Is your New Patient Marketing an Expense or an Investment?

I often hear dentists talk about their marketing in terms of an expense against their practice.

And this generally makes me cringe, as marketing should, for the most part, be seen as an investment in your practice, and not as an expense against it. Because without marketing investment of some form, your practice is highly unlikely to grow, and in fact, is most likely to actually decline.

So, what differentiates marketing that is truly an investment vs. simply an expense?

For me, it comes down to a simple question….

And that is whether or not the marketing is creating lasting impact and sustainable growth in the practice?

In other words, if the funding for the marketing activity were suddenly turned off, would it’s impacts continue to be seen more than a month or so down the road?

Now, it’s not entirely black and white, but let me give you some examples of marketing that often times is NOT an investment:

• Pay-per-click advertising (Google Ads, Facebook Ads)
• Direct mailers
• Local marketing (flyers, billboards, radio)
• Discounts and offers

And, now let me give you some examples of marketing that usually is a true investment:

• Website and SEO
• Online reviews
• Patient referrals
• Call tracking and patient conversion

Now, I’m not saying that you should stay away from the items on the first list. These can still very much be an investment (vs. an expense) if done correctly and generating an ongoing positive ROI. 

The issue though is that most dentists don’t understand the ROI on these activities. They generally write a check each month to a marketing agency for a bundle of services, and do not truly understand what’s happening at an initiative by initiative level. And this leads to a mix of some of their marketing being an investment, while much of it becomes an expense. Which in turn leads to frustration when their practice does not grow, or when they need to invest more and more each month to sustain growth.

Now, if you look at these lists again, the items listed as investments are also the ones that I talk about over and over as Marketing Essentials. In other words, the items that you absolutely must get right for your marketing, as a whole, to be effective, and for you to actually see a positive ROI on all of your other marketing activities (notably those same ones listed as expenses).

How do I know this is true? Because I’ve seen this play out time and time again with clients of mine. Once we sit down and look at where their marketing dollars are being spent, and the results they are actually getting for those dollars, we then have the opportunity to re-allocate and re-prioritize their marketing investment to ensure they are getting lasting impact and sustainable growth. And that is what ends up driving results, which typically include a:

• 100-200% increase in number of new patients
• 20% increase in production per new patient
• 95% new patient retention rate
• 40% decrease in marketing spend

And when you’re getting growth like that, you know your marketing dollars truly are an investment!