The world of marketing moves fast, and that couldn’t be more true in the age of digital marketing. Just when you think you’re caught up on the latest trends, everything changes once again, and you’re back where you started.
Unless you’re a marketing wiz, you’re likely bewildered by it all. Let’s be real: you’re spending all day seeing patients and running a practice. All you want to do in your spare time is be with your loved ones, not researching the hottest marketing trends to find unique ways of getting your name out there.
So you start exploring your options, and you think it might be time to get some help with your marketing. Maybe you’ve heard some stories about colleagues of yours hiring an agency who didn’t understand them at all, and not seeing the results they hoped for.
You think to yourself, “This will be different—I’ll hire a marketing manager to join my clinic!” It seems like the best of both worlds: a marketing expert who will market only for you, has your undivided attention, and most importantly of all, is always available when you need them.
Sounds good, right? Just wait a second before you make your mind up. There are a few things to consider before you hire a marketing manager for your clinic.
Are you ready to pay a salary for something you could outsource?
When you have an in-house marketing team, you pay them as you would any other full-time employee of your clinic. To hire someone with competitive experience, who can quickly identify what your practice needs to do to jumpstart its marketing campaign, isn’t cheap, either. You’ll be paying their salary — plus benefits, vacation, and sick leave.
According to Payscale, the average salary of a Chief Marketing Officer—someone who is going to bring you knowledge comparable to that of an agency—is $169,761. That accounts for a $35,783 bonus, $14,569 in profit sharing, and $25,602 in commission. That’s not an insignificant number; while it’s important to have high goals, your revenue might not grow at a rate similar enough to increase your ROI.
Instead, by hiring an agency, you’re guaranteed to be working with marketing experts who are ahead of the curve, and who know how to market within your industry. Want to book a free consultation with a healthcare marketing expert?
Do you want your marketing manager to wear multiple hats?
If you are operating a small clinic, there is a good chance that your team is wearing multiple hats and taking on many different responsibilities to keep day-to-day operations moving smoothly. For many practices, it’s not uncommon to find a team member taking on marketing responsibilities in addition to their concrete set of duties.
If you add a marketing manager to your team, they will likely have to operate under a similar model — just marketing-specific. The multiple hats they’ll wear will be managing email marketing systems, managing social media, managing website content, and managing events. That’s a lot of hats.
When you work with an agency, you know that different areas of marketing for your practice are being watched closely and managed by multiple people who are bonafide experts in their fields. Not just one person juggling multiple tasks at once, trying to keep track of many moving parts.
Will an in-house marketing expert help you achieve your goals?
Marketing managers are building strategies that meet the goals and KPIs they deem the most important, and you have to be certain you see eye-to-eye on this before hiring them.
It’s absolutely crucial that you find a marketing manager who is interested in engaging with your current patients and doesn’t strictly look to acquire new patients. Of course, you should be looking to expand to new prospects whenever you can. But too often marketing specialists forget about existing patients, who are already your fans.
The reason why you should keep marketing to these patients is that they have already been acquired, so they are not as expensive to acquire as new prospects. Not just that, but you want a marketing manager who understands the value of building relationships with long-time patients.
Do you want someone who is reactive, or proactive, about your marketing initiatives?
One of the reasons you started looking for help with marketing was probably because you want someone else to take charge of your marketing initiatives and get them off the ground faster. You want someone who can foresee issues down the road, and resolve them before they create roadblocks. You want marketing strategies that are proactive, not reactive.
As mentioned earlier, finding an in-house marketer with the kind of wherewithal for sales and project management accounts for a bigger price tag than you may expect. Be honest with yourself about whether having access to an in-house marketing expert building marketing strategies just for your clinic is worth paying extra.
When to consider hiring an agency
A marketing agency, like invigoMEDIA understands how to attract new patients, how to keep them engaged and interested in your practice, and how to turn them in your clinic’s #1 fan. We’re devoted to helping you grow in your market and leave your competitors in the dust. Book a free consultation call today to get started!
