Have you ever felt like your marketing isn’t working? Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, you’re just not getting traction? In this article, I talk about four different reasons why your marketing might not be working for your practice.
Reason #1: Existing Marketing Isn’t Not Following Marketing Best Practices
The first reason is, perhaps, that your current marketing isn’t adhering to best practices. There is a chance that you’re just not doing the marketing the way it’s supposed to be done—you’re not following best practices.
Honestly, this is often the biggest reason that we see when marketing isn’t working. There is a right way to do marketing. And if you don’t follow those exact guidelines for the exact type of marketing you’re doing, then you’re not going to get the results you want.
Reason #2: You’re Using the Wrong Type of Marketing for Your Industry
The next reason why you might not be getting results from your marketing is that you’re not using the right type of marketing for your industry. A restaurant uses a different sort of marketing than a dental practice, which uses a different sort of marketing than a certified public accountant, and so on.
Even within healthcare practices, there are different types of marketing that get results. If you’re a cosmetic dentist, you’re not making your money from insurance; therefore, you really have to get out and sell the cosmetic dentistry to patients. This requires a totally different level of approach than a very insurance-based pediatric speech therapist.
So if your marketing isn’t working, you often have to go, “Hey, is this the right pattern of marketing for my industry?” Just keep in mind that each industry has a pattern of marketing that works well for them.
Reason #3: You’re Using the Wrong Marketing Strategy for Your Practice
Next, you might not be getting results from marketing because you’re not doing the right type of marketing that’s a good fit for your particular practice.
Some practices are set up to handle a very aggressive new patient acquisition process. They have really great people with good phone skills, they have scripts in place to get patients signed up. And they can really walk a person in and through the initial process of becoming a new patient.
However, other practices only want leads or referrals that is totally pre-qualified, reaching, and ready to start services. They’d like to see a person that’s going, “Hi, I heard about you from my friend. Can we get started?”
There is a spectrum of different types of leads, starting from those that require the most work to convert (typically lower intent) and progressing to those that require the least work to sign up (higher intent).
Facebook Advertising Leads
Facebook advertising works really well for someone who’s got great phone skills and the resources to devote to calling people again and again. You need people who can get on the phone, find out what a person’s issues are, help them get them scheduled, and remind them to come in to get started.
In other words, Facebook’s typically a lower-quality lead. So, if you’re going to get a person in for a free screening, guess what? This will be a lower-quality lead and it’s going to take more work.
Google Advertising Leads
For a little bit higher-quality lead that’s a little less work, you want to use Google Ads. This is where someone went online and they typed in, “Hey, I’m looking for a physical therapist near me.” They’re actively looking for your services. And if they are, that’s a more motivated searcher who will be easier to close and get that person to become a new patient.
For some practices, we would say, don’t go the Facebook ads route, just do Google ads because you’re really not set up well, nor do you want that low quality of a lead.
Search Engine Optimization Leads
Sometimes, a practice really doesn’t even want to do ads. They want even higher quality leads so they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re wasting leads. They don’t have to have a funnel. They don’t have to follow up with people. In that case, don’t spend money on Facebook or Google ads. Just do search engine optimization, because then you’re building a steady flow of leads that are going to come in over time.
It doesn’t really matter whether or not you waste one lead because you’ll have a nice, strong flow of incoming leads. Now the downside with that is, even though they tend to be higher-quality leads, it takes longer to build that momentum. It can take months or even a year to build up a real head of steam using SEO, whereas if you’re doing digital ads, you can kind of turn it on and off like a faucet.
Thought Leader Marketing
And finally, there are some practices that don’t even want people reaching from the internet. They want somebody who’s already looking for them in particular. They want somebody who has a referral, they want somebody who heard about them. For this, we’d say, do thought leader marketing.
Don’t even worry about the other types of marketing, focus on thought leader marketing. This is making videos, educating, doing content marketing, email newsletters, and really building a following. Why? Because that following is what’s going to make those people reach out and actively seek you because you’re you.
And so there’s a spectrum of practice marketing where we’re going from really aggressive patient acquisition all the way to very relaxed, passive acquisition where we only want the highest quality person.
Reason #4: You’re Not Measuring and Taking Accountability for Your Marketing
The final reason we’re going to go over regarding why your marketing might not be getting results is lack of accountability and lack of measurement. I always like to remind people that measured marketing gives return on investment. But what do we mean by that?
Importance of Measurement
Unmeasured marketing is just an expense. There’s no way to make sure that your marketing is actually performing well, and there’s no way to know which type of marketing is performing well if you’re not measuring it.
Maybe one type is doing well and another type isn’t. How would anyone know? If it’s not measured, then you can’t improve it, and you can’t really regulate it or control it. That’s why if you’re not measuring your marketing, then you’re probably spending more money than you need to, and you don’t know how to fix it, and you don’t know how to improve it.
Accountability in Marketing
The next piece is accountability. If you don’t have a regular rhythm where you look at your numbers once a month and say, “Hey, we need to get from here to here,” that will make it hard to get results from your marketing.
Ideally, what you’d be doing is you’d hold yourself accountable to make sure your overall marketing machine was in place. You’d hold a marketing director accountable, and they’d really have to make sure that leads are being generated, then turned into referrals and new patients, etc. And if you’re using a marketing agency, you’d have to hold them accountable as well.
It’s really a collaborative team where everyone comes together, looks at the numbers, and says, “Where are we at? And where do we need to get to?” And when you have your accountability in place, then you can make sure that someone is paying attention to that marketing. That’s how you make sure that you’re making traction with it.
Reach Out to Uplift for Expert Advice
Those are four quick reasons why your marketing might not be getting the results you’re looking for. If you have any questions at all, or if you want to chat about your marketing, reach out to us. We’re here to help.
