Many dentists ask me how much can a dental practice spend on marketing? Dentistry is all about recurring revenue and acquiring quality new patients worth the initial investment.
These numbers are a good place to start:
- 17% average patient attrition rate
- Need to generate 24-50 new patients per month
- Word of mouth referrals can’t keep up
- Marketing needs to overcome price / basic practice features
- Cost Per Acquisition – $150 – $300 per dental patient
- In year one, a new patient spend averages $700-$1250
- Average dental patient stays with a practice for 7-10 years
- Average Patients spend – $653 per year (ADA average – 2016)
- A new patient will generate at least $4500 in revenue (excluding referrals) in their lifetime with a practice
Dentists need to highlight their expertise, the excellence of their staff, quality patient care and practice management. They need to develop trust.
Marketing is key to the success of any business and dental practices are no exception. For a dental practice to grow, a single dentist should be seeing 24-50 new patients per month. When it costs to determining the dental practice spend on marketing, the dentist can use the general numbers listed above as a guideline, but must adapt for their own particular practice. They need to look at the practice, do their research and run the numbers.
To be successful in generating new patients, marketing needs to be planful and include a solid SEO/PPC program, direct mail, social media and social media advertising
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