Is shopping for professional marketing help for your digital health business the same as buying a new copier or office furniture?

Many naive businesses have the wrong perspective about the costs involved in hiring a marketing agency. Taking the wrong approach in an effort to find the lowest price, just might be the riskiest thing you can do when hiring a marketing agency. 

Listen and find out why…

About This Show:

Each Wednesday, Sam Stern, founder and Chief Marketing Technologist at Modallic, an mHealth marketing and brand development firm reveals his winning Mobile, Digital and healthcare IT marketing strategies, shares real life Mobile Health marketing success stories, and offers breakthrough marketing tips and tactics so you can lead the field with your Mobile Health and healthcare IT solutions.

Discover how to craft compelling stories to open doors with key health care system decision makers. Understand how an agile marketing mindset and approach positions you to create a profitable, sustainable business.

Gain insights into Mobile Health and healthcare IT marketing strategy, how to tell your unique mHealth and healthcare IT marketing story, creating your mHealth buyer personas, how to integrate an agile marketing process, mobile health and digital health brand development and market positioning, and learn what really works in attracting and landing mobile health and healthcare IT clients.

Show Notes: 

If I own an office furniture business, and you ask me how much it costs for 12 work stations, if you provide the size and product specs, I could tell you. I know the cost of the furniture. I know my labor costs. I know my overhead costs. 

However, when a potential client asks…

“How much does a marketing program for my digital health business cost?”

It’s impossible to answer. And it reveals a lot about you as a prospect.

Here’s why.

If you’re looking for an exact price to write and distribute a press release to a targeted list, most marketing agencies could give you a firm price with asking you a few basic questions.. But they will hesitate to do it.

Why?

Because they know you’re simply shopping around for the lowest price. Most agencies won’t invest much time and energy in this kind of request.

Marketing agencies aren’t products. They are teams of specialists looking to deliver ongoing value. Simply putting out a single press release at the lowest bid accomplishes little, so why would the agency bother?

Here’s the thing…

You’re not looking for a low-price vendor. You want a strategic partner who can deliver ongoing value for your business.

So, to know how much it costs to hire a marketing agency, ask and answer these questions first.

1. How much should I invest in marketing my digital health business?

To answer this question, you must know the answer to two other questions.

1. What is the current cost of client acquisition? Or, how much are you willing to spend… and able to spend… from a cash flow and profit standpoint to land a client?

2. What is the Lifetime Value of clients for your business?

Here’s a simple example of this. Suppose it costs you $25,000 to land one health IT enterprise client. It costs $10,000 a year to maintain and keep this client. Your clients on average stick with you for five years. You bill clients $35,000 per year for your services.

In the first year, this client nets you $10,000, and then $25,000 for 4 years. Total lifetime Value is $110,000.

Without knowing these two metrics in your business it’s impossible to know how much to reasonably budget for marketing. Without knowing this you send the message to the agency:

“I don’t really know how my business works or what to do on my marketing. I hope the agency can figure it out.”

2. Have you pointed and fully assessed your marketing problems?

If you ask a marketing agency to “increase brand awareness”, or are looking[...]