HOW TO AVOID A POOR RETURN ON INVESTMENT WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PRACTICE
Avoiding common sales and marketing pitfalls helps to ensure a sustainable return on your marketing investment for your weight loss practice.
There is no doubt that the field of weight loss is highly competitive. In fact, the weight loss and weight management markets were worth around $224.27 billion in 2021 and estimated to reach approximately $405.4 billion by 2030.1 And, with the surge of GLP-1 agonist injectable weight loss medications, this number may well exceed these predictions.
With this high degree of competition, it is imperative to make every marketing dollar spent count. Yet, as a weight loss practitioner, this area of expertise may not be your forte. However, it is something necessary to understand and measure.
Ways to Measure Your Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)
While there are various ways to measure your marketing ROI, at the end of the day, most weight loss practitioners desire a full schedule and a profitable weight loss practice with necessary cash flow to support their goals and program growth. Making this desire a reality requires ongoing metric measurement, analysis and strategy.
Measuring your marketing ROI is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your campaigns and making informed decisions regarding resource allocation. The process involves evaluating the gains and losses generated by marketing efforts relative to its costs. The ROI measurement and common marketing key performance indicators include:
ROI Formula: There are a variety of ways to calculate return on investment. However, the most important thing to remember is that your ROI should be positive. A good ROI ratio will vary by industry, but a general rule of thumb is that you should aim for a ratio of 3:1 or higher. This means that for every $1 you spend on marketing, you should see a return of at least $3.
Conversion Rate: Percentage of visitors who take desired action (i.e. schedule a consult or fill out a form). The higher the better.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of people who click on an ad or link. The higher the better.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The cost of acquiring a new customer. The lower the better.
Lifetime Value (LTV): The total revenue you can expect to earn from a customer throughout their relationship with you and your practice. The higher the better.
It is recommended to track the measurements that mean the most to you at least monthly. Interpret your results, notice trends, and make strategic marketing decisions based upon your metrics.
Simplified Marketing Framework
A simplified framework that emphasizes key considerations when it comes to any marketing effort includes a focus on 3 key areas. These include your market, your message and your chosen medium.
Your market involves a clear understanding of your target market or the ideal patients you want to attract to your weight loss practice. Considerations include identifying key demographics, psychographics, behaviors and other factors to create a detailed persona of the person you want to work with most. Understanding your market or ideal patients(s) allows you to tailor your services, programs, and products to meet their specific needs and preferences.
Your message should communicate the unique value of your services, programs, and products. It should address the primary pain points of your identified market and highlight how you and your team are the ideal choice to help them attain the transformation they desire most. Your messages should be clear, consistent, and authentic to your values and brand. Think about not only what they want, but what they need to hear from you so you can uniquely connect with them.
Your chosen medium refers to the channels or platforms you choose to deliver your message. Your choice of medium depends upon where your ideal patients spend their time searching for information or services. It includes where they are most active and engaged. This can include various mediums such as social media, email marketing, content marketing, and/or traditional advertising channels such as print, radio or television. Your ideal medium should be the most effective method for reaching and communicating with the patients you desire to serve most.
Avoiding a Poor Marketing ROI
If you understand and embrace the aforementioned information, you are already ahead of the game. In order to further reduce your risk of experiencing a poor marketing ROI, follow these best practices:
- Clearly Identify Your Objectives: Before you plan or implement any marketing campaign, it is important to clearly define what you desire as your outcome. Is it increased brand awareness, getting more leads, making a sale, scheduling a consultation or something else? This will help you focus your messaging, strategy and direct call to action as you craft your ideal marketing campaign.
- Know Your Target Patient Audience: Understanding your target patient audience is fundamental to successful marketing. Listen to your current ideal patients. What are their demographics, needs, pain points, desires, and goals? This knowledge allows you to create personalized campaigns that will better resonate with those you want to serve, increase the likelihood of a positive response, and ultimately increase your ROI.
- Select the Best Channels for Connection: Choosing the correct channel can mean the difference between a successful campaign or one that results in ‘crickets’. Be sure to understand where your ideal patients spend their time – online search, email, social media, or traditional marketing channels.
- Create Compelling and Consistent Messages that Connect: What you say, whether in a video, blog, advertising, or audio message, be sure to reflect your brand and be consistent. Develop a clear and compelling message that creates trust in you and what you offer.
- Keep it Simple and Make it Fun: It is easy to over-think what you should do in your marketing campaign. Often, the best way to connect with your ideal patients is to show your personality, be yourself, include your team, keep your messaging simple and direct, and have some fun! When you personalize your connection in this way, it becomes more natural and people are more likely to trust you, utilize your services, and refer you to others.
- Analyze Metrics: Your key performance indicators/metrics are clues to what is working (or not). Be sure to track these at least monthly (weekly can be even more impactful) so you can identify trends, areas for improvement and spend your money more wisely. You will want to allocate your budget based upon the channels and strategies that have proven to be most effective. Regularly reassess your budget allocation to adapt to changing market conditions and patient behavior. No budget? No problem. While it takes longer, organic marketing efforts can prove to be very effective (and more engaging) over time.
- Use Your Team Talents: Your team knows your patients very well and are likely very adept when it comes to content marketing and social media. Don’t be afraid to tap into their talents for content, patient testimonials, graphics, and more!
- Integrate Technology: While technology is ever-changing, it has also become much easier to use in order to maximize creativity. Stay agile, adaptive, and continuously seek new information and strategies. Emerging artificial intelligence tools are something to consider and integrate as appropriate for you and your practice. Technology is also essential for tracking new leads, nurturing them, education and so much more!
Speaking of technology, if you are looking for an all-in-one streamlined software platform for tracking new and existing patients and communicating securely in all modes, there is a solution. You can learn more at https://www.pronexinc.com/ It is one of the few solutions that is inter-operable with most EMR systems and can serve as a powerful EMR as well – making it truly an all-in-one system.
About the Author: Karol Clark, MSN, RN, is a best-selling author who has a passion for helping physicians integrate effective, profitable weight loss services and retail sales into their practice while improving patient outcomes and enjoying the journey along the way. Her use of non-traditional (easy to implement) medical marketing strategies, along with her dedication to a positive ROI makes her a uniquely different and sought-after weight loss business consultant. Karol is the CEO of Weight Loss Practice Builder and the exclusive membership program for weight loss practitioners, www.BariatricBusinessAccelerator.com. She has more than 20 years of experience working with surgical and medical weight loss physicians and their teams helping them simplify creation of a profitable and enjoyable bariatric practice.