Grab a Seat at The Table

You are an office manager at a 7-doctor practice. Since your group does not have a marketing department, you have also been give the role of “marketing coordinator.” Sound familiar? You are not alone. Approximately three-quarters of the practices POS works with find themselves in this situation.

Fall is a great time to step up your game and think about marketing priorities to drive your practice forward in 2018. Your management team is likely getting together now or in the near future to begin 2018 budgeting. Make sure you have a seat at the table. Marketing is a critical component of any budget planning and is a leading driver of revenue in most practices.

Your marketing ideas can’t live in a silo.

You need to hear from the providers, the administrator and the billing manager what their priorities are for 2018. This will help to make sure your marketing activities are supporting those goals. But they need to also hear from you and learn what marketing ideas you have for 2018 (ideally tied to advancing the practice).

Make sure you have a plan or at least a list of the marketing initiatives you would like to implement in 2018. Most of your practice marketing spend will be task- or project-oriented, so having a plan is critical.

You might be wondering how do you even go about proposing a marketing budget for next year? Really, you don’t. That’s why you need to be a part of the conversation. Typically, practices should set aside anywhere from 7-10% of their gross revenue for marketing. Gross revenue is one of the more common methods of budgeting because it allows spending to fluctuate with your revenue.

So make sure you get a seat at the table to make the most out of your marketing efforts next year.