How Do I ‘Easily’ Calculate ROI in Service-Line Marketing?

July 1, 2013

Ask The Expert with Scott McRae

Calculating return on investment for a service-line marketing campaign can be elusive and is not for the faint of heart. However, demonstrating that your marketing efforts contribute to your organization’s bottom line communicates the value of your function and benefits your career.

Where to begin

To demonstrate the calculation of ROI, I’ll walk you through a hypothetical marketing campaign promoting a knee replacement procedure. I’ll start with a traditional marketing opportunity analysis by identifying some of the data points used in the ROI calculation, such as patient demographics, market share, and procedure profit margin. Next, I’ll take a patient’s view of the procedure by surveying some recent patients to pick up additional information for the campaign review. I’ll ask patients about their satisfaction with the procedure to see if there were any glitches in the delivery and learn why they chose to have the procedure, how they learned about it, and why they chose your organization. This information will not only help you craft your marketing message, but also better understand how you can choose the most effecttive marketing channels for your campaign target audience. Choosing the best marketing channels, whether email, direct mail, billboard, radio, television, or social media, will help you maximize your campaign return.

Defining success

The campaign goal is to increase the number of knee replacement procedures performed per month, which will improve your net profit and help you achieve the strategic plan for the year. The campaign investment is $32,000.