A Guide to Marketing Budget for Your Dental Practice

A marketing budget is setting out all the money beforehand that will be spent on different marketing activities. You can do this every month or quarterly, or even annually. Owning a dental practice is all about attracting new patients and recurring revenue worth the initial investment.

Your marketing budget will show your goals and how much you are willing to spend to accomplish them. Your budget needs to be broken down into the different activities you plan on investing in. The budget will also specify the number of times you will do each activity and its cost.

It is important to note that plans can change, so your marketing budget needs to be flexible enough to allow easy adaptation. This article will help you understand how to allocate the money while ensuring enough flexibility to the changing situations.

How much should the marketing budget be?

If you wonder how much your dental practice can spend on marketing, then here is a list to help you out.

• The average patient attrition rate should be 17%
• Cost of acquisition around $150 to $200 per patient
• Should generate 30 to 50 new patients per month
• Marketing should suffice the basic practice price
• A new patient usually spend around $700 to $1300 in the first year
• Dental patients usually stay with a particular practice for around ten years
• On average, the patients spend $600 to $700 per year
• Around $4500 of revenue will be generated with a new patient

How to calculate the marketing budget?

You should start with your previous marketing activities. If you are not keeping a record of your marketing budget, then you need to start now. Historical documents will help you point out the mistakes and make better decisions in the future.

For instance, you spend money on a social media ad campaign, and it only generates little to no leads. Still, your email marketing gives exceptional ROI, so it will make it easier for you to know where you should put more money and attention in the future. Calculate the marketing budget by taking your estimated revenue and decide on the percentage spent depending upon your business’s size and scale.

The figure you have will be broken down into different categories to allocate for each of the marketing activities you have planned. Plan your budget according to different seasonal peaks and off-peaks. If you are still confused, you can click here to read a full article about dental business marketing strategy.

What should the budget be spent on?

Receiving the best value for your marketing investment is critical. You know best about your target audience, who they are, what they prefer etc. You need to research the areas where your target audience goes for information and focus on those channels. If your dental practice appears before your potential patients, they will remember you and develop trust in your practice. Try to invest in more than one channel. 

Assess the environment around you and look at the current marketing trends to see if you can use them for your own business. Here are some areas in which you can invest your marketing budget.

1) Search Engine Optimization

2) Email marketing

3) Social media profiles

4) Website

5) Content marketing

6) Pay per click

Conclusion

Investing time in making a marketing plan can help you spend money efficiently and increase your chances of a successful dental practice. Observe the current trends and see what attracts your patients more. Pay more attention to finding the best value for your budget and invest money and time in things that work. Lastly, welcome changes if something does not go as planned. Be flexible, realize mistakes, make amends and work for a better future.