When I was growing up, one of the biggest daily family battles was what channel we were going to watch each night. For the longest time, we had 5 different people with 5 drastically different opinions on what was considered “good tv” and there were maybe a handful of times where everyone was, at the very least, content with watching the same channel. 

This was a problem until about 8 years ago when there was the rise of HGTV and let me tell you, THAT was something everyone in our house could agree on. I’ll never quite understand how we all came to an agreement on this channel -- maybe it was the incredible international home searches, the design elements of these homes that felt “DIY-able”, or the faces of these shows that you couldn’t help but love. 

But looking back at it, all of these shows were centered around this singular concept that can be applied to almost any aspect of life. It was the idea of investing into something, taking the time to fix it up and better it, and turning around to sell it for more than it was purchased for. 

It was ROI and we were all absolutely hooked on it. 

But as we all know, Return on Investment (ROI) wasn’t invented by HGTV, they just capitalized on it because it’s a simple concept to understand when the numbers are plain to see.

1. Buy a property for $250,000
2. Invest $50,000 into the flip
3. Sell for $375,000
4. Walk away with a $75,000 ROI

However, this can feel dicey when it comes to measuring other ROI’s, like marketing. Now the numbers aren’t always as clear as they are on HGTV, but it doesn’t mean they’re not there. As a practice, it’s important to be making smart decisions with your marketing funds. Keep in mind these 3 important factors when considering you investment:

1.) Are your efforts actually measurable?

The digital age we’re living in has given the marketing world an incredible opportunity to be precise with how we use our time, energy, and funds to yield the greatest results. We are able to customize our strategy to make sure we’re reaching the correct people at the correct time to have the optimal response, because we’re able to track and learn from our efforts.

For example, say your practice’s marketing budget has room to spend on either a billboard or a customized email campaign strategy. While it may be tempting to see your face on a billboard and feel like you’ve “made it”, there is simply no way to know how many people have seen the billboard, considered what it was advertising, and decided to act on it. 

With a customized email campaign strategy, you not only know exactly who is receiving it, but what percentage of that audience has opened the email AND as how many people have acted on what is being proposed. It’s smart, trackable, and according to Hubspot, can make you up to $38 dollars for every dollar spent on it.

2.) Are you listening to your audience?

It’s important to consider exactly who you want to reach in your marketing efforts because if you’re not speaking directly to your audience, they’re not going to listen. You need to make sure you’re getting as specific as possible in your targeting efforts to appear desirable and attainable to your audience.

According to WordStream, one of the worst things you can do is use a blanket statement when trying to reach your audience, as it generalizes your services and makes you blend in with every other practice. By catering to your audience’s pain points such as price, fear, or time, you’ll nurture their anxieties and find an accessible solution for them to want to come to your practice. 

3.) Are your efforts yielding results?

Marketing isn’t a “one and done” effort. When you’re first figuring out what marketing strategy is going to work best for your practice, it will require a bit of nurturing. This is to make sure you’re not wasting your time and efforts on a strategy that is actually costing you money instead of contributing to your ROI. 

When it comes to tracking marketing ROI, it’s important to know where your practice is starting in regards to patient retention, new patients, completed visits, and monthly production so you know what to base your efforts on. From there, it is crucial you check in with these numbers regularly to see if the time, money, and effort is contributing to your practice’s ROI and helping your growth. 

While it may be simple to continue a marketing effort because it’s easy for you, it’s smart to know when it’s time to adjust a strategy that no longer works for your practice.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s make a Fixer Upper of your marketing strategy and get you a measurable and effective ROI!

Published June 3, 2021 12:00 pm CST