Last week, I recapped the top 3 marketing trends of 2013. One of them, gamification, deserves a little more explanation. Over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies plan to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention. By harnessing people's natural desires to compete, achieve, gain status and money, express themselves and even to be altruistic, marketers can turn their product into a game, and actively engage their audience.
Popular Types of Gamifaction
Check-ins and Badges - Used often with fitness sites and apps such as Foursquare, virtual badges are awarded each time a customer reaches the next "level". These levels correspond, for example, to the amount of time someone has exercised, how many people they've recruited, how many restaurants they visited and logged with their apps, and so on. This is similar to the idea of frequent customer rewards, where if you collect a certain number of points, or spend a certain amount of money you get bonus gifts, but is even more engaging and cost effective. These apps encourage frequent use, and provide constant feedback and reward. It is just as rewarding to receive a graphic badge for an achievement as it is to receive a physical prize, and the idea of "leveling up" makes customers feel like they've earned the reward at the end.
It's important, when using this sort of gamification, to balance individual rewards with community rewards. Rewards only for community achievement can encourage coasting, and when sticking to just individual rewards it's easy for customers to get bored or plateau. The solution, as found by a recent MIT study, is to reward participants not just for their own contributions, but by how much their
contributions inspire others. He likens it to academia, where a
publication is deemed more or less influential by the number of
citations it receives in subsequent research. This encourages users to improve themselves, and keep leveling up individual ling, while also striving to better their standing and influence within the community.
Treasure Hunts/Narrative based marketing
This is a rarer form of gamification, as it requires more set up and investment on the part of the company, but is often more engaging and rewarding then simple badge and check in systems. This sort of gamification is generally attached to viral marketing, and works well when a new product, album or movie is being released. The idea is that users must follow a series of clues and puzzles, or accomplish a series of tasks to unlock additional content and prizes. Often, a loose narrative is created, such as the theft of the brand new product that must be recovered by the careful sleuthing of the customer base.
The idea of gamification, in all it's forms, is to encourage consumers to feel like the marketing they are doing, or the product they are using, is fun. That it is rewarding. That each time they buy a product, or refer a friend, they are accomplishing something. There's nothing more satisfying then physically crossing a task off a sheet of paper. By tapping into the human desire to compete, improve, and increase their status, companies can encourage their client base to do the marketing for them.
First five comments get a free response! If you have any tips, comments or suggestions about games and marketing, let us know in
the comments below and on
twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Top 3 Marketing Trends in 2013 (So Far)
At the end of 2012, the top marketing trends and predictions focused on gamification, mobile marketing and content marketing. Now that we're halfway through 2013, did these predictions hold up? Has mobile marketing hit its saturation point? Is the focus still on content and a broad social media and mobile presence? Let's take a look at how these predictions held up, and how they changed.
Mobile Marketing - is still on the rise. If growth continues at the current rate, by 2015 more users will access the internet through mobile devices than their computers. It's just a fact - when your phone is a portable computer you will use it whenever you don't have your laptop or desktop. Thanks to smartphones, every minute of someone's waking day could potentially be spent online. It's not a coincidence that 42.8% of marketers planned to increase their marketing spending in 2013, it's just good business sense.
Content Marketing - Recently, there's been an emphasis on content. Not just amount of content, but quality of content. With the advent of the blog, the initial theory (and instinctual impulse) was to just put as much information out there as possible. Update as often as possible and let the rest sort itself out. Now is the time to sort all that content out. Companies are re-evaluating their approach to content. How they organize, how they curate it, whether quality of content is more important then quantity of content, and the hammer is coming down on the side of quality. Producing less content, but of a higher quality is proving itself to be a better strategy then providing a lot of content without much consideration to content. While having a blog filled with posts back to 2007 is impressive, readers would rather not have to slog through a lot of mediocre content to get to the gems. Instead, they would rather read only the best of your posts, even if there are fewer.
Gamification - is a relatively recent marketing innovation, that's seen a lot of use in the beverage and food industry. Essentially, it turns marketing strategies into a game. The most classic example is when companies hold contests or surveys and let the consumers decide what the new candy flavor will be, or the logo, or the mascot. An adaptation of this strategy to the internet, particularly to social media, is to offer prizes or rewards based on likes, shares and re-tweets. For instance, if you share a certain link x amount of times, you get a special reward, rank or badge. Companies have also arranged internet "scavenger hunts" where consumers unlock certain rewards at each level, where each level involves some form of promotion, purchase or use of the product.
Whether these trends continue, or some new marketing strategies arise to take their place remain to be seen. What trends have you noticed so far? Is there any marketing strategy that you're glad to see go? Let us know in the comments below twitter and facebook.
Mobile Marketing - is still on the rise. If growth continues at the current rate, by 2015 more users will access the internet through mobile devices than their computers. It's just a fact - when your phone is a portable computer you will use it whenever you don't have your laptop or desktop. Thanks to smartphones, every minute of someone's waking day could potentially be spent online. It's not a coincidence that 42.8% of marketers planned to increase their marketing spending in 2013, it's just good business sense.
Content Marketing - Recently, there's been an emphasis on content. Not just amount of content, but quality of content. With the advent of the blog, the initial theory (and instinctual impulse) was to just put as much information out there as possible. Update as often as possible and let the rest sort itself out. Now is the time to sort all that content out. Companies are re-evaluating their approach to content. How they organize, how they curate it, whether quality of content is more important then quantity of content, and the hammer is coming down on the side of quality. Producing less content, but of a higher quality is proving itself to be a better strategy then providing a lot of content without much consideration to content. While having a blog filled with posts back to 2007 is impressive, readers would rather not have to slog through a lot of mediocre content to get to the gems. Instead, they would rather read only the best of your posts, even if there are fewer.
Gamification - is a relatively recent marketing innovation, that's seen a lot of use in the beverage and food industry. Essentially, it turns marketing strategies into a game. The most classic example is when companies hold contests or surveys and let the consumers decide what the new candy flavor will be, or the logo, or the mascot. An adaptation of this strategy to the internet, particularly to social media, is to offer prizes or rewards based on likes, shares and re-tweets. For instance, if you share a certain link x amount of times, you get a special reward, rank or badge. Companies have also arranged internet "scavenger hunts" where consumers unlock certain rewards at each level, where each level involves some form of promotion, purchase or use of the product.
Whether these trends continue, or some new marketing strategies arise to take their place remain to be seen. What trends have you noticed so far? Is there any marketing strategy that you're glad to see go? Let us know in the comments below twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Client Isn't Always Right
"The Customer is Always Right." Anyone who has spent anytime in a client driven industry is familiar with the phrase. From grocery stores to marketing firms, when your business depends directly on the amount of customers and clients you get, this phrase is treated like the gospel. Unfortunately, anyone who has ever worked in client driven business also knows that the client usually has no idea what it is they want.
The whole reason why you hire a professional is because you don't have the knowledge to do it yourself. You might have ideas, you might have suggestions, but you don't have expertise. This is why you go to a doctor when you're sick, and when your doctor gives you medical advice, you follow it. An ideal client relationship works like a doctor-patient relationship. The client comes in with a problem, offers some suggestions of what the solution might be, but ultimately defers to the experience of the professional they hired.
In reality, the client comes in with suggestions or ideas that will not work, or won't work without heavy modification. You tell them this as politely and deferentially as possible, because after all, you can't afford to lose the client, offer some suggestions, and inevitably, your suggestions are rejected. If you followed the motto "the customer is always right", this is where you would back down, go with the client's ill advised idea, and then have to deal with the blow back when it doesn't work, or doesn't work well enough. The problem with the "client is always right" is that the customer comes to believe this as well. Obviously if things didn't work out the way they wanted, it's your fault for either not listening to them or, conversely, listening to them even though you knew it wouldn't work. As a professional, you can't win.
The solution? Acknowledge that the client isn't always right. Don't be afraid to state, clearly and decisively, why the client's idea, while interesting, will not work. Use examples of similar ideas that have failed. Provide one or two suggestions for alternatives, and don't be afraid to emphasize the years of experience you have.
For example, if you have been tasked to design a flyer for a client and they want to put something on the flyer that just won't work - it's too strongly worded, the design is ugly, it's the sort of information that isn't meant to go on a flyer - explain to them why it won't work, and if (when) they ignore your suggestion, provide two examples. One with their suggestions, implemented exactly as is, poor wording, color scheme and all, and one the way you know from experience will work best. Present the two suggestions side by side, and 99% of the time, they'll pick the one you designed.
Most of the time if you let the client know in no uncertain terms that their suggestions are a bad idea, and provide alternatives, they will listen. Trying to turn a poor idea into an acceptable one is a waste of time and effort. If the idea is salvageable, let it drop. The good thing about most clients is that they don't know what they want until they see it, so if you provide examples of what you know works, they'll find something they like and you can go from there.
For the 1% who persist in making poor design choices, there is quite literally nothing you can do. It comes down to whether you can afford to be associated with a poor design - if you pride yourself on the quality of your work, this might be the time to drop an ultimatum on the client, instead of the other way around. But usually, it doesn't come to that. Generally, when you firmly but gently tell a client "how about we try this instead", they'll go along with it.
Always listening to your client is a good way to churn out mediocre work. You will not, in fact, have a high rate of customer satisfaction. Ultimately, you and the client care about the same things - results. If you do everything a client wants, and it fails that is your fault. The client will very rarely if ever take responsibility. It's much smarter to make sure all your projects succeed, even if that means proving a customer wrong.
How do you deal with difficult customers? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
The whole reason why you hire a professional is because you don't have the knowledge to do it yourself. You might have ideas, you might have suggestions, but you don't have expertise. This is why you go to a doctor when you're sick, and when your doctor gives you medical advice, you follow it. An ideal client relationship works like a doctor-patient relationship. The client comes in with a problem, offers some suggestions of what the solution might be, but ultimately defers to the experience of the professional they hired.
In reality, the client comes in with suggestions or ideas that will not work, or won't work without heavy modification. You tell them this as politely and deferentially as possible, because after all, you can't afford to lose the client, offer some suggestions, and inevitably, your suggestions are rejected. If you followed the motto "the customer is always right", this is where you would back down, go with the client's ill advised idea, and then have to deal with the blow back when it doesn't work, or doesn't work well enough. The problem with the "client is always right" is that the customer comes to believe this as well. Obviously if things didn't work out the way they wanted, it's your fault for either not listening to them or, conversely, listening to them even though you knew it wouldn't work. As a professional, you can't win.
The solution? Acknowledge that the client isn't always right. Don't be afraid to state, clearly and decisively, why the client's idea, while interesting, will not work. Use examples of similar ideas that have failed. Provide one or two suggestions for alternatives, and don't be afraid to emphasize the years of experience you have.
For example, if you have been tasked to design a flyer for a client and they want to put something on the flyer that just won't work - it's too strongly worded, the design is ugly, it's the sort of information that isn't meant to go on a flyer - explain to them why it won't work, and if (when) they ignore your suggestion, provide two examples. One with their suggestions, implemented exactly as is, poor wording, color scheme and all, and one the way you know from experience will work best. Present the two suggestions side by side, and 99% of the time, they'll pick the one you designed.
Most of the time if you let the client know in no uncertain terms that their suggestions are a bad idea, and provide alternatives, they will listen. Trying to turn a poor idea into an acceptable one is a waste of time and effort. If the idea is salvageable, let it drop. The good thing about most clients is that they don't know what they want until they see it, so if you provide examples of what you know works, they'll find something they like and you can go from there.
For the 1% who persist in making poor design choices, there is quite literally nothing you can do. It comes down to whether you can afford to be associated with a poor design - if you pride yourself on the quality of your work, this might be the time to drop an ultimatum on the client, instead of the other way around. But usually, it doesn't come to that. Generally, when you firmly but gently tell a client "how about we try this instead", they'll go along with it.
Always listening to your client is a good way to churn out mediocre work. You will not, in fact, have a high rate of customer satisfaction. Ultimately, you and the client care about the same things - results. If you do everything a client wants, and it fails that is your fault. The client will very rarely if ever take responsibility. It's much smarter to make sure all your projects succeed, even if that means proving a customer wrong.
How do you deal with difficult customers? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
5 Tips to Improve Your SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically, how do you make Google work for you. Anyone who's ever used a search engine understand the concept: the results on the top of the first page are the ones you click on. So how do you get there? Honestly, it's better to just hire a SEO certified professional, or a marketing team to handle it for you. But here are some tips to get you started.
1. Keywords - Figure out what sort of words people use to search for your product, and include as many of them as you can in your website. This is often done on a coding level, where the website itself is designed to make it as easy as possible for search engine indexing to find it.
2. Cross Linking - The more times people click through to and around your site, the higher it climbs in the search engine rankings. One strategy is to have, essentially, sets of links, where the main page takes you to a second page which takes you to the content you're looking for, to have links to other pages on the most important pages. There are ways to do this organically, without disrupting or annoying the user, such as linking to a page with services, then having the user click on each individual service to see examples of it.And/or, when organically mentioning another service in the description of your current one, linking straight to that service in the text.
3. Inbound and Outbound Linking - Advertise your website. have links to your website on your social media sites, on your blog, and links to your blog on your website. The more places that your blog or website shows up, the more it will be scene, and more importantly, the more it will be trafficked. One of the things search engine crawlers, the things that find and rate the sites, look for is how often your site gets mentioned on other sites.
4. Data and Analytics - Once you start getting traffic, you need to track that traffic. Search engine algorithms change all the time. Make sure that you know who's visiting your site, when, where and how, so you know how to change your website and your SEO tactics to match your demographic. Most companies that provide SEO help or expertise include analytics and tracking as part of the package, as it's hard to optimize something when you don't know h0w it's performing in the first place.
5. Sponsored Links - If doing SEO the organic way just isn't producing the results you want, you can always pay the search engine to get featured at the top of the results. Whether or not this is actually effect is up in the air. Many people, myself include, specifically avoid the sponsored links because we assume that their not actually the best results. Search engine user like to think that the reason an article or a business is at the top of the list is because it's the most popular, and most relevant result. Sponsored links bypass that, and as silly as it sounds, feels like the company is blatantly "cheating" to improve their standing.
These tips can get you started, but as you've probably figured out, SEO is best left to professionals. Luckily, there are a lot out there (including my company, UnimarPR). Just try to focus on companies that provide "organic" SEO optimization over sponsored links or pay per click, as search engine companies prefer websites and businesses that game the system naturally.
How important do you think SEO is to a business? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
1. Keywords - Figure out what sort of words people use to search for your product, and include as many of them as you can in your website. This is often done on a coding level, where the website itself is designed to make it as easy as possible for search engine indexing to find it.
2. Cross Linking - The more times people click through to and around your site, the higher it climbs in the search engine rankings. One strategy is to have, essentially, sets of links, where the main page takes you to a second page which takes you to the content you're looking for, to have links to other pages on the most important pages. There are ways to do this organically, without disrupting or annoying the user, such as linking to a page with services, then having the user click on each individual service to see examples of it.And/or, when organically mentioning another service in the description of your current one, linking straight to that service in the text.
3. Inbound and Outbound Linking - Advertise your website. have links to your website on your social media sites, on your blog, and links to your blog on your website. The more places that your blog or website shows up, the more it will be scene, and more importantly, the more it will be trafficked. One of the things search engine crawlers, the things that find and rate the sites, look for is how often your site gets mentioned on other sites.
4. Data and Analytics - Once you start getting traffic, you need to track that traffic. Search engine algorithms change all the time. Make sure that you know who's visiting your site, when, where and how, so you know how to change your website and your SEO tactics to match your demographic. Most companies that provide SEO help or expertise include analytics and tracking as part of the package, as it's hard to optimize something when you don't know h0w it's performing in the first place.
5. Sponsored Links - If doing SEO the organic way just isn't producing the results you want, you can always pay the search engine to get featured at the top of the results. Whether or not this is actually effect is up in the air. Many people, myself include, specifically avoid the sponsored links because we assume that their not actually the best results. Search engine user like to think that the reason an article or a business is at the top of the list is because it's the most popular, and most relevant result. Sponsored links bypass that, and as silly as it sounds, feels like the company is blatantly "cheating" to improve their standing.
These tips can get you started, but as you've probably figured out, SEO is best left to professionals. Luckily, there are a lot out there (including my company, UnimarPR). Just try to focus on companies that provide "organic" SEO optimization over sponsored links or pay per click, as search engine companies prefer websites and businesses that game the system naturally.
How important do you think SEO is to a business? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Preventative Medicine
The classic of a doctor is someone you go to when you're sick. Are your eyes failing? Go to the eye doctor! Skin cancer? Go to the dermatologist! This doesn't make a lot of sense. You shouldn't wait for a building to collapse before you fix the cracks. Humans are not self repairing, self sustaining machines, they require work and care. This is why it's so important to schedule regular check ups, check regularly for lumps and moles, and schedule regular appointments with your dentist before you have a single cavity. Brushing your teeth doesn't fill your cavities, it prevents you from having them in the first place.
This sort of thinking - the knowledge that you can avoid health issues once you know the cause of them - is why we developed spray tans, to provide an alternative to cancer causing suntanning booths. Why almost all states have passing anti-smoking laws and bans. Michelle Obama has also drawn attention to the problem of obesity in our country, especially in schools, and almost all schools now focus on creating health providing environments, as well as education. It's more difficult to find a fast food chain without posted calorie counts and salad options, then with them.
But does this increased concern with and awareness of health issues actually lead to healthier people? One study in the American Journal Of Preventative Medicine one the effects of labeling caloric values on fast food menus, conducted as a cross sectional longitudinal from 2008-2010, which was evaluated in 2011-2012 on the effect that caloric labeling (that began at the beginning of the study) had on the caloric intake and overall weight of study participants. Their results were surprising. The calorie labeling only served to increase healthy eating in some participants, at some of the restaurants, and only among women. What the signs did do was create awareness of the issue.
Our understandable desire to stop ourselves from getting sick, and our increased knowledge as to the underlying causes of things like cancer and obesity, have inspired us to discover new techniques for promoting wellness, and to re-discover, old ones, like acupuncture. Even the department of defense is getting in on, having recently established the first full service acupuncture clinic on a military base.
Since people are doing more to stop themselves from getting sick in the first place, does this means, as a doctor, you're going to start losing patients? Of course not. An increased interest and reliance on preventative medicine can actually get you more patients. Consider recommending massages, acupuncture, helping your patients develop good nutrition plans, healthy exercise habits. Encourage regular check ups, consider natural remedies like green tea, and acia berries. Don't just help your patients get healthy, help them stay healthy too.
How do you stay healthy? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
This sort of thinking - the knowledge that you can avoid health issues once you know the cause of them - is why we developed spray tans, to provide an alternative to cancer causing suntanning booths. Why almost all states have passing anti-smoking laws and bans. Michelle Obama has also drawn attention to the problem of obesity in our country, especially in schools, and almost all schools now focus on creating health providing environments, as well as education. It's more difficult to find a fast food chain without posted calorie counts and salad options, then with them.
But does this increased concern with and awareness of health issues actually lead to healthier people? One study in the American Journal Of Preventative Medicine one the effects of labeling caloric values on fast food menus, conducted as a cross sectional longitudinal from 2008-2010, which was evaluated in 2011-2012 on the effect that caloric labeling (that began at the beginning of the study) had on the caloric intake and overall weight of study participants. Their results were surprising. The calorie labeling only served to increase healthy eating in some participants, at some of the restaurants, and only among women. What the signs did do was create awareness of the issue.
Our understandable desire to stop ourselves from getting sick, and our increased knowledge as to the underlying causes of things like cancer and obesity, have inspired us to discover new techniques for promoting wellness, and to re-discover, old ones, like acupuncture. Even the department of defense is getting in on, having recently established the first full service acupuncture clinic on a military base.
Since people are doing more to stop themselves from getting sick in the first place, does this means, as a doctor, you're going to start losing patients? Of course not. An increased interest and reliance on preventative medicine can actually get you more patients. Consider recommending massages, acupuncture, helping your patients develop good nutrition plans, healthy exercise habits. Encourage regular check ups, consider natural remedies like green tea, and acia berries. Don't just help your patients get healthy, help them stay healthy too.
How do you stay healthy? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Improving Online Doctor Listings
I just spent the day looking through many different online doctor listings, and I noticed some things they all have in common, and some thing that most of these listings just don't have. Most listings are focused more on the doctor then the practice. They have the doctor's information - education, degrees, affiliated hospitals, and so on, but pretty much nothing about the practice itself. None of these listing have the doctor's website's listed. They all separated the individual doctors from the practices they work in, and in many cases, founded. This is a mistake.
In no other profession, do you list the owner of a business separate from their business. I'm not just looking for a doctor, I'm looking for a doctor's office. Especially when seeking out family practices, and general practitioners, I want to know what sort of services, hours and locations the practice or hospital the doctor works at keeps. ZocDoc.com, a very respectable and very popular doctor listing site, allows you to book online appointments with any doctor in their database, and read reviews from previous clients. They don't, however, tell you anything about the practice the doctor works for. Many of them don't even tell you the name of the doctor's hospital or practice.
It's a system set up to prioritize patients who already have the names of doctors they'd like to consult, and need more information about. If you're seeking out a new eye doctor, or dentist, or family practitioner using ZocDoc, and most of the other doctor listings like healthygrades.com, you'll find yourself having to do additional searching to find out information about that doctor's practice. A practice is nothing without good doctors, but good doctors function within existing structures -within practices and hospitals. When you're looking for a doctor, you're also looking for the doctor's office.
Online medical listings should reflect that reality. When you're looking at universities, you may be drawn to a school because of its excellent professors. But if the most accessible information about a university said nothing about the school itself, and focused only on the teachers, you wouldn't go to that school.
What are some ways online medical listings can be changed to improve the experience? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
In no other profession, do you list the owner of a business separate from their business. I'm not just looking for a doctor, I'm looking for a doctor's office. Especially when seeking out family practices, and general practitioners, I want to know what sort of services, hours and locations the practice or hospital the doctor works at keeps. ZocDoc.com, a very respectable and very popular doctor listing site, allows you to book online appointments with any doctor in their database, and read reviews from previous clients. They don't, however, tell you anything about the practice the doctor works for. Many of them don't even tell you the name of the doctor's hospital or practice.
It's a system set up to prioritize patients who already have the names of doctors they'd like to consult, and need more information about. If you're seeking out a new eye doctor, or dentist, or family practitioner using ZocDoc, and most of the other doctor listings like healthygrades.com, you'll find yourself having to do additional searching to find out information about that doctor's practice. A practice is nothing without good doctors, but good doctors function within existing structures -within practices and hospitals. When you're looking for a doctor, you're also looking for the doctor's office.
Online medical listings should reflect that reality. When you're looking at universities, you may be drawn to a school because of its excellent professors. But if the most accessible information about a university said nothing about the school itself, and focused only on the teachers, you wouldn't go to that school.
What are some ways online medical listings can be changed to improve the experience? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Top Five Most Common Marketing Mistakes
It can be difficult to figure out what the right thing to do is when it comes to marketing your company. There's no magic bullet, no one size fits all strategy, and their so many different ways to market nowadays that knowing what's right for your company is almost impossible to figure out. When you don't know what to do, sometimes it helps to look at what not to do.
1. There can't only be one. Using only one form of marketing, having only a website, or only brochures, or only print ads, or relying only on word of mouth, does not work. While it may be difficult to figure out which marketing methods you want to use, it's vital that you use more than just one. It's fine if your business gets most of it's clients through word of mouth. But these days, with so much competition, if you don't expand, if you don't use online resources like ZocDoc.com, or list yourself at city hall, or have a presence on line, you'll miss out on clients and fall behind the competition.
2.The internet is your friend. A business without a web presence will not survive in our current climate. This is more than just having an eye catching, well designed website. It's about listing yourself online, being present not just at physical marketing conferences, but on online chat boards. It's about having a mobile website, and a Facebook page. The average person spends about 4 hours a day online. Americans spend about as much time online as they do watching tv, if not more. If you're advertising on TV, you should be advertising online as well.
3. Constant vigilance. The thing about cultivating an online presence, is that it must be a presence. Once you have your website, you have to maintain it. Having a twitter feed that only updates sporadically, if at all, defeats the purpose. Marketing online isn't like marketing in print or on TV. You can't just create an advertisement, put it out there, and ignore it until it starts delivering results. Fortunately, most web designers will also upkeep your website for you, but creating a site without maintaining it, or a Facebook group without updating it, is like buying a car without insurance.
4. But I have a superior product! It's an unfortunate truth that the quality of a good or service doesn't necessarily correlate to how well it does. It is perfectly possible to be the very best at what you do, but if the guy next door has a better ad campaign and slightly lower prices, he'll take all your business. Being the top of your field doesn't matter unless other people recognize you as such. A business can have a quality product, and only a few customers. Trusting only in your talent to see you through is tempting, but ultimately unwise.
5. All flash, no substance. On the flip side of the previous point, when advertising your product, there has to be content. It helps, of course, if you do have a superior product, but even if you don't, you must have an actual, tangible, product or service. Consumers are not stupid. If you have a flashy website with almost no real content, people notice. If you make big claims, but have nothing backing them up, people will notice. Just having a good product isn't enough. But not having a product at all is much, much worse.
Most of these mistakes come back to the same thing: the very human impulse to get more for less. (Or, in the case of point number 4, to rest on your laurels, so you don't have to do more work.) In order to make marketing work for you, you have to invest your time and your money into it. If you hire a marketing company, they'll take some of the personal time investment off your hands, but if you don't put in any effort at all, you won't get any results.
Think we should do more work? What common mistakes have you noticed? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
1. There can't only be one. Using only one form of marketing, having only a website, or only brochures, or only print ads, or relying only on word of mouth, does not work. While it may be difficult to figure out which marketing methods you want to use, it's vital that you use more than just one. It's fine if your business gets most of it's clients through word of mouth. But these days, with so much competition, if you don't expand, if you don't use online resources like ZocDoc.com, or list yourself at city hall, or have a presence on line, you'll miss out on clients and fall behind the competition.
2.The internet is your friend. A business without a web presence will not survive in our current climate. This is more than just having an eye catching, well designed website. It's about listing yourself online, being present not just at physical marketing conferences, but on online chat boards. It's about having a mobile website, and a Facebook page. The average person spends about 4 hours a day online. Americans spend about as much time online as they do watching tv, if not more. If you're advertising on TV, you should be advertising online as well.
3. Constant vigilance. The thing about cultivating an online presence, is that it must be a presence. Once you have your website, you have to maintain it. Having a twitter feed that only updates sporadically, if at all, defeats the purpose. Marketing online isn't like marketing in print or on TV. You can't just create an advertisement, put it out there, and ignore it until it starts delivering results. Fortunately, most web designers will also upkeep your website for you, but creating a site without maintaining it, or a Facebook group without updating it, is like buying a car without insurance.
4. But I have a superior product! It's an unfortunate truth that the quality of a good or service doesn't necessarily correlate to how well it does. It is perfectly possible to be the very best at what you do, but if the guy next door has a better ad campaign and slightly lower prices, he'll take all your business. Being the top of your field doesn't matter unless other people recognize you as such. A business can have a quality product, and only a few customers. Trusting only in your talent to see you through is tempting, but ultimately unwise.
5. All flash, no substance. On the flip side of the previous point, when advertising your product, there has to be content. It helps, of course, if you do have a superior product, but even if you don't, you must have an actual, tangible, product or service. Consumers are not stupid. If you have a flashy website with almost no real content, people notice. If you make big claims, but have nothing backing them up, people will notice. Just having a good product isn't enough. But not having a product at all is much, much worse.
Most of these mistakes come back to the same thing: the very human impulse to get more for less. (Or, in the case of point number 4, to rest on your laurels, so you don't have to do more work.) In order to make marketing work for you, you have to invest your time and your money into it. If you hire a marketing company, they'll take some of the personal time investment off your hands, but if you don't put in any effort at all, you won't get any results.
Think we should do more work? What common mistakes have you noticed? If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Social Media Etiquette
So you've just started a social media site for your company. You've probably been using Facebook and twitter in your personal life for years, and you know how important it is to have an active online presence not just for yourself, but for your company. What many businesses seem to forget, is that the rules, so to speak, are different when you're not just representing yourself. Here are few basic etiquette rules for social media sites.
1. Use proper punctuation and grammar, even on twitter. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised (or maybe not) at how often allegedly professional accounts stop using capitals and punctuation on the internet. Even on Twitter, where you are sometimes obligated to use abbreviations simply because of the character count, and it can be tempting to just not punctuate (because every piece of punctuation counts as a character) do it anyway. If you can't say it in 140 properly punctuated and spelled characters, don't say it at all.
2. No one cares what you had for breakfast, unless you're a breakfast food company. You use your personal Facebook and twitter accounts to update your friends, families, and acquaintances on your personal life, thoughts, and feelings. Your business twitter or Facebook page is being used to update your clients on your company's life, interests and ideas. Don't mix the two. Unless your personal life and/or preferences some how directly relates to your business life (we regret to inform you that our CEO is stepping down due to an unfortunate bacon and eggs related incident this morning), your customers don't need to know about it.
3. Spam is for sandwiches, not newsfeeds. No one wants to wake up one morning to find that they're entire Facebook wall, for pages and pages, is nothing but minute by minute updates of what you had for breakfast. The same thing applies to your business accounts. Spread out your updates and vary the content. Cross platform spamming - posting the same thing to your Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn pages, is excusable, and in fact necessary, since your audiences won't be identical across the sites. Deliberately posting the same or similar things more than once in a short period of time will only serve to annoy and alienate your client base.
These are just a few basic etiquette rules to get you started. What annoys you the most about how businesses conduct themselves online? What are some of the most common etiquette mistakes you've seen? Let us know in the comments, or on our own (perfectly polite) twitter and facebook accounts.
1. Use proper punctuation and grammar, even on twitter. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised (or maybe not) at how often allegedly professional accounts stop using capitals and punctuation on the internet. Even on Twitter, where you are sometimes obligated to use abbreviations simply because of the character count, and it can be tempting to just not punctuate (because every piece of punctuation counts as a character) do it anyway. If you can't say it in 140 properly punctuated and spelled characters, don't say it at all.
2. No one cares what you had for breakfast, unless you're a breakfast food company. You use your personal Facebook and twitter accounts to update your friends, families, and acquaintances on your personal life, thoughts, and feelings. Your business twitter or Facebook page is being used to update your clients on your company's life, interests and ideas. Don't mix the two. Unless your personal life and/or preferences some how directly relates to your business life (we regret to inform you that our CEO is stepping down due to an unfortunate bacon and eggs related incident this morning), your customers don't need to know about it.
3. Spam is for sandwiches, not newsfeeds. No one wants to wake up one morning to find that they're entire Facebook wall, for pages and pages, is nothing but minute by minute updates of what you had for breakfast. The same thing applies to your business accounts. Spread out your updates and vary the content. Cross platform spamming - posting the same thing to your Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn pages, is excusable, and in fact necessary, since your audiences won't be identical across the sites. Deliberately posting the same or similar things more than once in a short period of time will only serve to annoy and alienate your client base.
These are just a few basic etiquette rules to get you started. What annoys you the most about how businesses conduct themselves online? What are some of the most common etiquette mistakes you've seen? Let us know in the comments, or on our own (perfectly polite) twitter and facebook accounts.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Top Ten Tips for Marketing your Company
There's a lot of marketing advice out there, some of it helpful, a lot of it not. Below I have collected ten of the best tips for marketing your company, in no particular order. Many of these things are just common sense, but with all the advice out there it can be easy to lose track of the basics.
1. Consistency of brand. It's important to have a consistent brand. Every aspect of your company must agree with and cohere with every other. Someone who's heard of your company and stumbles on a site related to your company must immediately be able to recognize it as yours. Consistent logos, layouts, and color schemes can help quickly and easily identify a component of your larger marketing system as yours.
2. Consistency of social media. It is also just as important to have a consistent social media update schedule. Anyone who runs a blog, or uses Facebook knows there's nothing more off putting than going to a company's social media site and seeing three updates spaced months or years apart. Set a day, or a number of days, each week where you will, without fail, update your social media sites and stick to it. This is the best way to show that your company is active, is reliable, and knows enough about/is good enough in its field to provide information about it.
3. Use all your resources. Don't rely only on one form of marketing. Social media marketing alone isn't enough. Traditional marketing isn't enough, even word of mouth marketing isn't enough. By putting all your eggs into one marketing basket you're ignoring significant opportunities to grow your company and will inevitably fall behind companies who do embrace multiple marketing technologies.
4. It's better to direct your focus than to spread yourself too thin. Use all the resources available to you, but use them wisely. If you're an eye doctor, focus on making connections with other eye doctors, with general practitioners who can provide you with references, with school nurses who can refer you patients. Eye doctors should advertise in glasses stores, foot doctors in shoe stores and gyms. Identify your customer base, and target them specifically.
5. Existing customers can be your best marketing resource. Involve your customers by holding raffles, sweepstakes and offering coupons. Encourage customers to bring you referrals, create loyalty reward systems. A happy customer wants to help you, so give them the opportunity to.
6. Research. Keep up to date with the latest developments in your field, and share them with your customers. Start gathering statistics and information on your clients, so you know who your existing clients are, and provide feedback questionnaires so you can better provide them with what they want and need.
7. Don't get discouraged by mistakes; learn from them. There's no universal formula for a successful marketing campaign. If there were, marketing firms would all go out of business. Some techniques and strategies that work for one company,won't work for another. You can make an educated guess as to what we'll get you the most ROI, or the happiest customers, but you can't be certain until you try. And sometimes, you don't succeed. But if you give up, or try to sweep your failure under the rug, you definitely won't succeed. Study what didn't work, figure out why, and use that information to figure out what will.
9. Ask for help, if you need it. You don't need to do this on your own. Marketing your company is tricky. It's a lot of work, and you don't always have time to devote as much time to it as you should. That's why marketing firms exist, why there are so many marketing books and marketing consultants. Asking for help doesn't have to be your first step, but it shouldn't be your last. There's a strong supply of marketing advice out there, so don't feel bad about demanding it.
10. Patience. The effects of a marketing campaign are rarely visible overnight. It takes time to see ROI and it can be easy to get discouraged and write the whole thing off as a waste of time. But while the internet means that when you update your website, or revamp your social media, or offer new discounts and deals, that information is put out there faster then it ever has been before, it still takes time for customers to see your new sale, or visit your new website. Any marketing firm, though this applies to all facets of life as well, that promises you overnight or instant success is scamming you, full stop. So be patient. You've researched, you've prepared, you've made the most educated guess you can. All you can do now is wait for your plans to bear fruit.
We're not afraid to ask for help either. If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
1. Consistency of brand. It's important to have a consistent brand. Every aspect of your company must agree with and cohere with every other. Someone who's heard of your company and stumbles on a site related to your company must immediately be able to recognize it as yours. Consistent logos, layouts, and color schemes can help quickly and easily identify a component of your larger marketing system as yours.
2. Consistency of social media. It is also just as important to have a consistent social media update schedule. Anyone who runs a blog, or uses Facebook knows there's nothing more off putting than going to a company's social media site and seeing three updates spaced months or years apart. Set a day, or a number of days, each week where you will, without fail, update your social media sites and stick to it. This is the best way to show that your company is active, is reliable, and knows enough about/is good enough in its field to provide information about it.
3. Use all your resources. Don't rely only on one form of marketing. Social media marketing alone isn't enough. Traditional marketing isn't enough, even word of mouth marketing isn't enough. By putting all your eggs into one marketing basket you're ignoring significant opportunities to grow your company and will inevitably fall behind companies who do embrace multiple marketing technologies.
4. It's better to direct your focus than to spread yourself too thin. Use all the resources available to you, but use them wisely. If you're an eye doctor, focus on making connections with other eye doctors, with general practitioners who can provide you with references, with school nurses who can refer you patients. Eye doctors should advertise in glasses stores, foot doctors in shoe stores and gyms. Identify your customer base, and target them specifically.
5. Existing customers can be your best marketing resource. Involve your customers by holding raffles, sweepstakes and offering coupons. Encourage customers to bring you referrals, create loyalty reward systems. A happy customer wants to help you, so give them the opportunity to.
6. Research. Keep up to date with the latest developments in your field, and share them with your customers. Start gathering statistics and information on your clients, so you know who your existing clients are, and provide feedback questionnaires so you can better provide them with what they want and need.
7. Don't get discouraged by mistakes; learn from them. There's no universal formula for a successful marketing campaign. If there were, marketing firms would all go out of business. Some techniques and strategies that work for one company,won't work for another. You can make an educated guess as to what we'll get you the most ROI, or the happiest customers, but you can't be certain until you try. And sometimes, you don't succeed. But if you give up, or try to sweep your failure under the rug, you definitely won't succeed. Study what didn't work, figure out why, and use that information to figure out what will.
9. Ask for help, if you need it. You don't need to do this on your own. Marketing your company is tricky. It's a lot of work, and you don't always have time to devote as much time to it as you should. That's why marketing firms exist, why there are so many marketing books and marketing consultants. Asking for help doesn't have to be your first step, but it shouldn't be your last. There's a strong supply of marketing advice out there, so don't feel bad about demanding it.
10. Patience. The effects of a marketing campaign are rarely visible overnight. It takes time to see ROI and it can be easy to get discouraged and write the whole thing off as a waste of time. But while the internet means that when you update your website, or revamp your social media, or offer new discounts and deals, that information is put out there faster then it ever has been before, it still takes time for customers to see your new sale, or visit your new website. Any marketing firm, though this applies to all facets of life as well, that promises you overnight or instant success is scamming you, full stop. So be patient. You've researched, you've prepared, you've made the most educated guess you can. All you can do now is wait for your plans to bear fruit.
We're not afraid to ask for help either. If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Why Print Advertising Still Matters (Especially in the Healthcare Business)
It's the internet age. Websites, mobile sites, social media groups - these have become the primary way that companies advertise their businesses. Many businesses think that if they have a nice website and a twitter account, they're all set when it comes to marketing. If you advertise online, there's no need to advertise in print. While online marketing is important and necessary in our current culture, it isn't the only thing that matters. Online advertising, while necessary, is just not as effective unless supplemented and complimented by physical advertising.
At some point, especially if you're a medical practice, clients will physically walk into your place of business. You should have informative, targeted brochures - attractive, well designed, and specialized brochures give your patients and clients something to browse while they wait for an appointment. It's also a physical objects they can take home, or show to their friends and families.
Most online marketing relies on potential clients and patients coming to you. Especially in medicine, which is so dependent on referrals, the onus is on the patient to find the doctor. Direct mailers are a great way to send information, promotional material, or simply to let current and potential patients know that you care. Remind them of your services. Not only is it rare these days to get physical mail, you can also include coupons and other incentives on the direct mailer itself. Physically redeeming a coupon, or directly receiving a letter from your physician, is a lot more satisfying than clicking on a link or receiving an e-mail.
As surprising as it may seem, people still read physical newspapers and magazines. Classic, targeted print advertising is still an effective way to get your name out there, even if the main purpose of your ad is to direct clients to your website.
Not having any online or social media presence is short sighted. But letting your physical, in-real-life advertising presence slide is equally short sighted. Online advertising has not, and should not, replace traditional print advertising - it should supplement it.
If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
At some point, especially if you're a medical practice, clients will physically walk into your place of business. You should have informative, targeted brochures - attractive, well designed, and specialized brochures give your patients and clients something to browse while they wait for an appointment. It's also a physical objects they can take home, or show to their friends and families.
Most online marketing relies on potential clients and patients coming to you. Especially in medicine, which is so dependent on referrals, the onus is on the patient to find the doctor. Direct mailers are a great way to send information, promotional material, or simply to let current and potential patients know that you care. Remind them of your services. Not only is it rare these days to get physical mail, you can also include coupons and other incentives on the direct mailer itself. Physically redeeming a coupon, or directly receiving a letter from your physician, is a lot more satisfying than clicking on a link or receiving an e-mail.
As surprising as it may seem, people still read physical newspapers and magazines. Classic, targeted print advertising is still an effective way to get your name out there, even if the main purpose of your ad is to direct clients to your website.
Not having any online or social media presence is short sighted. But letting your physical, in-real-life advertising presence slide is equally short sighted. Online advertising has not, and should not, replace traditional print advertising - it should supplement it.
If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Tips for an Engaging Website
These days, everyone has a website. Given our current internet culture, this makes a lot of sense. But how do you distinguish your website form the crowd? What makes for a good website?
And as always, if you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
- Readability - this seems obvious, but many websites fall into the trap of having a solid wall of small sized text, that the eye naturally skips over. Or alternatively, they have an overwhelming image or images that distract from and sometimes actively prevent you from clearly seeing the text. On this vein, your font is important - stick to simple sans serif fonts - fancy custom fonts distract the eye and can look unprofessional.
- Strong Visuals- While you shouldn't let your images overwhelm your content, having attractive graphics or pictures can help visually market your website. In many cases, having an image contain content - simple, readbale diagrams and charts - is the best way to marry the two. It's also important to have a compact, relatively simple logo that can be used to brand your site across social media platforms.
- Don't be afraid of substance - It can be tempting to underestimate your audience, to treat your website like a larger, more intense advertisement. Your website, while it advertises your company by definition, should not be an adverstisment in and of itself. The job of a website is to give your customers and potential customers concrete facts. Assume that your advertising has done it's job and led people to your website - they have a vague idea of what your company does. Now, show them the actual products and/or services you want them to buy.
And as always, if you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Monday, March 25, 2013
An Introduction and Some Healthcare Marketing Tips
Hi, I'm Julia, I'll be taking over this blog for the forseeable future, and I promise to do my very best to keep things brief, interesting and informative. Every week, I'll be posting new content. Book recomendations, marketing tips, updates on how we're doing and what's going on. I'll start with some marketing tips targeted towards growing local medical practices, like orthodontists, and primary care physicians.
Healthcare Marketing Tips:
Contact local real estate agents. The first thing new members of a community look for when they move to a new town are local medical practioners. Many people ask their real estate agents for recomendations. Ask the real estate agents in your neighborhood to put in a good word for you.
In a similar vein, make sure you're in the city hall or town council business listings, many of which are also listed online. This is another place that new community members often go to for advice on local businesses and services.
Consider offering a free first assesment to new patients, as a welcome to the neighborhood, thank you for choosing us, gift.
Most small businesses attract clients through word of mouth. Encourage your existing patients to refer your service to their friends and neighbors, by offering them discounts or perks for a certain number of referrals.
Consider sending out direct mailers. You can potentially get a .5% to .75% redemption rate, and our subsidiary company, VinxPR, can help you design and send out direct mailers that have superior design, paper quality and larger sizes than other direct mailers.
If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Healthcare Marketing Tips:
Contact local real estate agents. The first thing new members of a community look for when they move to a new town are local medical practioners. Many people ask their real estate agents for recomendations. Ask the real estate agents in your neighborhood to put in a good word for you.
In a similar vein, make sure you're in the city hall or town council business listings, many of which are also listed online. This is another place that new community members often go to for advice on local businesses and services.
Consider offering a free first assesment to new patients, as a welcome to the neighborhood, thank you for choosing us, gift.
Most small businesses attract clients through word of mouth. Encourage your existing patients to refer your service to their friends and neighbors, by offering them discounts or perks for a certain number of referrals.
Consider sending out direct mailers. You can potentially get a .5% to .75% redemption rate, and our subsidiary company, VinxPR, can help you design and send out direct mailers that have superior design, paper quality and larger sizes than other direct mailers.
If you have any additional tips or suggestions, things that worked or didn't work for you, let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on twitter and facebook.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
On Social Media
In celebration of Unimar’s emergence on Twitter and Facebook we bring you an exciting book recommendation. The
New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News
Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly,
2nd Edition, by David Meerman Scott, is a must read if you want to take your business to a new level when using Social Media.
Have you read this book? Agree or disagree? We always love to hear what you think so contact us on Twitter and Facebook.
Scott has some great insight on how to
use Social Media to drive your business in an organic way, providing a
great counterpoint to more traditional interruption-based advertising.
There are an incredible amount of tips and tricks, theories and methods
in this book, but Scott has boiled it down to a few basic principles:
1. Target a specific audience. Create a
page that reaches an audience that is important to your organization. It
is usually better to reach a small niche market than try to go large.
2. Be a thought leader. Provide valuable
and interesting information that people want to check out. It is better
to show your expertise in a market or at solving a buyer’s problems than
to blather on about your product.
3. Create lots of links. Link to your own
sites and blog, and those of others in your industry and network.
Everybody loves links—it makes the Web what it is. You should certainly
link to your own stuff from a social networking site (like your blog),
but also link to other people’s sites and content in your own market.
4. Encourage people to contact you. Make
it easy for people to reach you online, and be sure to follow up
personally on your fan mail.
5. Participate. Create groups and participate in online discussions. Become an online leader and organizer.
6. Make it easy to find you. Tag your
page and add your page into the subject directories. Encourage others to
bookmark your page with del.icio.us and DIGG.
7. Experiment. These sites are great
because you can try new things. If it isn’t working, tweak it. Or
abandon the effort and try something new. There is no such thing as an
expert in social networking—we’re all learning as we go!
This should be enough to get anyone
started in their own Social Media campaign, but to truly achieve
astronomical results we suggest you give the book a read.
Have you read this book? Agree or disagree? We always love to hear what you think so contact us on Twitter and Facebook.
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