„Attracting more patients" is often the primary goal of many Practice marketing-efforts. But is this goal even being achieved with the measures currently in use? And if so, which of the measures make the biggest contribution? Which ones could possibly be dispensed with in order to save costs?
Sooner or later, every practice owner who pursues strategic practice marketing will probably ask themselves these questions.
How do I know if my practice marketing is increasing the new patient rate?
The most important key figure for measuring the success of your practice marketing is, of course, the number of new patients you gain in a certain period of time - e.g. in a month.
However, this number says relatively little if there is no possibility of comparison with the previous months or previous years. For this reason, every practice owner is recommended to start by analysing the number of new patients on a monthly basis if possible and documenting it clearly. This can often be easily realised with the existing practice software. Alternatively, a simple Excel spreadsheet with the three columns year, month and number of new patients can be kept. In this way, you can easily determine whether there is a positive trend in the new patient rate:
| Year | month | New patients |
| 2014 | April | 12 |
| 2014 | May | 25 |
| 2014 | June | 29 |
| 2014 | July | 17 |
Which of my practice marketing measures are particularly effective?
Option 1:
Query via medical history form
The easiest way to find this out is to ask your new patients about it directly at their first appointment - for example, via your medical history form and the question: How did you hear about our practice? List all the practice marketing measures that you current and offer patients the opportunity to tick boxes.
Example:
How did you hear about our practice?
( ) Homepage
( ) Search via Google
( ) Facebook
( ) Rating portal (e.g. Jameda, Sanego, DocInsider)
( ) Advertisement in the newspaper
( ) Recommendation among friends
Sonstiges: _____________________________________
By also analysing and documenting the results on a monthly basis, you will already have an initial indication of the effectiveness and necessity of the individual practice marketing measures.
In terms of accuracy, however, this form of evaluation has its limits.
Patient A may have found your homepage thanks to the good Google positioning, but only ticked "Homepage" in the medical history form because he particularly remembers it.
Patient B, on the other hand, has seen the practice's advert in the newspaper, subsequently checked the rating status on Jameda and therefore only ticked "Rating portal" on the medical history form because he is impressed by the numerous positive ratings.
The results obtained from the medical history form should therefore only be regarded as an indication and should not lead to hasty decisions.
Option 2:
Set new patient rate in relation to marketing measures
Since a patient's decision in favour of a practice is often influenced by various impressions and factors at the same time, it is advisable to supplement the monthly documentation of the new patient rate mentioned above with information on the practice marketing measures used in the corresponding month.
Exemplary realisation as Excel table:
| Year | month | New patients | Marketing measures |
| 2014 | April | 12 | Homepage, AdWords (approx. 150 €), Facebook Ads (approx. 60 €) |
| 2014 | May | 25 | Homepage, AdWords (approx. 300 €), advert in weekly newspaper |
| 2014 | June | 29 | Homepage, AdWords (approx. € 300), daily newspaper telephone campaign |
| 2014 | July | 17 | Homepage, AdWords (approx. 300 €), job advert in daily newspaper |
With this form of evaluation, it should be taken into account that some marketing measures have an effect over a longer period of time and the success is influenced by various circumstances (e.g. school holidays, public holidays, practice holidays, etc.). Ideally, you should therefore also keep this list over a longer period of time and add further notes if necessary (e.g. practice holiday from 1 May to 8 May).
Realign practice marketing strategy
Practices that do not pursue a long-term practice marketing strategy often act "on instinct" or because a favourable opportunity presents itself. However, whether the spontaneous decisions made were sensible is usually not scrutinised afterwards. It is not uncommon for a lot of time and money to be wasted in this way.
However, by using the simple methods described above to measure success and constantly scrutinising all practice marketing measures, there is an opportunity to achieve measurable and cost-effective progress. For example, it has proven to be a good idea to analyse the results of the evaluations every six months or annually and to focus future marketing planning on those measures that have made a particularly strong measurable contribution to patient acquisition.
Further measures for measuring practice marketing success
The measures mentioned are of course only a first step towards measuring success and optimising practice marketing. Various other key figures can be determined and analysed, particularly in the area of online marketing, for example:
- Practice website visitors per month
- Length of stay on the practice homepage
- Origin of visitors to the practice website
- Most popular content on the practice homepage
- Google ranking of the practice homepage
All of these findings make it possible to optimise the content of the homepage and tailor it even better to the needs of patients and potential new patients. This also makes a significant contribution to increasing the number of new patients in the long term.
Professional marketing controlling also includes monetary key figures such as fee development, average fee per patient, sales development or the proportion of private patients, which can also be put in relation to the practice's marketing measures.
