How much do I need to spend to promote my dental practice on-line?
I’m prompted to write this particular article after reading a useful web review which proposed baseline metrics to measure the performance of typical dental practices. These elements were shown as spend as a percentage of the practice turnover, for example, lab fees, staff costs, marketing etc.
I’d like to expand further on the web marketing cost element and how this factor can vary significantly based on practice location, strength of the local competition and the growth aspirations of the business. Here are just a few examples of typical web marketing budgets and the elements a practice should consider based on their particular circumstance.
Practice located in a small town or village location, limited competition
We have clients in this type of circumstance who spend relatively little on their web marketing. A typical format would include:
- the practice website – set-up cost from around £1.5k, annual hosting and maintenance, £200 -> £300
For this type of establishment, with only 3 or 4 competing practices, a well-constructed website is often sufficient. Such a site can often appear on Google page one without ongoing optimisation and consequently the overall costs to maintain a professional, effective web presence are quite small.
Practice located in a medium size town with moderate competition
Here you might consider moderate competition to be 20 or 30 practices, all with competent websites and all vying for a page one ranking in Google. In this circumstance a larger web profile is more appropriate as follows:
- practice website as above, possibly with more content for a more effective Google presence – from around £2k
- website hosting and updates – £300 -> £400 per year
- practice blog – £300
- practice led social media
- moderate SEO – from £250/month
A suitable SEO campaign for this type of environment would include limited link acquisition, blogging and support with social media. A small-scale, closely managed pay-per-click campaign may also feature.
Inner city practice, significant level of competition
Whilst competition levels clearly vary, any practice within a city or large town can expect significant competition. Gaining search engine prominence in this circumstance is a much bigger task and needs more resources. A typical format would be:
- a large practice website – typically 25 pages or more – £2.5k upwards
- website hosting and updates – £400 + per year
- practice blog – £300
- proactively managed social media
- comprehensive SEO – from £350/month
- internal staff resource allocated to marketing activities
- selective use of pay-per-click – cost depends on scope but expect hundreds not tens of pounds.
The main incremental cost associated with increasing competition is not necessarily associated with the upkeep of the website but more with the scale of the SEO, social media management and other proactive factors like blogging. Essentially this is all about building lots of useful content to increase you web footprint, attract back-links to your site and ultimately push you above your competitors in Google. Larger practices are increasingly starting to allocate internal resource for some of these activities – an additional factor for the cost equation.
Marketing spend as a percentage of practice turnover
So is it valid to use marketing spend as a percentage of turnover as a benchmark? Our experience is probably not. There will be “average” levels which might provide a useful rule-of-thumb but each practice, location and competitive environment is different resulting in different marketing needs and associated costs.
Web marketing for your practice
At Dental Media, our web marketing team will assess your particular situation in detail. We will discuss your business with you, check existing resources, including your website and then make a close assessment of the competitive situation. This allows us to configure the correct web marketing project for your needs. Please call us for an informal chat on 01332 672548.
