3 Marketing Tasks You Can Automate This Week (And Why You Should)

By Bruce Klaic (MBA)   Thursday, June 26, 2025

For small clinics under NDIS pressure, time is money. Let’s save both.

If you’re running a small physio or allied health clinic in Australia right now, you’re probably feeling it.

The new NDIS pricing changes (effective 1 July 2025) mean you’ll be getting paid less to deliver the same level of care. Travel has been capped, funding categories have shifted, and the pressure to stay compliant, efficient, and fully booked has never been higher.

So here’s the reality:

If you want to keep your doors open and your team focused on care — not paperwork — you need to automate what you can.

The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your whole clinic or buy expensive software.

You can start with just 3 marketing and admin tasks — this week.

Automate Your Appointment Reminders (And Stop Bleeding Time to No-Shows)

Every missed appointment is money out the door — and under NDIS, you often can’t charge for it unless strict criteria are met.

What to automate:

1. SMS or email reminders sent 48 and 24 hours before every booking
2. “Add to calendar” links included in confirmation messages
3. Follow-up prompts for patients who haven’t rebooked after 4–6 weeks

Tools that do this well:

• Power Diary (built-in reminders, calendar sync, rebooking prompts)
• Nookal, Cliniko, or Splose (configurable automation flows)
• SMS integrations via MessageBird or Twilio if your PMS doesn’t do it

Why it matters:

1. You reduce no-shows without chasing people manually
2. You stay compliant with NDIS cancellation rules
3. You get more rebookings, without lifting a finger

Quick tip: Want to go further? Send automated check-in emails 2 months after discharge — it's a great way to reactivate patients who’ve dropped off the radar.

Automate Your NDIS Billing & Invoice Follow-Ups

Admin is the silent killer in NDIS-heavy clinics. Between service bookings, travel logs, non-face-to-face time, and bulk invoicing — it’s easy to lose hours (and payments).

What to automate:

• Service-to-invoice workflows — once a session is marked complete, the invoice is generated
• Batch invoicing for Plan Managers
• Overdue invoice reminders (emailed or SMS’d automatically after X days)
• PRODA-connected workflows for bulk claims

Tools that help:

• Splose: Purpose-built for NDIS, auto-invoicing and PRODA integration
• Halaxy: NDIS invoice templates, scheduled reminders
• Xero + PMS integrations: For automated reconciliation and follow-ups
• Zapier (for advanced users): Connect bookings to invoicing or emails

Why it matters:

• You shorten your payment cycle without adding admin staff
• You stay compliant with the new NDIS Price Guide formats
• You don’t forget to chase payments — the system does it for you

Automate Your New Patient Follow-Ups and Content

Marketing doesn’t always mean ads — sometimes it just means showing up consistently.

What to automate:

1. Welcome emails after a first appointment (with intake tips or links to resources)
2. Rebooking nudges 4–6 weeks after discharge
3. Monthly educational emails (e.g. “5 tips for managing back pain at home”)
4. Scheduled Facebook posts with clinic updates or rehab advice

Tools that help:

• Mailerlite, ActiveCampaign, or HubSpot for patient email flows
• Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram post scheduling
• Canva + Content Studio for batching and scheduling content
• Cliniko/Nookal email templates to automate common follow-ups

Why it matters:

• You stay top-of-mind without manually emailing people every week
• You re-engage past patients with helpful info (not salesy junk)
• You build trust — and trust leads to referrals
• You don’t need to “do marketing.” You just need to stay visible, stay helpful, and let automation handle the rest.

Wrap Up: Small Changes = Big Time Saved

You're not trying to build a marketing empire. You're trying to run a clinic, care for your clients, and survive under tightening funding.

So start small:

1. Pick one task this week — maybe SMS reminders or follow-up emails
2. Set it once
3. Let it run in the background
4. Then move on to the next. That’s how real automation works.

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If you’re feeling the pressure, Give us a call :)

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