How to make your marketing targets meaningful
- What additional turnover am I looking to generate through my marketing?
- How many new patients should I target?
- Which areas of marketing need to pay off for me?
You have a choice when considering these critical questions.
You can pluck these figures out of the air. Or you can set meaningful targets which directly relate to the practice growth you desire.
You need to know what practice growth you are aiming for first of all. A good accountant will discuss your hopes and plans (both for your practice and your life), so that a financial forecast can be put together to fund your goals.
It’s when you have this forecast that you can start to make the targets you set for your marketing meaningful.
After all, a financial target can only be reached by doing the right things, in the right areas and having the right results on a day-to-day basis.
So, how do you convert these financial goals into driving and focusing on the right marketing activities during your daily work?
Here’s what to do
Assuming you are prioritising your patient experience to ensure you retain your existing patients (and you are, aren’t you?), you can reasonably expect to continue generating at least a similar level of sales.
Sure, there are external influences which may adversely affect the situation. Your accountant should work with you to minimise and mitigate these threats as much as possible.
Therefore, your ‘core’ sales figure will account for a proportion of your forecast revenue.
Any price increases you make will also contribute to the total. Make sure to consider raising your fees at least once a year, ideally just before your financial year-end, when you can review them alongside any pay rises you may be giving your team.
This leaves an amount of turnover you need to generate through ‘new business’.
You can target a slice of this turnover by highlighting where you have the potential to ‘cross-sell’ additional services and treatments to your existing patients. Be sure to check out my next blog, which will cover this marketing strategy.
Generate this via new patients.
So, how many new patients do you need? This depends on your average annual new patient spend. It pays you to conduct a review of the new patients you saw last year and calculate the average they spent.
Calculate this figure, and you will know how many new patients you need to convert to generate the remaining turnover.
Then look at your strongest marketing sources. Where do your new patients typically come from? Which sources are more successful for your practice?
You need a clear and separate strategy for converting new patients in each area, whether it’s from existing patients, your website, advertising, or social media activities.
Ensure you track the return on investment (ROI) from each area of marketing spend annually. You can then make comparisons with the previous year and calculate the revenue ‘gap’ that needs to be covered through new marketing activity.
Follow this process, and you will convert your financial goals into meaningful, relevant marketing targets to focus on with your team.
