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A 2015 Marketing Checklist

Are you offering emotional value?

There’s so much emphasis on data and technology in today’s marketing it’s easy to forget, at its heart, marketing is an emotional discipline. As the slow recovery from recession continues FooCo is starting to see and hear more and more customers who’ve been primarily concerned about price for years now looking for a reason, almost any reason, to choose a brand based on something more. The big question for Orthodontists in 2015 is whether your marketing is meeting the needs of patients who fall into this increasing pool of consumers.

In the last few years, whether you look after your own practice marketing or outsource it, the principal issues had much to do with evolving reach and inclusion approaches—multichannel integration including; websites, web advertising, in-practice marketing, social media impact, mobile accessibility and effect & growing patient privacy concerns. In 2015, the emphasis will be more back-to-basics, with a focus on emotional value drivers: Trust, reputation/image, patient experience and relevance, building an engaged and bonded relationship between you and your patients.

It’s important Orthodontists recognize they share the same position as other business owners when it comes to sales, namely, that the patient is the real driver of the bus. It means keeping up with the changing patterns of patient behavior is a must. Patients are just as likely to be on the couch, tablet in hand, scanning, learning, analyzing everything they need to know about your business as they are about all the other companies offering the goods and services they’re looking to purchase. Understanding how people use technology often reveals the precariousness and fragility of how a business is perceived. The key is to be on the lookout for anything that might erode loyalty or change patient behaviour. Data breaches, poor performance delivery and weak customer service are all potential enemies.

Businesses of all sizes now have the ability to interact with customers on a huge scale through a wide variety of channels but it’s still the basics that make the rest of the marketing efforts work. Think of it as old fashioned corner-shop values. Do you and your team know the name of every patient in your waiting room? How long they’ve been a patient? What is it about their personality and life that makes them interesting and unique? This knowledge makes the buying process so much more pleasant, makes people more likely to return, spend more and develop a sense of loyalty and trust.

Get the service right and you can market your practice with confidence and give yourself the best chance of marketing success.

Here’s the FooCo 2015 marketing checklist

Branding

What does your logo, stationery, signage, leaflets, brochures and other printed materials say about you?
Are you happy with the image you’re projecting?

Website

• Often the first impression you get to make so this has to be good.
• Is your site visually appealing? Easy to navigate?
• How does it look from a tablet or mobile?
• Does it have all the information a patient needs to make a decision?
• Are the enough calls-to-action?
• Do you offer information for referrers?
• Do you offer patients the chance to book an appointment from your website?
• Are you using bespoke or stock photography?
• How does it compare to your competition?
• Is it optimized for search engines?

Video

• Do you have one on your website?
• In your waiting room?
• Is it engaging? Informative? Does it make you smile?
• Do you have a YouTube channel?
• Is your video on websites other than your own?

SEO & PPC

• How easy are you to find online?
• Do you have a blog on your website?
• Is your site optimized for local search?

Social Media

• Do you have a social media profile?
• Are you getting the most from social media?

Traditional Marketing

• Is word-of-mouth still enough for you?
• Does leaflet-dropping work?
• Are local newspapers, magazines & yellow pages offering value for money?
• Remember, running a successful Orthodontic practice is about doing what you do, well.
• Marketing success is down to communicating this to potential new patients, in the right way.
• Contact FooCo for a free marketing appraisal and make sure 2015 is a bumper year.