Using Data Analytics to Maximize Marketing ROI by Honing in on your Ideal Patient

Successful orthodontists understand how important marketing is in order to attract new patients.

A good marketing strategy will keep you afloat. But in today’s competitive environment a “good” strategy is not enough. You need a great strategy to give you an advantage over the competition. So, if you don’t have a marketing plan in place, perhaps it’s time to finally create one. Think of a marketing plan like a roadmap, a guide that will show you how to go from a few patients to a full appointment book. The first step in creating a great marketing plan, is to understand who your target patients are and where to find them.

Dare we ask . . . Do you know who is your target patient is and where they’re located? You may be thinking, “anyone in my city who needs orthodontic treatment, obviously.” Yes, you are correct, but the answer is a bit more complicated than that. You need to not only understand:

• Who is your target patient – children, teens, or adults?
• Where are they located – zip codes, proximity to the office, etc.?
• What types of treatments and appliances do they need ?

Most importantly, you need to understand who are the patients that will provide you with the highest value, at lowest possible cost to market to them.

Understanding this is key so you know where to send direct mailers, which newspapers to place ads in, and where to geo-target your Facebook ads.

But if you’re like most orthodontists, you probably need some help figuring this out.

How do you find where potential patients are located?

Say hello to SmileSuite, an orthodontic presentation system aimed at turning consults into contracts. Before SmileSuite, there wasn’t an easy way to extract important data needed to create a marketing strategy that actually produced results. Let’s look at how SmileSuite, with its groundbreaking StartAlytics, can be used to craft a marketing strategy that will generate a positive return on your investment.

Start by logging in to StartAlytics and use the filters to show you which zip codes have the highest production AND conversion rates. You may find some areas have good production, but low conversion rates. This means you should probably avoid a high marketing investment in this area, as it will likely lead to a negative return. You don’t want to spend marketing dollars on patients who are not likely to convert.

On the other hand, you may find some zip codes have very high conversion rates, but low production. A-ha, here’s an opportunity. This looks like a zip code you’ll want to have more marketing presence in. This is definitely an area you’ll want to move to the top of your marketing plan.

Based on this data, you no longer have to guess where your patients are located.

You’ll know with certainty where to deploy marketing campaigns that will produce a healthy return on your advertising investment, and will result in more patients starting.

It’s time to put SmileSuite to work. Create a smart marketing plan and improve your marketing ROI with StartAlytics.