Medical Practice Marketing: 4 Crucial Questions to Answer

1. Is my site ready?

Your practice’s website is the hub of the action. This is where all your efforts – digital ads, social media posts, even swag – should point toward. At a minimum, it must be mobile-ready, have updated contact and location information, and have current photos of providers and key staff. If your site is missing these elements, this is the place to begin.  

2. What are my differentiators?

What sets your practice apart from your competitors? Do you offer treatments or services that are unusual or rare for your location? Do you have advanced certifications or training? Can you offer patients appointments with minimal wait time? These differentiators should be the focus of your marketing messages.  

3. What is my budget?

A winning strategy requires plugging your own data into a few key marketing formulas to see if you have realistic expectations:  

• Revenue Per Patient: In other words, how valuable is each new patient to your practice? This is an effective way to determine the return on investment you need to make to achieve success. This number will vary across practices. Primary care practices have lower revenue but higher patient volumes than specialists, for example.  

The new patient is the end result. How do you get there? Start with:  

• Cost Per Click: The amount you have to pay Google, Facebook, or another channel every time someone clicks on your ad. If you have a budget of $10,000 per month for digital ads and you get about 1,400 clicks per month on your ads, that’s $7.14 per click (total spend/estimated clicks). 

• Average Lead Conversion Rate: The number of clicks to your site that result in an action, such as submitting a form to request an appointment. The average lead conversion rate for medical practices is about 3.6%, according to Unbounce. If yours is 4%, your 1,400 clicks per month would generate 56 conversions (1,400 * 4%). 

• Lead to Office Visit Rate: Say that 15% of your leads result in a patient making an office visit. That means you could expect about eight new patient visits per month (56 * 0.15) from your ad spending.  

• Booked Procedures Per Office Visit: The last step is to estimate the number of patients who will book a procedure based on their visit. If this is about 25%, you could expect your ads to bring in an average of two new patients (8 * 0.25) each month.  

Now that you have these estimates, you will have a better idea of how budget choices connect directly to revenue.  

4. What questions do my patients ask repeatedly?

Digital ads are just one element in a comprehensive medical practice marketing strategy. Social media posts and email newsletters are other ways to reach potential new patients and help them see the value in your services. That’s why omnichannel healthcare strategies are so effective – a mix of ads and content reinforce each other and maximize your investment. You don’t have to pay per click on a newsletter, but you do have to provide value.  

So, what do people want to read about or watch on social media? Think about it: Patients come to you for your expert opinion on the issues that matter most to them. These topics are also going to interest your potential patients as well. Answering these questions will make great content across your channels. 

Get the Experts on Your Side 

At WAX, we specialize in finding the patients you are looking for. Our M3D methodology identifies prospective patients who are seeking out providers, reading reviews, and studying up on diagnoses online. Then, we combine advanced digital tools and strong creative content to show them why you are the practice to give them the care they need. 

Want to see how we can do this specifically for your healthcare organization? Reach out and let’s get started today!