Why Your Healthcare Practice Should Have a Marketing Agency

With the release and commercialization of GLP-1 medications, many healthcare practices have started to seek marketing services to differentiate themselves.

Although a great decision, there have been just as many healthcare marketing agencies formed by individuals who lack expertise. Talk to any clinic that has been around for a few years, and they will tell you that only one in ten of the marketing agencies they work with truly get the job done.

So, with such low rates of success, you should just not look and try to do it yourself, right? Well, not exactly. Marketing agencies are like tattoo artists; finding the right one for your style is critical to success.

In this blog, I want to give you the benefits of a healthcare agency and why clinics should partner with a marketing agency, and go over some of the most common terms and KPIs you will hear being thrown around. There are numerous benefits of an agency that business owners often overlook or undervalue.

If you enjoy this blog and are interested in expanding your clinic, contact us and we will arrange a complimentary discovery call specifically for your clinic.

‍

‍Agencies Save Time & Reduce Stress

The benefits of working with an agency start with understanding your goals. Finding the right marketing agency is critical for growth, but one of the simplest and most impactful things any agency can offer is taking the burden of marketing off your plate.

For most medical professionals, the opportunity cost of filming, editing, and posting content yourself is far too high. Having someone come into your office to capture a few videos, take professional photos, and handle editing and posting is easily worth $ 1,000 or more per month. It saves you hours of time, reduces stress, and allows you to focus on what matters most: caring for your patients and running your practice efficiently.

A strong agency also brings powerful automation tools to streamline your operations. From following up with patients and collecting payments, automation can save your team hours each week.

With a skilled healthcare marketing partner, every piece of content you produce is guided by strategy, making the entire process smoother, more effective, and ultimately more profitable.

‍

Better Technology & Analytics

If you have worked with an agency in the past, you know that analytics are everything for social media, SEO, etc. With that usually comes some pretty interesting technology and analytical software for tracking.

Having these tools at your disposal is very helpful in tracking patient behavior, creating patient profiles, and segmenting patients based on their actions. This is very helpful for creating upsells and cross-sells down the line.

Agencies like Nexamed utilize top-of-the-line software for all our activities as well. Need a custom landing page? We can make you a top-of-the-line high-quality A/B tested one. These are things you can only get from an experienced marketing agency in healthcare.

‍

Scalability & Flexibility

One of the best perks of working with a healthcare marketing agency is the scalability and flexibility many of these agencies offer. For example, with Nexamed, you can start with social media management, then upgrade to ads, and then into our other services, etc.

Once you find a good agency, the ability to scale with them makes it all worth it. They will be able to provide you with valuable insights and help you plan for upcoming quarters for your business.

Many agencies are also very flexible. Here at Nexamed, we only offer month-by-month plans so that you don’t feel trapped. Although many agencies don't offer this, they do provide the opportunity to take a break if needed as well. If you're only using social media and want to wait a month before going to ads, that's okay. We've been running ads for 2 months and now need a break to catch up with everyone who hasn't booked. That's okay as well, and for many agencies, that's the flexibility that makes it all worthwhile.

‍

Cost-Effective Compared to In-House

If you have ever received a quote from a marketing agency, you may have been shocked by the price. “$3000 a month for Social media, Ads Management, and SEO?” However, I want you to consider how expensive it would be to have in-house.

For social media, you need someone who can film, edit, and post. Although on the cheaper end, you would need to pay $15-$25/hour. Then, an ad manager, for which you would pay roughly the same amount. Then an SEO specialist, which can run $50/hr. It wouldn't take long before you exceeded your budget.

Agencies work with multiple brands, but in return, you get access to an entire team of specialists for a quarter of the cost. Having a skilled team around you and ready to work is a powerful tool that is often overlooked by companies when deciding whether to work with an agency or not.

‍

Measurable Results and Accountability

Something most brands forget is that they are the bosses of these agencies, and they can be held accountable. If you are not pleased with the work, you can hold them accountable and, if necessary, terminate their employment.

You can work with new agencies until you find one you like, and that is a totally normal thing to do for businesses. Ensure you work with an agency that is right for you and treats your business the way you want it to be treated.

You will want to review the KPIs that these agencies plan to set during your first meeting, so you can gain a better understanding of the metrics and determine if they actually performed as promised.

Here are some of the most common KPIs and other terminology used by marketing agencies, and what it mean.

‍

ROI - ROI stands for return on investment and is used to measure the overall performance of your campaign. For example, if your ad management was $1,000, you spent $3,000 on ads and generated $20,000 in sales, your ROI was 5x. Your ROI incorporates everything you spent over total profits. ROI in healthcare means the same as anywhere else and is used to measure your total revenue against all your expenses.

‍

ROAS - ROAS stands for Return on Ad Spend and measures the return on your ad spend alone. So if you spent $3,000 on ads and generated $20,000 in sales, your ROAS would be 6-7x

‍

CPL - CPL stands for cost per lead and tells you how much it costs for someone to fill out a form or give you a call, for example. Depending on industry and platform, this number can vary greatly. For something like liposuction, expect 150$ per lead, while something like GLP-1 to be 20$ (For PPC, META will be lower but at a different cost)

‍

CTR - CTR stands for click-through rate, which measures the number of people who, after seeing your ad, actually click on it. So if 1,000 people saw your ad and you got 50 clicks, your CTR would be 5% which is very good for most industries.

‍

CPA - CPA stands for cost per acquisition, which tells you how many leads converted. So, if your CPL is $100, you have 6 leads and one converts into a patient, your CPA would be $600. This is where most businesses get tripped up between CPL and CPA. At Nexamed, we use CPA since we think it is more valuable in determining the overall ROI.

‍

Agencies Bring Proven Strategies and Industry Insights

The most valuable thing an agency can offer you is experience in the field. When you work with an agency that has been in the industry for many years and has seen what does and does not work, this can save you a lot of time and money by avoiding testing things that do not work.

For example, when starting a new practice, I would personally advise against using Groupon for your services. I’ve seen over 20 practices use Groupon, and yet it never works; yet, many practices still consider this an option. This is a huge headache that you can save yourself from if you work with an agency that has experience in the healthcare industry.

Agencies can also prevent you from getting in trouble. At Nexamed, we are committed to protecting patient information and ensuring that every piece of content is 100% safe for posting without jeopardizing your business.

This is the same for running ads. Did you know that Facebook does not like the Morpheus8 handpiece because it looks like a gun? Google doesn't like the word Botox. Etc. There are countless strict regulations that you must follow to ensure that your Facebook account doesn't get banned.

Having a skilled agency with experience in the field will help keep your accounts and your business safe and secure from being banned or getting into legal trouble.

‍

Final Thoughts

If you are serious about growing your healthcare practice, the right marketing agency is a competitive advantage. The right partner will save you time, bring proven strategies, keep you compliant, and help you make smarter business decisions based on data, not guesswork.

At the end of the day, your focus should be on delivering the best possible care to your patients, rather than worrying about whether your latest campaign is performing or if your ad account will be flagged. That’s our job.

If you’re ready to work with a healthcare marketing agency that understands your industry, speaks your language, and has a track record of delivering results, let’s talk. Schedule your free discovery call with Nexamed today, and let’s build a growth plan that gets your clinic the patients, revenue, and reputation it deserves.

‍

‍