In the late 1980’s when we started our consulting company, marketing was just starting to become important. Before that, most healthcare professionals simply opened their doors, and if they were fairly good, their practice filled up quickly.
However, you may have noticed that things have changed over the years and marketing has become something you cannot afford to ignore if you want to have a fully booked, vibrant practice.
Additionally, you may be interested in using marketing tools to attract the kind of patients you want to treat. Tailoring a patient base is entirely a marketing matter.
How do you know if you need more marketing?
Signs you need more marketing
- Fairly stagnant growth
- Openings in your schedule
- Cancellations and no shows
- Difficulty finding good staff
- High staff turnover
- Payroll percentage above 50% of gross income
- Patient complaints
- No consistent expenditure on marketing
- Not enough new patients
- Low profitability.
Signs you are doing enough marketing:
- Fully booked out for 2 -3 weeks
- Practice growing nicely
- Enough new patients coming in
- Recall/reminder/recare system almost perfect
- Payroll around 30% of gross income
- 5-15% of income going to on-going marketing
- Happy staff who are productive and earning bonuses
- High level quality care to patient
- Few no shows and cancellations
- High profitability.
If you are not fully in the second picture above, you need to step up your marketing efforts. There are literally thousands of good and workable marketing ideas and tools and opportunities.
We have worked with over 1,700 healthcare professionals one-on-one and have an arsenal of marketing strategies that work every time. So don’t ever feel that marketing is “useless” or “doesn’t work”. Only how you do it or don’t do it influences the bottom line.
Check Low Or No Cost Marketing Strategies
