Have you set goals for marketing your practice online? Do you have a marketing strategy, or are you trying different advertising and marketing campaigns to attract more patients this season? Knowing how to market your practice online and achieving the results you want often requires putting together a plan that will connect you to the right patients.

Having a website, running banner ads or sending out direct marketing materials is no longer enough. Your prospective patients are using several online tools and search engines to track you down, so you need to take steps to ensure you?re front and center, wherever they go. Here’s a five-minute marketing checklist to help you get started:

Does your online marketing strategy enable you to:

1. Establish you as an authority in your specialty? Are you providing website visitor with fresh content, blogging about your industry or sending out press releases that position you as an authority? If not, consider ways that you can become more active online.

2. Provide you with a high return on investment? Are you investing your marketing dollars in the right areas? What type of return on investment (ROI) are you getting? Make sure you’re investing in tools and strategies that provide you with trackable results.

3. Build a database of current and prospective patients? From email newsletters to Twitter followers, an effective marketing strategy will put hundreds, even thousands of current and prospective patients at your fingertips. If you’re not actively building this list, you may be missing out on the chance to book dozens of appointments and consultations each month.

Consider all of the ways you are connecting with patients with your online marketing strategy.

If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to the three questions above, it may be time to revamp your practice marketing strategy and focus on efforts that will maximize your ROI and keep your appointment books full.