Category

Marketing

Aug 24
0
Rebranding

Do You Need to Rebrand Your Practice?

By | Consulting, Marketing | No Comments

Branding often becomes an afterthought when a marketing budget is stretched too thin. Patient kits, signage, radio spots and even logos are to often quickly thrown together and become an unsteady foundation for your brand. There are three major signs that signal it’s time to rebrand your practice:

Your brand makes no promise.

What does your brand communicate to your patients or network? Does it communicate reputability and trust? Or does it scream amateur and cheap? Patients need to know that your practice is professional and dependable. You will continue to face an upward battle if your brand makes no promise.

A strong brand will tell patients something about the practice before they even interact with it.

Your brand is inconsistently implemented across all mediums.

Over time inconsistencies in how you present your practice will dilute your brand. Take a look across all of your marketing efforts. Are they clearly consistent with design and the overall brand promise? If your marketing doesn’t share a common denominator, this would be an excellent time to examine your brand structure and dive into rebranding your practice… potentially from scratch.

Your branding doesn’t represent your practice.

Like most businesses, your practice has likely grown and evolved over several years. Maybe even your services have evolved and expanded. But has your brand followed suit? Then maybe your practice has outgrown its brand without you realizing it. When a current brand ceases to represent a practice, or to speak to patients in a meaningful way, it’s time to give rebranding serious consideration.

Get a fresh start sooner than later.

Take a fresh look at your brand and see what it says about your practice. An outdated or amateur brand is like a ball and chain… holding your practice in place, or slowing its brand evolution down significantly. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that keeping your old brand will equate to a higher profit margin.  Just think about how much more success your practice may have with a stronger brand.

 

Aug 17
0

5 Steps to the Ultimate LASIK Consultation

By | Consulting, Marketing | No Comments

Struggling converting LASIK patients? We’ve all been there. You work so hard to finally get them through the door to have a consult, only to find yourself with an empty surgery schedule. Hope is not lost.

Streamline your LASIK consultation process and fast track your practice to success following the 5 steps to the ultimate LASIK consultation. We’ll cover everything from the importance of patient education materials, to the presentation of the price, and even the powerful interaction with the surgeon. Simply click here to download your guide today.

Need more consulting tips to get your practice in shape? Check out 8 Habits of Highly Effective Practices & Minutes to Make an Impact: How to Maximize Patient Interaction with a Surgeon to See Improved Conversions.

Aug 11
2

Instagram Checklist

By | Consulting, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

It’s no secret, Instagram is doing great things for brands in every industry. According to HubSpot, there are over 400 million active users on Instagram. Fifty-nine percent of these users are using the platform daily.

If you are looking to connect with a millennial audience, look no further. With over half of millennials using Instagram every single day, you are missing a huge opportunity to engage with this audience if you aren’t an active user. Why not leverage Instagram to create the exposure your brand needs?

Even with all the buzz, you might still have your doubts about jumping into this visual social platform. To take some of the guesswork out of Instagram, we created this printable checklist for Instagram success. 

Instagram Checklist

 

Instagram Check List

Jul 14
1

Social Media Do’s & Don’ts

By | Consulting, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

If you’re a small business owner, there is a chance that you are maintaining your own business social media pages. The posting process may be simple, but there are many factors to consider when writing and curating content for your brand.

The line between personal and business accounts can be somewhat blurred. If you are in the “spotlight” think about implementing these tips for your personal social media accounts. When your brand starts out on social media, cross-promoting on your personal accounts is the easiest way to establish a fan-base. Make sure to maintain similar brand standards when using your personal accounts to promote your business pages. If you’re unsure how to interact with your audience, check out these 10 social media do’s and don’ts for your business.

DO’S:

Keep a consistent voice

There should be 100% consistency in the voice of all posts across all of your channels (social media accounts, website, blog). Establish your brand guidelines and a overall brand voice. This is especially important if there is more than one content creator.  Train content managers in the tone of the brand and how to respond to your audience. Your audience shouldn’t notice any difference between posts curated by yourself versus your administrator.

Post relative, industry related links

Be strategic in your content sharing. Showcase your influencers, grasp of the latest technologies and what resources you use to stay on top of your industry. Your audience is already interested in your field, so give them relevant industry content to further their knowledge. Posting non-trending content or articles that are not related to your field, can lead to unfollows and discourage your audience from using your services. Share posts by business pages/people you admire, follow or are connected to. This is also a great networking tactic and can lead to shares of your online content.

Request engagement

Write thoughtful and engaging social media content. Your content should help you connect with your audience by requesting specific engagement. Ask questions, opinions, advice or personal experiences. Interact with your followers by requesting feedback on your services or asking for recommendations on how to better serve them. Find a creative, indirect way to ask for likes, shares and retweets. When people are engaging with your content they are connecting with your brand, gaining trust in your services and driving your organic reach.

Give Expert Advice

Offer your audience solid industry advice to showcase your expertise. Position yourself as a subject matter expert in your field. This is self-promotion in a way that helps your audience and doesn’t come across as spammy. Posting free expert advice develops audience trust and helps create brand awareness. Post links to your blog with more info on the posted topic, or offer your services with links to your website.

Know what social platforms to use 

Your business does not necessarily have to be on EVERY social media platform. There are several factors to consider when choosing what the right social media platforms are for your business.

  • Determine why you need social media. Do you want to drive traffic to your site, increase customer engagement, or improve SEO? Once you have determined these goals, you can make an educated choice on what platforms are best for your business.
  • Identify your audience & social media platform. Who are they, what social media platforms are they already using and what kind of content do they enjoy? These questions are all important when determining your audience. Evaluate each social network to decide which will be the most effective in reaching your social media goals.
  • How much are you capable of? This is some professional’s eight hour a day job. Producing original content, curating shareable online content, engaging with your audience and scheduling posts can take up a lot of you or your staff’s time.
  • Be picky about your platforms. Only chose two or three social platforms. Use your earlier findings to determine where your presence will be the most effective. Make sure that you are posting engaging content on your social media pages and keeping a regular social media schedule.

DON’TS:

Like your own posts as your business

Liking your own posts is a big no-no in the marketing world. You created the content, so it is already known that you “like” what you posted. Your audience is smart enough to know that you are trying to bump your content back into the newsfeed. You don’t want to be seen as someone who is taking shortcuts or is a spammer. It is unprofessional and gives the impression that your brand doesn’t have a grasp on social media.

On the flip side, do share your business content from your personal accounts. This is especially helpful on social media sites like LinkedIn. You should also encourage your employees to share, like and comment on posts by your brand. Set up an employee sharing plan that will make them brand ambassadors and boost your organic reach.

Dish out too much personality

This is your business, but it does not give you a free pass to post anything you want on your social media page. Keep in mind your company’s reputation and to keep postings within your brand standards and voice. Be professional and only produce content that your audience would approve of.

Things you really shouldn’t post: ton of selfies, political or religious views, family on-goings, how you are feeling sad a lot, airing out personal or family issues, negative feelings about people or companies, any negativity in general.

It’s ok to use humor, as long as your audience would think it’s funny. If you are targeting millennials, you can be more edgy in your posts. If your audience mainly consists of baby boomers, use more caution in what viral content you serve them. If your audience consists of all ages, try to keep your content PG and family friendly.

Use hashtags where they don’t belong

Don’t abuse the power of the hashtag. The best places to use hashtags are Twitter and Instagram. Using hashtags on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, shows a lack of social media know-how. Don’t use too many or irrelevant hashtags when starting out on social media. Take a less is more approach. Research shows that Instagram posts with three hashtags get the most interaction. Try to only use five hashtags at the most and don’t use “spammy” hashtags. Social media pages that abuse hashtags to reach more users, come across as unprofessional and not very authentic.

Take a social media hiatus

Don’t take long breaks from posting. Most importantly, don’t give a dramatic reason as to why you are leaving social media. It’s ok to take a break for personal reasons, but don’t make a big deal about it. Create a social media calendar and use a scheduling tool to keep your pages active while you are away. Ask a member of your staff to monitor the accounts and keep the engagement going. Make sure someone is responding to questions, comments, complaints, check-ins and reviews.

Have incomplete profiles

When people visit your social media, they shouldn’t question the authenticity of the pages. Things like no profile photo, missing phone numbers, no website link, and lack of location send warning flags to visitors. They should see all this information upfront and be able to find the answers they came to your page for initially. Keep everything current and updated, including profile and cover photos, website links and company descriptions.

One last friendly reminder. Do always ways check spelling, grammar and the source of your links and shares. Don’t use ALL-CAPS and don’t use too many exclamation points!!!!!

Jul 07
0

3 Facts to Consider When Implementing Facebook Live in your Practice

By | Consulting, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

Facebook Live is gaining momentum, as the social network’s latest addition helps businesses get exposure, and get in front of more of their customers. Although navigating this new broadcasting feature can be difficult, it can provide your practice with not only vital video content, but the ability to reach more and new users in an appealing, millennial driven way. Per Facebook’s figures, on average, users watch a live video more than three times longer when it is live. Facebook also says users comment over 10 times more frequently on Facebook Live videos than other videos. Keep in mind these 3 simple steps when integrating Facebook Live into your practice:

1. Keep your Focus Singular

Understanding why you are diving into Facebook Live is really the first step in adding it to your social and online marketing strategy. Do you have a big event to promote, or are you trying to connect with your customers on a deeper level? Make sure you keep a singular focus when you start to broadcast your video, and keep the conversation on point.

2. Timing is Everything

Keep in mind not only the length of the video, but when you want to go live. Is your audience working professionals? Consider 1-3 p.m. during normal lunch hours, or from 6-9 p.m. after work. Good news about after-hours posting, videos are encouraged to be shorter in length… between 8-12 minutes in fact.

3. Consider Partnerships

Most practices don’t have an existing large following, let alone one that regular engages with you. Think about utilizing Facebook Live as a more impactful tool when considering other partnerships in your community. Ask for endorsements from influencers that you may have partnered with. Ask for influencers to do a Live video of their post-op visit. Stage an interview with the doctor with a popular Q&A session to utilize the live comment feature. Remember to keep it a light, informative and authentic. Watchers will want to see something genuine and somewhat spontaneous.

Lastly, don’t be discouraged if you don’t have a large audience at first. Since a non-sponsored post only reaches a small percentage of your audience, and Live videos will reach the large majority, it’s worth trying out to engage your current audience and possibly re-engage with those that have fallen off.

Have fun!