Friday was a great day for our business and one of our client’s business. The Inbound Marketing strategy we have put in place for this particular client has been paying off handsomely for their bottom line. In an industry that is ever changing, that is more about trial and error and a/b testing than proven formulas – wins that happen right off the bat are rare, but I’m noticing something interesting… they are becoming more common.
We met with a relatively new client ( working together three months) to go over their stats. Here’s what we tend to look for in the area of meaningful numbers for our clients:
1. Marketing efforts – How many people are we reaching through our marketing efforts? We had some great stats for that part of the conversation- About 18,000 a week through Facebook and Google targeted ads alone.
2. Click Throughs – How many of the targeted people we are reaching are clicking through to the landing pages? We also had some solid numbers on that as well – We had about 620 people clicking through to the landing pages on the website from those targeted ads per month.
3. Conversions – How many leads were being generated and how many are converting to new patients? Between their data and ours, we were able to verify an additional 20 new phone inquiries per week or 80 + per month. Most of these calls were converting into new patients!
4. Cost – What’s the cost per new patient generated, including ad costs and Beacon’s services? In this case, the ROI is staggering: $36 per new patient, each valued at over $1,300 annually.
So how do great numbers like this happen in a short period of time and why am I seeing it happen more often?
Based on our experience in working with over 100 digital and online campaigns in the past 3 years, all the stars need to line up for this to happen quickly. What are the key ingredients for the stars to line up?
1. Buyer Persona – The right message delivered to the right audience. Basically research, research and more research. Do we know who the target demographic is and what their pain points are? Have we accurately created the correct graphic and content in the right medium to send the right message to that targeted audience? *** Remember Inbound Marketing isn’t really about you, it’s about the audience for which you are providing a solution.
2. A great website – Does the website have content that is meaningful, helpful and intuitive for the consumer? Will they actually want to do business with the client after clicking on the website? *** Your website is the foundation of your Inbound Marketing efforts. Without a solid website, you are wasting money to drive traffic there.
3. Conversion – Once you have reached the right target, provided the correct message and sent them to a solid landing page on your website – then what? Make it easy for them to do business with you. Provide good references and reviews that build credibility. Avoid long forms that require your potential client to fill out just to communicate with you. Make sure your social feeds are connected to your website and that they can communicate with you there. Most importantly-that your phone number and map information is easy to find and accessible. Conversion is much more than a call to action. It’s about meeting the needs of your potential client, or patient in this case, before they even pick up the phone to call you.
So, I mentioned above that we are seeing these types of fast results happen more often in the past 6-9 months then the last few years combined. I’m convinced the reason is twofold.
1. Education- Business owners are becoming much more educated on the value of Inbound Marketing. There is an entirely different understanding in 2017 than even a few years ago. Instead of just budgeting for one of the stars to line up, like Facebook advertising or a new website- they are more willing than ever to put budget into their social media plans, websites and content management. They understand that meaningful results are based on a complete, Inbound marketing strategy, not just one piece. In fact, according to Forbes, 48% of national marketing budgets have shifted to Inbound efforts, from less than 20% 4 years ago.
2. Marketing Technologies – The rate in which digital media and targeted advertising has advanced in the past 6 months is mind blowing. Being able to target, on Facebook alone, people who are within 3 miles of your business, who have a certain income level, with interests that match your products etc. is a game changer – and that’s just ONE of the changes that we’ve seen.
If your interested in the particular case study I’m referencing in this article, or if you want to build revenue from your website and social media presence- drop me a line at [email protected], or check out our website .
