The tax returns have been sent (or at least ought to have been), and you’re beginning to think about your business marketing spend for 2016.
But just where should you be spending it?
Business growth and competition are part of most practices regular business goals for each year. And whilst the majority of private dental practice owners have to juggle their day-to-day professional dental job with that of a small business owner; getting the budget right can be tricky. But get it right you must, as it can be the make or break for any business goal. Spend too much and there is little ROI, impacting next years spend. Spend too little and you might have been better not bothering at all.
So, let’s talk budget.
Firstly let’s look at the trends for marketing spend based on some data collected from a 2015 Marketing Trends and Forecast Report constructed made by ALF, having researched 40,000 contacts at 6000 major UK brands.
The summary of answers from the question “which channel is your marketing team likely to invest in 2015”, shows that the top 3 channels of investment where:
Website (64%)
Social Media (60%)
Content (52%)
What does this mean for dental practices? Well, it means your patients are already used to seeing the results of these investments from their favorite brands and it’s important that dental practices delight their potential and existing patients by focusing spend on these channels as well.
The report goes onto reveal the concerns with content creation. Whilst we all know that Content is King, with more ‘noise’ (i.e more and more competitors producing content), getting the tone and delivery right is more important.
“Content is the area that most marketers will invest in this year with 80% putting big budgets in developing compelling content. One vital area for investment will be websites, which should be a company’s flagship source of content. Yet despite it being a priority, it is also one of our biggest challenges. Content, the building blocks of a website, is cited as marketers’ biggest website concern (45%), ahead of design (35%). Marketers need to strike a balance between creating relevant content and distributing it accordingly.”
(AFL Business Development. Marketing Trends and Spend Forecasts 2015)
We know that ‘Social Media’ and ‘Content Creation’ can send a shiver down a dentists spine, but Dental Design are here to help. We have Social Media management packages designed for every budget and practice size. And dental websites are our raison d’etre. Contact the team today on 01202 677277 to talk through your 2016 marketing budget and we’ll talk you through our full spectrum of digital marketing channels including:
Copy-writting – Email Marketing – Website Design – Pay-per-click Advertising – Social Media – Practice Photography – 320 video tour – Literature – Search Engine Optimisation – Call Tracking – Logo Creation