In
your dental practice marketing, you have to start your business right.
You
should be able to know how to make your practice go along with your
dental
practice marketing business. Doctors ask me: “How do I know
where to start with
your marketing?”, and “How do I know if my practice
can be helped with
marketing?”. I gave them a round about answer which explains
what you really
need to think about in dental practice marketing instead of being
misled by a
consultant or marketing representative. Here are two specific
measurements
which helps me objectively coach my clients on their practice.
1st
Measurment: Taking The Referral Ratio
You
need to consider the Referral
Ratio in dental
practice marketing. To
obtain this raito, just take the total number of referrals you received
last
year and divide it by the total number of active patients you have. In
formula,
it is written as:
Referral
Ratio = (total
# of referrals received
last year)
(total
# of active patients you have)
Take
for example, if you have 300
referrals and 1000
active patients:
|
Referral
Ratio = (300
referrals) /
(1000 active patients) = 30%
|
* 30%
Referral
Ratio is considered “Good”, though not
great... but it is a good start
for your business.
Take
another example, if you have 100
referrals and 1000
active patients:
|
Referral
Ratio =
(100
referrals) / (1000 active patients) = 10%
|
* If you
are with
this kind of
percentage,
then you have lots and lots of improvements
to do. But the
important thing
is that
you now
know it.. and you
can work to get higher and exert more
effort!
If
your Referral Ratio is below 50% in dental practice marketing, then you
would
list it as one of your strategic objectives to improve over the next 90
days to
12 months. If you range below
a 20% Referral Ratio,
then it calls for
immediate action!
2nd
Measurement: The 6-Month Value Of A New Patient
In your
dental
practice marketing, know what a patient is worth to your
practice at a month time basis. You can have a 3-month, 6-month, and
12-month
time basis. As you get started, keep it simple. The reason why you
would want
it is that it will tell you how much patients are spending with your
dental
practice in that time. This tells you what
your
return on investment (or
ROI) is in 6 months!
Let's say, if your cost to
acquire a new patient
is $100; and your 6-month patient value is $600; then you know for
every $1 you
spend... you get approximately $6 back, which is a good start! However,
if your
ROI is within 3:1
or 1:1,
then
you are in considered to be in a
bad position! You need to improve as soon as possible! Either way, even
if you
have a higher ROI, you will be always looking to improve on this area!
Always
remember that to be successful in your dental practice marketing
business,
always improve the value of each patient. You can increase referrals
per
patient, diagnose more and improve case acceptance, improve your new
patient
experience, start a patient newsletter so as to communicate with your
existing
patients and get them to choose more of your services, offer more
services,
hold an Invisalign Open House, and start placing implants.
There are
more ideas available, but this gives you a very good start your dental
marketing business!
