What should my dental practice spend on marketing?
There is no such thing as a one size fits all dental marketing strategy. The specific types of marketing you will need, which means the amount of money you will spend on marketing, can also differ from practice to practice. But, there are still some things that remain true for every dentist that plans a marketing budget.
How to Plan Your Budget for Dental Marketing
Assuming your practice is just getting started, the budget you set for dental marketing is a good starting point. If you are a new business, it is best to spend the least amount required for growing your practice. When you get beyond that new launch stage, you no longer need to spend as much money to continue to expand.
As time goes by, chances are you will have more new marketing goals to get a specific number of new patients every month, for example. Of course, whenever you get a new goal, your marketing budget must be adjusted accordingly.
If you are wondering what your dental practice must spend on marketing, you need to set your budget based on the key simple objectives for the growth of your dental practice.
Factors That Affect Your Marketing Budget Calculation
Healthcare professionals are being cautioned against planning their marketing budget based on their revenue alone. This is because of several important factors.
For instance, a new dental practice might not have any revenue just yet, so there is no way you can calculate 20% of zero. Dental practices also have different goals. Your first goal will probably be growth alone.
After some time, you will have more specific goals. An established dental practice is going to spend a smaller part of its yearly revenue. Still, it will have periodic campaigns to meet a certain goal, like creating better awareness of a newly offered service.
Aside from your growth stage and specific goals for marketing, your area’s level of competition also determines when you should spend on marketing.
How to Create a Percentage-Based Marketing Budget
To give you actual numerical data of what your dental practice must spend on marketing, it is best to make things simple and say that your objective is to make people know about your practice and attract more new patients. If you have a new dental practice, it is ideal that you should only spend about 20% to 30% of your total revenue on dental marketing.
As for a practice that faces intense local competition, this number must be closer to 30%. Dentists who don’t have a lot of local competition can settle with 20%. If you have no idea what your revenue is because your practice is still too new, you can try using a projection of your gross revenue.
A dental marketing campaign done right will surely pay off tenfold in the future. Start with your specific goals and set your budget from there. Feel free to check out https://dentalseoexpert.com if you need help with your dental marketing!