Dental marketing can feel like taking a million shots in the dark. Even with the best marketing plan, you can’t have an effective strategy until you know what’s working.
If you’re unsure about your marketing strategy, explore Dental Intelligence’s dental marketing tools to help maximize your efforts.
Tracking the results of your dental marketing strategy may feel complex at first. How do you measure its effectiveness? Where should you expect to see growth? Here are seven strategies to help you track the impact of your marketing efforts.
Seven Strategies To Track the Impact of Your Dental Marketing
There are various ways to track the impact of your dental marketing strategy. Using multiple avenues to track the progress of your dental practice is essential. Knowing what needs improvement is the only way to solidify an effective marketing plan.
1. Why Are Your New Patients There?
Most practices will track how many new patients they have. However, some forget to track why they’re getting new patients.
You and your staff should ask new patients what drew them to your practice. Did you come up in their Google search? Did they see a local ad? Did they find you through social media?
Collecting and evaluating these answers is the best way to determine what marketing strategies draw in the most new patients.
2. Why Are Your Patients Calling?
Most new patients will have their first interaction with your practice on the phone. This initial phone call is crucial and will often be a determining factor in their decision to return. You can also use tracking tools to determine which keywords or Google ads triggered their phone call.
Similarly, some patients may choose to contact your practice through email. Track the same information for emails if you receive questions or requests via email. Email marketing can be an extremely effective tool.
If most of your patients use email as a mode of communication, consider leaning into your email marketing strategies.
3. How Is Your Website Performing?
When assessing your website’s metrics, pay attention to:
- Website visits
- Page views
- Load time
- Calls to action
These metrics are the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. Knowing how many website visits and page views your site gets will tell you if your content is drawing people in.
The load time refers to how long it takes for your website to load. This should be 2.4 seconds or less; otherwise, potential patients may switch to another site.
Calls to action like “schedule an appointment” and “call now” increase patient conversion by a significant percentage. Ensure your calls to action are easy to read and follow.
4. Is Your SEO Working?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a strategy to elevate your online presence. Using certain keywords in your content can increase your website’s visibility in search results. For example, if a potential patient searches “teeth whitening near me,” SEO will boost your website to be one of the first results.
To see whether your SEO is effective, evaluate your:
- Organic traffic
- Visibility on search engine pages
- Conversion rates
5. Are You Using GMB?
Google My Business, or GMB, is another tool to track your website’s performance, specifically through Google search. This tool provides insights into how often patients view your pages and click links. With GMB, you can evaluate:
- Average costs per click
- Quality scores
- Click-through rate (CTR)
You can also track their performance through Google My Business when you use Google Ads.
6. What Is Your Monthly Revenue?
Your monthly revenue indicates your practice’s growth or lack thereof. Looking for steady increases in revenue month over month is a great way to determine whether your marketing strategy is working.
Keeping careful monthly revenue records will also come in handy for other purposes, like filing taxes or selling your practice.
7. What Does Your Appointment Book Look Like?
Another simple way to evaluate your practice’s growth is by looking at your appointment book.
Is there a clear shift in the number of appointments booked after you implemented a marketing strategy? Do you have appointments booked weeks in advance? These are indicators that your marketing strategy is successful.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of open appointment slots, you may want to rethink your dental marketing ideas.
Transform Your Digital Marketing With Dental Intelligence
If you evaluate your dental marketing strategy and find that it’s not quite working, Dental Intelligence can help. With analytical and engagement software, Dental Intelligence will help you find and track strategies to grow your practice through email campaigns, Instagram marketing for dentists, and more.
