Let’s face it. We all wish that effective marketing was as easy as posting to Facebook or sending out a postcard. That just by making some effort patients and profit would come flooding in.
But it’s not.
So where should you start to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing strategy? With your patients. Analyze what they’re doing and how they’re interacting with your practice to see what’s worked—and what could use some tweaking.
Your website is a hotbed for patient data that you shouldn’t let go to waste. That’s where your analytics journey should start. Using something like Google Analytics can turn what appears to be random website visits into a view into the mind of your patients.
Analytics can show you what pages patients visit on your website, what percentage actually go on to book appointments, and demographic data to show you your target patient base as well as what groups of people you could be missing out on. (For example, maybe a lot of younger people visit your website but few convert to patients—you can address this with new marketing targeted to younger patients seeking a new dentist.)
Also, analytics are great for showing the success of various marketing campaigns. Did an email you send out bump up web traffic significantly? And, more importantly, did that extra web traffic lead to more actual patient interactions?
Not to mention, analytics from social media platforms can give you great insight into what your patients value from you. Check out your most liked and shared posts and try to emulate them in the future to make sure you’re consistently making positive connections.
Finally, track email specific analytics. Being aware of what affects open rate, click rate, and patient conversions is vital to making sure your carefully crafted emails inspire action in your patients—not get sent straight to the trash.
