Traditionally, marketing budgets created by dental businesses who are selling to dentists have been magazine advertising heavy with a small additional spend on PR and a little bit of digital thrown in for good measure. And many dental publishing companies are keen to sell this as a ‘package’ for a fixed monthly fee and promise the earth in terms of return on investment. But in the ‘new normal’, where budgets have been cut and it’s doubtful that dental professionals will have the inclination, or time, to pick up a dental magazine, perhaps it’s time to think again about spending a good proportion of your precious budget on a package of paper adverts.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying dump all magazine advertising, but I am saying it’s time to think about a new way of spending your marketing budget and the current situation is the perfect time to start to get things in place for 2021.
Why ROI matters
The smaller the budget, the more strategic you have to be. You can’t take a scattergun approach and hope that things will work. If you understand exactly what it is you want to achieve from the start, you can ensure that you squeeze every penny to make sure you get the best ROI possible. The crucial thing is to find focus, look at your audience and find out where the opportunities lie.
You also need to look at your tactics. For example, ask yourself if a well-crafted email campaign would deliver a better response than a traditional advert channel. It would certainly be cheaper to execute and ROI would be trackable.
If you do decide to trial email, it’s vital to work out what the call to action for the audience is going to be and never lose sight of it. Do you want them to visit your website, or pick up the phone? Think about how you want people to react and how you’re going to track them. If you have any past experience and measurement of similar campaigns, benchmark against them and set targets. If you haven’t, make sure you evaluate the effectiveness of the new activity so you can benchmark against it in future.
Email example: Company X offering a free sample of a new product
Costs:
| Creation of email | £250 |
| Send email to magazine database | £600 |
| Total cost | £850 + VAT |
Return:
| Emails sent | 12,000 |
| Opened | 2400 (20%) |
| Requested free sample | 240 |
In this basic example it costs £3.40 per person to generate 240 active leads. Not all of these will turn in to customers, but with the right management and potentially a follow-up offer, many of these will go on to purchase the product.
Finally, you need to be really smart with your communication. When a budget has been cut there can be no fluffiness. Your communication needs to stop people in their tracks. If you get this message right, ultimately it will lead to return on the investment.
Need help with your marketing strategy? We are on hand to help with strategy and budget planning to make sure you can deliver the most effective marketing plan to make 2021 a highly successful year.
If you would like to know more call Richard on 01844 299292 or email richard@mananltd.com
