In recent years, medical marketing has become much more expansive as the marketing techniques and capacities have grown through the age of the internet. New and improved platforms have resulted in new and improved marketing strategies for medical practices. However, with the development of many newer marketing ideas, such as healthcare social media, it can be difficult for any practice to manage their own marketing strategies.
As the marketing world becomes more and more rooted in online platforms such as social media, marketing can become more challenging for practices, and their need for help often grows. Accordingly, practices now hire marketing agencies more often than before, and there are many, many more marketing agencies offering services for medical practices than there has been in the past.
So, if your medical practice hasn’t hired anyone yet, there seems to be a decent likelihood that you will soon face the decision of whether you want to hire an agency to manage your marketing. That decision can be an extremely difficult one as there are so many different marketing agencies that offer many different services and specialties to a wide array of practices.
Of course, the last thing any practice would want to do is hire an agency that does not work out, and then go through the whole process again. In order to make sure that you get it right the first time, you should prepare questions to ask the agency before hiring them. That way, you can get a better idea of what they can offer you, and whether their services are a good match for your marketing needs.
HERE ARE 5 MUST-ASK QUESTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED:
1. Why do I need a marketing agency to design and manage my marketing?
One of the most common reasons for a practice being upset, disappointed, or frustrated with their marketing plans and marketing teams is that lack of any clear-cut goals and intention for what they would like to achieve in the first place with their marketing strategies. So, make sure you ask something to this effect so they can provide you with the exact goals they intend to pursue.
2. How do you plan on executing my marketing strategy?
This is an extremely important question to pose as it will provide you information on a couple things. First, you can kind of gauge how well the agency understands the ins and outs of the special strategies you need. Also, you can make certain that the plans and execution match what you intend to do.
3. How do you measure results, and how will you report them?
This is massively important because those measurements will be the only information readily available that gives you an indication whether or not your campaigns have been successful. Make sure the agency has a comprehensive system of measurements and report analytics to your practice periodically, like once or even maybe twice a month.
4. How often will I be able to communicate with your agency and will it cost anything to talk to a rep?
In order to best execute your marketing strategy and maintain success, you will definitely need to stay in touch with someone from the agency. Much of what you intended for goals, intents, and purposes for various marketing strategies can easily be lost in translation, so open communication is crucial. However, be careful of agencies that charge something like an hourly rate to talk to your rep on the phone, as some agencies do charge for such communication.
5. Have you worked with similar practices that utilized similar strategies and platforms?
This is a very important question because each and every marketing strategy should be uniquely designed and tailored to your practice and its needs in order to be maximally efficient. If they have worked with similar clients and have carried out similar projects, you should feel good because that means they understand specific needs and approaches to take in that particular field.
6. What are your certifications, and do you use any special programs?
Not only is it important as an indicator of which specific marketing aspects are they highly efficient in, but this will also give insight into which areas of marketing they value the most. Also, knowing which programs they bought for marketing (if any) can be very important as those services can be available for you, and again indicates a certain level of commitment quality marketing.
7. What do you guys offer in regard to content development?
This question is absolutely crucial and could easily be overlooked. While some agencies might only offer social media services, or something else, you want to be certain that the agency you hire has something to offer when it comes to content development. Whether it’s Facebook posts, written blogs, or your website pages, developing higher quality content will go a very long way in benefitting your marketing presence.
At the end of the day, healthcare marketing can be a true pain for your practice, so if you are planning on hiring an agency to help manage your marketing then make sure you hire a high-quality agency that fits your needs. OF course, that always sounds much easier than it ever happens to be, but developing key questions to ask the agency in your meeting with them will help tremendously in gathering specific information regarding exactly what you need to know. Don’t forget, feel free to add any questions you might want to ask, as it ultimately stands up to you which questions you want to ask.