subject: Cultural, Economic and Marketing Changes Part 3 [print this page] Cultural, Economic and Marketing Changes Part 3
Who would have ever thought that a presidential candidate could use the power of the internet to rally support, raise tens of millions of dollars, register vast numbers of new voters and push himself into the White House? Barack Obama did.
The Republican Party was left in the proverbial dust in the online world. They are still reeling from the onslaught.
No matter what your political thinking is, the lessons of that campaign cannot be ignored by political parties. Forever more, the party that leverages the power of the internet will have an advantage that cannot be overcome except by the other party leveraging the internet for themselves, too.
If you are a marketer of anything, the lessons of that campaign should have made an indelible mark in your mindset about marketing. The online world is becoming increasingly important. It cannot be ignored.
One of the tenets of the successful is adapting the lessons garnered from outside their own field; in other words, copying the productive concepts, ideas and methods from businesses other than their own. The carry forward of the concepts does take some thinking and modification, but the advantage can be enormous. Wouldn't it make sense to copy successful actions outside one's primary field and apply them to your own situation?
The lesson of that last Presidential campaign was that hybrid marketing is the new model for marketing success.
What is Hybrid Marketing? It combines online and offline (traditional) marketing together to synergize (the results are more than the sum of the parts) the channels and increase response. Done well, it increases results and may decrease total dollars spent to get new prospects and clients. On the other hand, if few dollars and resources have been allocated to the web, then your marketing investment will likely increase as will results, when done well.
What do people do online? What are the reasons they come there?
People come online for myriad reasons, included are these eleven:
1. Information learn the details and gain more understanding, these are often portal or reference sites; Wikipedia is the largest of these.
2. News
3. Opinions of thought leaders example: blogs of CEOs, politicians, academics, celebrities, etc.
4. Investigation of an area of interest, person or event
5. Confirmation of existing information, ideas and beliefs
6. Affirmation of a decision already made
7. Recommendations of others, who have used a product, watched a movie or had experiences with a class of offerings or a particular one.
8. Search for a provider of a needed or wanted product or service
9. Buy something
10. Socialization- social networks provide powerful indirect marketing
11. Entertainment
A rule should be to make your own online presence "fit" as many of these reasons as possible. The more your site or sites provide for these reasons, the easier it is for your influence and authority online to climb.
In a very practical sense, what do your prospective patients and patients do online? They do all the above, of course. Specifically, they follow up a recommendation by a friend or family member with a trip to your web site. They want to "check you out."
Many prospective patients use local search to find a dentist. Many are looking for dental information, in general. For this reason, many will go to multiple sites for as many sources as possible that agree with each other to aid their choice making. Some have emergencies and are looking for help. Many are checking out your credentials. Many want to find out who you are, what you look like and what you stand for. Many want to get directions, see who your team members are and "get a feel" for your practice. They want to know what your payment policies are and how they can afford to get their care completed. Of course, there are more than these. Every prospective patient is a bit different depending on their specific need or want.
As much as possible, your site(s) need to provide this information and assurance to prospective patients and existing ones, too. Your site(s) should reflect your professionalism and viewpoints about what you do and why you do it. All of this means that your site or sites require a lot of your attention and effort to stay updated, current and worthy of your prospective patients attention. Simply put, you need a very good web site just to stay even with your competition. Exceptional sites will increasingly become marketing advantages. Will you give online its due? Do you have a choice?
Having a great site isn't the end of it. There are untold numbers of good sites that can't be found in online search. If you aren't on the first page of search results, you don't really matter. Eighty to ninety percent of people don't go beyond the first page of results. The second page gets the majority of those that do go beyond page one. Think about how you search. How many pages deep do you go?
The formula for online success is Visitors X Conversions = Profits.
Let's break this down for a dental practice.
Visitors to your site(s) come directly from search engine results, links from other sites, pay per click ads that drive them there and direct type in from offline marketing. None alone is enough to get all the visitors you want.
Too few visitors is a major problem for 99% of all dental sites.
With the growing sophistication of the web and search engine marketing, few dentists have a clue how to get to the top of the search listings. One particular "guru" claims he can get you listed in 9 minutes. While there is some kernel of truth to that, the descent from that lofty perch atop the search results is nearly as fast! It takes a coordinated approach of many venues to get atop the search engines (That is why I teamed up with a top internet SEM expert to offer exceptional web sites that get traffic and convert into new patients. In my own practice, we are averaging close to one patient per day using this strategy and aligned tactics.)
Sadly, most so called SEM (Search Engine Marketing) experts in dentistry are also far behind. The reason I can say this is the enormous expenditure I made on my own employing them until I found that they were ill equipped for this function. You need experts that do this daily.
The idea of putting up a really good site and letting search engines find you naturally is folly today. It takes work and time and money and knowledge of what to do and how to do it. Worse, the rules are constantly evolving often weekly! Still, SEM is worth it. In fact, it is mandatory for exceptional success.
An important point: the quality of the prospective patient is typically higher with those who go online to find you or have been driven there by your marketing. Presently, of all marketing available, patients who come from online, value dentistry more and get more care completed. I am thrilled when a new patient tells me she checked me out on the web or discovered me online. And if she says I read every page on your site, my work for moving her to yes is sooooo much easier.
Now if you do have a professional site that answers prospects questions it does not mean they will convert! Remember the formula: visitors X conversions equal profit. If you site does not convert, all is wasted.
A dental practice web site's version of conversion is a new patient call or a lead gathered. Almost none of the dental sites I see have any system for capturing a prospective patient's contact information. Even fewer have a system of automated marketing messages that move the lead to call you or email you for an appointment. That violates all principles of lead generation marketing. Lead generation should naturally lead to nurturing and maturing a lead into a qualified prospect that wants what you offer and values you and your services.
The average site online that does capture leads gets 1% or less of all visitors giving contact information! My last check on my own sites using the technology solutions I developed with my team is more than six and half times higher than that. (Okay, I am bragging a little. But, hey, that is a stellar number, don't you think!)
The Union of Online and Offline Marketing
This is the hybrid marketing I mentioned earlier. Today, your lead generating marketing will cross refer offline to online, online to offline. It is a two way street, with advantages for both. Few dentists understand why this is true or how to meld the two.
Any offline piece is best when it has an online part that goes with it. For example, you send out a practice magazine. On each page is the listed specific landing page online for that topic or subject. It is not enough to just send a prospective patient to your web site in general. Send them to a specific landing page that matches the area of interest. What most dentists do is to send to a general site without a specific landing page. Big Mistake. This causes potential patients to dig around your site. That would be good if they would. Most of the time when the topic of interest can't be found quickly, they leave the site almost instantaneously.
Similarly, any online visitor who gives contact information should receive not only automated emails, reports, videos, etc, but also more information sent by regular mail.
Together, the synergy of both amplifies every marketing dollar and increases your results.
Together, these fit our lead generation and lead nurturing model hand in glove. Follow-up is accomplished online and/or offline.
What about use of offline and online with existing patients? Yes, these have become the expected by sophisticated consumers.
Moreover, the new cultural, economic and marketing imperatives have an enormous effective on marketing to patients of record something that few dentists do and for good reason, up till now.
So how does that fit? We'll answer that question next time.
