Dummies’ guide to: campaign management

Chris Baker tells you how to make a success of your marketing campaigns.

Let’s say that you are running a marketing campaign that is targeting a whole range of potential patients across Facebook posts and advertising, email, and local press.You have placed the ads and have high hopes.

Where do the enquiries go? And to whom? If it is an ad in the local press, this will be relatively straightforward and will likely be a phone call to the front desk. However, what happens then? Does the receptionist ask how they found about the practice/offer? Then, does he/she make a record of this patient and information?

For any kind of marketing campaign to be a success you need to be able to measure whether it was a success. To do that you need to be taking and keeping accurate records. If you are running any marketing at the moment and are not able to refer to a document within say, one minute that tells you how many patients have booked in, from what source etc, you are not managing your campaign effectively. Here’s my four-part plan:

1. ‘Campaign champion’

A member of the team (not the principal), needs to take ownership of the campaign and all that is generated. They need to be in charge of monitoring the Facebook page and advertising account, and have access to Google and the practice email account. They need to prepare regular reports and be on top of the campaign. They need to ensure that all team members are ‘on message’ and know the offer inside out.

Don’t just choose the practice manager as a matter of course. You need someone who is enthusiastic, wants the practice to succeed, has an attention to detail, and is comfortable speaking to potential patients via telephone.

2. Systems

A series of systems needs to be put in place so that potential patients and leads do not fall down the cracks. It takes a lot of effort and money to get leads in the first place – the right systems will ensure that they are dealt with correctly. You will need a designated email address for campaigns that your campaign champion will monitor on a three times daily basis. If new enquiries come through via email, they need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.

A weekly meeting with the reception team to keep them motivated will also be required, and a daily review of social media activity and daily monitoring of Google and Facebook advertising – regular monitoring and tweaking can improve responses. A sales ‘pipeline’ should be created so that you know where in the process the enquiry is and what needs to happen next, and a set of weekly reports that will detail all of the above.

3. Follow up

This is an area where many practices fail. A potential patient may make an initial enquiry and then you are unable to speak to them for a week or two and they don’t return the call. At many practices, the team assumes that they are not interested and they are left alone. This is a huge mistake – even if the patient says ‘no’, very often it is a ‘not now’ rather than a ‘never’. Agreed timeframes need to be put in place as to how and when you follow up, but follow up you must – preferably by telephone in the first instance.

And, I would recommend that if they enquire about invisible braces for instance and they don’t immediately proceed, they then receive a series of emails that encourages them to attend the practice and take up an offer.

4. Measurement

When you do all the above effectively, you will have the facts and figures at your fingertips and will be able to make more informed decisions about future campaigns. It will save you money and mean that future campaigns are more targeted and successful and make you money.


If you have any comments or suggestions for future dummies’ guides, email [email protected]. For more information on this story call 0845 370 2211, email [email protected] or visit www.coronadental.co.uk.

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