I keep talking to practices about marketing, and the one big flaw I find is that they are not tracking the results of their advertising. Either they don’t have the source of the patient entered into the patient record (which means you can’t create a report), or they don’t run reports on what that advertising produced, not just in new patients, but in production. Some advertising may get a lot of bodies through the door, like Groupon, but what’s the real production down the line? That’s how you know where to put your advertising dollars.

Most practice management software can run these reports for you.  Do them every month, and make sure you’re tracking long-term production results.  Don’t just rely on your front desk to give you an assessment–use the data!