Ever hear of evidence-based marketing? It's what we practice. Not only do we realize that we work for biological scientists who want hard data on all our efforts; we're also a company founded by a former civil engineer. Talk about a measurement freak: our founder is obsessed with putting the yardstick to everything.
In the MedMarketLink program, we work with more than 100 metric tools. Frankly, we track and provide more numbers than our clients can consume.
We're famous for eyes-glazing-over statistics and reports. If there's an veteran medical marketing group out there that works with more metrics than we do, we want to meet them so we can shake their hands. And also see what we can learn from them. So far, though, we have yet to find them.
Measuring the quality of success
As much as we like numbers, the hard truth is that in marketing, the best story wins. Our job for a medical practice is to tell its best story. Great storytelling produces the most measurable results, and for medical practices great storytelling requires a partnership.
Through the MedMarketLink program, Vanguard Communications has spent years refining a tried-and-true methodology of working with medical practices to unearth the best stories. The practiceʼs sole responsibility is to help us find the best patient stories and the best doctor stories.
We do the rest:
- Monthly conference calls for reporting, planning, and to help uncover newsworthy events and opportunities. These meetings typically involve participation by a practice manager, clinical staffer, or both. (In some practices a delegated marketing physician also participates.)
- Monthly Web reports detailing the number of visits to the practice Web site, number of conversions (i.e., new-patient leads from online appointment requests, new-patient forms completed online), sources of visitors, and general Web site trends.
- Long-term PR calendars allowing the planning and scheduling of topics and campaigns for the mid- to long-term.
- Monthly meeting agendas and conference reports, to ensure that no strategies and tactics are overlooked and that follow-through is implemented. Post-conference-call conference reports include to-do lists noting who does what when.
- Web site postings of press releases and links to resulting media coverage in both print and broadcast media.
- Media reports to demonstrate final results and value of press coverage to date.
In the end, it's not just accountability for time spent that matters. It's moving people to action. Our action creates action. Guaranteed.