Don’t waste money on marketing
Billboards, ads in magazines, direct mailers, Groupon offers, relying on word of mouth - have you used any of these methods to promote your business and get more patients? If you have - you are most likely wasting money!
You need to stop marketing like it was 1991 and need to start utilizing the most effective advertising platforms available now. Platforms that allow you to get amazing results at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.
STOP ADVERTISING LIKE IT’S 1991
Let me briefly explain what is wrong with the traditional approach of advertising on billboards, radio, TV, magazines, direct mailers etc..
Think about a scenario where you lease a billboard to promote your practice (billboards are just one example, but this is equally applicable to radio, direct mailers, TV and other “traditional” platforms). So let’s say you lease a billboard for $3,000 per month and add to it about $1,000 to cover design and production costs for your billboard advertisement. You put the ad out there and wait for the perfect customers to start calling or emailing your office.
Have you spotted the three huge problems in that scenario?
WHO SEES THE AD?
Problem number one - your advertising is not targeted. You just spent $4,000 on a platform that gives you HOPE that the right people - your perfect customers - will see the ad.
Picture this - let’s say you are a plastic surgeon and run med-spa practice. You came up with a special offer for women and let’s say you do a free 30 minute initial consultation for women who just gave birth. You advertise the offer on the billboard. So naturally, you only want women who just gave birth to see your ad, right? You don’t want to show your offer to men or children. The problem is that there is no way for you to show the ad to only your ideal customer when you use traditional advertising. It is always a hit-or-miss tactic. You hope that out of the thousands of cars that pass your billboard, some of the drivers (or passengers) will be women who just gave birth. You put direct mailers in mailboxes hoping your ideal customer lives in one of those houses. You advertise on TV hoping that a new mother is watching the ad (but, let’s be honest, even if you put your ad on a TV in a block that is mostly watched by women, how many of us go to the bathroom or make a sandwich during commercial breaks?). See my point? You just spent $4,000 on showing your ad to everyone.
Note, that this is a stage of your marketing where you hope your ad will be seen by your perfect customer. But showing the ad to the right people is just a part of the success equation. As with any type of advertising it is natural that not everybody who sees your ad will become your customer.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT ANALYSIS?
And that brings us to problem number two - no return on investment analysis. With traditional advertising it is almost impossible to calculate the return on your ad dollars. If you don’t want to guesstimate, you need a complicated system in place that includes asking people who call or email your office,“Where did you hear about us?” They may remember, or not. What if you advertise on many platforms - billboard and direct mailers Do you think your customers will be able to say “Oh, definitely the direct mailer made all the difference in the world and made me call you”? So, which platform worked? Which method should you continue to use? Where should you spend your marketing money?
So, you spent $4,000 to show ad to everybody and cannot make and return on investment analysis. Doesn’t sound right, does it?
You see, I don’t care if my ad is amazing or if my billboard is in the perfect spot if I do not see any return on my marketing actions and money spent. Same with fanpage likes on Facebook - they look nice, but do they bring in money? Can you pay for vacation with Facebook likes? I wish!
What I care about is turning my advertising money into profit. I want to spend $1 on advertising and make $3, $5, $10 back in profit (yes, it is possible).
SALES FUNNEL?
Ok, let’s move on and let’s say your perfect customer saw your ad and you are fine with the “blind” marketing spend. Let me ask you a question - what happens after your perfect customers see the ad? Do you have a full process to take your new patient from seeing the ad, to memorizing your office phone number, to calling your office, to actually booking an appointment, to showing up for the appointment, to paying you money, to coming back for more and paying you even more money? No? Do you leave all the decisions to your patient? Here is another huge problem - problem number three.You don’t have a sales funnel. And that means you are losing money.
The most effective way to approach marketing is to show the right offer to the right audience at the right time. Once this is done, which you can now see this is extremely difficult with traditional marketing, you need to lead your potential customer through a process that will ensure the potential customer will become an actual paying customer. We call this process a funnel.
How do you create a funnel? Again, we don’t care about marketing being done just to feel better. We care about marketing bringing results. Let’s take a helicopter view on the basics... >> Click here to continue reading <<
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Mike is Facebook Ads and Sales Funnels consultant. Co-founder of Bizness Rebels - an agency helping other Rebelpreneurs like you BOOK clients & GROW their badass businesses by unleashing the potential of Sales Funnels and Facebook Ads. Join his free Facebook group where he talks about Facebook Ads and Marketing Funnels
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