Shhh…we have a secret for you…so, it seems this social media thing is here to stay and it’s kind of a big deal in marketing!

Ok, we know that wasn’t a surprise! You obviously know that social media marketing is a powerful tool for expanding your reach and attracting new patients.  But let’s review a few of the benefits of a strong social media strategy:

• Growing a bigger audience.
• Increasing brand awareness.
• Connecting with your patients better.
• Increase traffic to your website.
• Promote more services which means more profit.

It can be difficult to always come up with new and engaging ideas though. If your posts aren’t getting as much attention as you’d like, you’re probably feeling frustrated. It’s normal to encounter some slumps and roadblocks. When that happens, you just need a little boost! Some fresh air. Some new life.

Here’s three simple strategies to make your social media marketing bloom this spring!

1. Run a Contest

One of the biggest social media trends is contests and it’s easy to understand why. Because who doesn’t love FREE? Everyone loves a chance to win a prize!

Holding a contest on your social media accounts is a great way to amplify your practice and its services. Here’s how to launch an effective social media contest:

• Set Goals: Prioritize what you want to get out of this campaign. Some potential benefits you can reap from a contest include boosting engagement, increasing your followers, and growing your email subscribers. Decide on one or two goals you really want and design your contest in a way that helps you reach them.
• Determine the Budget: Set your budget based on the prize, promotion expenses, paid services, and potential ROI.
• Choose the Prize(s): The reward must be exciting enough to get people on board with what your brand has to offer. Potential prizes may include a discounted service, free consultation, gift card, or free product related to your practice.
• Decide Social Networks: Sometimes, it is beneficial and easier to limit your contest to one network, such as Instagram, if you really want to drive traffic to one particular platform. However, there’s no rule saying you need to stick with only one.
• Determine Entry Requirements: Common ways to enter social media contests include following an account, tagging a friend in the comments, or sharing the post.
• Know the Rules: Of course, your contest should meet all legal requirements. But keep in mind that each social network has specific rules regarding running and promoting contests. Adhere to these guidelines so you don’t get penalized.

Make sure your contest targets prospective patients and that you engage with people who enter to maximize the benefits!

2. Post Authentic Videos and Photos

In order to earn the trust of prospective patients and obtain loyalty from current ones, your practice should be as authentic as possible on social media.

One effective method for showcasing your realness is via video marketing. Video marketing is a worthy pursuit regardless. They are engaging pieces of content that people want to interact with. But adding an extra touch of authenticity will take it to the next level. Here are some ideas:

• Behind the Scenes: Give people a glimpse into the daily lives of your practice through BTS videos and live streams.
• Service Demonstrations: Don’t just tell people about your services – show them in action! Show how the professionals in your practice are actively improving the lives of your patients.
• Patient Testimonials: Written reviews are great, but filmed testimonials from real-life patients are even better. Select some outgoing and articulate patients and ask them some questions, such as, “What are your thoughts about our practice?” and “What do you want to tell other people about us?”

When people get to see the faces and personalities of your practice, they’ll feel a personal connection. Developing and maintaining this sense of connection is vital to growing a thriving social media presence.

3. Get Involved In Cause Marketing

In today’s world, many people want to support businesses that are involved with good causes. Cause marketing is a way to appeal to these individuals while making the world around you better too.

This form of marketing involves your practice collaborating with a non-profit organization and/or advocating for a certain charitable issue. Here’s how you can take part in a meaningful campaign or partnership:

• Choose a Relevant or Personal Cause: This effort is most likely to succeed if it is something you and/or your staff believes in.
• Don’t Make It All About the Money: It may look good to patients if you showcase how much money you give to a non-profit, but cause marketing shouldn’t just be about bragging about donations. Your effort should also involve raising awareness about the issue with interesting content.
• Collaborate With the Organization: While you can assume a charity is thankful for exposure and funds in any capacity, you should go the extra mile. Work with the non-profit to determine what will be the most beneficial strategy. If you have a strong partnership, the campaign will be even more successful.

You may also want to pursue corporate giving and social responsibility. Corporate giving often involves tax-deductible donations with social responsibility which improves your public relations overall.

Final Thoughts

Marketing via your social media channels can be difficult at times. But you can’t deny the benefits! If you don’t make it a priority to jumpstart your social media marketing, you’ll miss out on patients, online visibility, and leads. Use these tips to improve your social media strategy until you’re getting the engagement you need.

Already part of the Ai Healthcare Marketing family but need help developing a blooming social media plan? Would you love to add video marketing to your strategy? Looking to ‘be the change’ with a cause marketing plan? We can do that!

Give us a call at (800) 742-3734 and we’ll get started on helping your practice bloom before you can say “SOCIAL SPRING”

No matter where your practice is in its growth cycle, we’d venture to say you’d like more patients. If you’re a new practice you want to build your patient base. If you’re an established practice, you’re looking to balance out normal patient attrition.

As a marketing agency, we live to help you reach more patients. It’s what we do, and we love it!

We can support you in building a strong brand and digital presence with a highly functioning website, targeted SEO campaigns, direct mail, social media, and various other promotional instruments.

If you’re doing all of the above and still asking, “What else can we do to reach more patients?” We’re here to help! Here are three out-of-the-box, creative, inspired and fresh ideas to help you reach more patients and strengthen your brand.

But before we move on to the ideas, let’s talk for a minute about why we believe these three things will attract more patients and help strengthen your brand.

What’s brand mean again? In our blog about bad logos recently, we said, “your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”

The foundation of your brand is who YOU are. Your business has a personality. Your potential patients are eager to get to know the human element behind your products and services. They want more than the “you” we can deliver by way of the internet and their inboxes.

Technology has drastically changed how we do business, but online interactions will never replace real-life connections.

When you reach people where they are and exchange human emotion you transcend technology. Shaking your hand will eclipse clicking through time after time. The trust you build with face-to-face authentic interactions solidifies your brand promise and positions you above your competition.

1. Bee Social (on social media)

Think about your personal experience with social media. What garners more comments from your friends and family, a funny cartoon or pictures of you and your wonderful family on vacation smiling and laughing together? A link to an article or a short video of you holding a newborn family member or your child scoring the winning goal?

You might get some engagement on the hilarious cartoon, but the real connection happens in the smiles, the laughter, the excitement, the joy. We respond to what hits our hearts.

Structured ads and informational posts are an essential element in a strong social media presence. But to reach more people, create a buzz and really engage, you have to get personal with your audience.

You and your team need to “Bee Social”

“Getting more personal will be a differentiating factor for brands on social media in 2019…Just like in life, your personality will attract the people you’re friends with. Showing more personality is also helpful in creating more engaging content on social media.” {source}

Augment your social media calendar with real-time posts that put the “person” in your marketing personality:

• Get on the “story” bandwagon. Facebook, Instagram, and other major players know the power of “ephemeral content”. Ephemeral content is short-lived viewing but not a trend that will be disappearing anytime soon. Forbes reports ”Ephemeral content is more authentic, and since it is limited to mobile, it is able to reach a wider audience.” {source}
• Use “live” videos to share big events or how to use a new product.
• Post “daily office life” pictures of you and your team.
• Use trending hashtags with pictures of your team celebrating holidays along with the world #tacotuesday #superbowl or #happyvalentinesday
• Create a photo booth in your office – use fun props, branded signs they can hold “Dr. ____ says I’m a great flosser”. Take their picture with their phone so they can share it on their own social network. Ask them to tag your office.

Most importantly… engage with them!

Whether you create the post, or it’s curated for you when your post is liked, shared or someone comments…respond in kind.

Let them know you noticed their attention. Tag them in a comment and thank them. Respond to their comments as a friend would. Build an authentic relationship with your audience and communicate they matter by paying attention.

We recommend you designate a team “socialite” to be on the lookout for opportunities to share real-life happenings in your office. Make sure they have a clear understanding of your brand and can reflect the personality of your business in the posts they create.

2. Get involved in the community

Your marketing strategies will serve to get your name out there.

When a potential customer gets your postcard in their mailbox, visits your website or sees a targeted ad, they get a sense of what your business is about and the services you offer.

But when you meet your customers where they’re at, shake their hand, converse, answer their questions and let them get to know you, you give them a greater understanding of who you are.

Now, you’re a real person with real solutions for them and that bolsters brand awareness in a powerful way.

• Sponsor or participate in local charity events
• Visit and speak at local schools
• Sponsor a youth sports team
• Volunteer as a team
• Join the Chamber of Commerce
• March in a local parade
• Attend or have a booth at local festivals, street fairs, farmer’s markets, and local gatherings
• Create a scholarship for a local student
• Become a local expert by offering to write a guest article for local publications
• Offer a discount to local first responders, veterans, teachers or active-duty military

The event doesn’t have to be directly related to your industry. It’s about establishing your presence in your community and giving people the opportunity to see the real you. It’s giving them a VIP backstage pass to your show. It moves them from a spectator to a raving fan!

3. Join forces and network with other local businesses

Your potential customers are employees and patrons of other local businesses. Those employees and customers are in need of what you offer as well.

• Bridal customers of the local floral shop would love a discount on teeth whitening for their special day. And your patients would love a discount on flowers for Mother’s Day.
• Employees of the bank you do business with or the sandwich shop you order lunch from will at some point need your services.

Find out what insurance is offered to the employees of major corporations in your area. If you participate with the plan, contact their Human Resources manager and ask if there is an opportunity for you to reach out to their employees to let them know you are here to serve them.

Offer a “community” discount to smaller businesses around your office whose employees may not be covered by insurance.

Look for ways your business can help support their team and their clientele.

Join business-to-business networking groups in your local area.

These groups are a great place to meet local business owners and build bilateral relationships. You will be at the forefront of their minds when they need your services, or they encounter someone else who does.

It would be nearly impossible nowadays to grow a business without a conversion focused website and ongoing SEO campaigns.  You’re going to need comprehensive marketing strategies like direct mail, social media and PPC advertisements. But don’t rely fully on lead generation tactics that keep you at a digital distance from your ideal customer. Get within arm’s reach of them. Become relatable to them. Create opportunities to become a brand they understand.

Already part of the Ai Healthcare Marketing family but need help developing a truly-social social media plan? Or guidance on leveraging ephemeral content, hashtags and live video? Looking to boost community brand awareness with promotional collaterals for your events and business-to-business B2B networking? We can do that!

Give us a call at 800-742-3734 and we’ll get started on helping you create those truly transforming opportunities before you can say “Real-life connections” 

Do you remember waiting patiently by your stereo to hit “record” when your favorite song was played by Casey Kasem on the Top 40 Countdown…

And rewinding cassette tapes with a number two pencil? Nostalgic memories we tell our children about while they shuffle through algorithm predicted playlists on their tiny, hand-held devices.

They’re dinosaurs – technological fossils uncovered only by fond “when I was a kid” memories shared by those of us who were alive when they walked the earth.

But then there’s denim, homemade apple pie and country music; classics that will never go out of style.

So, is direct mail a thing from days-gone-by or a classic marketing strategy that still works?

Direct mail interrupts our digital fatigue and helps consumers connect with a business on a personal level.

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

The digital age we live in leads many business owners to believe that direct mail is no longer effective at generating leads; a marketing fossil. But statistics say otherwise.

69% of people think direct mail is more personal than the Internet.  

56% of consumers say print marketing is the most trustworthy.

54% say they prefer to receive updates and promotions in the mail.

39% say they have tried a new business because of direct mail.

Dental Economics reports “Even in the digital age, direct mail remains the best way to reach prospective patients in your area. It generates a 480% higher average response rate than PPC.” {source} {source}

DIRECT MAIL: 480% higher average response rate than pay-per-click!

Direct mail is a classic, solid marketing strategy that still works, in fact NOW maybe more than ever.

According to Forbes magazine, the effectiveness of a direct mail campaign is on the rise “Consumers continue to use paper coupons at a higher rate each year.” In fact, according to a recent study, 93% of people said they’ll use coupons from the mail in 2018. This is up five percentage points compared to 88% in 2017. Although consumers rely on their smartphones, there is still a pleasant “tactile experience” from touching and using physical coupons.  {source}

WE ARE PROGRAMMED TO RECEIVE

We are physically wired to respond differently to the tangibility of direct mail versus digital advertising. Neuromarketing experts from the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University’s Fox School of business conducted a study in conjunction with the U.S. Postal service analyzing how the brain responds to physical and digital marketing stimuli.

They found that:

• Participants processed digital ad content more quickly.
• They spent more time with physical ads.
• Physical ads triggered activity in a part of the brain that corresponds with value and desirability.
• Participants had a stronger emotional response to physical ads and remembered them better.

Another study by the Canada Post used the exact same graphic and wording in both physical and digital campaigns and they reported that:

• The direct mail campaigns required 21% less cognitive effort to process.
• Participants’ recall was 70% higher if they were exposed to direct mail rather than a digital ad.
• Activation in parts of the brain that correspond to motivation response was 20% higher for direct mail. {source for all above}

No matter how technology advances, people are still people. And people want connection. When your ideal customer holds your direct mail piece in their hands, biology trumps technology creating a physical and emotional connection to your business.

• Direct mail is memorable – We save pizza coupons for Friday nights. We can visualize last year’s Christmas card from our cousin. We pin appointment reminders on our refrigerators. Mail is physical and therefore we DO something with it. We may not remember where we put it, but we remember we got it.
• Direct mail is nostalgic – We have fond associations with receiving mail. We remember feeling sentimental over a card received from a dear friend. Opening mail puts us wholly in the moment and makes us “feel” something.

41% of Americans nevertheless look forward to checking what is in their mailbox each day. {source}

Even Millennials who don’t remember when the mailbox was at the end of the driveway have positive feelings about snail-mail.

• 84% of Millennials take the time to look through their mail.
• 64% would rather scan for useful info in the mail than email.

“Apparently direct mail—which comes only once a day—has become a novelty to this audience. Studies show Millennials enjoy receiving mail even more than non-Millennials. In fact, 50% of Millennials say they like to discover what the mail brings every day and consider time spent looking at and reading it time well spent.”

{source}

IT’S LESS INTERRUPTIVE

With notifications coming at us non-stop the competition for our attention has never been fiercer. Email, social media updates and, text messages. Advertisements galore in our newsfeeds and on every webpage we visit. It’s akin to someone poking you non-stop on the shoulder saying “Hey. Hey you.”

While we appreciate the update that the latest model of the vacuum we searched for two months ago is now available, we have a heightened ability to sub-consciously ignore all those interruptions. We have  “banner blindness”.

In 1997 Jakob Nielson, the leading web usability guru, studied the eye pattern of internet users with the help of heatmaps. He discovered what he called banner blindness. Internet users have been programmed to subconsciously ignore the presence of online ads, not even glancing in the physical space on the page where assumed ads are located. {source}

That was 1997!

And today?

“March 2018 estimated the number of email accounts worldwide at 3.8 billion — and the number of consumer and business emails sent per day in 2018 at more than 281 billion. The research firm projects the latter figure to grow to more than 333 billion by 2022.” {source}

Per person that looks like this…

{image source}

Neil Patel, a leading marketing expert said in a recent blog post on the effectiveness of direct mail, “Direct mail naturally gets more attention because there are fewer distractions when people see it. 80% of direct mail recipients scan or read each piece before throwing anything away.” {source}

According to Forbes magazine and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) “direct mail’s response rates are actually anywhere from 10 to 30 times higher than that of digital. It notes that consumers, overwhelmed by inboxes cluttered with unsolicited marketing emails, are more receptive to direct mail, which arrives on a much less-cluttered channel.” {source}

NOTHING STOPS THE U.S MAIL

While our physical mailbox may have an arm full of circulars, envelopes, and postcards it is still far less cluttered than our digital inboxes.

Retrieving and opening the mail is something we set out to do. We are taking action to receive it. We sit down and scan through it on our own time. We are in control of the experience. Digital marketing channels interrupt our lives on their time schedule and we, in turn, have learned to ignore them until we choose to pay attention.

The average American is exposed to over 1900 online advertisements in a month. Did you get 1900 pieces of mail last month?

We can easily ignore pop-up ads and call to action banners but we can’t ignore the United States Postal Service. Bottom line…we make a conscious effort to respond to the mail.

CARPE DIEM

In no way are we suggesting that you abandon all your online marketing strategies and send out thousands of over-sized postcards. Digital marketing is here to stay and a formidable foe over print mediums. A multi-channel approach is the best approach.

We are saying that direct mail is a classic, still competitive strategy for lead generation and return on your marketing investments.

At a time when many are under the impression that direct mail is dying, the opportunity to capitalize on the less competitive inbox space is prime. With fewer people mailing, you have a greater chance of being noticed.

Adding or combining a direct mail campaign with solid SEO digital marketing strategies serves to connect with your consumers on a more personal level, increase brand recognition and is a perfect marriage of today’s technology with yesterday’s values…It’s like asking Alexa to play the song from your senior prom!

Already part of the Ai Healthcare Marketing family but want to see how direct mail can enhance your current marketing efforts? Not yet part of our family? Give us a call. We can help get your business in mailboxes before you can say “Casey Kasem”.

Bored scrolling through your phone? Check out Logo Quiz on the App Store or Google Play. You’ll be challenged to see if you can identify the brand name behind more than 3000 logos. There are a whopping 52 “exciting levels”. You can amp up the challenge in expert mode, and with every correct guess, you get to learn more about each company brand.

How popular is it? Well, more than 60,000,000 people worldwide have downloaded the game and 1.1 million give it 4.5 stars. That’s pretty darn popular!

As a Marketing Agency, we love this game! It challenges our own knowledge of popular brands but even more so because it screams “logos matter” in a powerful way.

Some people think a logo is simply artwork. But as marketers, we know otherwise. We have a deep understanding of their power to communicate and connect to your customer.

“Research suggests that there’s more to a logo than its basic aesthetic appeal. The study, conducted by an international team of researchers, suggests that people make complex assessments of a company or product based merely on the shape of the logo.”  {Source}

Your logo gives visual life to your company story. It identifies your business in the simplest of forms. But it’s far from a simple sketch, it’s filled with meaning and makes the important connection between your company and what your company represents.

Logos can communicate all the right things about your business, or if done poorly, all the wrong things. Sixty million people playing Logo Quiz proves that logos stick in people’s minds!

For fun (and understanding of how every choice matters), let’s look at a few logos gone wrong…

And last but certainly not least…

There is a great deal of science, strategy, and psychology that goes into the design of a company’s logo. Every choice matters! The font, spacing, color choice, and symbolisms all work together to convey your overall brand message and set you up for success. Or as we can see from the examples above, making the wrong choices can land a company on the list of “worst logos ever” or worse yet, can potentially ruin a company’s reputation.

Obviously, each one of the logos above was approved by someone. Which makes us shake our heads and wonder, “why in the world would someone give those logos a green light?”

Because they don’t know what they don’t know. And possibly they didn’t ask the right people for input or direction.

So, what do you need to know to ensure you are making the best first impression possible with your logo?

First, have a clear brand strategy!

A common misconception is that a company’s logo IS their “branding,” but it’s actually only one element of an overall branding strategy. Your brand is the overarching emotional message you want your customers to perceive. Your logo is a symbol that reflects your brand and provides instant and lasting brand recognition.

Before a company begins creating a logo, it’s important to have a clear, well-developed brand strategy.

An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does “branding” mean? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials–all of which should integrate your logo–communicate your brand.” {Source}

With a solid brand strategy in place first, your logo can be created as a reflection of who you are. Every choice can then be influenced by the promise you are making to your customer. Ensuring that your logo is consistent with your message serves to strengthen your strategy and build recognition.

Take the Sherwin Williams logo, for example. It’s safe to assume that their overall brand strategy isn’t to send a somewhat sinister message. But in choosing to depict the earth covered in blood-red paint did just that, unfortunately. Yes, they want to paint the earth, but the color choice they made was not in line with the message they wanted to convey.

Every choice matters

The logo fails we highlighted were obviously blatantly wrong. But often we see logos that are poor brand promise communicators in more subtle ways such as:

• The motion or flow of the shapes chosen do not convey growth or upward movement.
• The nuance of the color shade sends the wrong message. Even a shade or two off can change the emotional impact.
• The font choice is either too soft or too strong, so the overall impact is not one of trust.
• The spacing and placement make the logo difficult for the eye to read.
• The logo was created with the wrong resolution settings. Making it difficult to size appropriately for different spaces and does not print well on all identity collaterals.

If even one of those choices is not on-point, the logo sends the wrong message to the consumer.  They react by not wanting to look at it, but they aren’t sure why. It just doesn’t “feel right”.

We know there is a ton of options out there for the business owner looking for a new logo. The Do-it-yourself websites and crowdsourcing sites offer low-cost logo creation. When deciding where to go for your logo creation there are some critical questions to ask yourself:

• Do they have a clear understanding of what your business is really about?
• Do they have the expertise to understand the customer base you are trying to reach?
• Do they understand the important correlation between your brand and your logo?
• Do they understand your overall marketing goals?
• Do they fully research your competitors ensuring you will stand out in your market?
• Do they spend the time to get to know you?
• Do they offer feedback, guidance, and direction to help draw out your vision?
• Do they have a proven track record of creating powerful branding strategies and logos?
• Do they have a team of trained eyes to collaborate and ensure all the right choices are made?
• Do they communicate that they truly care about you?

“As a company spends money on advertising to drive in new clients, if the foundation of their marketing is not strong then all that money is wasted. For start-up businesses especially, a substantial amount and variety of advertising initiatives are required to generate the new clientele needed to start strong and build a profitable, thriving, successful business with staying power. A weak brand, identity, logo, and website, which all serve to connect with potential clients will not provide the footing needed to support any successful advertising campaign.” ~Mike Shoun

Much like we trust our bodies and our teeth to doctors and dentists, trusting your logo to a professional is one of the best investments a business can make.

What can you expect to invest in a logo? That can vary as much as different shades of blue – we’ve seen design agencies charge upwards of $50,000.

GOOD NEWS…WE DO NOT CHARGE $50,000!!

Ai Healthcare Marketing wants to be your marketing partner for the life of your business. We don’t want you on the “worst logo ever” list. We want to see you succeed and grow with you. We offer several marketing packages that give you the foundation needed to start strong, we even cover the cost of the logo and website.

Know someone who needs a logo? Are you not part of the Ai Healthcare Marketing family yet? Call us at (800) 742-3734 and we can help you get started before you can say “bad logo”.