Are you thinking of going digital with your marketing strategies ? Do you think its gone be stressful ? Fear not and go through this post and build a successful digital marketing strategy.
SIX KEY TRENDS TO FOLLOW FOR BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING NOW
Authority Marketing
Having a personalized online footprint is a key differentiator that is an essential element of a smart business strategy. Think of it this way. You have established yourself as an authority in the field of engineering and have gone to great lengths to ensure that this is known to potential patients. Establishing yourself as the authority in your field is how you can dominate your competition. It positions you above others and opens doors to acquire and retain customers. Your personal authority brand must be protected at all costs. The more content you put out online, the more it will help your good content rise above any negative content that may be out there. When consumers are searching for topics related to the products, services, and treatments your practice offers, and they find high-quality content, they will be more likely to turn to you as an expert over one of your competitors.
So, create e-books, start a blog, get quoted in relevant media outlets, get more active on more social channels like Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and take advantage of new features on channels you are already active on such as Instagram Stories and Facebook Live to put a face to a name for consumers seeking aesthetic practitioners. Keep your brand top of mind for your target audience, so when they are ready to have a treatment, they will come to you.
Get Real Transparency Rules
With the rise of social media, your audience is looking for you to be genuine. They want to know you before they ever get ready to make a move; either by sending an email, calling the clinic, visiting your website, connecting with you on Facebook or following you on Instagram. Real people want to engage with real people, which is why marketing should be more transparent than ever before. Think authenticity. Relax a little. You don’t need to come across as perfectly stodgy and professional 100% of the time. That is not a license to get sloppy and take risks with your license, but being human and showing that you have a personal side can help make practitioners more relatable to patients.
Consider the content you are putting out into the universe to promote your practice. Not every practitioner has time to tweet or blog, so take an objective look at the content that is being created for you. Does it measure up to what your competitors are doing? Does it sound like someone else wrote it for you? Are you a victim of cheap social that is being duplicated for multiple practices? Does it have an identity and a point of view or is it just white noise, generic themes, and strings of meaningless adjectives thrown together? Is it likeable? For 2018, your followers want to connect with you as your authentic self.
Podcasts Are Back
The podcast is back and bigger than ever. No longer, a niche corner of the content market; having a podcast and starting an interview series allows you to interact with and build relationships with people you want to know better, without putting you in the position of asking them for something. Michigan’s- popular consumer-driven podcast combines lively interviews with his smart commentary and helps build his personal authority as well as that of his guests. ‘‘Having a podcast has been a great way for me to connect with my followers and other innovators in the plastic surgery and healthcare space. The long-form interviews allow me to share a lot of content and information, as well as support and promote my colleagues. However, there is a steep learning curve to it! Dealing with hiccups in technology, complicated schedules, and producing engaging content takes a lot of time and patience,’’ says Dr. Youn.
Quiz Marketing
At the risk of dating myself, remember the old quizzes that ran in Cosmopolitan (Hearst) back in the days when Helen Gurley Brown was Editor-in-Chief circa the 1980s? If you’re too young to recall this most popular feature, every girl under 21 years of age made a mad dash to the newsstand every month to get her copy and take the quiz. These quizzes spoke to an entire generation. Few among us can resist the temptation of a captivating quiz or survey. Testing our knowledge and answering questions is a compelling vehicle. People seem to love quizzes and surveys because they are fun and a welcome distraction from the serious side of our daily lives. Therefore, quiz marketing is emerging as a smart and simple way to use interactive content to drive engagement. To make it more valuable, the CTA or call to action can be for the quiz taker to fork over his or her email address plus other useful data (age, sex, location, etc.) in exchange for education from an expert.
Is visual search the new SEO?
For years, we have been obsessed with building sophisticated websites with pages of keyword-rich content that often rendered them to be bordering on unreadable. This was primarily due to the impact it had on search and getting found. The new boom in visual search that allows users to seek out products using mobile devices and images is poised to change all that. Utilizing strong visual content has allowed small businesses to stay visible affordably in a world dominated by big-budget global brands. In addition to grabbing your audience’s attention, high-quality visuals can improve engagement and lead to more shares on social media.
The speed of the new iPhone X has radically improved the utility of using Siri. SEO is getting more complicated because, when it comes to search, consumers with voice devices tend to use full sentences to launch an online query. For instance, “best Botox clinic near me” may be the way a prospective patient performs a search from their laptop. But the same person with a voice search could be much more verbose in their search. “Hey Siri, what is the best place to get Botox for the first time near me?” Voice agents like Alexa are still in their infancy, and the impact is yet to be fully felt by marketers.”
Visual search will undoubtedly become a very powerful driver of key traffic, which necessitates that websites remain relevant to voice-driven search.
Micro-influencers will make a big impact
Influencer marketing is a way to promote services and products through people with a large number of followers who can have an impact on their purchasing behavior. Influencers do not come cheap. Those with a cool million followers or more may ask for a 5 or 6-figure payment for a single post that goes live for 24 hours. But consumers have shown a growing scepticism for paid endorsements, so relying solely on ‘influencers’ to casually mention how much they like what you do may not have the best ROI (return on investment).
‘We have found that there is still a need for greater transparency in all facets of digital media being driven by the growing awareness of the advertorial nature of most product information out there. Despite the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) latest crackdown on regulations for paid content by recommending the hashtags #ad and #sponsored for labelling posts, many bloggers and Instagrammers do not make it clear that they are working with the brands they promote,’ says Mr. Scafuri. In fact, 2018 may end up being the year that ends the long-standing tradition of freebies from brands to media and influencers without clear disclosures.
Influencers are in front of your target audiences regularly and have serious sway within your local community. Although they may have a more modest fan base, they can generate great engagement from people who are more likely to become clients, customers, and patients. The content they post will be more authentic, and they are more likely to reply to comments and answer followers’ questions. Recommendations from relevant micro-influencers can be an important source of new business. For 2018, commit to investigating who they are, get to know them, and make an impact on them to encourage referrals. These potential brand advocates can move the needle in a big way.
Practitioners can also become their own micro-influencers. According to Mr. Seery, ‘For many years we have observed how a small number of doctors and injectors have built up large followings on channels like Snap Chat, YouTube, and Instagram. In 2018, more aesthetic experts will jump into social media with the spirit of engaging audiences, rather than as a way to advertise on the cheap. Expect to see a lot more doctors and nurses emerging as influencers, which will encourage others to adopt influence marketing to promote their practices.’
