We had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Suzanne, who is a Health & Wellness Coach on a mission to help women thrive in each area of their lives. Jess shares with us the challenges and successes she has had as an online coach, reaching her target market, staying connected, and growing her business.
To learn more about Jess visit her website at https://www.jessica-suzanne.com/
A little bit about Jess
I help ambitious biz babes boost revenue through increased energy, improved cognition, and time-efficient fitness!
You’re probably wondering, why do I care so much about your health… and the health of your business?
Why am I so passionate about creating a healthy lifestyle?
How do I understand your challenges?
Before I really started focusing on my health, I was a scattered hot mess of stress. I was trying to start and run a business, but my tank was running on empty and I just couldn’t catch any momentum.
I lost my mom unexpectedly one year prior, which was undoubtedly the toughest obstacle I’ve ever been faced with.
Not to mention, the transition out of corporate life was turning out to be way more difficult than I thought it would be!
No routine, no structure, no boss telling me what to do, and no real solid direction…
I thought once I got my health coaching certification, I was going to build my program and all the people were going to come running…
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Online-Health-Fitness-Coach-Tips-with-Digital-Marketing.png7201280Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2020-10-26 07:00:232020-10-26 15:33:25Online Health & Fitness Coach Tips with Digital Marketing
When Instagram was launched in 2010, its primary focus was to feature photos that were specifically taken on mobile devices. The platform quickly became known for selfies and food pictures. Later on, it became a marketing platform for businesses and professionals to tell stories, deliver meaningful messages, and engage with their followers. If you play your cards right, Instagram can help you build a huge and loyal community and eventually grow your brand or business.
Unfortunately, Instagram is not the easiest platform to master. Knowing what mistakes to avoid is important to help you succeed on the platform.
Let’s take a look at six common Instagram mistakes that can keep your brand from growing. If you’ve fallen prey to any of these mistakes, be sure to fix them immediately.
Buying Instragram followers
Building a huge following can be a tedious, time-consuming process. But there’s a shortcut. You can buy instagram followers. Yes, you can instantly grow your followers from 100 to 10,000. It can be tempting, I know, but please resist the urge to do so.
You see, bought Instragram followers are not the same as the followers you genuinely acquire through your posts. Why? Because they have zero interest in you. Some of them aren’t even real people. That means they will not engage with you nor buy your products or use your services. What’s the point of having lots of followers when no one seems to be interested in what you have to offer.
Also, Instagram will purge your account once they spot that you have fake followers. Not only will it be a waste of money, but your fake followers will also be removed from the platform one-by-one.
Using poor quality photos
Most people are drawn to beautiful things. The same principle applies to social media, especially on Instagram. If you want to capture your audience’s attention, make sure that your posts are visually appealing. Remember, Instagram is a visual medium.
You don’t need to invest in a topnotch camera to take great photos. These days, your smartphones can take some pretty incredible shots. For best results, use natural light when taking pictures. If you’re taking pictures inside, take them in front of a window.
Not using Instagram stories
If you’ve only been using Instagram to post photos to your feed, you’re missing out on many valuable features the platform has to offer.
Instagram stories allow you to share “moments” of your day quickly and easily. It enables you to show your fun and creative side without affecting your Instagram feed. It’s a fantastic opportunity to experiment and engage your followers in a unique way. It’s fun, colorful, human, and different.
With Instagram stories, you can post as many photos and videos as you want without annoying your audience.
Focusing on photo quality rather than audience value
While photo and video quality is essential, you should also consider the value of the content you’re publishing.
When Instagram users follow you, that means they’re interested in you. They want to benefit from your content. Create quality content that will provide value to your audience and something to engage with. Share industry news. Ask questions. Use quizzes and polls. Get your audience involved.
Don’t just post for the sake of posting. Give people a reason to start following and keep coming back for more. Take time to create posts that your followers actually care about.
Posting duplicate photos
Instagram users want to be entertained. And users follow you because they want to get to know you better. And one of the best ways to do so is by telling stories, sharing updates about your practice, or your recent offers.
Instagram users will be quick to unfollow you if you’re continually posting duplicate photos and videos. Come to think of it. Why should they bother following you if you’re not sharing anything fresh, new, and exciting?
No link in bio
Traffic is the lifeline of all businesses, be it online or offline. After all, you can’t generate sales when there is no one to sell to.
Your Instagram bio provides a small window of opportunity to tell prospective clients and patients everything they need to know about you and your practice. So make sure you have a link in your bio at all times. Used correctly, it can help drive traffic to your website and convert leads to patients.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Instagram-Mistakes-Blog.png12602240Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2020-09-23 12:42:552023-03-17 12:36:186 Instagram Mistakes That Keep Your Brand from Growing
We have a lot of different digital tools that we use on an everyday basis. And a lot of times we get asked, “How exactly do you use Zoom or how do I convert an image into a PDF? How can I edit a PDF? How can I create custom images?” So there’s a lot of different tools that we have found and that we use on an everyday basis that we’re gonna show you in today’s videos.
Today’s blog discusses some of the digital marketing tools that make your life easier. Read on to find out what these tools are.
When you set up a Zoom account, you will either have the free version or a paid version.
I think the paid version is $15.95 a month. The free version only allows you to have up to 40 minutes per call. For the paid version, I think there is no time limit on how long you can go. There are a little bit more bells and whistles and security to the paid version.
Once you download Zoom, you’re going to have Zoom on your desktop. It’s gonna be a little icon on my desktop that I can go to.
Start a live video
I can schedule a meeting. I can start a live video like this. And so once you open up your Zoom, your face is gonna show up on video if you’re choosing to have that video option. Now, you are then the admin, the operator of your video. On the bottom when you do that, you will see, you’ll have your microphone button where you can mute. It will show a video camera where you can stop and start the video.
Then, you have some buttons in the middle. Security, Participants, if you are wanting to invite people. You can get the invite link from there. You can let people in. So when you had sent out an invite for a Zoom and they click on the link, it’s going to put them into a waiting room until you click approve on that person.
Chat
There’s going to be a Chat option, which is great because that allows you to chat with your participants. If you are doing like a webinar, you’re not gonna use those two options, Participants or Chat, if you’re just doing a video recording such as this.
Share Screen
If you click on to Screen Share, a window will come up on your side that then shares the tabs you have open and you can choose the tab that you want them to see.
So this is great if you’re doing a presentation. You can have a PowerPoint up. You can have Google slides. These are really good for how-to videos and explaining to your audience about something.
Once you’re done sharing, you would just click Stop Share and it’s gonna come back to video mode. That’s why we use Zoom to do a lot of our videos because the quality is great. It allows us to have this face-to-face shot, but then it also allows us to share our screen so we can walk through if we’re talking about Google Analytics or maybe we wanna do a presentation on Facebook ads.
This is great if you are in the health and wellness industry and you wanna do an interview. You can have your participant sign up and they can be side by side on the screen with you. You can do different maybe how-to videos. This is great for cooking.
Record
Then, you’re gonna have a recording option. The one thing I really like about using Zoom is it obviously records the video, but it also records the audio of that. So you can then use that audio for a podcast if you wanted to. So you’re gonna have those recording options. Okay?
Go live on other platforms
Then, there’s gonna be an option where it says, “More.” This is if you want to go live on Facebook, live on Workplace or live on YouTube, which is great options, but you’re not gonna do that if you’re just doing a simple recording for your digital marketing.
You can really get creative with Zoom and how to utilize this for your digital marketing strategy and you will just go over to zoom.us and be able to create your account from there.
If you have questions with Zoom, this is also great if you’re gonna do a free webinar. You can create that webinar and be able to put that landing pitch together of what it is. Each webinar would have a password. Same with your meetings, it’s very secure. I know in the beginning when… Back in March, there was a little skepticism around Zoom and Zoom meetings getting hacked, which did happen, but I do feel that it is still one of the most user-friendly and safest tools out there to get those videos done, to be able to have your TeleVisits, exactly how you can do your telemedicine calls with your patients and really being able to again stay face-to-face with them.
So this is just one of those tools that we get asked a lot, “How do you edit a PDF? How do I write on a PDF? How can I save something as a PDF?” And so this is PDFescape, and this tool is awesome.
This tool is really good if you need to sign a PDF. If you need to upload an image and turn it into a PDF or a presentation, an email, this is great.
How to use PDFescape
You can use the free version, you can just go click on to the Unregistered For Free. You can also pay for the paid version as well, but the free version is great. You can just go on here, choose your image that you want to upload and you want to be changed into a PDF, so you can upload that.
It’s going to upload into here, you can also then add some text to it if you want to add text to it. Let’s say you needed to sign something, there’s a free hand here, you can sign it, and then you can click these green arrows over here that says Save and Download, and that’s going to automatically save this as a PDF document. And so this is great, if you receive a PDF document that you need to fill out, maybe it’s a contract, anything, any document, and it’s not allowing you to write on the PDF, you can upload that PDF document directly into this tool, and then you would just click a text box, highlight where you want it to go and type in your text there, sign in, and then you can save this to your computer and email it back to the person that needs it.
Another digital marketing tool that we use is called Canva, and we talked about this tool a lot. We just did a blog on it, not too long ago, on how to create your custom graphics using Canva. This is probably a tool that I use every single day, multiple times a day because we create all of our social media graphics through here.
New Canva Features
Animated social media tool
Our blog graphics, our YouTube thumbnails, and they have a new animated option that came out, and we talked a little bit about the animated social media tool, which just adds a little bit of flare to your image. It does download as an MP4 file and they’re usually like five seconds long. If you click Play, it just adds a little bit of eye-catching appeal to your image.
Youtube intros
The other thing I want to show you, that they had come out with, is these new YouTube intros. So, Canva pulls royalty-free images, from different sources, like Pexels, or Pixabay, they have their own media library as well, but they also now have a video library, which is really cool.
Most of them are free, some of them are paid. If it does not say “free” in the bottom right-hand corner, then you have to pay for them, and it will tell you how much they are. But you can see that this is just a short little video.
Now, you can come down here, on the left-hand side, where it says “videos” and you can search. So let’s just search “social media” and it’s gonna pull up different videos that are around that topic. And they’re 10 seconds, they’re 27 seconds… So it really depends on what you’re looking for.
And so this makes great little videos for your YouTube, you can also use these for social media, they have the social media size as well. So this is a great way if you wanted to just add a little intro with your company name, your name, and maybe the title of that video right before they watch your video.
So, then let’s take this off, let’s change this to “Social Speak Network,” and I want this to be our font, so I wanna come back over here and use our font, and then I can change our names here. Now, if I don’t like this piece, if this isn’t matching, I can take away that, take away this, and then add a different box that is gonna be a different color. But let’s just say I like this. I can click here to play, and it’s a 10-second video. So, there are thousands of videos to choose from, this is a really cool feature that Canva has to offer.
Get more features with Canva Pro
If you are already on the pro version, which means you pay, I think, $12.95 a month, you get all of these already included in your plan. There are so many different options. It’s just a fun way to spruce up your digital marketing and add that video, that professional feel to it, without having to do the labor behind it. So this is in Canva, in the pro version, but this is just a YouTube thumbnail that you can put in front of your videos.
As I said, you can create these videos for your social media post, your social ads, your blog post, whatever you want to do, they have this video options here for you.
TubeBuddy is an extension that you can download. There is a paid feature to this, which I think we paid annually and it was nothing, it was great. So this is like it says your best friend to the road of success on YouTube. So let’s dive into the backend of our YouTube account.
Optimize your Youtube videos
So you’ll see this TubeBuddy button here. And this allows us to really optimize each of your videos. We’ll just go into one of our videos, how to use Canva. Now what this does is it allows you to create a thumbnail through here if you don’t use Canva. You can create it through TubeBuddy directly through them.
Advanced keyword research
This also allows you to make sure that you’re using the right keywords for your videos. So this will automatically come up with related search terms. So here’s how to use Canva for Instagram, and then you can click onto that, it’s gonna put a check-mark there, so it’s gonna automatically put it into your tags for that video.
So how to use Canva for a YouTube video thumbnail. And so this is a great way to make sure that you are utilizing the correct tag words for each video of what people are going to be searching for. And so this is probably my favorite thing to do with TubeBuddy because I wanna make sure that the videos I’m putting on to YouTube people are actually gonna be searching for. You can share it to Twitter, you can share it to Facebook, you can add your info cards and in-screens. And if you scroll down here, these are your recommended tags. So this is gonna tell you how many people are searching on that topic.
So this one, how to use Canva for YouTube thumbnail we have 25, the relevance is a score of 25. So Canva tutorial for teachers. So you can really get very specific on your tag words, and you can create your info. So you would go here, you can create templates through TubeBuddy.
Rank higher in search results
So think of TubeBuddy as your YouTube video checklist and how to optimize each video and making sure that you really are filling out all of those blanks. And it’s gonna tell you to do that, like we may not add an in-screen on every single video because some of them are just training but it’s going to give you that checklist to make sure that you are adding those things to your video.
So this is what you can scroll through and make sure, so six of the 10 best practices are complete. So if I wanted to add an on-screen, I can go to in-screen, I can go to info cards. And then if I wanted to share on Facebook and Twitter, I can do that as well. So TubeBuddy is a great tool if you’re really wanting to thrive with that video marketing strategy. It also gives you analytics which is awesome.
Take your Youtube channel to the next level
Since we’ve been using TubeBuddy, our views have gone up quite a bit actually, and the watch time is increasing as well. So we’ve grown our subscribers by 15, we’ve been using TubeBuddy for about six months now, maybe a little bit longer than that. But I really love all of the data that TubeBuddy gives you. By using the TubeBuddy, Keyword Finder, the SEO studio, all of these different things, it allows you to just go a little bit deeper.
I think they have a ton of different pieces of training and features on there. It only costs $19 a month. If you pay annually, then obviously you get it a little bit cheaper. So you can cancel anytime. But I just think that this is a great tool. It’s easy to use, it goes right into your YouTube account, and you are able to make sure you’re optimizing each of those videos.
So if you need help with your video optimization, and how to install TubeBuddy and get it working for your videos, let us know, we’re here for you.
Okay, the next digital marketing tool that we are going to use and talk about is called Outwrite. This was previously GradeProof, and the other tool we use is called Grammarly.
Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors instantly
So Grammarly and Outwrite are both Chrome extensions. These tools help you in making sure that your grammar and your spelling are correct.
Most business owners are great at what they do, but when it comes to writing content, maybe that’s not your strong suit. For me, personally, writing is not a strong suit for me. I would rather do a video, be able to talk out that blog, and then have it transcribed, which we’ll get to next. But with Outwrite and Grammarly, I feel a lot more confident in what I’m writing. This will show you a few examples of how it’s going to help you. And again, with both of these, there’s free options and paid options. We use the free options, but it will give you an example.
So I have it pulled up, I just have a little blurb from a video description we are working on. But as you can see as you scroll through, it will highlight what should be fixed. So, I should have an A in front of that and an S at the end of this word. Now, the other thing that it will do is it will also highlight when you should have a comma when you should take out a comma.
Works wherever you write online
Now, these aren’t perfect. But they do help with just the basic grammar, spelling, making sure that everything is correct before you send that email off or before you put that blog post up. They do work in email, so we have G Suite, and so, as I’m writing emails, it will highlight in green, if I needed to add a comma there, it will highlight in red if a word is misspelled.
So, it’s a really great tool, both of them. And you’ll see here I have the Grammarly and Outwrite, and they both work, they’ll both tell you what they’re, so, right here, it says, “Open Outwrite.” And this will tell me potential improvements and, obviously, if you pay for either one of these, then it will show you more. So, it’s just a really great way, if you’re not an editor or a copywriter, sometimes, we’re human, we make mistakes. So having these two tools really help just make sure you are putting the best version of your writing out there, and a lot of our clients get held back by the fear of having a typo, or something that’s not grammatically correct on their website.
So this just takes that extra step, and it also does work with WordPress as well. So if your website is in WordPress and you’re adding new content to your website, it will highlight in red or green what things need to be updated. So, again, this is Outwrite and Grammarly that we use. If you have questions on how to install those, or how to use them, please let us know. We are here to help you.
The last digital marketing tool that we use is called Scribie. Scribie is a transcription service.
Transcribe your audio and video files
This is where a lot of our clients love to be able to do videos, have those doctor, or nurse, or staff interviews, and then they want to be able to take that content from the video and use it as content for their blog post.
This is something that we do all the time because when you’re putting the work into your videos, we can repurpose that video more than just a video.
When you record a video on Zoom, you can get a video and audio file. You can upload either one of those into Scribie and it’s going to transcribe that video that I had done. And you can download it in any format you want – Word doc, PDF, and other formats. But we usually just download the Word doc, because then we can edit it from there. And again, this is a transcription service, so what will happen is it will transcribe every single word. I like to say “So” a lot, and that comes up in the transcription.
AI-powered automated transcripts
So let me just show you what the transcription looks like. So this is what, how it comes. What we usually do is copy this content into a Google doc, and take out the timestamps, we need to edit this a little bit more, make sure that the spelling and grammar is correct, take out all of my “Sos” and “Ands”, and make sure that it looks nice and crisp, and clean.
But, the cool thing is, is that video that took you 10 minutes to do, or less, you now have an awesome blog that you are able to use. So, let me go back to Scribie.
Low transcription rates
For each video that we upload, you do pay to have the transcription, but it usually is about 80 cents a word, so I think the most we’ve paid is maybe $10 for one of our videos. But, usually, they’re between $4 and $7, on average. So this is just a great tool, it’s very convenient, it emails you the transcription when it’s done, it’s very affordable, and it’s something that, if you’re already doing those videos, but you’re not updating your blog, you’re just putting them on to YouTube, get them transcribed, so then you can use that content on your website, for SEO. So, go on over to scribie.com and upload your first video file, and get your transcription, and let us know how you like it.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Digital-Marketing-Tools-Blog.png12602240Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2020-09-02 08:00:512020-09-02 14:55:356 Digital Marketing Tools to Make Your Life Easier
We’ve been talking a little bit about really looking at your overall digital marketing strategy. This is something that we help our clients throughout the year. Because as we start a new year, we always look at, “Okay, what do we need to adjust for this year, what are our goals, what do we want to do?”
We usually have those quarterly goals, and now we’re entering in the second part of 2020 and it’s time to reflect on what’s working, what’s not working, and what we need to do for the remaining part of the year, but then also projecting into the new year.
I know it seems a little crazy to already be thinking about 2021, but things change, and so today we’ll talk about your target market and how to educate them.
What do those posts look like? How does building that relationship works with your target market? So a few things that I want you to do is just take a quick minute to reflect on your social media footprint, so to speak.
So what have your social media struggles been? What goals have you set for your social media strategy or that you want to set moving forward? And what social media platforms are you currently using, and which ones would you like to start using? So think of which ones are you using.
Re-evaluate the platforms you’re using
Think of which ones do you think that your target market is using. If you’re spending a lot of time on Twitter, for instance, and you’re not getting a lot of followers and you’re not getting a lot of engagement. But when you post on to Instagram or Facebook, you’re getting a lot more engagement. That may mean you need to re-evaluate the platforms you’re using.
Just because they’re out there doesn’t mean you need to be on all of them. Sometimes Twitter or Instagram works great for some of our clients, and other times they don’t. So it’s really thinking of where your audience is.
Survey your audience
One good way of doing this is sending out a survey, putting together a survey for your email list. “What platforms do you use the most? What times of day are you on those platforms?”
Really wanting to get that feedback from your audience so you can understand where they’re spending their time as well. And then going more into, “Do you have that target market clearly defined?”
Identify a niche you want to target
Sometimes we ask a business, “What’s your ideal client?” And they’ll say, “Oh, anyone, I work with everyone”.
Well, over the past 12 years of us being in business, we’ve learned that we don’t want to work with everyone. We have a clear niche of people that we want to work with.
If you are a healthcare practitioner, then you have a little bit more of a clear niche if you are an OBGYN, if you’re a family practitioner, if you are an orthopedic surgeon. It’s easier to define that target market because your service is already niched. If you are a realtor or even a massage therapist, a chiropractor, you’ll want to think more about the type of person you want to work with.
Questions to help you define your target audience
Do you know who they are?
Do you know how to find them and where to find them?
Are they using social media?
Where and how can you find them?
Do their core values align with yours?
And this is something that we’ve talked about in the past that’s really important to us as a company, is defining those core values and making sure that the people you’re working with aligning with that.
Tailor your content for your target audience
Are you engaging with your target market? Are you putting together content that is speaking to them?
If your audience is mostly families with younger kids and you’re putting content up about retirement or AARP, that’s a disconnect of your audience and your content messaging.
If you are a family practitioner, maybe your patients are more 55-plus, and you’re putting out kid activities and healthy kids snacks, you’re missing that connection with your audience.
So really identifying who are your clients or customers now, which ones have you really enjoyed working with and you have that relationship with, and then identifying why. Why do you like working with them? How do you get more clients or customers like them? So that’s really figuring out your target market, and then now that you’ve identified kind of looking at your social media footprint, you’ve looked at your target market.
Set SMART goals
Now let’s set some goals. And so it’s important to think of those smart goals for social media.
Specific. Your goal should be very clear, simple, and defined. Something along the lines of, “We want to grow our Facebook page to reach 3000 likes this year”.
Measurable. So how can you track these goals? Do you have a system in place with your email marketing that you can track how many emails you’ve gotten or how many likes? What are those analytics that are in place for you to be able to measure your results?
Achievable. Going into achievable, so this is kind of like what I said with being specific, make sure you’re setting goals that you can reach it.
If you have 100 likes and you want to get 10 million, that may not happen in a year but setting something simple, “We want to get to 2000. We want to have a thousand sign-ups from our paid efforts on social media this year.”
If you have 100 likes and you want to get 10 million, that may not happen in a year but setting something simple, “We want to get to 2000. We want to have a thousand sign-ups from our paid efforts on social media this year.”
Realistic. So again, if your goal is to reach a million likes on your Facebook page but you only have 146 to start with, that may not be achievable within the next six months or next year. But how can we bring it into, “Okay, I wanna reach 2000 likes, I wanna reach 5000 likes.” And if that’s your number, then put in place that realistic of, “How am I gonna do that? What does it mean for me to reach that goal?”
Time-sensitive. If you say, “Oh, I want a million likes”, well, maybe over the course of 10 years or five years or three years that can happen. But, “This is my goal for the next six months. This is what I want to do, this is how I really wanna build those relationships with my target market to make sure that I am speaking to them.” And that leads me into the next piece, of Educate.
Educate your audience
So now that you identified your target market, you know who they are, you know what their interests are, you know their lifestyle, and they’re already, hopefully, seeing you or doing business with you, and so now it’s really important to educate them.
I love social media brands, whether they are a local business, a big brand, but they tell a story. And they highlight their customers.
The American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association do an amazing job with their social media campaigns. They are constantly highlighting stories of people that are struggling with diabetes, how they’ve overcome it, how their families overcome it. They’re always putting in place different resources and tools for their audience. And their audience, they have a mix of kids with Type 1 diabetes to adults with Type 2 diabetes, and their marketing is very clear. They’re educating each niche of their target market, they’re speaking to them on their level.
If you are a family practice or a massage therapist or a chiropractor, your clientele may vary in age and interest. So then it’s really figuring out, “What does that content look like? How can you take the time to educate each of them?” And this can be telling stories.
Tell your brand story
This is a great way to see that brand personality behind your business. I want to learn about who you are as a business owner, who your team is, where they come from, what are you guys passionate about.
Sharing stories on a personal level about the business, but then also having your patients share their stories. So when they started to come to see you, maybe they had a really tight cramp in their back and it was really hard for them to sleep. You know, over the course of three months of getting a massage or whatever that time frame is, they were able to feel normal again, and they were back to their old self and being able to play with their kids and go on their morning runs or whatever that story is.
People really resonate with stories. I don’t care what industry you’re in, stories are really important. And they’re educational because people want to say, “They’re like me. They have that issue too, I’m not alone.”
And so the storytelling piece is a very important piece of your marketing, and if you can take it a step further and do some videos around that storytelling if you can have your client or your patient do a video testimonial or story. And then as you do your stories for your side, use those, do videos, interview one of your staff members or your nurses or your doctors. Really have that brand personality there.
Build your network
Make sure that you are building your network. So now that you know your target market, you’re speaking their language. Look at who’s liking your posts and start to educate them and reach out to them. So, people that are liking your post, you can go and invite them to like your page.
In our next vlog, we’re gonna be talking about doing some more, like boosting posts and Facebook ads, and so this is another way you can increase your networks by utilizing boosted posts and ads to reach your target market. So right now you may be going into different Facebook groups or looking on Instagram for certain hashtags.
If you are in a certain city, you want to look for people that are in your area. Start following them. Really work on building that network of your target market on the platforms you’re using. And that is a really important piece because you wanna make sure that once you get your people in that you keep them and you’re staying top of mind with them.
Final thoughts
So those are just a few components of your overall digital marketing strategy. Our next vlogs, as I said, will be around how can you implement email marketing and content upgrades and boosted posts into your digital marketing strategy.
If you need help creating this strategy, if you need help with identifying your target market and really being clear on what your social media strategy should look like, we are here to help you.
Head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com and schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We look forward to working with you. Have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Identifying-Your-Target-Market-and-Educating-Them.png12602240Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2020-06-24 10:31:202020-06-19 15:15:12Identifying Your Target Market and Educating Them
Today, I want to talk about looking at your social media strategy in the big picture. A lot of the questions that we get a lot are, “How do I schedule my social media post? Where do I schedule my social media post? And how do I really just organize my social media post?” And so we’ve done a few videos on this with creating that content calendar and making sure that your posts are organized. And I just wanted to walk you through how we do it on our side, and then also show you a couple of the scheduling tools that we utilize for ourselves and our clients.
Content calendar template
So one thing that we’ve done is a content calendar template. The biggest thing with social media is making sure you are consistent and you have a plan. Most of the time, we get so caught up in work that we forget about what we want to talk about on social media, and whether you’re doing your social media internally, or you have a team like us that’s managing your social media. It’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Contents ideas for your social media posts:
Blog post – You can share your most recent blog post.
Share a tip from weekly blog post with a link back to the blog or website – You can pull information from a past blog
Visual image with logo on it – It can be a motivational quote or tip of the day. You can create that in Canva.
Article or blog from outside source – Share articles from other like-minded sources. You want to remember that 80/20 rule
Product from website linking back to the page – If you have products or different services that are on the website, you can link back to those.
Switch up the content
What I like to do is the information, the post that go on to Facebook and LinkedIn, I think it’s okay if it’s the same content. I would swap the days, and then I would change around the content for Instagram. So maybe what you used on a Tuesday for a Facebook and LinkedIn post, you can reword it, add some bullet points, add in some hashtags and use it for Instagram maybe the following week. So you want to keep that content going, you can utilize it on other platforms.
I do not recommend putting the same post out at the same day, same time to all networks. It doesn’t give any value. We found that most people that follow you on Facebook are also following you on Instagram. So if you’re posting the same thing the same day, there’s no value there. So you want to be able to switch up that content. And having some type of a monthly overview, we found that to have really helped us and our clients kind of know what topics are coming next. So this is kind of that monthly overview.
Content resources
Now it’s time to write the content. So on the social media calendar, you’ll have different topics that you want to talk about.
You’ll have content resources – different websites for that curated content, the like-minded websites that you’re looking for, maybe it’s newsletters that you’re a part of – put them in here. This is supposed to be an easy place that you can just go and pull an article from the source you’ve already approved, your team has access to it.
Google sheet
You’ll notice this is all done in a Google Sheet. The reason we use a Google Sheet is because this is a platform that everyone has access to. So I can share this Google calendar with my team. And so the person that’s writing the social media posts, the person that needs to approve them, they know what’s going out.
It keeps everyone together on one platform rather than having to log into something or download, if someone has a Mac and someone has a PC, from Excel to whatever, it’s just too complicated. I like things simple and very clear. So we use Google Sheets for that.
Here, we have the content resources, we have blog topics, so this can be where we organize our blogs for the month so we know what’s going out.
Creating a content calendar
Google sheet
There are two things you can do here. Now that we know what we’re talking about for the month, we need to have a place of where we can write those social media topics.
One thing that we have done is you can, say here like the date, platform, content, image. Now the other thing that we’ve done is instead of doing this, we may say the date and then we’ll say Instagram copy, Facebook copy, LinkedIn copy, and then we’ll either say image, and then on here we’ll put hashtags as well. You can also place the key code, and then you can pull from the content calendar.
So you can change up, you can create this however it works best for you. We’ve seen a lot of different techniques on creating where you’re gonna write your social media post.
It can be blog title and first paragrah. Now obviously, you are going to put that content in here. You’re gonna have the link in here, and then the image, you can actually go to Insert, and then go to Image, and upload the image directly into this sheet.
So this is one way to keep it all in one place to be able to see, “Okay, this is going onto Instagram, this is going out onto Facebook and LinkedIn. Here’s the images that needs to go out to there, the hashtags.”
So for writing, I always like to write posts a week or two weeks or three weeks in advance. So we have our date here, so we would say Monday, then we can have Tuesday, and then through Friday, and have the copy on one sheet.
Google doc
The other way that we have seen it done is through a Google Doc. And this can be the same thing. This can be a week – May 4th to 8th. You can do a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And if you post on Saturday and Sunday, great.
You can insert your copy here and your images as well. Now, one thing that I would do is make sure that you are utilizing your images, you’re creating your images in the social media template in Canva, so they show up nicely on all platforms.
So you know that Monday, May 4th for Facebook and LinkedIn, this is the copy that’s gonna go out to those two platforms. So it’s really figuring out what works best for you.
Social Media Scheduling Tools
Now let’s get into the scheduling tools. Some people like to just go directly into those scheduling tools. They have the overview of the content calendar and they say, “Okay, this is what my month will look like,” and then they go right into the scheduling tools and write their content directly in there. And that’s totally fine too. It’s just figuring out that process that works best for you.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a paid service. The one thing I really like about them is I love that they do monthly reports. So that gives you your activity for whatever platform you have that you’re utilizing on here. It gives you an overview of exactly what posts you have going out.
When you come over here to publishing, it will pop up what posts you have already scheduled for the month, the week, so it’s very clear, and then you can see each platform right here. If you go to compose, you can upload up to four pictures through Sprout Social, which is good because you like to have multiple photos on the different networks. Here, you can drop down and you can click the platforms that you want it to go to.
One really cool thing about this as well is it has this option for Instagram, the Instagram first comment. So a lot of people will have their Instagram content, and then that first comment is where they put in their 30 hashtags. So that’s a really cool feature that Sprout Social has, and then it will preview what your post will look like. Again, if you have Twitter on here, you want make sure you do Twitter separately because of that 280-character count. Now, with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, it will show 1,300. So it gives you that option, if you take off LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram 2,200. So it gives you that option. So you can go right directly into here, write your post, and then you can go to choose a date, time, and schedule it. So that’s one way of being able to just utilize a dashboard like this and be able to have all your posts in one area.
So I really like Sprout Social because of how user-friendly it is, and you’re able to see what you have scheduled. And some days you’re gonna have posts for certain networks that you just wanna go out and not for the other networks, and that’s totally okay. So just, again, figuring out that strategy for you. You can do drafts in here. With Sprout Social, it does automatically post to Instagram, which is another bonus. So it will actually post whatever post is here to your Instagram account.
Hootsuite
The second tool I want to show you is called Hootsuite. Hootsuite has a free version and a paid version. And I believe it’s still free for one or two social media platforms.
Hootsuite also schedules and posts directly to Instagram, which is great, because Instagram I feel is the social media platform that is the most manual because they didn’t have a scheduling tool before. So in here, you’ll have streams, which I really like how these streams.
Besides the reporting of Sprout Social, I love Hootsuite as a overview piece, because I can see what posts have gone out, what mentions people have mentioned us in, what activity, if people have posted to our page or what we’ve put up, what messages we have. And then we can also put on here our scheduled, unpublished, so you can go in here and again, write drafts and be able to see, organize everything in here, and it would show up like this for your scheduled ones.
So I really like Hootsuite because I do think it’s very simple to use. Again, you would go to New Post and you would type in your content, you can upload your image, videos. You’ll just click here to select the platform you want it to go to, the media you want, your text. And I really like this feature. So this is Hootsuite. Again, very simple, very user-friendly.
Buffer
The third one is called Buffer. I think they do have a free plan. It’s still very similar to the other two scheduling tools. It will tell you what you have going out. It can give you some analytics.
Now, with Buffer, it does not automatically post to Instagram. It will give you a notification on your mobile device that you have a post, and then you would need to go into your Instagram and push that post out.
So Buffer is a great tool, there’s a lot you can do with it. Like I said, it does give you some analytics. And we’ll look at the Instagram stories, strategy recommendations, and obviously that is for the paid package, but it does provide a lot of details.
When it comes to a publishing tool, it’s really a personal preference of which one aesthetically you like, which one will be the best for you and your team. And if you choose not to use a Google Doc or a Google Sheet to organize your posts and you choose to use just a platform like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, you want make sure, again, if it’s not just you doing your social media post, you want to make sure that it’s user-friendly for you and your team.
Bonus tool: Grammarly
One thing that I’ve also installed is a plugin called Grammarly.
Grammarly works on:
Google docs
Hootsuite
Buffer
Sprout Social
I like it because it adds that extra layer of making sure that your posts are grammatically correct going out, which is important. If you put in a misspelling, it usually highlights the spelling mistake. I will go like, this doesn’t make sense, and then you can click on it, and then it will either to give you a word, “Hey, what did you mean to say here?”
Mistakes happen. It’s not a life or death thing. And I also think that with social media, having that strategy is really good because it will allow you to stop and think about what your plan is and paying attention to those details and making sure when you’re creating the images in Canva.
Final thoughts
We go back to that brand consistency that we’ve talked about. So this is just giving you the overview of your social media strategy, looking at thinking of a month at a time with your social media posts, how many times per week do you want to post, and then what’s the action you’re going to take to create those posts, and then be able to schedule them out?
There’s tons of other tools out there. These are just three scheduling tools that we have used and we enjoy using. And there’s a lot of different content strategies out there, but again, it’s finding the one that works best for you.
So if you need help creating that strategy and putting together that content calendar and getting one of these scheduling tools set up, we are here to help you.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Social-Media-Overview-and-Scheduling-Tools.png315560Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2020-05-06 12:12:152020-05-01 14:36:11Social Media Overview and Scheduling Tools
January marks a time for new beginnings. Now that 2020 is just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions.
For busy physicians and other healthcare professionals, resolutions to improve medical practice and maintain work-life balance are ideal. But it is also a good idea to include some marketing-related resolutions to your list. After all, the start of the year is the perfect time to set ambitious goals to ensure that your practice is more successful than the last.
Here are 7 digital marketing resolutions you should make this year. Keep these resolutions in mind, and you could be well on your way towards making 2020 the best year for your practice.
Plan ahead
Content marketing is a powerful and cost-effective way to reach your audience and establish authority for your brand. Unfortunately, doctors and other healthcare professionals fail to set aside time to create content.
We know you’re busy. But planning everything at the last moment is the worst possible strategy. If you aim to build an online following, then it’s vitally important that you publish content regularly.
Creating a content marketing calendar will make your life easier. It will not only help you save time, but it will also keep you on schedule and ensure that your content marketing doesn’t end up on the back burner.
Tap into social media
Who said doctors can’t be social? Social media provides a way to reach a new audience, promote your practice, and stay in touch with patients outside the office.
People have all kinds of questions about diseases – symptoms, treatments, prognosis, etc. Many of them turn to the internet for answers. Social media allows you to lend your insights to a larger audience and get a sense of what they want from their doctors.
By staying active on social media, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience, build a relationship with them, and ensure greater loyalty among existing patients. Remember, your practice is built on a good relationship.
Create high-quality content
Today, people, young and old, get the majority of their news and information from social media.
Social media provides a great platform to teach the public about important health matters. By consistently sharing quality content and relevant medical information, you can combat misinformation, educate your audience, and position yourself as an expert in your field.
While people may not run off and book an appointment with you, you’ll be on top of mind the next time they may be in need of your service. Plus, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to make an impact on the lives of potential patients.
Creating new content takes time. Make the most of your old content by turning them into videos, infographics or podcasts.
Invest in video
We’ve said this plenty of times before, but it bears repeating. Video marketing is the future. It absolutely needs to be a part of your marketing strategy.
As visual species, humans are addicted to video content at the moment. Studies suggest that 85% of internet users watch online videos. 95% of them claim that they are more likely to learn and remember the information after watching a video as compared to reading it in text format.
With the increasing demand for video content, it is worth putting your time and money into video marketing.
Monitor and improve your online reputation
Reputation management is critical to the success of your medical practice. With the sheer amount of information online, patients are no longer limited to the physicians in their area. In fact, most people turn to the internet when looking for physicians. Many of them would read reviews before booking an appointment.
Online reviews are a great way to get more patients through the door. Negative reviews, on the other hand, can tarnish your online reputation. A lot can go wrong if you don’t address the problem head-on.
Focus on activities that bring more results
Track the time you spend on different activities as well as the results. Based on these results, you will know which ones have generated high results. Spend more time on the ones that bring in more engagements and conversion.
Call on professional help
A strong online presence takes time to develop. Plus, you need a detailed and comprehensive strategy in order to drive results. A professional digital marketer will know the best methods for obtaining them.
As a professional with a vast array of responsibilities, marketing your practice online may not be high on your priority list. That’s what we’re here for. We’ll help you put together a marketing strategy and execute them on your behalf. This way, you’ll have more time to focus on your patients and your practice.
Having a team of healthcare marketing professionals by your side will do more than just guarantee better leads and engagement, it can provide long-term success for your medical practice.
We can help you take your practice to the next level. Fill out this form to schedule your free consultation.
Podcasts have become a very popular way to connect with your target audience. They are easy and convenient which is always a win-win situation when it comes to digital marketing!
Today, we are going to be covering a few tips on Why Podcasts need to be implemented into your digital marketing strategy!
00:01 Amber Irwin: Hello and welcome to the Social Speak Network Podcast, I am your host Amber Irwin. And today, we are going to be covering tip number nine: Podcast Marketing. We’ve covered a lot in these past tips of how to really create that content strategy. And I wanted to talk on [00:22] ____ really about just podcasts in general, and how and why they’re so important to your content strategy. So let’s jump into the why. Why are podcasts so important? And why have they gotten so popular? And let’s start with number one. They’re engaging to your audience and convenient. So when we’re thinking of our digital experience for our audience, we wanna think of what are the things that are convenient for them, that are easy for them to consume, and still give that value, and show that we are the experts in that industry. Whatever industry that is.
01:09 AI: And you have to think, podcasts are such a great way to really be able to package all this information into one setting. So, convenience is key. People that are listening to podcasts are usually… Maybe they’re driving, they’re walking, they’re cleaning the house, they’re working… They always have them on because it’s not something… They don’t have to watch the video, they can have it wherever so it’s the convenient piece for your audience is key. Number two is that mobile experience. We talked about this with… A few of the other tips is making sure that the digital experience is mobile-friendly because most people are using their phones to do the work.
02:03 AI: And so 69% of people listen to podcasts from their mobile device. So this is a great way that they’re able to listen to your podcast. Again that convenience piece, it’s mobile, they have it wherever they’re at. And thinking of your audience, what does their day look like? Are they in the car for an hour a day or maybe two hours a day? Are they family, are they mothers where they are sitting in maybe car line [02:35] ____, are they… Think of who they are, and how much time are they spending in the car or what does their lifestyle look like? Are they active? And so they always have their phone with them, so it’s mobile-friendly.
02:52 AI: And they’re becoming… Podcasts. And number three, they’re becoming more and more popular. And this is… So according to Search Engine Journal, there were 48 million weekly podcast listeners in 2018, 48 million. And Statista data says that there will be over 115 million listeners before 2021, a 115 million. What’s really cool about this is it’s growing and growing every day and the type of podcast… It’s really like your YouTube channel. We’ll get into that a little bit later on in the tips I’m giving you, but just thinking of how many people you can reach and your target market by creating a podcast. And it’s very simple, so that was tip number three. They’re becoming more and more popular. A lot of people have their favorite play lists of podcasts in different varieties. If you talk to people, most people will have, I would say, between 5 and 10 podcasts that they listen to, and for different reasons. It may be personal podcasts they like on the personal base. They have their work ones, things that are within their industry, that they stay up-to-date with. They may have, if they are a part of different organizations, a lot of people are requiring or recommending them listen to certain podcasts.
04:27 AI: So these podcasts are… There’s everything out there. So you’re looking at what is your audience struggling with? And so if you are a paediatrician and your audience is mostly mothers. Most of the time, that’s who’s bringing the kids in to the doctors. And are those moms looking for healthy eating, are they looking for… Maybe tips for… Parenting tips. Are they looking for podcast on vaccinations, are they looking at holistic medicine, like what are they struggling with? What questions are they asking you?
05:04 AI: And to be able to put a podcast together around that, that brings me into tip number four: Brand Loyalty. You have this convenience piece, you have the content piece of talking to your audience, and now you’re building this brand loyalty. And so a podcast is something you’ll have interviews, you can find out from your audience, you know what are those topics that they wanna learn more about and be able to interview someone on your podcast. You can just talk about a certain topic just like this on your podcast. So you’re building that brand loyalty. And like I said, most people have between 5 and 10 podcasts that they listen to on a daily or weekly basis, so they’re building that brand loyalty. They are really, they feel like they know the people that are putting on or the businesses that are putting on these podcasts.
06:03 AI: And number five is they are low cost. We’re not talking a big recording studio. I’m in my home office, I have a good microphone, I have my computer. You can use an external camera or your computer camera, you may need to, depending on lighting maybe get a little light, but honestly, it’s low cost if any. The only thing you’re really gonna pay for is where you’re going to put your podcast when it’s done.
06:36 AI: And so, we’re on Podbean. And Podbean I think is like 14.99 a month. And that also allows you… That syncs with iTunes and so that gets you on to iTunes. It gets you onto the other podcast networks as well. So it’s a really good tool. But $15 a month for being able to share information that you’re already talking to your audience about already… It’s brainless, you gotta do it. This has to be a part of your content strategy. And number six is you are building that expertise and value. So every podcast… Again, a great way to start is start serving your patients asking or writing down, what are they asking you when they come in?
07:29 AI: What issues are they running into? What are their pain points? What type of lifestyle are they wishing that they would have or that they’re working towards or what are they struggling with on the home side with their family? So thinking of your industry and your audience and you’re building these podcasts around those topics, you’re providing valuable information to your audience that they wanna know about. So this ties in with tip number four of that brand loyalty. If you are providing them value and you are showing that you are the expert in that industry, that’s building that loyalty.
08:08 AI: They are going to be listening to you. And then going into tip number seven, this is content creation. So one thing I love about podcasts is when you’re thinking of your digital marketing strategy, you wanna be able to think of how people comprehend information and podcasts are obviously auditory. Videos are visual. If you have a white paper, a free download to go along with something, those are gonna be the kinesthetic learners. And so, with podcasts, if you do… Let me give you a little insight tip here.
08:49 AI: We use Zoom. There’s a paid version and a free version. And one thing I like about Zoom is you can record it, and do a video, and it also records the audio. So when you’re creating this podcast, you can put the audio file onto Podbean or your podcast platform, and then you can take the video format and upload it to your YouTube channel. So you’re able to use this content in multiple different ways. And then, what’s really cool about this too is with your podcast, you can have… Your podcast can be shared out onto your social media platforms, you can have a link onto your website that says, “Join or subscribe to our Podcast.” So it’s really creating this community of people. And again, you’re already talking about these things to your audience.
09:46 AI: So, it’s just recording it and being able to package it in a podcast, wrap it up in the box and put podcast on it. And your audience is able to get it from their phone. They can listen to it from their computer. But again, you’re providing that information to them that is valuable and that is key. So if you’re thinking about starting a podcast in the new year and implementing that into your content strategy, I would start by opening up a document or opening up… Getting a piece of paper and start writing down what does that podcast strategy look like? What are you blogging about? What are you talking about on social media already? Those blog posts that you’ve already written, we were talking about how important blogging is, and how those blog posts should be 2,000 plus words and around that keyword foundation. Your podcast should be the same thing. And you can turn those blog posts that you have already taken the time to write, you can turn those into a podcast and then take the audio file and implement it into that blog post.
10:57 AI: So people can either… They can read it, they can listen to it or they can watch it. So it’s really… Again, you’re touching every type of learning style, so your audience whichever way they wanna consume your information, it’s there for them to do. And I think that that is really important for your digital marketing strategy. So start looking at what are those pieces you’ve already written on your website and on social media? What’s your audience, your patients, your current client list, what are they talking about? What are they asking you?
11:29 AI: And start writing down some topics. And your podcasts don’t have to be super long. Again, think of your ideal, your target market, are they on the go quick, quick, quick? So they do they need to be between 15 and 20 minutes long. Maybe you do your interviews, maybe 30 to 40 minutes long. I would say whatever you do, to keep them under an hour, under 30 minutes if possible. You gotta think of… If they’re listening to them while they’re driving, what’s that drive time like? So just keep your audience in mind. But anything under 30 minutes is gonna be great. And if you keep ’em between that 15 to 22 minutes, even better.
12:11 AI: So, if you have questions or need help creating this podcast strategy, please let us know. You can go to socialspeaknetwork.com and schedule a free 30-minute consultation. And while you’re at it, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Podbean, Social Speak Network. And we are here to help you thrive with your content strategy. Have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Podcast-Blog.png800800Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2019-10-30 08:00:022019-10-28 16:08:36Why Podcasts are important to your digital marketing strategy?
Healthcare is an ever-expanding, ultra-competitive marketplace. It can also be very technical and jargon-heavy, which can be off-putting to most people. To remain competitive in an ever-evolving industry, it is important to employ creative marketing tactics that cut through the clutter.
Take a look at these 6 successful healthcare marketing campaigns and start pondering how your company can leverage similar tactics.
Johnson & Johnson – Campaign for Nursing’s Future
Nurses are an incredibly dedicated group of professionals who tirelessly lend love and support to their patients. Unfortunately, in 2002, the U.S. faced the most profound shortage of nurses in history.
In response to reports of a dire shortage of nurses, Johnson & Johnson launched the “Campaign for Nursing’s Future”. It is a public awareness campaign that aims to encourage people to become nurses and nurse educators, as well as to retain nurses currently in the system.
The campaign not only helped increase the awareness of the value of the nursing profession, but it also gave nurses an opportunity to share their stories. 15 years after the campaign was launched, Johnson & Johnson profiled some of the nurses who benefited from this campaign.
Dana-Farber Brigham & Women’s Cancer Center – You Have Us Campaign
A cancer diagnosis can affect much more than the physical body. Dana-Farber Brigham & Women’s Cancer Center created a campaign to help empower patients who are dealing with cancer.
To encourage a more personal approach to cancer treatment, they created the slogan, “Right now you may have cancer. But what your cancer doesn’t know is – You Have Us.”
By sharing confidence-inspiring online videos and words of encouragement, the campaign made a tremendous impact on their audience.
The “You Have Us” campaign became successful because it built trust between the Cancer Center’s personnel and their target audience.
Dr. Sam Smith, Surgeon-in-Chief at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, shocked everyone with his claim that kids are more likely to get hurt, injured or die between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The campaign’s purpose was to raise awareness of the dangerous time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They wanted to make sure that parents know the risks their children face during this season.
With the #100DeadliestDays, Arkansas Children’s Hospital provided a tip each day to help increase safety for kids and teens. They also shared some safety facts and other valuable information on their social media channels.
This campaign has been very successful and has received a lot of attention from the media and the public. It is memorable, worth sharing, and it also had the shock factor.
Many healthcare providers encourage their audience to adopt healthy habits, but UnitedHealthcare took it a step further by adding a social media element to their campaign.
The award-winning UnitedHealthcare Campaign, We Dare You, is a great example of a wellness campaign in action. Each month, there are new fun challenges and quizzes that are aimed at encouraging their followers to take the first step to a healthier lifestyle and then document it on social media.
The We Dare You Campaign is one of the most successful healthcare marketing campaigns, as it won 8 awards – 2 Healthcare Advertising Awards, 2 Hermes Awards, and an Aster Award.
When clinicians noticed that many women in Roanoke Valley were not getting mammograms, Carilion Clinic decided to launch the campaign, “YES MAMM, Say Yes to Your Annual Mammogram”. They also provided screening location throughout western Virginian.
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness about breast cancer and the need for early detection. They used #YESMAMM to answer common questions about breast cancer from their audience. It also drove traffic to their website, where they urge women to make an appointment at one of their local labs.
#YESMAMM is a perfect example of the power of hashtags to start a movement. In fact, it is one of the most successful healthcare marketing campaigns. 8 years after the birth of the Yes Mamm campaign, Carilion Clinic is still getting kudos.
Nothing drives a message home like a well-told story. When they realized that patients wanted an outlet for telling their stories, New York Presbyterian Hospital harnessed the power of social media to share patients’ stories and connect with their target audience. They even created an entire video marketing strategy around this concept, and that’s something of a game-changer.
Patients’ stories and testimonies can trigger emotions of empathy. By showcasing raw stories on how doctors and nurses helped patients, the result is something even more potent than drugs: hope, trust, and peace of mind.
This marketing campaign creates a sensitive tone for patients while shining a positive light on the medical practitioners and the hospital’s reputation.
00:02 Amber Irwin: Hello. Welcome to Social Speak Network’s podcast, I am your host, Amber Irwin. Today, we’re gonna be covering six successful healthcare marketing campaigns that may be able to inspire you to create a new marketing campaign for your practice. The first one I wanna talk to you was about, is Johnson & Johnson. Back in 2002, there was actually a shortage of nurses. Nurses are one of the most dedicated professions out there. They work long shifts, they deal with a lot of people, and they always have the ups and downs of everyone else’s lives. So, when there was that shortage, Johnson & Johnson created this campaign for nursing’s future, so they wanted to create a group of professionals who tirelessly lend love and support to their patients and really wanted to give them that support that they needed, that the nurses were giving to everyone else.
01:13 AI: And so it really went public and people started becoming more and more aware of what Johnson & Johnson were doing in this campaign. And so now it’s become… Being able to educate nurses, give them a ton of different donations of where nurses are supporting the community. Really an educational platform, a community, that Johnson & Johnson has built for the nursing profession, to really be able to provide them value. So on here, you’ll see there’s personal stories, different ways that Johnson & Johnson’s caring and giving back to the community, where they’ve come from. And so this is a campaign that’s been on for a long time, 15 years, and which is amazing, for something to last and still going strong 15 years later. This is huge. And really, it’s because of their why. They saw a shortage in something. They saw an area where they can give back and be more than just a product company and really give back to their why, which was nurses and be able to provide a community for them. So that is huge.
02:36 AI: The next one I wanna talk to you guys about is the Dana-Farber/Brigham Women’s Cancer Center. What they have created here is really a slogan about; Right now, you may have cancer, but what your cancer doesn’t know is you have us. So it’s really about talking to the patient as an individual and helping them understand the journey and what they are going to need to overcome what is ahead of them. Cancer, that C word is a very scary thing, regardless of what type of cancer it is. So what they have been able to do is really play off of that relationship and that story and educating their patients on what’s gonna work best for them.
03:36 AI: So it’s to help them empower patients who are dealing with cancer and what does their future look like. So that slogan, right now, you may have cancer, but what your cancer doesn’t know is you have us. That shows the patient like they care about me. You can see on their home page, it’s, you have us. You’re not in this alone. We are here to help you every step of the way. And to me, that gives me the chill bumps, that really connects with, especially as a woman, so this connects with me. And so this campaign that they have created and the slogan, it’s so simple, “you have us” and those three words have gone viral with them, because this is people… They trust them, they’re creating that relationship with them, and so what they’ve been able to do is provide that support. So that’s a huge, just moment of, “Okay I’m not alone, I have this practice behind me, I can do this.” They’re empowering their patients and guiding them through this journey of having cancer. So that is amazing.
04:53 AI: The next one is an interesting blog. So the Arkansas Children’s Hospital wrote this blog, and it is 100 deadliest days for kids. Now this blog was published back in 2014 and the hashtag, #100DeadliestDays, this thing spread like wildfire, because just the title, 100 deadliest days for kids. Oh my goodness, what is it? So this was the doctor writing about. Now, through Labor Day, marks a time when kids are most likely to be injured. Whether that was a broken bone, they were sick, accidents happen, or worst-case scenario, they unfortunately had seen the most children’s deaths within this time frame.
05:48 AI: So, this was written in June of 2014. And this is something that the Arkansas Children’s Hospital has been able to incorporate into their digital marketing and something that they’re constantly sharing and reminding people, it gave a purpose to raise awareness to the dangerous time period of Memorial Day to Labor Day. They wanted to make sure that parents knew the risks and what children were facing within that time. You have to think, that’s obviously the summer, you’re traveling, sports, being outside. This is also, unfortunately, where you see kids being left in cars. This is where Arkansas Children’s Hospital really wanted to bring that information to their audience and let people be more aware of the summer season is a time you really pay attention to these safety tips and make sure that your children are okay.
06:56 AI: So, one thing that they could do each year is they could come in here and they could update this blog post. So it’s always showing new and you’ll see that a lot with… Especially with the digital marketing, Hubspot, CoSchedule, social media today. They’ll write a blog that was a few years old. And then they’ll say updated as of a certain date because this article was such a powerful piece for their digital marketing. I would just take it a step further and update it, make sure that the information is still correct. Maybe if there are stats in here, you wanna make sure that the stats are are still relevant to today’s date, but this campaign for them was a huge success on such a sad, touchy subject. So, education is really important for your digital marketing, and a blog post just like this can become its own digital marketing campaign.
08:00 AI: The next one is going to be United Healthcare, “We Dare You” campaign. And many health care providers encourage their audience to adopt healthy habits, but United Healthcare took it a step further by adding a social media element to their campaign. This was an award-winning campaign by the way. This is an example of wellness campaign in action. Each month, there were new fun challenges, quizzes that were aimed at encouraging their followers to take the first step to a healthier lifestyle and then document it on social media. So, one really cool thing about this campaign is when you tie in your social media and your audience, people love to show off what they’re doing and especially if you challenge them. Challenges are great for social media, especially in the health and wellness industry, because they wanna show you this is what I’m doing, this is how I’ve improved my life, this is my recipe, and this is how I’m staying active.
09:09 AI: And so the fact that they not only gave quizzes and create their own challenges, but then they wanted their audience to share with them. And so this was one of the most successful healthcare marketing campaigns. And it won eight awards, two Healthcare Advertising Awards, and that is just amazing, along with a few other awards, but this is something to really think outside the box. Now, this is a big company, United Healthcare is huge, we know that. But thinking of what your practice can do on a smaller scale. And we always say, it’s not the quantity of likes you have, it’s the quality. So if you have, let’s say 2000 likes, and of those 2000 likes, you’re getting between 600 and 800 people engaging on a monthly basis. That’s your loyal fan base. Take advantage of that loyal fan base and ask them to submit photos. Maybe you do a recipe competition, and you’re looking for the best Paleo recipe, the best Keto recipe, the best gluten-free recipe. Maybe within your practice you’re talking to your patients about these different types of a healthy lifestyle and you can tie in those conversations and those topics into your social media. So it marries the offline and the online together. So this was a great, great campaign. I love being able to see how many people were a part of it, all the awards that United Healthcare won, but it just makes you think, “Okay, let’s think outside the box.”
10:55 AI: The next one is the Caroline Clinic, and this was… They did a campaign that was all about #yesmamm, M-A-M-M. And this was all about their saying “Yes” to mammograms. So they wanted to make sure that women were taking care of their bodies, making sure that they were getting the annual mammograms or every three-year mammograms, based on what their doctor had said. They also provided screenings at that location throughout Western Virginia. So this is again something where they’re saying, “This is what we wanna help you with. Here’s how we’re gonna help you. This is what we believe in. This is what we want.” And so they had a pull-up their Facebook page. This was their campaign was this hashtag #yesmamm, M-A-M-M for mammograms. And the goal of the campaign was just really to raise awareness about breast cancer and the need for early detection, to educate their audience to really just understand how important it is for that preventative, for that checking and making sure that you are doing the right things and how to do the right things, et cetera. So this was a great campaign. I love being able to brand something that is to your target market that they can relate with. So that was huge. And it’s catchy, YesMamm. That’s what people wanna see.
12:43 AI: The last one is the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Their campaign was all about the patients and children’s stories. And nothing can sell a company better than patient testimonials. The stories behind the people that you serve, that you’ve helped. And that storytelling is such a big piece with digital marketing and marketing in general. This is why you see so many testimonials for info commercials. It’s those personal stories. It’s that, “Oh my gosh, I’m not alone. I dealt with that,” or “They’re just like me,” or “I’m not the only one,” whatever that is in our heads that’s playing. Being able to have patient stories is a huge piece of your digital marketing. And so what they’ve done is they’ve created a whole campaign showcasing raw stories on how the doctors and nurses had helped their patients, both adults and children. And the results… Something even more… What the patients were dealing with whether that was drugs, car accidents, sickness, they were able to tell their story, share how their experience was with New York Presbyterian Hospital, how the doctors help them and then what the result was. So because they came here, how was their life changed?
14:23 AI: And that’s the biggest thing, is they wanna know what’s that end goal and this shines such a positive light with their audience. And they actually had patients for adult stories and then also children stories. So they took it a step further to showcase what children are dealing with as well, and how they’ve been able to help them. So they have on their website to share your stories that will… Your experience. They wanna be able to shed that positive light and really be able to help other patients that are struggling with similar things. So, raw stories is just such an important piece and I wish that companies did more of this. And I know it’s something that’s… It’s a hard thing to do. One, you have to orchestrate that are you gonna… Is it gonna be a written testimonials or story? Is it gonna be video? And if it’s gonna be video, do people wanna be on a video? Do people wanna share their story? And so you have to be able to look at who your target market is. What your patients are going through? How has their life changed since they’ve been seeing you and being able to better their life?
15:49 AI: I feel like more and more people now are more willing to share their story to help others because they see the greater good. So as you’re putting together or thinking of these campaigns that you want to put together, think of these six examples. And be able to be able maybe pick and pull from different ones, different ideas that you’ve liked and really be able to look at your practice as a whole. And how are you helping your clients? What are they struggling with? What are their needs? And being able to put a campaign together for your digital marketing, to attract more people into your practice that you could help. Because at the end of the day that’s all why we’re in business because we wanna help more people. We wanna help the greater good. That’s our why, so how do we reach them? And that’s an amazing thing with digital marketing. There are so many different ways that we can do this.
16:45 AI: So, if you need help and you are just struggling with creating a good campaign or wanna run some ideas past us, please head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We love to be able to brainstorm ideas and figure out what’s the best route for you and your practice and be able to provide that feedback. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a listening ear on, “This is what our practice is thinking, does it make sense? Do you think it would work?” So again, Social Speak Network, free consultation, and until next time, please subscribe on iTunes or on Podbean. Have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/6-Successful-Healthcare-Marketing-Campaigns-You-Need-to-See-Blog.png800800Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2019-09-10 08:00:252019-09-06 13:10:106 Successful Healthcare Marketing Campaigns You Need to See
In today’s podcast, I talk about how important it is to have a digital marketing strategy, this is your foundation. We are all busy working inside our businesses and sometimes things get away from us and go to the back burner because they don’t seem like a priority at the moment, like social media, blogging, videos, email marketing, etc.
When you create a strategy it holds you and your team accountable and you are able to work in advance. Imagine this, you take 2- hours per month and plan out that entire month of content, you know exactly what you will be putting out onto social media, what blogs and videos you want to create and you have a plan. This makes your digital marketing process 10 times easier to accomplish but also to utilize your team and delegate to others. Work smarter not harder.
Video of the Podcast:
Here are two examples of content calendars we have created for our clients.
This one is more around your social media strategy. We use Google Sheets and then have tabs for resources, monthly topics, ideas. You can add more to this like your blog topics for the week, this gives you more of a monthly overview.
This one is more of a detailed editorial calendar, each month has its own breakdown of the overarching topic, then blogs, videos, content upgrades, etc. On this one, we have tabs that go into social media and resources.
With both of these examples, you can combine them to have a very clear digital marketing strategy.
If you would like to book your free 30-minute consultation to go over how to put together a clear strategy please schedule your call today!
00:01 Amber Irwin: Hello and welcome to the newest episode of Social Speak Network podcast. I am your host Amber Irwin, and today we are going to be going over the number one tip of your digital marketing: Strategy, strategy, strategy. This is the most important component because this is what gets you organized, and I don’t know about you, but I love to be organized. Having a strategy for your digital marketing allows you that space to create, to be consistent, and to plan your content in advance, rather than that sense of overwhelm, not knowing, “Oh, my gosh, I need to post. What do I need to talk about, what blog is going up? What am I talking about on social media? What have… ”
00:48 AI: And you get a little overwhelmed. Just even saying all those things got me a little overwhelmed. So, having that strategy in place really… It makes you… It holds you accountable and it makes you really think, “Okay, where do I want my digital marketing to go? Who do I want to reach with my social media post, with my blogs, with the ads I’m running?” How do you want it to look? And so by taking responsibility and taking a step back, maybe it’s an hour or two hours per month that you’re putting the strategy together. And in the description below, I will give you a link to two PDF examples of a content calendar because this is really important.
01:36 AI: There are two different ways that we work with our clients. The first thing is that social media strategy. So, sometimes it’s easier to organize your thoughts with social media, and then based on what you’re talking about on social media, it allows you to then create a blog or videos. It kinda creates that foundation. And so sometimes it’s easier to start there and work your way through the rest of the components, rather than just trying to think too big and figure everything out at once.
02:09 AI: So with social media, this is where you need to be consistent. And most of the time, we write our content anywhere… As little as a week in advance, up to three weeks in advance. And with your industry, if you are a health coach, a nutritionist, a massage therapist, there’s a lot of core educational content that isn’t gonna change in two weeks. And those can be those placeholder posts, so you can talk about… Maybe you do an “eat this, not that” post each week. Now, that food is gonna be… There’s not gonna be some new food that comes out next week that you’re gonna have to redo that post. So, you can talk about a “eat this, not that” post. You can talk about like a massage tip, maybe it’s a different type of massage. So, there’s gonna be those educational posts that you can schedule out a month in advance if you wanted to.
03:09 AI: And that’s usually what we do, is we take our content calendar and we schedule it out for that month. Okay. What am I talking about on social media? What topics? And sometimes… Most of the time, we’ll pre-write the posts so they’re ready to go. They’re either scheduled in Facebook or one of the tools, like Buffer or Hootsuite, that we use. Instagram, the images are already made, the content’s there, so we’re just copying and pasting it into Instagram so it’s not taking up, “Oh, my gosh, what hashtags do I need to use? Is this image the right one? Is the formatting right?” You pre-do all of your work, so it’s easy to maintain as you go through. And so having that content calendar, that strategy, allows you to say, “Okay, here is my topics for the month for social media.”
04:00 AI: And if I’m doing… Maybe your segment is on… You’re doing a post of “eat this, not that,” then maybe this is where you can tie in some blogs about, maybe it’s different recipes or how to… If one of our clients is a keto coach. And so she talks a lot about how to cook… With being a keto coach and on the keto path, what are different things, substitutions on food, eating out. And so a lot of her blogs are educational for her audience, tips that they wanna know about. And then she ties in the videos, whether it’s making… Having a recipe that you’re actually cooking or baking, and you’re doing a video around that, maybe it’s you at the grocery store talking about ingredients and showing different things or examples. You can take those ideas of your social media calendar and take them a step further and figuring out, “Okay, what blogs can I do around this? What videos can I implement into those?” And then, “What can I give my audience?” And this is where those content upgrades come in.
05:10 AI: I know it seems like a lot, like, “Oh, my gosh, I have to do that, I have to do this, I have to do this.” But once you have that clear strategy, it really helps lay everything out. And the one thing… Whether you have… Maybe you hire someone to edit your videos, we do a lot of coaching and consulting with digital marketing, so you know, okay, your blog outline, here’s what you need to be talking about in your content upgrade. So figuring out, once you have that big picture, now what? Where do you need help? Do you need help creating images for your social media posts? Do you need help writing the content? Where do you feel are your strengths are at the most, and where do you feel that your weaknesses are, things that you have been putting on your plate. Maybe blogging has been something that you say, “Okay, this needs to happen, it’s just not happening,” and it’s missing in your strategy, maybe that’s where you need help.
06:13 AI: The biggest thing is really… Sometimes it just takes an hour to brain dump and write down, if you had all the time in the world, what would that digital marketing strategy look like? What would you wanna talk about on social media? What would you wanna talk about in your blogs? What are your clients and your customers asking you? That is key right there, is the questions that they’re asking. What are those conversations you’re having with them? That is content right there for you, not to mention maybe even videos, FAQs with them.
06:46 AI: So, starting from the foundation and then building up. You can’t put a roof on a house if there’s no foundation and walls, and you have to think of this marketing strategy just like that. The strategy is the foundation, as you build your social media and your blogging and your lead generation, your email marketing, those are the walls. And then as you start bringing everything together, that’s where you’re gonna have the roof and you’re building this whole digital marketing house, so to speak. And then once everything is set up and it has a rhyme and a reason and a purpose, that’s when you start to see things actually work. Then you can do your Facebook ads. You can do… You can really start to measure what’s working and what’s not working.
07:35 AI: And so, with social media, a lot of… We get asked all the time, “How many times a week should we post? When should we post? What days? What times?” And here’s my answer. It depends on each business because everybody’s audience is different. So again, utilize your current customer base as a huge resource. Ask them, “What time of day are you on Facebook? When do you get your information? Is it early morning right when you wake up? Is it at lunchtime? Is it before dinner time?” Or if you have a lot of moms, maybe it’s like that pick-up line time, so 2:00 to 2:30. Is it an evening, after the kids go to bed, maybe 9, 10 o’clock? So figuring out… And then weekends, a lot of times we post just Monday through Friday because our clientele really isn’t on Facebook and Instagram during the weekends as much. But in your situation, that maybe when they’re on the most. So, it’s really about trial and error.
08:46 AI: And so, using Facebook scheduler, you can schedule your posts on Facebook and trying different times. Maybe it’s Monday mornings at 6:00 AM and Tuesdays at 11:00. And figuring out different times, maybe it’s Wednesdays at 9:00, whatever it may be. And then figuring out what times and days are getting the most engagement. So, are they liking the posts? Are they engaging? Are they asking questions? Figuring out when those posts are getting the most engagement. And the insights on Facebook and on Instagram will tell you those things, and so you wanna make sure you pay attention to those and give that a 30-day span so you know, “Okay, I made a post on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.” I would say if you’re not already posting every day, start with at least three times a week and move your way up. If you’re just starting out and you’re not posting at all, or maybe one time a week, going from one time a week to even five to seven days a week, that’s huge, like, “Oh, my gosh, I have a lot to take on.” So take it in baby steps, but know… And don’t get on everything. Just because there are Twitter and Snapchat and LinkedIn, or whatever, you have to know again where your audience is at. So ask your audience, ask your customers, your clients, “What social media platforms are you on?”
10:19 AI: You could do a SurveyMonkey to ask your audience and email it out. “Hey, we’re really wanting to ramp up our digital marketing strategy, and we need your help so we can best… Give you the best information at the right times and days that work for you. What social media platforms are you on?” Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube. “What days of the week are you on?” Every day, and then list the days. And at what times? Usually, is it early morning, mid-morning, you put times in there. But I would really survey your current audience because they’re already coming to you and so that’s gonna be, again, a huge resource, and you can take that data and then figure out even topics. “What topics are you most interested in? What questions do you have about… ” You know, If you’re a nutritionist, “What questions do you have that we haven’t answered?” And be able to pull from them, and then implement those things into your strategy, because that’s where… If you’re answering their questions and you’re giving them that value that they want to know about, they are 10 times more likely to like, comment and share your posts, and that’s exactly what you want, and then also click back over to your blog, watch your videos, because you’re creating that relationship with them and building that loyalty with them. And so they’re gonna be loyal to you and wanna share your stuff.
11:54 AI: So, it all goes into that strategy, starting up a foundation and working your way from there. So, work on step one, brain dumping, just piling everything down, whether you write it down, you open up a Word doc or a Google Doc and just type down all the topics you wanna talk about, what blogs you would write about, what videos you wanna do, what questions people have asked you, what questions do you wanna ask your audience to put in a survey. And then, as I said, in the end, I will put in two PDF, just examples of two different types of content calendars that we have used and we use with our clients, and work great. And then I’ll also put a link in there to SurveyMonkey, which is a free tool, so that can help you build that foundation and really provide that valuable content.
12:49 AI: So, let us know what questions you have, comments you have, if you’ve been using a strategy and how it’s helped your business. I would love to hear about your experiences or maybe what’s holding you back of creating a strategy. What are those things that are just… It’s hard for you to take that time and sit down and put that strategy in place. We’re here to help you. So again, my name is Amber Irwin. You’ve been listening to the Social Speak Network podcast. Please be sure to subscribe on Podbean or iTunes, and we will have a new episode every week. Enjoy.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Why-it-is-so-important.png800800Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2019-08-07 08:00:282019-08-01 14:53:30Why it is so important to have a digital marketing strategy.
By utilizing the Eisenhower Matrix, you can divide your tasks into 4 different boxes and be able to focus on what is most important, schedule what is important but not urgent, delegate everything you can and then don’t do the things that don’t serve a purpose in your business.
The Eisenhower Box: How to be More Productive
To Do: Draw a big box on your paper and then divide that box into 4 little boxes.
Label the first box- Do First Label the second box – Schedule Label the third box – Delegate Label the fourth box – Don’t do
5 time management tips when working with the Eisenhower Matrix
Putting things to-do on a list frees your mind. But always question what is worth doing first.
Try limiting yourself to no more than eight tasks per quadrant. Before adding another one, complete the most important one first. Remember: It is not about collecting but finishing tasks.
You should always maintain only one list for both business and private tasks. That way you will never be able to complain about not having done anything for your family or yourself at the end of the day.
Do not let you or others distract you. Do not let others define your priority. Plan in the morning, then work on your stuff. And in the end, enjoy the feeling of completion.
Finally, try not to procrastinate that much. Not even by over-managing your to-dos.
Prioritizing tasks by urgency and importance results in 4 quadrants with different work strategies: https://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/prioritizing-your-task-sheet.png7201280Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2018-10-17 15:57:352018-10-17 15:57:35How to prioritize your task list
