing agency.
Not sure where your clinic stands? We’ll look at it the way a new patient does and send a short written report. No pitch.
A quick comparison
| Do it yourself | In-house coordinator | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash cost | Lowest | Ongoing salary and costs | Monthly fees, varies |
| Your time | High | Medium (management) | Low to medium |
| Range of skills | What you learn | One person’s skills | Specialist skills |
| Speed to start | Slow | Slow (hire and train) | Fast |
| Risk if it goes wrong | Time wasted | Hard to undo | Depends on contract |
| Best for | Small, nearly full clinics | Bigger groups with lots to do | Clinics that want results without managing a team |
The hybrid that suits many clinics
- A front-desk lead handles reviews, replies and the monthly photo.
- An outside team handles the website, booking set-up, online profile and pages.
- The owner reads one page of numbers a month.
That puts the daily work with people who know your patients and the specialist work with people who do it all the time.
Where Packed Book fits
We are an agency, so weigh our view accordingly. We work best with clinics that want the website, online profile and booking path fixed and kept working, without hiring or managing a team. If you are a bigger group with the budget and need for in-house marketing, we might still help on specific projects, or we might tell you to hire.
Everything we build is in your clinic’s name. If you later bring marketing in-house, you keep your domain, website content, online profile and accounts. Anything licensed from a third party stays under its own terms.