Nine Marketing ROI Stats That Might Surprise You

Is your marketing working?

In other words, is it generating business in a profitable way?

If your answer is “no” or “I don’t know,” then read on to find out why it’s important to have a clear understanding of your marketing return on investment (ROI) and its impact on your business.

First, let’s define marketing ROI: It’s the practice of attributing profit and revenue growth to the impact of your marketing initiatives. Simply put, if you spend money on marketing, it measures your return.

Now, let’s discuss why your marketing ROI matters. Here are the top three reasons it’s a critical element of your overall business strategy:

  1. You can identify any “red flags” or missteps in your current marketing strategy so that you can make the necessary adjustments to drive greater results. For example, if your call response rate for your marketing initiative is below the industry benchmark, you might need to reevaluate your target audience.
  2. You can make informed decisions about allocating your marketing budget and creating your marketing plan for the coming year. If you don’t know what works and what doesn’t, then you’re essentially gambling with your investment.
  3. You can analyze your ROI data and know for certain if and how much your marketing efforts are contributing to revenue growth.

Now that you understand why marketing ROI is important, we can dive into the fun part—the data!

We reviewed a year and half of data from a select group of practices and below are some insights and benchmarks we uncovered. Some stats might surprise you or, more importantly, motivate you to take a closer look at your own marketing strategy and reevaluate your plan for 2020:

  1. Direct mail still works— in 2018 and 2019, our practices sent out 525 direct mail campaigns, yielding an average of $1,320 in profit per campaign. Find out if your own direct mail campaigns are successful with our Direct Mail Calculator.
  2. Thinking about advertising in your local magazine? You might want to give that a second thought! With a high cost-per-campaign and a negative return, magazine advertising serves more as a brand awareness tool than a true opportunity driver.
  3. Patients routinely check your digital properties before picking up the phone. 421 digital campaigns resulted in 2,935 calls with a total profit of $1,058 per campaign—a whopping 502 percent return!
  4. Over half (55 percent) of our Associates’ referrals come from physicians. This is encouraging because patients that come from a trusted opportunity source are more ready to buy. So, keep working to establish relationships with physicians in your area!
  5. Five thousand direct mail pieces resulted in 15 calls and 6 appointments with an average response rate of 31 percent. Although this appears low, the industry benchmark for response rates is 0.25-0.50 percent.
  6. Wouldn’t you like to make two months’ revenue in just three days? It’s possible with the CQ Upgrade Program! A total of 32 upgrade events averaged $58,000 in total revenue.
  7. Did you know that 40 percent of co-op dollars available are currently going unused? Every co-op dollar spent results in $5.39 in revenue for our Associates. If you’re not taking advantage of your co-op dollars, let our marketing team help you use them strategically.
  8. Calling Out of Warranty (OOW) patients generated an additional $215,000 in profits for our Associates while calling Tested Not Sold (TNS) patients yielded an extra $86,000 in profits. So, pick up the phone! Or, better yet, let Your Patient Contact Center do it for you.
  9. Due to blank categories in our Associates’ practice management systems, there was nearly $1.7 million in revenue unaccounted for. Meaning, many practices don’t know where all of their revenue is coming from each month. Don’t be one of those practices — let our marketing team help you establish an organized process for labeling opportunity sources in your practice management software.

*Based on the Marketing ROI data from a select group of practices between Jan. 2018 – June 2019

CQ’s Quarterly Marketing ROI Reports offer invaluable insights that ensure every marketing dollar spent today is growing your practice for the future. If you don’t already receive a report, talk to your Account Manager to find out how you can!

About the Author

Laura Kegelman

Laura Kegelman joined CQ Partners in 2018 and currently serves as a Strategic Planning Analyst. Her diverse professional background includes supply chain, forecasting, and marketing. Laura holds a degree in marketing from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. When she’s not working, Laura loves exploring the city she lives in (Philadelphia) as well as traveling to new cities and countries.