As with any business we all require a steady flow of customers and the addiction treatment field is no different. There are many ways to attract clients to your business and some have worked for years and with the Internet being the latest way to attract clients it can be very attractive, but also expensive.

As you can see on the rest of this Addiction-Rep product and services site SpeechRep Media, Inc. provides a comprehensive suite of lead generation services to addiction treatment facilities.  What we have found over the past 3 + years in addiction treatment is some clients are cut out for online lead generation and some are not.  We need a plan and we need to stick with the plan.

Lead generation requires two mindsets:

1. Lead generation is an investment in the long term sustainability of the business
2. Lead generation has to be trackable in order for you to succeed

Where I am going with this is lead generation requires an investment.  The investment amount depends on how fast you want leads, how many leads and the ability for the center to adapt to the incoming inquiries. The best leads you get will be originated by your web site or your people on the ground. This is what we are learning as lead generation professionals.  Google controls a lot of lead generation.  Google is unpredictable. “Managing Google” requires full time technical support.  It is our opinion that we want to use Google for generating leads but we want to use a lot less of them because we want more control over our own destiny. And Google’s leads are becoming the most expensive in the industry.  We think this is the case because Google as basically set up an auction like system where the highest bidder wins in SEO and SEM.

As lead generation professionals in addiction treatment we want to focus on 4 things:

1. Lead Quality
2. Lead Cost
3. Lead Volume
4. Cost per admission (or cost per sale)

Here’s the real problem that no one will share with you.  There is only so much “search inventory” online for people seeking drug and alcohol addiction treatment.  If this is so and scores of addiction treatment centers want access to this limited audience they are going to have to “pay to play.”  There are some treatment centers that have significant budgets for SEO and SEM, most don’t.

As of February 2011 Google has shuffled the deck again and each time they do it makes it more expensive to play the Google game.  What we have learned when doing SEM or PPC is that a significant portion of the site visitors come back to your site using Google Adwords.  So let’s say if they found you searching on “drug treatment center in Massachusetts” on a Monday and they clicked on your PPC ad and it cost you $20, and they have come back on a Thursday doing a search on the same keyphrase you will get clicked on again for another $20 by the same person.  Ouch!   Do this enough times and you are going to feel it in the bank account.

Google delivers high quality leads and they can also deliver volume, however if we can’t get the cost to a manageable level what’s the point of bringing in a new patient client if the cost to bring them in is $18,000 (per admission) and the cost of the treatment is $20,000?  We are seeing treatment centers online efforts derailed by the recent Google updates like the Google Instant and the Farmer Updates.

So what is the solution?  The solution is to take a benchmark of where you are today and come up with a strategy that works within your parameters.  We will suggest that you take more of a blended holistic approach to lead generation and utilize several different methods for generating website traffic and inbound phone calls.  Call us today for a free consultation at 877-642-9728 and together we can determine if there is a possible fit for providing you with the latest techniques in delivering you an audience that you can provide services for and still make a profit at the same time.

If you aren’t using Google Analytics today we suggest that you install it ASAP on your web site.  If you want help with installing Google Analytics we will do it for you for $50.00 but you will need to call us to get this assistance.  It is critical you know who is visiting your web site, how long they are staying, what are they looking for, where did they go, where are they coming from and how did they find you.  Google Analytics will allow you to collect this information for free.