7 Essential Metrics Healthcare Marketers Need to Focus On

 When we talk about data analytics and measuring ROI, there are several standards that we use to categorize success—website visits, number of new contacts and revenue gains or losses. These are all helpful metrics and should be taken into consideration in any marketing report. However, there are loads of different ways to measure success in digital marketing, and success looks different from industry to industry—particularly in the healthcare industry.

If you’re in healthcare, the majority of your marketing efforts are likely focused on gaining and keeping new patients. In order to effectively evolve your digital marketing strategy over time, your data analysis should also focus on customer (patient) acquisition and retention.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 7 metrics you should be analyzing on a regular basis.

1) Patient Acquisition Cost

This is probably the most relevant metric, as your whole marketing budget will be based around this number. How much does it cost to acquire a new patient? Take into account that different sources – referrals, paid search, social media, etc. – may have different costs per lead, but that all are valuable ways of generating new patients. Don’t forget to factor in the lifetime value of a patient, in order to see the full view. It may seem like a lot to spend $500 per acquisition, but if the patient’s lifetime value is over $10,000, then the initial investment is worth it.

How to calculate: 

Traditional marketing would have you divide all the costs for marketing within a certain period of time by the number of new patients acquired. This method, though, only gives you a surface-level look and it doesn't allow for a deep analysis into which activities are most effective at bringing in new patients. However, with digital marketing, you can actually track a lead from a PPC ad to a landing page conversion to becoming a patient. Or, from a social post to a “Contact Us” form submission to becoming a patient. Each of these activities will have different costs-per-customer and will allow you to see where you need to allocate your budget based on what’s most effective in your market.

2) Patient Retention

It’s not enough to gain a lot of new patients—you need to keep them coming back. One loyal patient will do more good for your bottom line than 10 new patients. Loyal patients not only spend more over their lifetime, they also are great brand evangelists and will likely recommend you to their friends and family if you continue to delight them with your treatment and services. In your analytics, be sure to highlight returning patients.

How to calculate: 

To calculate patient retention rates, you'll need to know how many existing patients you have and how many you gained or lost over a set period of time. If math isn't your thing, Inc.com has a great formula to easily calculate your retention rate.

3) Customer Service Response Time

This is a metric that often trips healthcare organizations up. Customer service is for shopping, right? Wrong. Great customer service is the best way to make your healthcare organization stand out from the crowd. It’s especially important in today’s digital age as it becomes easier for complaints and bad reviews to be spread far and wide online.

Patients care about how they’re treated and their experiences at each of their appointments, but it doesn’t end there – they also care about how they’re treated outside of your office, through appointment reminders, follow-ups and response time to their questions and concerns. The level of service and treatment they receive can make or break your relationship with them. Give your staff goals and don’t simply think about email and phone call response times, make sure you’re taking social media response times into account, as well. And remember, social media users expect responses within an hour.

How to calculate: 

Facebook is now starting to track customer service response time for brand pages. You can also have your digital team log the time of each incoming inquiry and the time of each response.

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