Marketing Your Practice - Part IV

Here’s how to find out if a specific marketing strategy is working for you:

• First of all, what do you spend per month on this marketing tactic (either in terms of money, or time, or both)?

• Do you track new client referral sources?

• How many inquiries per month do you get from this marketing source? (You probably only track how many become clients, not total inquiries.)

• How does the number of new clients from this marketing source compare to a year ago?

• What your the top referral source overall? How does this tactic compare, in terms of number of referrals?

• Do the kinds of clients I get from this marketing source match my “ideal” client profile? Do I enjoy working with these clients?

• Are these clients profitable? Do they pay, on average, a reasonable fee for the services?

Next, do some simple math. Multiply the number of clients you got from that marketing strategy last month times the number of sessions you saw them times a reasonable fee (what you actually get paid, not what you charge).

For example, you might have gotten two new clients from the Yellow Pages last month, and saw the clients a total of 4 times. You charge $100 an hour, but collect an average of $85. So take 85 x 4 x 2 = $680.

Next, look at how much you, individually, spent on your Yellow Pages ad last month. Let’s say the ad costs $475 total each month, and you and the other therapists in your practice split it 4 ways. That’s about $120 for your investment.

Your return on investment is 11-to-1 ($680 + 120 = 5.66).

Your return on investment (or ROI) should be at least 5-to-1 for any advertising you do.

If you’re not getting at least a 5-to-1 return on your Yellow Pages investment, you can do 2 things:

– Improve your Yellow Pages ad by redesigning it

– Spend the money elsewhere