As a plastic surgeon and business owner, you know how important marketing spend transparency is. Unfortunately, if you are like most, you have or have had problems with your marketing agency being transparent when it comes to what return your marketing dollars are actually generating.
So what should you do?
Let’s talk about that for a moment. First, we will go over why marketing transparency is so important. Then we will show you exactly what can be done to take control and handle the transparency issue with ease. You will be delighted at how easy it is for both parties to work together. This is because you will have a way to strategically develop a working relationship that will hold your marketing agency accountable, make sure they are following industry best practices, completing your requests promptly, and not sharing any sensitive practice information with others.
Why Is Marketing Spend Transparency for Plastic Surgeons So Important?
Transparency is what makes trust possible. So your agency needs to keep you informed about the marketing strategies they’re using, what actions they’re taking, how they are spending your money, what’s working, what’s not, and why. Then they should provide you with documentation of proof of work and the corresponding results. This is because you can’t make informed decisions unless you have the correct, up-to-the-minute information to do so. And it’s only then will you know where to allocate your marketing spend.
Marketing spend transparency for plastic surgeons along with real-time data reporting is the only way to drive more new patients to your practice. It will also help you reduce your costs because you will be able to craft more effective messaging and marketing campaigns. It will also help ensure you and your team are spending your time and efforts efficiently while finding effective ways to grow your practice profitably.
The Most Common Transparency Red Flags with Marketing Agency
Here are a few of the most common tactics some marketing agencies use to avoid transparency. And the most common reason for not being transparent is usually to do as little work as possible without their clients being any the wiser. This is somewhat of a smoke-and-mirrors type of tactic. Keep reading so you can learn what to watch out for.
The Agency Not Giving You Access to Your Accounts
You should always be given access to all the accounts your agency is managing for you. There is no such thing as your account can’t be moved or that, since they are doing the work, you don’t need access or ownership.
With Surefire Local, you own all of your digital assets. Not the other way around.
The Agency Requires Your Accounts to be Held Under Their Name
Your digital marketing campaigns should always be put under your business account and remain in your control. Not the other way around. You put all your accounts in your practice’s name, then you grant your marketing agency access.
The biggest example is creating your own Facebook business page inside your own business manager account. Then sharing access with an outside party who will help you.
The Agency Wants to Build All-New Digital Assets for You
It’s a huge red flag when a marketing agency only will work with you if they can build you a new website and other new digital assets. This is because when an agency controls your website, social media pages, and other digital assets, they own everything. So if you ever want to cancel, they could hold your accounts hostage, delete your account, website, and all the assets they built for you. Since they own everything, they can do whatever they want with them.
With Surefire Local, we allow you to bring your own website onto our platform if you choose to do so. We’ll help you made updates and improve your existing website, and will not force you into a new website.
Limited Data and Reporting
You need an agency that provides you with detailed reports and marketing data. You should be given meaningful proof of results. Your agency should have data tracking, analytics, and a detailed reporting system set up for you. If they can’t provide you with industry and competitor benchmarks and can’t provide you with details about what they are doing at any given time, this is a problem. As a business owner, you must have access to this information. It’s the only way to make an informed decision about the effectiveness of your campaign strategies and to know if you are getting a good return on your investment.
So, How Can You Ensure Marketing Agency Transparency?
There is a way to ensure marketing agency transparency. You can do that by using online tools and resources. One of the best online platforms for marketing transparency for plastic surgeons is called Surefire Local. The Surefire Local Marketing Platform will help you with many of your daily digital marketing tasks. Additionally, they have an A.I. business intelligence marketing software that effectively helps businesses and marketing agencies work together seamlessly and transparently.
Let’s take a look at three ways the Surefire Local platform will give you marketing transparency. Then we will briefly go over the other daily marketing tasks that Surefire Local can help you with.
Three Ways to Gain Practice Marketing Transparency with Surefire Local
1. Insights and Analytics for Plastic Surgeon Practices
Your marketing agency might have been running your campaigns just fine and you might be happy with the results. But just think how much better the results could have been if you knew exactly which of those marketing tactics and online channels were driving the best results. You are just wasting money if your agency is marketing without tracking and analyzing the results.
It’s extremely important that you know what you’re spending on marketing and the corresponding results. You also need to know where your patients are coming from.
By using analytics and high-quality software, you can track, gather, and analyze your data to see how your marketing agency is spending your money while at the same time tracking its performance. The Surefire Local Marketing Platform can do the following.
- Local SEO
- Reputation Management
- Lead Management
- Paid Advertising
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- And More!
Having this information will also help you identify new digital marketing opportunities to build your brand. It will also show you what’s working, what’s not, and what areas need to be further optimized to maximize your ROI.
The Surefire Local platform is easy to use. We will help get you started and guide you through the setup process for tracking all your digital assets.
2. Competitive Benchmarking for Plastic Surgery Practices
Competitive benchmarking is essential for measuring your online visibility against your competitors. Unfortunately, some marketing agencies try to pass off vanity metrics such as “likes,” “comments,” and “views” as an indication of how well or how poorly their marketing strategies are working compared to your competitors or how well your campaigns are performing compared to industry benchmarks.
You should be watching what your competitors are doing and if they are using the proper metrics, such as online patient reviews and search rankings, to gauge how well you and your competitors are doing.
With Surefire Local, you can easily gather this data and use it to analyze how your performance compares to others in your local area. Surefire Local will show you the organic search rankings for the area, patient reviews, average star ratings, and how many leads were generated for your practice.
3. Marketing To-Do Lists for Plastic Surgery Practices
Marketing agencies tend to push clients to sign long-term contracts and make an upfront payment. Once you do that, they have no incentive to act quickly or to follow through in a timely manner. And, it’s hard to hold them accountable because there is no proof of work other than their word that the work has been done. Surefire Local can change all that.
When using Surefire Local, the software will make it easy for you and your agency to follow best practices. Out platform leverages AI to analyze your recent marketing activities to generate a list of actions you should take to improve in various areas, like online visibility, customer engagement, and marketing ROI. It doesn’t get much easier than that! This is a great way to achieve transparency and hold your marketing agency accountable.
Surefire Local Highlights
- All-In-One Platform
- Half the Cost of Other Tools and Agencies
- +34% Average Increase in SEO Traffic
- +82% More Online Reviews
- +386% Return on Investment
- Higher Google Rankings
- Fast Results
- Placements in 70+ Local Directories
Surefire Local is the perfect solution when it comes to marketing spend transparency for plastic surgeons. Give it a try and see for yourself!
A Brief Introduction to the Surefire Local Marketing Platform
The Surefire Local Marketing Platform can help you with many of your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly digital marketing tasks.
- Ratings and Reviews
- Business Directory Listings (in 70+ local directories)
- Content Marketing (generate, schedule, and distribute)
- Lead Generation
- Local Paid Ads (using pre-built, location-based ad campaigns)
- Analytics and Reporting
- Competitor Analysis
- Geo-Location Check-Ins
- Text Message Marketing
- Reputation Management
Request Your Surefire Local Business Intelligence Marketing Software Demo Today!
Would you like to try the Surefire Local Marketing Platform so you can see for yourself what a time-saver it is? It’s extremely easy to use and it is hands-down the best tool out there that will help you manage your marketing agency effectively while holding them accountable. So if you don’t want to continue wondering how to achieve marketing spend transparency for plastic surgeons, Request Your Free Surefire Local Demo today!