Setting SMART Online Marketing Goals for a Healthcare Practice

July 11, 2022


Key performance indicators are an integral component of any successful business plan. Without KPIs, you have no way to gauge the success of your efforts, whether they pertain to the performance of your medical office staff, your online marketing strategy, or anything else. In addition to helping you measure several strategic and operational achievements, the right KPIs can help you assess any area of your medical practice and even tell you how your efforts compare to your competitors’. Learn how to apply SMART KPIs to your online medical marketing strategy.

Understanding SMART marketing objectives

SMART goals can apply to just about any area of your practice, and it is sound healthcare practice advice to use the SMART approach when establishing any of your KPIs. SMART, in essence, means focusing on particular goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

In other words, your goals tell you what actions you plan to accomplish and what steps you plan to take to do so (specific). They tell you how you plan to quantify your success (measurable). Your team has the skills and resources to accomplish the goals you set for it (achievable), align with your broader goals (relevant), and have a specific deadline (time-bound).

Applying the SMART strategy to your online medical marketing strategy

Now that you know what SMART means take your knowledge and apply it to your online marketing strategy.

Specific

During this phase of the SMART approach, ask yourself the five W questions:

  • What do you hope to accomplish?
  • Why is that goal important to you?
  • Who do you need to accomplish that objective?
  • Where will you need to be?
  • Which resources will you need, and what limitations do you face?

By answering these five questions, you can create context around your objectives and visualize what you need to do to accomplish them.

Measurable

Once you establish what you want to achieve with your online medical marketing strategy, quantify these goals. For instance, if your goal is to increase the number of patients you see virtually every month, specify how many more patients you want to add to your virtual roster. While one new patient is technically positive growth, you should not stop there. Create benchmarks you can measure and track.

Achievable

Once you can measure your specific goals, reassess them to ensure you have the means to attain them. Now is not the time to be overly optimistic; rather, be honest with yourself about what your team can actually accomplish.

Relevant

Ask yourself why these goals matter. What end-goal are they helping you to accomplish? If a goal seems random and does not fit in with your bigger picture, you may want to reconsider if it is a SMART goal after all.

Time-bound

Finally, make sure your goals have deadlines. If they do not, chances are you do not have any real way to measure the success of your efforts, which, again, renders the goal not SMART.

Talk to us about setting SMART online marketing objectives

At Doctor Genius, we can help you define SMART online medical marketing objectives for your medical office. If you are struggling to attain the goals you’ve set, our marketing team has the resources to help you with that as well. Call our office to discuss your objectives today.

Doctor Genius, located at 16800 Aston Street, Suite 270, Irvine, CA 92606, provides a range of services for practice success. We seek to meet our clients’ needs by providing a variety of marketing, SEO, practice optimization tools, and coaching to transform the healthcare experience. Though we work to provide the most accurate information, the content found on this website is solely intended for entertainment purposes. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is entirely correct. You may not use the information on this site to cure, prevent, or diagnose a perceived medical issue. If you have healthcare-related needs, please speak directly to a healthcare professional. Never self-perform medical treatments discussed on this website. All images displayed are also for entertainment purposes only, and personal experiences may differ. Please note that the business tactics mentioned on this site might not be applicable to your industry or practice.

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