The drug, alcohol and other addiction rehab industry is booming in the United States is booming to the tune of $35 billion in 2014. While there were more than 14,000 treatment facilities back in 2014, existing centers can’t keep up with demand. A total of 2.5 million persons received treatment, but many more need it and facilities are filled to capacity.
Given that there is quite a bit of competition out there when it comes to drug and alcohol treatment centers, many owners of such facilities wonder how to make their treatment center stand out from the crowd and get noticed by the general public. There are many ways that you can go about marketing your facility on the Internet. You can do the marketing yourself or hire a company to do it for you. You can also choose to hire a marketing consultant who will advise you regarding where and how your drug and alcohol treatment facility should be marketed. If you opt for the second option, here are some useful guidelines for hiring the right marketing agency to promote your drug, alcohol or other addiction rehab center.
1. Has the Agency Worked with Rehab Treatment Facilities?
Ideally, you want to find an Internet marketing company that has worked extensively with both drug and alcohol treatment facilities in the past. There is a certain way that these types of businesses need to be marketed. You need to be sure that the company you decide to work with is aware of the various aspects of marketing a treatment facility.
Since this type of experience is vital for the marketing company you hire, research the background of all the Internet marketing companies you are thinking about hiring. What companies have they worked with before? What is their particular area of expertise? You will be able to make a much more educated decision once you determine the answers to these questions.
2. Does the Agency Have Good Feedback from Previous Clients?
Take a look to see what some of the marketing company’s previous clients have to say about them because this will speak volumes about the quality of work you can expect if you decide to hire them.
The more information you are able to acquire about a marketing company, the better off you will be. You do not want to go blindly into any business agreement. This is especially true when the future of your business could very well be at stake. Your drug and alcohol treatment center might not survive unless it is properly marketed.
You need to be totally sure that the marketing company you hire knows exactly what they are doing. This will ensure that marketing for your facility will be done in the right places to the right group of people. The opinions of their past clients will let you know if this is a company you want to be involved with.
However, don’t limit your search for feedback just to the client testimonials posted at the website from the marketing agency. If the marketing agency is based in the U.S., check the current rating of that company at the website of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) at http://www.bbb.org. Red flags to look are a low BBB rating, a long list of filed complaints from past customers, or a refusal to become listed in the directory of BBB.
Additional places to look for reviews from past clients are:
- Yelp
- Angie’s List
- Trustpilot
- Yahoo! Local Listings
- Glassdoor
- Facebook Ratings
- Twitter search for customer comments
3. Does the Agency Provide a Strategy?
Internet marketing must have a strategy behind it in order for it to be effective. Before you start spending on online and print ads, you need to have a clear understanding of why you are on those mediums, who you are targeting, how long are you going to be on those mediums, and what are the benchmarks to evaluate performance
This is the only way you will be able to get the results you are looking for.
Therefore, the Addiction Treatment Content Marketing agency you hire will need to spend some time analyzing your particular business and figuring out how they are going to proceed with their marketing plan. Don’t hire a company that seems to have just slapped together their marketing strategy in a few minutes. Remember, you are paying good money for their Internet marketing experience. You need to be sure that you are getting the marketing company’s best effort for the money they are charging you.
4. Will the Agency Provide You the Necessary Attention?
Some Internet marketing companies are very large. Therefore, you might feel that you are getting ignored in favor of some of their larger clients. You need to be certain that you will receive the necessary amount of attention from any company that you end up hiring.
Your assigned account manager should:
- Drop the marketing jargon and understand the objectives of your organization.
- Know about your industry and client base. In other words, think about your clients the way that you do.
- Not “wing it”. If you feel that your account manager is unprepared all the time, you have a red flag you’re not getting your money’s worth.
To learn more about what good account management from a marketing agency looks like, take a look at Why Mad Men Marketing is Moot: Account Managing in the Digital Era.
In other words, it should never be difficult to get the person on the phone who is handling your account. He or she should be able to provide you with regular updates about how your marketing strategy is proceeding. There should never be any extended periods of time where you do not hear from your marketing company. If this is the case, you might want to consider hiring a different company that will value your business more. You should only accept the highest standard of work from your Internet marketing company. You drug and alcohol treatment facility deserves only the best quality of marketing.
Image Credit: Nic Hughes
