Are you the Marketing Director or Coordinator at a private medical practice? Do you think a medical marketing agency can help? But…is your boss or business partner skeptical?
By now, you’ve probably figured out that your company needs to invest in digital marketing. You’ve probably ALSO learned that, no matter how great you are, no one person can be an expert at everything (SEO, Google Ads, Web Design, Email Marketing, Social Media, etc).
In this blog, we’ll show you how to make a business case for hiring a medical marketing agency.
Remember, marketing is an investment. You’re supposed to get back more than you need to put in. When you make a “business case”, you will need to prove to your partner or boss that hiring a marketing agency will lead to more new patients and more money in the bank.
The tips in this blog are based on our 20+ years experience in medical marketing AND Business Made Simple’s “Communication Made Simple” course, which we highly recommend.
Step 1: What are your partner’s goals? What does she care about?
The first thing you need to do is understand your partner’s goals. Does she want to grow the practice? Stay the same? Hire another therapist or doctor? Add a location? Make sure each provider sees 10+ patients / day? Get as specific as you can here.
Next, think about how your marketing goals interact with your partner’s goals. For example, let’s say your boss wants to hire another doctor. Think about…
- Could our current patient volume support another doctor?
- If not, how many extra patients would we need to attract with marketing in order to fill up another doctor’s schedules?
It’s crucial that you understand what your partner wants – and what they don’t want. Eventually, you will link your business case for hiring a marketing agency to this goal. For example…
“I know you want to hire that third doctor. Well, in order to fill another doctor’s schedule, we’d need to have 25 extra new patients per month. If this new marketing agency helps us get those 25 extra new patients each month, then we’ll have [insert number] of patients per week, full schedules, and we can finally hire that new therapist by [month/date]. We won’t even have to worry about [problem].”
But for right now, you just need to know what your partner REALLY, REALLY wants. This needs to be more specific than “grow.” Be specific!
Step 2: Figure out your basic stats.
Before you can make a business case on why investing in marketing will MAKE more money than you invest, you need to understand your basic statistics. Stop right now and figure out…
- What is your average reimbursement per patient visit?
- How many times does each patient usually come in per plan of care?
- What is your average value per patient? This is their reimbursement x number of times they come in
- What is your current weekly / monthly patient volume?
- What is your target weekly / monthly patient volume?
We’ll need these numbers later.
Step 3: Do basic research on marketing strategy / services.
You may have done this already, but now you know your goals and your numbers, you need to do some research on what marketing strategies / services work to boost patient volume.
Basically, there are two sources of patients:
- New patients. You can attract them from online, word of mouth referrals, doctor referrals, or local partnerships.
- Reactivated patients. You can bring past patients back in for care by leveraging your patient list. You can contact past patients via email, social media, direct mail, or even phone calls.
If you’re still looking for an overall medical marketing strategy, check out the simple 5-step Ultimate Patient Acquisition Strategy, which we’ve used to help hundreds of medical clinics across North America.
Now that you understand marketing strategy, identify what services you’ll need to accomplish this strategy.
Step 4: Research several marketing agencies.
Again, you may have done this already. But go look at multiple medical marketing agencies and see what they offer in terms of monthly services. A few things to bear in mind…
- Are they experts in your industry? Most local marketing agencies don’t understand how the medical industry. They’ll say they do…but unless they’ve promoted a clinic like yours before, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Choose a marketing agency that has helped someone like you before.
- Do they offer a patient leads guarantee?
- What is their pricing? Get some statistics to compare.
At this stage, you will probably want to sit on several sales calls or demos. Understand the monthly service offerings. What, exactly, will these marketing companies do for you each month? Can they provide case studies of other people they’ve helped? What were their results?
But wait – do you need a marketing agency? Or a new hire. Read this blog on Hiring a Marketing Staff to identify the benefits of hiring a marketing agency vs a staff person.
Step 5: Do the math on how much you’ll invest in marketing vs make FROM marketing.
Now is where you do the basic math to make your business case. Go back and look at those numbers from Step 2!
For example, at Practice Promotions we guarantee that you will get at least 15 new patient calls / month on our Ultimate plan. Let’s say your front desk turns 10 of those 15 patient calls into new patients.
- 10 New Patients x $75 Reimbursement Per Visit x 10 Visits = $7500 in Patient Value
- Cost of Ultimate Plan: Around $2500 / month (includes cost of Google Ads)
- $7500 – $2500 = $5000 in Profit
Fill in your reimbursements per visit / number of visits per plan of care above to see what you’d make on the Practice Promotions guarantee!
So, if Practice Promotions just meets our guarantee – which is obviously the low range of our client results – then you will make $5000 in patient value each month. That’s your “worst case scenario” – making $5000 / month.
And if things go very well, let’s say you get double the guarantee and get 30 new patient calls from marketing! Now, if your front desk closes 20 of them into new patients, your new added patient value per month is $15,000! Subtract the cost of your marketing, and you made $12,500 in profit!
You can also look at the yearly impact of marketing. With the same math above, just 10 extra new patients / month for a year would lead to $75,000 in annual revenue. 20 new patients / month for a year = $150,000 increase in annual revenue.
So…would you spend $2500 to make $7500?
Hopefully, the answer is yes. It’s just good business sense.
Now, plug in YOUR numbers, and see what the impact of marketing could be on your practice!
Step 6: Articulate other sources of value.
You’ve now articulated the financial value of marketing. Now, write down some other sources of value.
- Time. How will this free up your time? What else could you do if you weren’t writing blogs, for example? How would that help the practice?
- Better results. Does this agency offer expertise? Will they be better at SEO / Google Ads than you are, so you get more bang from your buck?
- Any other source of extra, value you can think of
Step 7: Present on the overall business case.
It’s finally time to have a meeting with your boss to present your business case! Pre-schedule with your boss when they aren’t running around treating patients. This is a business presentation – so you may need to provide some slides.
Your goal for this meeting is not to decide on a specific marketing agency or plan. It’s to get agreement from your boss that in general, it’s worthwhile to hire a marketing agency, whichever one it ends up being.
Now, follow these steps:
1. Start your presentation by stating the overall need or business goal.
For example, “we want to have enough new patients to hire another provider” or “we want to increase patient visits by 10% each month.” This is what your boss cares about.
2. Present on marketing strategy and the business case for investing in marketing.
This is the math section! KEY MOMENT: Get agreement from your boss that it’s worthwhile to invest in marketing.
3. Review the different medical marketing agency options.
Review their pros and cons. You may also need to address hiring a marketing employee vs agency if your boss has it in their mind that they want to hire internally.
KEY MOMENT: Get agreement from your boss that hiring an agency makes sense vs hiring internally. This may be as far as this meeting goes.
4. Articulate your favorite option / medical marketing agency.
Articulate your favorite option / medical marketing agency and explain why you think they will work best. Don’t push too hard. Take some time to explore the pros and cons of each with your boss.
5. Cast a vision of the future.
Conclude by casting a specific and desirable vision of the future. For example, “If we hire a marketing agency and they bring us 20 new patients / month, we’ll make [number] in extra revenue and will finally have enough volume to hire that third doctor.”
6. Discuss.
Ask your boss for their feedback, and try to guide them to the conclusion you’ve reached. You want your boss to think of “hiring a marketing agency” as their idea and their decision. Don’t lie, obviously! Just present the facts clearly.
7. Determine your next steps.
After 1 meeting, you likely will NOT have reached a decision on which marketing agency to hire. Hopefully, though, your boss has bought into the idea of hiring a marketing agency in general and is now ready to explore options.
Would your boss like to sit in a demo of 1-2 marketing agencies? If not, why not?
Are there more questions that your boss needs answered before they’re ready to attend a demo or call with a marketing agency? If so, what are they, and how can you get the answers?
Don’t leave the meeting without determining the specific next steps. Ideally, schedule your follow-up meeting.
Step 8: Get your boss in on a call with your favorite agency.
Your meeting from Step 7 went well! Now your boss wants to attend a call with the best agency that you discussed.
Before the meeting…
- Make sure all key decision makers are attending.
- For example, if your boss’s spouse is a co-owner…make sure the spouse is also on the call. A spouse can kill a business decision like no one else can.
- Think about the goals / fears of ALL the key decision makers
- Encourage your boss to write down questions ahead of time
- Tell the marketing agency you’re about to talk to about your boss’s priorities and questions so they can be well prepared
During the meeting…
- Stay quiet and let your boss ask questions. Only jump in to redirect / clarify.
- This is the chance for your boss to feel like they’ve “done their research”
After the meeting…move on to Step 9!
Step 9: Decide.
Immediately after the call with the medical marketing agency, hop on an internal call with your boss and key decision makers.
Ask your boss one simple question: “What did you think?”
Then discuss the pros and cons. This might not be the right marketing agency for you – but if not, figure out why!
DON’T leave this internal meeting without deciding your next steps.
- Ideally, you are now at a place where you’ve decided to sign on with one marketing agency.
- If not, ask your boss: “What would it take for you to feel comfortable moving forward with [company name / service]?”
- If it’s a fundamental objection to hiring an agency – why? Do they need to see more proof of business value? Is there some other issue going on? Figure out what the REAL problem is!
- Alternatively, a next step can also be “You talk it over with [another decision maker], but let’s get another call with [company] on the books” to ask your questions.
- Or “I will ask [the marketing agency] more questions, but then let’s schedule a followup call.”
Remember…never leave a meeting without determining your next steps!
Step 10: Sign on with a medical marketing agency.
Let’s say the call with the marketing agency from Step 8 went really well. Then, in Step 9, your boss indicates they’re comfortable with signing onto the marketing agency they just talked to.
Congratulations! You’re almost there!
Tell the marketing agency you’re ready to move forward with their awesome services.
Then, once you sign on with the new marketing agency, highlight what is going to change. Present your boss with the new action plan on how you’ll work with this agency!
Signing on with a marketing agency is a big investment – which means it’s both exciting and scary. So keep reminding your boss about your goals, your vision of the future, and how marketing will get you there.
Top 3 Tips to Hire a Medical Marketing Agency
The #1 thing to remember is that marketing isn’t a spend. It’s an investment – and everyone expects to make something from an investment. So you need to prove how hiring a medical marketing agency is going to help your business make more money than you spend. You need a business case!
The #2 thing to remember is: know your boss’s goals. If you don’t know what’s important to your boss, then you won’t get very far. Make sure you can prove how hiring a marketing agency will help your boss achieve their goals.
And #3…keep checking in with your boss! Get their agreement at each key stage mentioned above. Don’t gallop ahead. Go slow and prove your case.
And if you’ve gotten this far…
Practice Promotions has helped 1400+ medical clinic locations across North America attract more new patients online. We provide powerful SEO, Google Ads, Web Design, and Patient Engagement services that help you 2x your patient volume. Schedule a Practice Marketing Demo with us today!