Determining the success of your digital marketing efforts lies heavily in how efficiently you track metrics that will allow you to measure ROI and your digital footprint. However, metrics aren’t a one size fits all situation. Important metrics vary from industry to industry and this is especially true for the healthcare industry.

If you’re a marketer in the healthcare industry, here are the 7 crucial metrics you should be measuring to determine digital marketing success:

1.     Cost Per Acquired Patient
   

        Essentially, Cost Per Acquired Patient lets you know how much money is being spent for every new customer acquired. External referrals, paid ads, social media, and other digital marketing channels all factor into your cost and each channel has a varying degree of effectivity. While traditionally, marketers would just divide all marketing costs by new customers acquired in a specific time period, it’s better to determine your Cost Per Acquired Patient for every channel. The money spent for a new customer gained through social media versus that acquired via paid ads can vary greatly. This also lets you know which marketing efforts are most effective and may need a more aggressive treatment.

        When measuring the Cost Per Acquired Patient, take into account the customer’s lifetime value. Lifetime value is a predictive outcome of the net profit you can gain from a new customer. While initially it may seem like you’re losing money after a new patient is acquired, the lifetime value of your new customer may actually reap your ROI tenfold.

2.     Patient Retention Rate
   
   

        The success of a company relies heavily on repeat business. When patients come back again and again, it increases their lifetime value. Loyal customers also serve to give you great referrals and when they spread word about your brand through their social media or blogs, can help increase your social validation.  When you have higher social validation, there is higher trust in your company and you also increase your audience reach. That’s why it’s important to track how your marketing efforts directly affect your Patient Retention Rate.

        Tracking this metrics requires involves measuring how many customers you currently have and how many of them you’ve acquire or lost in a set period of time. This formula from INC (http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/best-way-to-calculate-customer-retention-rate.html) is a great resource to help you get started on measuring your Patient Retention Rate.

3.     Customer Service Response Time
   
   

        In this highly advanced digital age, information is so easily shared and disseminated. No industry is immune to bad reviews and complaints on the internet. Customer service is a necessity to help ensure you maintain good relationships with customers so you can earn their loyalty and of course, their business. Customers expect you to entertain their questions and concerns quickly and efficiently, whether they’re contacting you via email, phone or even social media.

You can track your response time logging when customer communication comes in and on average how long it takes to respond to their queries. Some social media channels like Facebook also lets you track this metric automatically.

4.     Engagement
   
   

        At face value, Engagement may seem like a vanity metric given that it has no direct link to your ROI. However, Engagement helps marketers see how leads are responding to content and how close they are to becoming a customer. It also helps you see the extent of your brand reach. Measuring your engagement can also help direct and further refine your marketing strategy by being able to see how well (or not well) leads are responding to the message you’re putting out there.

5.     Content Performance
   
   

        Sharing valuable content is a very effective way to garner new leads. Marketers should be measuring how well their audience is responding to each individual content so they can further hone their marketing strategy. Which articles are getting you more views or hits? Which ones let you collect more lead information? Which ones have the highest lead to customer conversion rate?

Content Performance should also be measured over time. A white paper you’ve put out a couple of years ago may have performed well on launch but not so much now and could benefit from an update and a re-launch.

6.     Search Engine Rankings

        Coming up high in organic searches is extremely important for any industry as it’s a great way to introduce potential leads to your brand and attract new customers. You can measure this key metric by monitoring your page ranking for branded as well as non-branded keywords that are consistent with your company.

        Knowing your standing in Search Engine Rankings also allows you to have a better gameplan on how to climb up or maintain your position by adjusting your SEO strategy as needed.

7.     Campaign Performance Overview
   
   

        Campaign Performance Overview isn’t so much a metric, it’s more a mini-report of how individual campaigns have performed and measuring its success. Keep in mind though that a campaign’s success isn’t exclusive to ROI. A campaign can be launched for the sole purpose of increasing awareness about a certain topic, so the focus should be on engagement.

        Your Campaign Performance Overview should be tailored to your original objective in order to truly determine its success and help you hone future marketing strategies.