Setting a Marketing Budget
Posted on June 11, 2008 - Filed Under Uncategorized |
I remember setting up a practice and all the expenses of doing that. When you don’t have a lot of income coming in, it’s tempting to do everything free or nearly so and hope that eventually you have enough coming in to make other choices. However, when the habit of choosing the least expensive thing is there it can be even more difficult to break.
We talk about value added services and offering a perceived value in what we do. Do we look at those value added services when we look for marketing items for our practice or do we purchase the least expensive thing?
The most useful marketing is always getting referrals from your patients. I’ve found that I need to keep focused on some sort of marketing exercise or I loose focus and don’t get any referrals. What works here and what worked in Vancouver are very different.
Vancouver was a place with many businesses that allowed me to drop off some brochures. I spent more on brochures there. Here there are few places to offer brochure information but we do have a small local paper that actually gets read by people who are looking for the kinds of services I offer. I spend more on newspaper advertising here.
I also need to know how to market to my target clients. If my target clients have macular degeneration and my brochures have small fonts with lots of text and my website is not compliant for the visually impaired, I’ll loose a lot of potential referrals. I don’t have to spend more money necessarily, but I do need to understand how to spend it wisely.
I need to know how my marketing materials present to the world. Do they make your core clients comfortable? If you are marketing to Fortune 500 employees, you probably shouldn’t use the free business card designs at Vista Print.
You also need to know what types of marketing items you are comfortable with and what items you will use. Brochures that sit in your storage area are not a wise investment. I have never had computer paper call me for an acupuncture appointment.
As you sit down and consider all these things, set up a realistic budget. Shop online to see what’s available and at what price. As you consider your clinic, consider where you can cut corners (maybe you don’t see a lot of business people and most of your clients think your Vistaprint cards are so pretty they hang them on the fridge) and where you need to spend a bit more. This is different for everyone. It’s important to understand your priorities and the priorities of those you want to have seek you out as a practitioner and spend accordingly.
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