How to Measure the Success of Marketing for Your Practice

There are many ways to boost the success of your health care practice’s marketing initiatives. A critical but often overlooked way is measurement. This article provides tips to help dental specialists and physicians measure the success of their marketing tactics, including referral programs.

In my experience, establishing a systematic process for measurement is a challenge for many practices. While most health care practices collect information on new patients, many don’t formalize the process with data that will help them make continuous improvements.

Ask the right questionsPatients won’t always remember how they heard of your practice. All the advertising messages we receive can run together. Let’s see how Janice in the pediatric dentist office of Dr. Swanson gathers this information from a new patient calling for an appointment. Janice has already gathered the treatment details.

Janice: “We’ll see your son on the 5th at 8:30 a.m., Paula. Can you tell us how you heard of Dr. Swanson? Were we referred to you?”

Paula: “We’re new to the area. We need a pediatric dentist, and your name came up. I was thinking of it the other day when I drove my sister to the dentist for an appointment. She likes her dentist but he doesn’t see many children.”

Janice: “We’re so glad that you found us. Do you remember where you first saw Dr. Swanson’s name? Did you do an Internet search? Or maybe you saw our eNewsletter?”

Paula: “That was it. Another mom forwarded me a copy of Dr. Swanson’s eNewsletter. I was reading through some of the articles, and I really liked the one about how to disinfect toothbrushes. My sister also mentioned that her dentist speaks highly of Dr. Swanson.”

Janice: “Wonderful. That is very helpful information.”

If Janice had stopped the conversation earlier, she wouldn’t know that Paula had learned of the practice from his eNewsletter, nor would she know of the fellow-dentist’s favorable comments. Asking the right questions is critical in measuring the success of your marketing programs.

Make the connection with referralsIf an infertility practice measures referrals in a similar way, they might see, for example, that $50 spent on lunch with a referring obstetrician brought four new patients and was money well spent.

Sometimes a direct correlation is more difficult. A prosthodontist who sends a referral newsletter to other practices may find it difficult to connect referrals to that newsletter.

But if the office staff measures referrals before initiating a program and then measures them again once the program is implemented, the impact can be measured.

Making sense of referral informationWhether you use Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets or practice management software, be sure to track referral and new patient information in a formal and repeatable manner. You’ll know the professionals who provide referrals with the highest dollar value, the services that are most often referred and other trends. You’ll also know which marketing tactics are most effective.

After tracking your referrals for a year, or even less, you should be able to easily identify trends. Incorporate these measurements into your marketing plan, and you’ll not only attract new patients on a continuous basis, but you’ll know which of your marketing efforts is most effective.

About the Author:

Steve Klinghoffer, with his wife, Lori, founded WPI Communications, Inc., a newsletter marketing firm, in 1984. He helps professionals market their practices through a wide range of editorial-based tools, such as client and patient newsletters, referral-generating newsletters and Web site content. Over the past 28 years, Steve has worked with thousands of physicians, dentists, physical therapists, accountants, attorneys, financial planners and other professionals to help them build their practices. For more information visit http://wpicommunications.com.