Your Practice’s Budget for Digital Marketing

Digital marketing for healthcare professionals is becoming increasingly important, and your budget should reflect that. What percentage of your marketing budget should be digital? Here are some things to keep in mind when establishing a budget for digital marketing.

Digital marketing budget drivers

• How much are your competitors spending on digital marketing? The more your competitors spend on digital marketing, the more important it is for you to invest in your online presence. You can use tools like Spyfu to estimate their investments, or you can explore your competitors online to get a sense of how much they’re investing digitally. Your competitor has blogging three times a week, three active social media platforms, and a modern, up to date website? You should probably invest what it costs to get those things.
• How do you acquire new patients? Do you rely on billboards and radio advertisements? You would be surprised at just how many people look for you online. The truth is, they’re all web leads. One way to establish your digital marketing budget is simply to divert your traditional marketing budget to the web. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck.
• Patients and consumers are doing their homework more now than ever before. According to Pew Research 72% of internet users searched for health information online within the past year. Whether they’re trying to self-diagnose or simply learn more about a condition they’ve been diagnosed with by a medical professional, people are searching for health information online. What will it cost you to show up when your patients and potential patients make those searches?

Why it makes sense to invest in digital marketing.

• Digital marketing is cost-effective. Blogging, social media, email newsletters, etc. are far less expensive — and often much more effective — than traditional advertising methods.
• It’s the most measurable marketing method. With web analytics in place, you can see exactly how your digital marketing strategy is working. You simply can’t capture how many people have seen your magazine, newspaper, or television ad.
• You have more control over your audience with digital marketing than with traditional marketing methods. This is especially true when using AdWords. Sure, everyone who drives past your billboard on Main Street needs a good medical professional, but with digital marketing you can target the people on Main Street who are actively looking for a medical professional.

You get more with digital marketing.

Quite simply, you get more for your money with digital marketing. There are a couple of ways to view this.

1. You can put in the minimum on digital marketing, knowing that a little goes a long way and that other marketing methods require a greater financial commitment.
2. Or, you can invest heavily in the most cost effective marketing method.

The amount that you should allocate for digital marketing is something that only you and your marketing team will know. Some research suggests that the average firm allocates 45% of their marketing budget to digital marketing. Some firms sink all of their chips into digital marketing.

No one should spend nothing on digital marketing; anyone who does is sorely missing out. Contact Haden Interactive to talk about setting up a digital marketing strategy for your firm.