As a dental marketer, you should start your business right in dental practice marketing. You should be able to know how to make your practice go along with your dental practice marketing business. People often ask me this:“How do I know where to start with your marketing?”, and “How do I know if my practice can be helped with marketing?”. I give them an answer which explains what you really need to think about in dental practice marketing instead of being misled by any marketing representative. Here are two specific measurements which helps me objectively coach my clients on their practice.
Referral Ratio:
Get the Referral Ratio in your dental practice marketing. To get the ratio, take the total number of referrals you received last year and divide it by the total number of active patients you have. Thus, the formula:
Referral Ratio = (total # of referrals received last year)
(total # of active patients you have)
• 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.
• 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!
Note: If your Referral Ratio is below 50% ,hen 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!
6-Month Value:
In your dental practice marketing, know what a patient is worth to your practice at a 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month time basis. Keep it simple, because 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!
In your dental practice marketing business, always improve the value of each patient. 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. This gives you a very good start your dental practice marketing business!
You can log on to our website at www.DentistProfits.com and get a free CD and Book titled, “How To Predictably Grow Your Practice 25-35% Every Year While Enjoying More Control, Time Off, And Bottom-Line Net Profits!”.