As a frequent exhibitor at more than 30 aesthetic, orthodontic and wellness conventions I am no stranger to this all-encompassing default statement uttered by busy attendees.
Here’s how it goes…
Us: “Hello Dr. Smith, have you heard of Crystal Clear before?”
Doctor: “What do you do?”
Us: “We are a digital marketing company……..”
Doctor: “We already do all that!”
Of course there is a large percentage of physician attendees who stop and engage in meaningful dialogue, but I feel like I am letting down so many great doctors who essentially have no idea what digital marketing REALLY means. We want to help them understand that digital marketing can mean something totally different from vendor to vendor.
Think of it this way…
If I came to your office and you, as a physician, said to me, “Tim, it is important that you take care of yourself.” To which I abruptly stated, “I already do all that.” What would your reaction be? Would you wonder if I was crazy? Would you think I don’t take my health seriously? Would you feel somewhat concerned that I clearly do not understand what “you need to take care of yourself” really means? Those would all be reasonable questions/concerns.
I feel the EXACT same way!
Over the last several years, the phrase “digital marketing” has become a generic term to describe all online marketing activities. Much like Facebook has become a generic term to describe all forms of social media even though it’s only one social site. So what does it really mean?
I’ll tell you what we REALLY mean.
Digital marketing is a combination of multiple activities designed to increase the quantity and quality of patients who visit your site or contact you by phone. Every individual activity re-enforces the other.
So when a doctor tells me, “We already do all that!” What he or she is saying to me is the following:
- We have a 100 percent mobile responsive, contemporary website that converts visitors to inquiries at 7-20 percent, depending upon the type of practice.
- We have a carefully monitored search engine optimization strategy to capture new and existing patients using search engines.
- We are consistently updating and creating dynamic, engaging content to attract more visitors to our website.
- We use video elements to enhance the interactivity of our site and to increase the amount of time spent there by new and existing patients.
- We capture and record every inbound phone call for tracking and training purposes.
- We are maximizing our exposure through Google+ while obtaining and posting positive reviews on all search engines.
- We are monitoring online directories for negative and positive feedback.
- We consistent post (daily) on all major social media sites to increase connectivity with new and existing patients.
- We use practice-specific software to automate thousands of effective messages to new, existing and past patients.
- We update our website monthly with specials, promotions and important announcements such as new treatments and procedures.
BONUS: Someone in the practice is monitoring and managing all of this to see if what you’re doing is helping or hurting you.
THAT is the minimum implied in the statement “we already do all that.”
Based on our interactions with thousands of health and wellness professionals across the U.S., Canada and Australia, we’ve found that there are very few practices actually “DOING ALL THAT.”
The next time you have the opportunity to sit and review your existing digital strategy, hopefully you can objectively determine exactly WHAT you are doing to stay relevant to the 24/7 connected Social Patient.
If you’re not sure, or if you think you need to seriously look at the best practices of innovative, digitally connected medical practices please give me a call. I would be happy to share with you what I mean by “DOING ALL THAT.”
