Courtney Sparks
Fall 2024
Evaluation
"This is how we evaluate if our goals are being met and allows us to see areas that need improvement."
It is important to be able to evaluate how well the marketing plan is working for the Free Dental Screening Clinic at IU School of Dentistry. This is how we evaluate if our goals are being met and allows us to see areas that need improvement. There are two ways to evaluate the plan and those are by metrics and contingency planning.
It is critical when running the marketing plan for the Screening Clinic that we measure how well the plan is or is not working. This gives us feedback to see where we are doing well or more importantly where we can make improvements. There are two ways to evaluate this process.
Metrics
This is one way to measure success of how well the marketing plan is doing. You can use surveys; patient attendance and how much activity is being done on social media. The best way to find out is by directly asking the patient. This can be done by completing a survey after the patient has visited the clinic. You could ask them questions like:
*How did you learn about the free dental screening clinic?
*How satisfied were you with the clinic?
*Would you recommend it to friends and family?
The feedback given is critical in understanding what is and is not working in the marketing efforts.
- Tracking Patient Volume
Another important way to measure the success of the clinic is by physically counting how many people are seen in the free clinics. The goal is to have more people attending than the previous months. You are then able to figure if you are increasing the attendance by the desired percentage and compare it to the attendance that was there before the marketing ads were shown.
- Social Media and Online Engagement
Another way to track how the clinic is doing is to check how many people have been engaged in social media posts. How many are liking, commenting, asking questions, or sharing posts. If there is a big increase with online stuff, then that is a great sign it is working, and the word is spreading.
Contingency Planning
Contingency planning is having a backup plan in place so when the unexpected happens you are ready, and the screening clinic doesn’t take a big hit or even worse have to close. With this plan in place, you make the necessary adjustments that get you back on track.
- Adjusting Marketing Tactics
If our marketing isn’t working as well as we hoped, we will change our approach. If people are not responding to the posts that are on social media maybe we could adjust by posting at different times or more often or adding some videos or patient success stories or how the clinic has helped others.
- Responding to Unexpected Changes: Some things are out of our control that could affect the plan. Some of these factors could include things like another pandemic or local rules. If something like this occurs, we would need to adjust the marketing plan and be ready to offer virtual screening clinics instead of in person. We also need to be ready to inform the public and patients about these changes. After COVID happened it changed a lot of things and people realized how things can happen virtually. It is not ideal for sure but is an option if needed.
- Monitoring Competitors
Need to keep an eye out for competitors. If another healthcare provider starts offering similar services, then we would likely need to offer promotions that set us apart from anyone else. We would need to stay connected and maybe advertise we have dental students working at the screening clinic and free follow up care if needed.