Back in 2021, the folks at EW Motion Therapy made a choice. After a few bad experiences with agencies, they decided to bring all their marketing in-house.
This was not a decision made lightly, but it was right in line with company culture — and it shifted the direction of the business.
EW is a physical therapy and wellness company based in Alabama. Their team of professionals provides everything from post-surgery recovery care to strength training.
Over their first 20 years in business, the EW team built an impeccable reputation from great care and top-notch service. (Literally, they do not have a single Google review that’s not 5 stars.)
All the same, growth was slow over those 20 years. They’d get referrals from doctors’ offices and athletic trainers, but that was it. And while word-of-mouth is a testament to your reputation, it yields slow returns. As one member of the EW team put it: “There’s no way to scale if you’re living and dying by word-of-mouth.”
The key to bigger growth, they figured, was video — and they knew they could do video faster and better if they brought it in-house. For one, video was a multiplier. Rather than 1-1 service, a video could allow a single physical therapist to help more people, including people who couldn’t drive in for a visit.
And so, EW Motion Therapy made a choice: Bring marketing in-house and make video the centerpiece.
To do this they needed two things: A videographer and a coach.
Finding a videographer among your ranks
The process of bringing marketing in-house always involves some adaptation. At EW, this meant that Chris, a physical therapist, became the head of marketing and Noelle Salls, an IT specialist, became their videographer.
While these folks didn’t have much experience in their new roles, they knew EW in and out: its people, its culture, its clientele.
As for coaches, they chose IMPACT and Zach Basner, an accomplished videographer in his own right.
As Zach says, videographers don’t need a film school degree and a deep resume. In fact, your videographer doesn’t actually need video experience. If they’re hungry and quick to learn, they can get up to speed in no time. “If someone’s got the proper support and they’ve got the proper direction,” he says, “I think anybody can learn the technical skills.”
More important than skills, he says, is passion and aptitude, and Noelle had both.
Before getting started, Noelle was excited and nervous about taking on the new role.”I was very intimidated in the beginning,” she recalls. “But I knew that if I could be taught correctly, I could do whatever I needed to do.”
With the support of her team and the expertise of IMPACT, she was ready to get started.
Using video to answer questions
According to HubSpot, more than nine out of 10 people report wanting to see more videos from brands.
But for a service-based business like EW Motion Therapy, knowing exactly what kinds of videos people wanted was the first challenge.
The answer, said Zach, was to listen to their customers.
The EW team knew exactly what questions their patients tended to ask, so they started making videos that answered those questions. They made sure the videos were easy to find and easy to follow.
These videos provided expert answers that were hard to find elsewhere:
What are the best stretches for golfers to prevent injury?
Why am I struggling with plantar fasciitis?
Is tendonitis preventing me from getting a good night’s sleep?
Should I be concerned about clicking or popping joints?
Not only were these videos posted on YouTube, they were shared with patients as well. New patients would get “bio videos” to get to know their specialists before an appointment. Ahead of a session, a PT could “assign” a stretching routine. After an appointment, a patient could go home with a video that rehashes what they heard from their therapist so they didn’t forget it.
This is the “culture of video” that Zach and the IMPACT team was trying to instill.
Once it was fully up and running, Noelle and her team saw just how impactful this type of content could be: “It’s so powerful what we’re doing. It has completely changed our company.”
Going all-in on video
Late last year, the folks at EW Motion Therapy made another bold choice: rather than opening a new location (their seventh!), they decided to build a state-of-the-art video studio instead.
Considering their trajectory, this made perfect sense. After all, another location in Alabama would only expand their footprint so far. With a studio, the team can crank out content for anyone on YouTube. They can also live-stream therapy sessions to reach homebound and distant patients.
Zach sees this choice as groundbreaking. “No pioneer says things like ‘that might work for you over there, but that doesn’t work with us’”, he says. “No, they say, ‘how are we gonna do this?’ And that’s exactly what EW has done.”
With the new studio, the team suddenly has much bigger horizons. “EW motion therapy is gonna be the Peloton of the physical therapy space,” says Zach. “You just watch.”
Becoming a video-first company
It took EW Motion Therapy 20 years to open four locations in the Birmingham, Alabama, area. In the three years since they decided to bring their marketing in house, they’ve opened three more therapy centers.
Now, with the studio, EW Motion has the ability to help more people than ever before. Video, in Noelle’s view, has a way of connecting people, of building relationships. “That’s what we’re in the business of building: relationships.”
But this all started with a choice. EW Motion Therapy chose to bring its marketing in-house to make more authentic, helpful content for its audience. Now, a few years later, the team could not imagine going back to a agency that provided cookie-cutter solutions.
As we look to the future, it’s clear that video will continue to play a pivotal role in how businesses connect, educate, and build trust with their clients. When businesses embrace this truth and create a culture of video, they can utterly change their future.
