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Why Video Marketing is Such an Important Piece of Your Online Strategy

Why Video Marketing is Such an Important Piece of Your Online Strategy

Video marketing is such an important piece of your digital marketing strategy. In today’s marketing world people want to be able to connect with their healthcare providers and know who they are.

Gone are the days of making extravagant videos, going WAY over budget, having a studio, etc. Let’s get back to the basics, being authentic in the videos, recording on smartphones or newer computers with good quality.   Videos are such an easy way to be able to connect with your audience on a deeper level.

00:01 Amber Irwin: Hello and welcome to the Social Speak Network Podcast. I am your host  Amber Irwin, and today’s topic is all about video marketing. Video marketing is such an important piece of your online digital marketing strategy, and this is a question we can asked by our clients all the time: Should I be doing video? And the answer is yes, it’s very simple, yes. So, it’s one of those things where, because digital marketing has grown so much, people really wanna be able to see who you are, to feel like they know you, and get a sense of how the office runs, especially in the healthcare industry. You have to think of that patient journey, what they are struggling with, what  they’re going through, why they may be reaching out to you for your services, whether it’s  chiropractic, acupuncture, ob/GYN, medical issues, life­threatening diseases, cancer, all these  different things, you have to think of what they’re going through.

01:14 AI: And even though there’s a ton of content online to read, and they can call the office, if  they can see videos, and they can see the doctors, and they can see the front desk and the staff at the front desk, and they can see the nurses, it helps build that gap when they are reaching out for a  healthcare provider. And they feel like they know, like, and trust you, which are the three main factors in marketing: People need to know, like, and trust you in order to do business with you. 01:50 AI: So a few stats here on a study had shown 80% of online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will completely read a piece of written content. So if getting your audience engaged and fully immersed in your healthcare­related information is important to you, then so should video. As stats show, your audience is more likely to consume your content to its full capacity when there’s a  video involved. This is also something, you have to think of the healthcare industry when you are explaining, maybe it’s symptoms, or a process, a procedure. When they can hear it straight from the doctor’s mouth, that builds that trust. They’re able to really know what the doctor and the staff, that they know what they’re talking about. And there are so many different tools out there that make video marketing so easy. There’s a reason or a process to everything and having a professional videographer come in for a commercial shoot, maybe a video on the website, that’s really important. I am not discrediting that at all; that is something that’s really important to have. And it’s really easy to do your videos in­house for your daily tips, your blogs, even your YouTube videos. So it’s not a  huge cost item any more either.

03:25 AI: So a couple of tools I wanted to share with you. Two tools that we use for screen sharing.  So this is really good if a doctor puts together maybe a PowerPoint, or has images they wanna share, diagrams. If you wanna walk through a process, you can have it just on your computer, and you can share your screen, and you can go through that presentation or… And the one thing… So the tool that we use a lot is called Zoom, Z­O­O­M. And this allows you to do video recording such as this, and it gives us the video file and the audio file, which serves two purposes. Obviously, the video is great for the website, for YouTube and your social media marketing. And the audio file is great for podcasts, and that’s exactly what we do. There’s no point in recreating that wheel when you can use one piece of information for multiple purposes. 04:24 AI: And the other one is Loom, L­O­O­M, and that works the same way as Zoom does.

I know, Zoom and Loom, it can get a little bit more confusing. But those are two great screen share  10/08/19  Page 2 of 6 Video Marketing Tips options. And the other two that we like to use… These are more for those cute, fun videos to throw into social media if you have… Maybe a great one would be if you have a new staff member coming on. This is where you take pictures of them, maybe it’s them in the office, a couple of pictures of their personal life. And you can make a cute video, I use Animoto and Ripl, and these are both…  There’s free versions and paid versions, I would do the paid version, just so you don’t have their logo on it, and you can actually add your logo, and add text to it, they’re not expensive at all. So those are two videos that have fun little templates, holiday theme if you wanna have a little office video that says Happy Holidays. You can do little snippets of videos and images together and then they put it together into a video format.

05:41 AI: So those are what we call more of the fluff posts for social media, but they’re videos that people like to see. You can do fun facts, so you can do facts around a certain topic in an Animoto video and share it, you can ask questions. So videos don’t need to be complicated, if you have a  Mac, you can just use QuickTime Player and record yourself. Again, if you’re gonna do that, I  would highly recommend using Zoom because you do get that audio file and the video file. And if  you use your phone, you can use your iPhone or Android as well, If I’m recording a video for social  media and I also want it to go onto YouTube, I will have my Zoom screen up, and then I also then  would have my phone vertical recording as well, so I can use that for Instagram Stories and  Facebook.

06:45 AI: I know it sounds complicated, and a lot of times it’s just getting used to being in front of the camera. Having those bullet points of what you wanna talk about. I have my bullet points right here with some stats written down that I will go into. I have another screen pulled up so I know what those bullet points are that I wanna cover. And so it’s really figuring out that system for you.  Some people write full-on strips and tape them up. So you have to find that system that works for you, you don’t have a choice anymore in digital marketing, you have to be doing videos. And the more videos you do, the better.

07:27 AI: So you wanna think of… Where I would start with this video marketing strategy is thinking of; what are your clients or your patients asking you? What questions are they coming to you with, and how can you address those? What are those hot topics in your industry? Is it around vaping, opioids, vitamins? Is it working out, is it diet? Diet’s a big piece, and food ties into every type of healthcare, doctor, industry, everything out there. So are your clients asking you how to eat better? Are they asking you what they can do to improve the quality of their life? And so start paying attention to what are they asking you, and then start doing videos around that.

08:19 AI: And your videos, start with small things, maybe it’s just one question. Keep it short,  simple, and to the point. So less than three minutes is great. If you’re doing a presentation, you’re explaining diagrams, or you’re teaching them something, then I will go up to 10 minutes. Keep in mind that the… If you’re posting it onto Instagram, it can’t be more than 10 minutes for Instagram  TV. And you also have to think of, what are you talking about that you wanna be able to keep their attention. So their attention span is gonna be shorter, too, so you wanna make sure that that video is giving them a lot of details, a lot of valuable information that they wanna keep watching it.

09:07 AI: 83% of marketers believe that video is growing in importance. Duh. It is so important.  We have to be doing it. 53% of customers engage with a brand or a business after watching a video  10/08/19  Page 3 of 6 Video Marketing Tips on social media. Your audience is cyber­stalking you, which sounds horrible, but they are doing their research. They are looking at multiple different healthcare practices, from who they are, where they’re at, what their expertise is, what are they talking about on social media, are they being consistent with social media, do they have the videos? Is their website user­friendly? And we talked about that user experience, that digital experience for your patients, for your audience, is that an easy process? So even if you do an intro video on your website, like welcome to our website, here’s  where you need to go to book your appointment, here’s where our expertise are, it’s really important  to make sure that you have these videos and you make that experience as simple as possible for  your audience. So video marketing, you just gotta get in there, you gotta get in front of the camera.  You’re gonna have 10 takes before it’s perfect, and that’s okay, and keep going.

10:29 AI: So then my next question I get is, “Well, what about editing? Do you edit your videos?  And if so, what software do you use to edit your videos? I’m usually the type of person that I wanna get it done in one take. I don’t wanna have to stop and splice it together. I like to have my points, get it done in one take, and that may take me three or four times, but I’m not editing a lot. So in your  first couple of videos, you may have it at the beginning where there’s a pause and then you say, “Hi!”  Or in the end, you pause and then you talk again. So some simple editing, beginning and ending. If you have a Mac, you can use iMovie, if you have a PC you can use the Movie Maker, that does a  good job. You can use Adobe Premiere Clip. And also YouTube does have some video editing tools in there, and they work great, so you can edit a beginning. So again, if there’s that pause in the beginning or a pause at the end, you can use that.

11:44 AI: Sometimes you wanna add a beginning that… An intro, you can do that in Movie Maker or iMovie. There’s a ton of different video editing software out there. And again, we like to keep it as simple as possible, so find the one that works best for you. As I said, YouTube, iMovie, or  Movie Maker for those beginning, pieces is a great idea just to get used to it and then if you wanna add more effects or different things to it, you can start doing some more research and looking at  Adobe Premiere Clip and other video editing software.

12:22 AI: So start by, again, listening to your patients, what are they asking, what are those hot topics that people are talking about in your industry? Do some research on your competitors: Are they doing videos? What are they talking about? Looking at other videos, just YouTubing videos on those topics, those keywords that you’re thinking about, seeing how many views they have.  And once you take your video and you upload it to YouTube, think that SEO, think those keywords, what would they be typing in to find this video? In your description, make sure that you have a link back to your website, so if you’re talking about a treatment or a condition that… Or even a blog post, tie it back to a link on your website, so there’s that call to action.

13:14 AI: So it’s really important, you’ve gotta think about this as another process in your marketing. So you find your bullet points for your video, you record your video, you upload it to  YouTube, and you share it with social media. Once the video’s on YouTube, you can take that video and insert it to your blog posts as well. Videos are a great addition to add to your blog posts. And so we usually will write a blog post and then do a video, so we’re touching both parts. People can watch a video and then they can read the blog. And so the blog is great for SEO, the video is great for our audience. So finding that balance, and start doing some videos, and just get it in the habit,  whether you’re doing one per week to start, and then start moving it up to maybe two per week. 10/08/19  Page 4 of 6 Video Marketing Tips 14:07 AI: And then what is the point of that video? Again, is it an FAQ, is it a treatment condition,  is it a blog post? And then what’s a call to action for each video? And our call to action for our podcasts is to be sure to go to Podbean or iTunes and subscribe to our podcast so you can listen to all these amazing tips that we’re sharing with you. And also if you are struggling with that video strategy, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com and request a free 30­minute consultation, and we can walk through this video strategy with you.

14:44 AI: So I look forward to seeing your videos. Please drop a link below to your YouTube channel, we would love to take a look at them, and get a recording. Have a great day.

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5 Healthcare Marketing Trends That Will Help You Stay on Top

Change is the only permanent thing in life, they say. That’s never been truer in the world of healthcare marketing.

Healthcare marketing is continuously changing. Keeping up to date with the latest digital trends and consumer preference is key to remain competitive and acquire a steady stream of patients.

Keep these trends in mind when planning your healthcare marketing campaign.

Excellent digital experience

Most hospital websites focus on providing information such as the address, business hours, doctor’s bios, specialties offered, etc. As competition in the digital landscape heats up, more and more hospitals and healthcare providers are putting a greater focus on patient experience.

83% of patients visit a hospital’s website before booking an appointment. That means a patient’s experience begins with your website. Their online experience will determine whether or not they will convert from leads to actual patients.

For a better online experience, make sure that your website loads quickly and is easy to navigate. Patients love the idea of convenient scheduling. If you offer online booking or have a customer service chatbot they can communicate with, that would be a plus.

You are bound to see a high ROI if you focus on creating an exemplary online experience for potential patients.

Video Marketing

According to a study that was conducted by Hubspot, 45% of people watch more than one hour of video a day. Out of the 45%, an astounding 81% have been convinced to buy a product or avail a service after watching a branded video.

Incorporating video content into your marketing strategy can help build trust and provide a much deeper understanding of what your healthcare company has to offer. Prospective patients are now researching doctors who specialize in the procedure they’re looking for before scheduling an appointment. This is where video content proves useful.

Through videos, you can verbally and visually explain how the procedure work. This can help ease fears or uncertainty. Plus, it helps prospective patients get to know the doctor before a consultation, so they gain a sense of trust beforehand.

If you haven’t already, we urge you to start creating video content, both for your website and social media accounts, sooner rather than later. 

Search engine optimization

They say the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google. Why? It’s because 55% of users won’t go past the first three organic results. 

According to studies, 89% of consumers turn to the internet when they’re looking for answers for their healthcare queries. You want your website to show up at the top of Google’s search results. Otherwise, you’ll be losing to your competitors.

With more and more people turning to the internet for medical advice, it is important to capitalize on these searches by making your website as visible as possible. To get on page 1 of the search engine results, you’ll need a strong website and an even stronger SEO strategy.

Online reputation management

Your online reputation will have a significant impact on your practice. Why? It’s because a huge majority of patients turn to the internet to research physicians.

The survey revealed that 84% of patients read online reviews to help them gain insight into healthcare providers. 86% of them will be hesitant to schedule a consultation with you if they read a negative review or comment.

To stay competitive, you need to make a concerted effort to manage your reputation, both online and offline.

Whether you like it or not, patients are going to leave reviews. The sad truth is that dissatisfied customers are more likely to leave feedback than happy customers. With a single review, comment or article, the reputation of any healthcare organization can be tarnished.

You can’t make negative feedback go away, but you can encourage happy patients to speak out for your brand. It is in your best interest to encourage patients to leave reviews.

Mobile healthcare apps

Gloomy faces of ailing patients waiting outside the doctor’s office, long queues, and a dull, monotonous hall – this is the picture one would imagine while waiting at a doctor’s clinic or a hospital about a decade ago.

Millennials are the largest U.S. generation, and they demand convenience. They are switching to providers that offer a much higher level of convenience. This is where mobile healthcare apps come in.

In today’s era of the smartphone, keeping in contact with a healthcare provider has never been easier. Patients can chat with their doctors and ask for advice about a symptom or a condition. They can also book appointments with their doctors, access doctor’s prescriptions, and even purchase medicines through their mobile devices. In addition, patients can easily monitor their health conditions themselves through apps. This helps them stay one step ahead of the disease; hence, reducing the need for invasive treatments.

Healthcare apps are also beneficial for doctors and medical staffs. They can check the patient’s reports and prescribe medicines if required. Doctors can even make referrals through the apps. 

 

 

 

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6 Successful Healthcare Marketing Campaigns You Need to See

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. 

Campaign Sources:
https://nursing.jnj.com/
https://www.jnj.com/tag/campaign-for-nursings-future
https://www.facebook.com/CampaignForNursing/

The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing

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.

Campaign Sources:
https://www.youhaveus.org/


https://www.facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute

Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center - You Have Us

Arkansas Children’s Hospital – #100DeadliestDays Campaign

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.

Campaign Sources:
https://www.archildrens.org/health-and-wellness/happy-and-healthy-blog/100-deadliest-days-for-kids
https://www.facebook.com/ArkansasChildrens
100 Deadliest Days for Kids

UnitedHealthcare – We Dare You Campaign

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. 

Campaign Sources:
http://42cdev.com/client/wedareyoutoshare.com/?now=2015-09-01
https://www.facebook.com/UnitedHealthcare/

United Healthcare We Dare you

Carilion Clinic – #YESMAMM Campaign

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. 

Campaign Sources:
https://www.carilionclinic.org/
https://www.facebook.com/carilionclinic
#YESMAMM

New York Presbyterian Hospital – Patient Stories

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. 

Campaign Sources:
https://www.nyp.org/home
https://www.nyp.org/patient-stories
https://www.nyp.org/kids/stories.html
https://www.youtube.com/user/newyorkpresbyterian
https://www.nyp.org/amazingthings/

#NYPSTORIES

If you need help strategizing your next digital marketing campaign please schedule your free 30-minute consultation today! 

Podcast Script Below:

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.

6 Successful Healthcare Marketing Campaigns You Need to See Pinterest

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6 Tips for a Successful Healthcare Marketing Campaign

Digital marketing is becoming the new wave of healthcare marketing. With the growing competition in the healthcare industry, it is important to stay on top of digital marketing and keep your organization at the forefront of change.

Ever wonder what it takes to create a successful healthcare marketing campaign?

We listed down some tips that you can incorporate into your marketing plan right away.

Know your target audience

A successful healthcare marketing campaigns starts with knowing who your audience is and what they value. To produce great results, you first need to create a well-defined persona profile.

Vividly picture who is it that you want to attract to your doorstep and what matters most to them. The more specifically you define your audience, the more likely you are to inspire a positive response.

Carefully and precisely defining your target audience will ensure that you’re not making the wrong assumption about what your audience values. Plus, it will improve your efficiency since you’ll have a good idea about what media to use and how to shape a compelling message that brings a response.

Combine healthcare and social media

Today, social media isn’t just a place for family and friends to stay in touch. It also allows doctors and medical experts to connect with their current and potential patients.

Now that you know who your target audience is, use social media to reach your key audience. Tapping into online communities and sharing health information can be a game-changer in your healthcare marketing plan. Keep in mind, though, that each platform has its own voice and audience. When you create social media content, make sure that the message is tailored to different audience and channels.

Make wellness a lot more fun

Health and wellness is a serious topic, but that doesn’t mean that your campaign should be boring and uninspiring. Let’s take cues from UnitedHealthCare’s successful healthcare marketing campaign – We Dare You.

UnitedHealthcare created an interactive campaign that dares people to make one small change to live healthier lives and document it on social media. Each month, there are new challenges and quizzes aimed at inspiring people to live a healthier lifestyle. There are prizes involved too.

The multi-awarded “We Dare You” campaign not only led to healthier habits, but it also fostered an interactive online community of brand loyalists.

Establish an email marketing plan

Email marketing is an effective means of transmitting messages to your current and prospective audience. In fact, studies suggest that email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers as compared to Facebook and Twitter. When done right, it can help you grow your practice and reach a larger amount of patients.

With email marketing, the audience is openly receptive, and relative cost is low, and the rate of return can be exceptionally high. You can promote your services in a cost-effective way while building a relationship with your patients.

Google yourself

Studies suggest that physicians and other medical practitioners receive up to 45% of new patients through referral. Though most patients would consider the referral of other doctors, family, and friends, the majority of them will run a Google search of your name and check out your reputation before booking an appointment.

The survey revealed that 60% of patients wouldn’t book an appointment with a medical practitioner that has bad reviews. This is why you should Google yourself now.

By running a quick Google search of yourself, you’ll have a good idea of how your practice looks from a consumer’s perspective and know where to start when creating your digital strategy. 

If you unearth some negative results when you Google yourself, try to have the post taken down. But if that doesn’t work, then the best thing you can do is to suppress them with positive content.

Be a source of helpful information

In today’s digital world, most people’s inclination would be to open up a browser in Google and research about their own or their loved one’s condition. With so many people turning to the internet for answers, it is important that healthcare marketing is there to be a helpful and supportive guide.

Regularly post high-quality content that answers people’s questions and help them learn more about medical conditions they may be searching or procedures they may have to undergo. It is also a good idea to share important and relevant medical information to help people improve their health. This will help build your credibility and position yourself as an authority in your field. People may not run off and make an appointment, but you will be in their minds the next time they get sick.   

6 Tips for a Successful Healthcare Marketing Campaign

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Why it is so important to have a digital marketing strategy.

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.

  1. 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. 
  2. 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! 

Subscribe to our podcast here

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.

 

Why it is so important to have a digital marketing strategy.

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Understanding How Your Mindset Plays a Huge Role in Creating the Life You Want

In this podcast episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kim Eickhoff, the founder and creator of the SHiFT program.

Kim really stresses how important it is to be present in the moment and to become more aware of your own feelings, patterns, and fears.

  • Where are they showing up in your life?
  • When are you feeling sad and why?
  • When are you feeling frustrated and why?
  • Taking responsibilities for our own feelings and actions

The one really key point that Kim made was understanding that a lot of these feelings and fears that you have come up from past experiences, whether that be from childhood, young adulthood, things we may not even be aware of on a conscious level.

Now, you may be wondering what does this have to do with business, right? Have you ever felt stuck in your business or feel like you are running in circles? Becoming aware of your fears and how you handle each situation with your clients and colleagues can help you move forward in your business and start creating the life you want.

Enjoy the podcast below:

Learn more about SHiFT here
Subscribe to Kim’s YouTube for daily inspiration

Learn: SHiFT from Fear to Freedom

When we make decisions and take action from a place of fear, or from feeling “less than”, these are not usually the best decisions or actions to take. We have to shift to a place of power, or freedom.

The SHiFT process easily teaches you about your patterns that keep you stuck in the same problems; then how to disrupt those patterns; and finally how to take the right action to move beyond the problems, have better control over yourself and your life, and fully create the life you envision.

Once you learn SHiFT, you can apply it to many challenges in your life and be able to adopt new patterns that put you in the right mindset for growth and success.

From Fear to Freedom

00:01 Amber Irwin: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Social Speak Network podcast. I’m your host Amber Irwin and I am so excited for our guest today. Miss Kim, please introduce yourself. Let us know a little bit about who you are, and this is a… I am so excited for this podcast because this is a subject that I’m very passionate about and I know you are as well, so let’s share with our audience a little bit about who you are and what they’re in store for today?

00:29 Kim Eickhoff: Very cool. So, my name is Kim Eickhoff. I have been a business coach for the last 10 years. I love helping entrepreneurs and small business owners learn how to make money doing what they love. I have a lot of clients that are really passionate about what they do, really good at what they do, but they don’t necessarily understand the business side. So, that’s where I come in to just kind of help them with that piece. I also have been a life-long learner of kind of my own personal development, looking at myself, trying to understand why I do what I do [chuckle] and say what I do and get better hopefully at life in general; relationships, business, whatever it is.

01:10 KE: And yeah, I have learned a lot of different tools over the years and so I have now moved my business in a direction of where I still help entrepreneurs a lot, but now I’m also just trying to help people more on a personal development side to become more aware of themselves, what makes them tick, and then how to basically disrupt some of those patterns they get stuck in and make better decisions and create the life they really want versus sort of stuck in a life that they don’t necessarily really want. [chuckle]

01:40 AI: Right. So tell us a little bit about this SHiFT process and why did you create this program?

01:48 KE: So I keep seeing over and over and over again with people, as well as watching myself trying to grow my business, that if I am not working on my own personal issues and I’m not aware of them, that’s what keeps my business stuck or plateaued at a certain level. And as I was seeing this with my clients, a lot of them hadn’t done some personal work and didn’t know about different tools and that sort of thing. So it just kind of dawned on me one day, I have systems to teach them around business so I thought, “What if I had a system to teach them around how to become more aware?” That was fairly simple to learn, can help them see things in a non-judgemental way, so they don’t go into a place of defensiveness or trying to make excuses, but it’s more, “This is really just my reality. This is what I do. This is what I say. This is how I think and feel.”

02:39 KE: And then something that would then help them move out of that. Some tools I could teach them to help them move out of that. So I just started playing with that idea, came up with the idea of SHiFT, started playing with different words that seemed to fit. And then I would say, for the past two years now, it’s evolved slowly and changed a little bit over time to what it is now, to where I think it’s pretty solid. So I’ve been using it consistently for probably the past year the way it is.

03:06 AI: And how do you think that this process has helped you in just your life and business and maybe with your clients as well?

03:15 KE: Well, you know, we’re all human [chuckle] and we all we all get triggered by different things. And what I know for me is I have always been highly emotional. So growing up, I would overreact to stuff. Somebody would say something, it hurt my feelings, or I would get mad about something, I would completely overreact, lash out in a way that was not very helpful, usually. And I mean verbally, not physically, [chuckle] but I would get angry and get mad at somebody, blame somebody else for stuff. And then that never really helped, though. It never really made the situation better. It never really improved or really got me where I wanted to go with whatever that issue was. So for me, what happened was I started practicing this… Well, all the tools I’ve been using over time in various ways.

04:03 KE: Over the last couple of years, once I created it, I started practicing it regularly and I sort of made it my practice when I got triggered about something, something happened, caused a pretty strong emotional reaction, whether it was frustration, or anger, or fear, anxiety, whatever that was, and this could be a cash flow problem in my own business, it could be a cash flow problem with one of my clients because I get worried about them. It could be interactions with people, communication problems, that sort of thing. So not having misunderstandings and getting upset about it, that sort of thing. So I started really using it religiously just to practice it, just to see if it helped. And what I noticed was it the more that I did it, one, I saw really similar themes in how I reacted to certain situations. And so that when it happened the next time, I was much more aware of it and I realized “Oh, I am going into this triggered place.” And when I’m triggered, or somebody is triggered, we don’t usually make the best decisions because our brain goes offline, right?

05:02 KE: Our emotions flood our brain, and so we can’t really make good decisions. So what it does is it helps clear that out so that you can make better decisions. And so, I started practicing it regularly, started seeing the themes, and then at the same time, because I was clearing out all these old emotions, the triggers weren’t as powerful. I wasn’t getting triggered as much in the future. And that was a big… A cool part of it, I thought. Because I was like, “Wow, so now I’m actually releasing a lot of this stuff and what used to really trigger me doesn’t trigger me anymore.”

05:32 AI: Right. You kinda let it roll off your shoulders at this point. You worked through whatever that pattern was.

05:37 KE: Yeah. And the emotions, what I’ve learned is that a lot of these emotions that we have that do kind of come up in these really strong ways, they’re old things. They’re things that happened as kids. Maybe our parents didn’t validate how we felt or we were ignored or whatever, not that parents meant to do these things, but they’re human too and they treat us the way that we probably were raised. And so, we create issues in other people. And so, yeah, when I started to release a lot of that old stuff, because it wasn’t there anymore, the trigger just wasn’t as powerful. And I was like, “Oh that’s really cool, actually. I’m not upset about this anymore.”

06:17 AI: Right, so once you worked that through, like your personal life, how did you see your business grow from letting go of those emotions and not letting those triggers happen anymore?

06:29 KE: Well, so actually, what started me practicing a lot was my business had grown a lot. So I got to this point in my business where I was making more money than I’d ever made, I had a ton of clients, I was really, really busy, but all of a sudden, all this fear was coming up because it felt like, how in the world can I sustain this? Am I really worthy of this kind of stuff? Is this something that I’m gonna be able to keep going with and how do I get to the next level? So all this fear started coming up, and that’s when I started really using shift to work through the fear. What it taught me too was that, yeah, these were old fears that were happening, but at the same time, my intuition was telling me that there are other things I really wanted to be doing and not necessarily what I was just doing so I was just focusing on the business coaching which was fine, but I really felt this desire to move more in this other personal development region as well.

07:29 KE: And I had been pushing that aside because it’s like my intuition kept telling me and I kept shutting it off and I kept… But I’m making money doing this, so why would I change anything? But all this fear, really made me stop and look at that, and when I did, I was like, “Oh.” One, I really wanna get more clear about who I work with ’cause I want clients who really wanna work on this stuff so that helped me see that. And then at the same time, just get clear that this is what I really wanted to be teaching as well as the business coaching.

07:56 AI: Right, yeah, ’cause they go hand-in-hand.

07:58 KE: Right.

08:00 AI: And how have some of your clients that have gone through the SHiFT program, how have their lives and their businesses changed by doing that?

08:08 KE: In lots of different ways. So one client that I have, she’s a photographer and she sells fairly large projects that can range from $10,000-$30,000, so they’re big, bigger size price tags. She would have a lot of fear come up around doing her proposals, because these were big prize tags for her and this was really different SHiFT for her, as far as what she was trying to promote and sell and she just wasn’t ready. A lot of times we’re not emotionally prepared to do something that we know we’re supposed to be doing [chuckle] in our business just ’cause we’ve never done it before, so we have to practice it and get better. So, what I taught her SHiFT and what happened with this was, she would do the process before she actually went into a sales call.

08:54 KE: And so what would trigger her in the middle of the sales call was bringing up the money part. She was able to sort of work through that on the front end and get more comfortable and understand why she was getting triggered and it was all about her own old money stories, really, that’s where she would go with it. And so when she saw that, she learned some tools on how to release that anxiety and those old fears, and then actually just gain more confidence and become more aware that she was worthy of asking for the price that she was asking for. So her business went from… I think the first year we worked together, she sold a couple of projects, so probably $20,000-$30,000 in revenue, around those projects. She did a lot of other things for her business at the time, but she really was moving into this. And this year to this point, I think we’ve sold five, or six already. And so she’s…

09:44 KE: Yeah, she’s really turned a corner with how she presents herself, her confidence and not all that obviously is about SHiFT, but a lot of it helped and she would probably be one of the first ones to say that so. And she uses it now, and she’s in the middle of a meeting, if she starts to feel that anxiety pop up or any of those strong emotions, she knows how to sit there and go through it and feel it and release it and then come back to, “Oh, this is what I’m here to do and this is what I’m confident in,” and then you’re more authentic and you’re more kind of connected, so you’re not just faking it.

10:19 AI: Right. Yeah, and that’s a such an important piece is just being able to notice, when you have that coming up in yourself and not pulling the fingers, but being able to take note and say, “Okay this is what frustrated me,” or, “This is what made me sad,” or… Especially as adults, because you can’t, “You hurt my feelings,” but if you recognize that in yourself, then you can go back and use this practice. So let me ask you this, is this practice easy to learn?

[laughter]

10:52 AI: I mean, we’re talking about a lot here, we’re talking about our emotions. So is this practice easy to learn for everyone?

11:00 KE: It is actually, just because I think that the way it’s broken down. I purposefully made it into a system that is easy to follow. Now what’s hard about it, is to practice it like anything. Like, you can get a gym membership, but if you don’t actually go to the gym, it doesn’t do any good. So, it’s the same idea. You can have tools, but you have to actually use them. But once I lead somebody through it, they’re pretty much on their own from that point, they can always go through it for themselves. The practicing on the back end of the tools that will help you kind of release this stuff and move through it, I find needs a little more hand-holding.

11:37 KE: So what I normally do is I sell this in a few different sessions, like a package, because I teach it to them, they practice it. They come back and see what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, and we talk through the tools that they’re using. If they used them correctly, what could they do better that sort of stuff, not, there’s really wrong or right way but… And then we tweak it, and for me, is about me finding what tools work best for different people, ’cause sometimes something might work for somebody that’s super easy. If you’re very aware of your body and how sensations sort of show up in your body, that’s an easy tool to use. For other people, that’s a really brand new concept. They don’t understand that every emotion they have shows up somewhere in their body physically. And that’s a big piece of this process. And so there’s some teaching and training and practicing, that we’ll do around that, but yes, it’s easy to learn. It’s just not easy to practice, necessarily.

12:30 AI: About consistency, stick into it.

12:32 KE: Yeah, totally.

12:34 AI: And so with this… It’s so about your mindset. So you had said that you were focusing on the business coaching, and you were noticing your patterns in changing [12:47] ____ and those emotions, but then, there’s still that fear and that feeling, your intuition was telling you, “This isn’t what you’re supposed to do.” So that shows that money can’t buy happiness in every single way, but that you may think that you’re doing the right thing, but there’s still that fear and listening to your intuition. So is that a big piece of the program, as obviously, you’re looking at where… Like those sensations, how is that fear or anxiety or whatever we wanna label it as, coming up, and then how to deal with it. And that’s what they’re practicing, is how to notice those emotions?

13:25 KE: Yeah. So there’s several components to it, but the main components are your feelings. So if something happens that triggers you, whether it’s making a lot of money, let’s say. So let’s say you have… You made more money in a month than you’ve ever made, you’re excited on one end, but then some fear starts to pop up. It’s just like, “How in the world am I gonna repeat this? Is this possible? Is this sustainable?”, all this stuff. And so, when the anxiety or fear pops up with that, the key you start to look at is the… Are the thoughts that are connected to the feeling. So a lot of times, if the thoughts are about, “I’m not worthy,” about… It’s a lot of deep, deep thoughts. So it’s like, “If I’m not worthy,” or, “If I don’t believe I’m worthy,” these are all beliefs, “to actually make this amount of money and to be successful,” then you will end up sabotaging yourself.

14:13 KE: And that’s how people stay in the pattern, so they’re like, “No, I don’t believe I’m actually worthy, and this is what I’m gonna do to kind of bring myself back down to this amount of money that I feel comfortable at.” So it’s looking at what those thoughts are, and then it’s learning how to challenge those old beliefs and change them, and so the tools around that become one. If it shows up in the body as a sensation, that’s old emotions that are stuck in there, and so you actually have to heal that, and that is about just feeling it. And I don’t mean thinking about it, I mean really feeling it. And this is a process that’s hard for a lot of people, and so I’ll walk them through how to do this and walk them with an issue that they’re having. We’ll actually go through the practice of feeling sensations or as I call it, surrendering to them, ’cause you actually just wanna be present with what’s really happening in the moment and allow it to come up and out.

15:05 KE: And then once the emotions will dissipate, and they always do, you just have to pay attention to them, then those feelings go away. The thoughts go away, and you can actually make some choices on what you wanna do. What I find is, if the fear is showing up over and over and over consistently, and you keep doing this, that’s usually your intuition saying, “Hey, listen, this is not right.” And that’s… ‘Cause fears can mean different things, but that’s… What I’ve learned is like, “Oh, if this keeps showing up all the time, and I keep releasing it, but it keeps showing up, then it’s something deeper trying to tell me something else.”

15:40 AI: Yeah. Oh, I love it.

15:41 S?: [15:41] ____.

15:42 AI: So what is the number one takeaway from this process, and why is it so important in your mind?

15:51 KE: I think the number one takeaway is that we are completely in control of ourselves, and if something happens that… Whether it’s somebody or it’s a situation, somebody says something or does something, and we get angry or frustrated or fearful, all that stuff is our own stuff. It has really nothing to do with what has happened, with what this person has done, with what the situation is. What we do is we take that, and we make it into a much bigger problem, because we’ll ruminate on it, we think about it. I call it “habitual reaction”, so we will constantly think about it and constantly cycle through it, and your body will just get more and more stressed or more [chuckle] and more anxious or whatever it is. But that’s the biggest takeaway to me, is like, “Oh, if I can actually understand what issues of mine are being triggered around this, then I’m in complete control of my life,” because I can actually deal with those, and I can change how I respond to somebody, or what choices that I make.

16:53 KE: If I don’t know what’s happening, and I continue to make other choices, because I’m making choices to get rid of those feelings, I don’t want the feelings, they’re uncomfortable, but if I don’t even know that they’re there because of my stuff, then I’m gonna stay, keep doing things that are gonna keep me in these patterns that aren’t super-healthy for me. And so, becoming aware of that, giving yourself control back, taking full responsibility and ownership of where you are and what your response is, in some way, to me, is huge, ’cause then you’re in the driver’s seat, right? You can make choices, and you can do different things. So that’s, to me, what the coolest part of this is.

17:31 AI: Yeah. Taking responsibility, owning it and making a change. I love it. So tell us how can people work with you? Do you do, obviously, individuals? Do you do group? Do you speak at events? How can people sign up for SHiFT?

17:47 KE: Yes, I do all those things. [chuckle] So I love speaking at events, and I do sort of a 30-minute, big picture overview of what this is, why it’s important, that sort of thing; I don’t necessarily teach it, but I give a lot of information about it. I do one-to-one sessions with people, so I can do them through Zoom, I can do them in person if they’re here in the Denver area. I’m gonna start doing some more kind of group coaching things, but in corporations, that sort of thing, or small businesses. I work… I’d use this a lot with teams, so teaching teams how to do this individually helps them communicate better, because a lot of times people… I mean, you’re interacting with people, so you get triggered by something somebody says on your team, and then all production stops, ’cause you’re mad or whatever, and they’re mad at you, so nobody wants to work anymore.

18:37 KE: Well, this helps you kinda realize that and work through it, so with teams. And then I’m also working on… I wanna do a class, but it would be all video series, so it would be, you get maybe three to five videos in your email, and each one will teach you pieces of it; it’s much more self-directed. Obviously, you do it when you want, but you’ll learn the basic concepts. And with the others, I usually lead you through whatever specific issue you have, in those other programs, so it’s a little more hand-holding, that sort of thing than the other ones, but on the videos it’s like you just learn it, and you do it.

19:15 AI: Okay. And where can I find this information?

19:18 KE: Oh, [chuckle] on my website. What is my website?

19:25 AI: And you’re on Facebook, so they can connect with you on Facebook.

19:28 KE: Yes. Oh yeah, yeah, I’m on Facebook. So Coach Kim Eickhoff, E-I-C-K-H-O-F-F, is my last name. And then…

19:36 AI: And I’ll put the links below in the comments as well.

19:39 KE: Oh okay, cool.

19:40 AI: And then I’ll put your website in there too.

19:42 KE: Okay, coachkimshift.com, so that’s a good place. And then I have a YouTube channel, Kim Eickhoff, if you just put that in there, it should pop up.

19:53 AI: Awesome. Wonderful. Well, I’m so excited. Thank you so much, Kim, for being on with us today. Be sure to subscribe below, everyone. And if you are ready to make some serious changes in your life and take control back, call Kim, and let’s get to work.

[chuckle]

20:14 KE: SHiFT.

20:14 AI: SHiFT.

[laughter]

20:15 AI: Thanks, Kim, have a great day.

20:16 KE: Thanks, Amber, you too.

Subscribe to our Podcast here

 

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Understanding your patient’s journey and How to market to them online

Discovering your Patient't Journey

From the moment a patient seeks medical care for an injury or makes an appointment with their family doctor to determine the cause of their recent symptoms, the patient has begun a journey during which multiple people may be involved.

Hospitals, physicians, nurses, and other providers, may all be, at one point or another, involved in this patient journey.

When we start to think of the “Patient Journey” we need to think of these things:

  • What they are going through?
  • What are their pain points before they get to you?
  • What are they experiencing and struggling with?

By identifying these things this helps you as a business owner be able to provide the right resources they are looking for.

In today’s healthcare landscape, consumers have more options, choices, and resources when it comes to the direction of their own care. This ecosystem shift slab that the patient transportation is not a linear one, but rather a multi-stage clause with many different channels and touch points along with the media (much like a tree with dozens of different branches).

A few stages of the “Patient Journey” –

Awareness: Self-assessment of barrier and symptoms, leading to online research and education, consequence problem on social media, etc. This is the start id their journey, they have recognized that something is not right with their body, or how they feel. Most people will become aware of their issue and then start the research process. 

This is where they will spend hours online on different tools like Google, Pinterest, Facebook, WedMd, etc. to try to identify what they are going through.

Help: At this point, the patient understands they need help with their symptoms and are looking for the correct place to go. This is where your resource marketing comes into handy because you have been building a rapport with your patients, they trust you and know you are the right person to start with. 

Care: This piece is where the “know, like, trust” factor comes in. When a patient chooses you to be their caretaker and help them with their issues or symptoms this is a really big deal. most people just think I am a doctor and this is what I am supposed to do, but you are doing so much more. You are becoming a large resource mentally, physically, and emotionally. 

Treatment: You may be on the journey with these patients for a while, or just a couple visits. It’s important to take note of their treatment so you can use that data to help other patients like them. Treatment can be anything from home remedies, physical therapy, chemo, counseling, whether it be large or small treatment it will be a world of difference to your patient if they are no longer in pain. 

Behavioral/Lifestyle Change: Changes to reduce readmissions and promote proactive health. How has your care and treatment helped them to live a better life? This piece right here is the end goal, this is what people are looking for. 

  • Do they want to be able to walk with ease again?
  • Be able to live to see their family grow?
  • Be able to overcome their fears?

Whatever that lifestyle is for them that they will be able to achieve when they are doing work with you and your practice is the first step to your digital marketing. They are wanting something better in their life, they became aware of their problem, sought help, got treatment, and now ready to live their life again.

Ongoing Care/Proactive Health: What is the call-to-action? Do they need to come for follow-up appointments, exercises at home, home remedies, physical therapy, etc.? What do they need to do to continue their lifestyle and be proactive from here on out? 

It’s important for the patient to understand their journey and continue to improve. 

WHAT IS PATIENT JOURNEY MAPPING?

Patient route mapping in the healthcare industry is a data-driven, patient-centric approach to planning marketing activity, communications, and (to some degree) even delivery care. It’s a way to gather the facts, discover the anticipation of your patient, and then line-up that information to deliver an exemplary healthcare experience.

What testament a patient excerpt map do for you?

In short, patient section maps give you a clear guide for how to improve retention and acquisition through customer satisfaction. Exceeding patient expectation benefits your saps relation convenience twofold:

  1. It increases retention rates through patient satisfaction
  2. It increases new patient acquisition through evangelism

Word of mouth is still, and most likely always will be the best form of marketing, but if you can really connect with your patient’s on a much deeper level and be able to provide information, be a resource for them and their family. This allows you to take your digital marketing to the next level and reach more people. 

Conclusion

Active listening and putting systems in place is key! You will always want a steady flow of patient’s, and as their lives change maybe they move or find a different doctor or maybe your services are no longer needed, it’s important to keep that pipeline full with new and potential patient’s that need your services.

Digital marketing is a great way to connect with a potential patient’s in your community and be more than just a provider, but a resource. Once people feel they can trust your practice and get their questions answered, that’s when the magic happens. They start talking about you online and referring you more and more.

A few things to do when you get a new patient:

  1. Collect their email address – don’t just leave this in your system and not do anything with it, add it to your CRM like MailChimp, InfusionSoft, SalesForce, MyEmma, Constant Contact, etc. an email software so you can send them monthly newsletters with valuable information.
  2. Ask them to like you on Facebook or Instagram
  3. Invite them to leave a positive review on Google and/or Facebook once they are satisfied with their treatment
  4. Then have a strong social media presence to continue to stay top of mind

Remember, you are an important piece of your patient’s journey!

Learn more about  3 Tested Tactics to Integrate Patient Journey in Digital Marketing Strategy

Understanding your patient's journey and How to market to them online

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How to Use Digital Marketing to Grow your Healthcare Practice

How to Use Digital Marketing to Grow your Healthcare Practice

As a healthcare practice, it is really important to stay top of mind with your current patients and also future patients. By using digital marketing there are so many ways to stay connected.

One question we get asked a lot is:  

“How do we increase our engagement and promote our practice with digital marketing?”

Well, that answer is a little tricky since there are many different options out there. It’s more of a combination of different tools to make your digital marketing work for you. In the digital marketing world, it is about trial and error, seeing what your audience responds to the most and how to start those conversations. 

In this blog, I am going to talk about 5 ways to help increase your engagement and promote your practice. 

Word of mouth and referral marketing are still the best ways to grow your practice, but with people being able to access information from SO many places we have to be a little more creative and think outside the box to build those relationships and loyalty.

Once they have come into your practice you want to make sure you stay top of mind, more importantly, you want to make sure you have good online profiles so it is easy for your audience to refer you.

How many of you have wanted to try something new with digital marketing but just don’t know where to start or what to try?

Social media marketing is one of the most popular ways to get in front of your current audience and potential new patients.

You can do this organically or implement paid ads as well. This is not an overnight success, it does take time, but it does work!

Let’s talk about the 5 Ways to Help Increase Your Engagement and Promote Your Practice:

1. Instagram

We have been talking about Instagram a lot this year and we will continue to do so, it is one of the fastest growing social media platforms with the average age 35-65-year-olds. Instagram is all about the visuals, from building a strong brand presence on your feed, having font styles on your images, color scheme, image theme, etc. this makes your feed look clean and interesting. Let’s dive into how to master Instagram Stories

This biggest thing with Instagram right now is the Instagram Stories, these stories only stay up for 24-hours, so this is a great place for:

One really cool thing you can do with these stories is “Highlight” them, this saves them into an area about your feed pictures, you can categorize them so all your stories go to the correct boards.  This turns into a great resource for your audience, each video on Instagram Stories can be 15 seconds long, you can record a 45sec to a 1 min long video and then use this app called CutStory and it automatically cuts your video into 15-second increments for you to share.

How to highlight Instagram Stories

You can also create branded Instagram stories images with Canva, they have different themes you can choose from, you can use your own font styles, brand colors, logo, and images.

Now, you may be thinking what if I do a video that is more than 1-minute long, where should I put that? Well, don’t worry, Instagram has you covered and that is where IGTV comes into play. This is similar to YouTube but it allows your audience to watch the full video on Instagram, they don’t have to leave the platform.

A few ideas to create IGTV videos around are:

  • New mother tips
  • Birthing Plan
  • Vaccines
  • Physical Therapy
  • Counseling Tips
  • National Observance Days
  • Surgery Tips
  • New medical practices
  • Interviews with nurses and doctors

Instagram has a lot of bells and whistles you are able to tap into and really grow a long-lasting relationship with your audience.

2. Video Marketing

It’s 2019 and it’s all about the videos! Video marketing is huge and will continue to grow. Videos are great because it allows your audience to connect with you quicker. We wrote a blog a few months ago about “How to Create a Strong Video Marketing Strategy” videos are something you either love or hate.

Videos can be educational for your audience, videos with closed captions are even better. Here are a few good stats about video:

Let’s dive into the statistics behind healthcare marketing with video:

  1. About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video. (Source: Eloqua)
  1. Video is now the sixth most popular content marketing tactic, as 70% of B2B marketers use some form of online video with their overall strategies. (Source: Eloqua)
  1. Of the 80% of internet users who watched a video ad, 46% took some sort of action after viewing the ad. (Source: Video Brewery)
  1. The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video. (Source: Mist Media)
  1. Video and e-mail marketing can increase click-through rates by more than 90%.(Source: Mist Media)
  1. Video equals higher viewer retention. The information retained in one minute of online video is equal to about 1.8 million written words. (Source: Brainshark)
  1. Video attracts two to three times as many monthly visitors, doubles their time spent on the site and has a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
  1. Blog posts incorporating video attract three times as many inbound links as blog posts without video. (Source: SEOmoz) 
  1. 59% of senior executives prefer video over text. (Source: Brainshark)
  1. Having a video on the landing page of your site makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of Google. (Source: Mist Media)

Source Here

When you think of video marketing, most people think you have to have a studio, pay a professional, take a lot of time on editing, props, backgrounds, and more. In all honesty with the technology of the newer smartphones and HD cameras, you can really shoot your own videos in office. Actually, the more authentic videos are the ones that get the most engagement online.

A couple of things to remember when shooting a video from your smartphones when you are recording a video for Instagram be sure to have your phone vertical, and when shooting a video for YouTube, Blogs, or Facebook you will want your phone horizontal.

Let’s start recording! Be Authentic, real, give value, and have fun!

3. Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are climbing higher on the list for digital marketing, gone are the days where just having a Facebook page worked, Facebook pages work great if you plan on spending money on ads.

There are a ton of Facebook groups out there that your practice can join, you can even start your own group.

For example – Let’s say you are a women’s medical office, Your services include OB-GYN, birthing center, primary care, pediatrician, etc. But, one special thing that your office focuses on is wanting to help new mothers with education. Vaccines, breastfeeding, car seats, home care, feeding, etc. Most of your patients come from within a 25-mile radius of your office, you can create a group on Facebook called “Tips for New Mothers YOUR CITY” in this group you can invite your current patients to join, post daily, as your group continues to grow you will post two or three times a day. You are creating a community of women that are going through the same thing and want answers. You can allow the members of the group to post questions and concerns for your practice to answer. This is a wonderful way to create trust with your patients. You can then start to mention the other services your practice offers.

In this video below, I will show you how to start a group from scratch and also how to search for groups to join.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is NOT dead, I know some may think that email marketing and newsletters are a waste of time, but they actually work great. It is a convenient way to stay top of mind with your patients. With social media marketing and the algorithms it’s hard to really know who has seen your organic posts, then to monitor the engagement. Now, the insights and analytics on the social media platforms tell you how many likes, comments, and shares you had on posts. With email marketing, you can actually see who opened your emails, who read them, and who clicked through to your website.

There are a few ways to incorporate email marketing into your plan:

  • Content Upgrades, also known as Free downloads. This is a piece of content you put together for your ideal patient to download, in order for them to download it they have to submit their name and email. For example – if we go back to the example in number 3, you could create:
    • Newborn checklist
    • Going home checklist
    • Breastfeeding Tips
    • New Momma Myths
    • Top 10 products to have at home for your new baby
    • etc.

This pdf would then be uploaded to your website and linked into MailChimp or Leadpages to create a landing page with the form for name and email, you can then push this out to social media, your current email list of current patients. Over time you will create quite a few content upgrades. Make a list of different checklists, ebooks, resources you can create for your patients now and then you push that out to gain new email subscriptions to grow your email list. This is an example of what a sign-up form looks like:

  • Newsletters – You can send weekly or monthly newsletters to your lists, in some cases you may have multiple lists and can customize a newsletter for each list based on your audience. It is important to understand what your audience wants to know about so you can pack your newsletters with valuable content. It doesn’t matter if you do weekly updates or monthly, what matters most is consistency. Whatever you choose to do be sure to stick with it. You can also incorporate your videos into these emails, this allows you to build those deeper relationships!

5. Blogging

Blogging serves dual purposes, it is great for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and it allows you to show your expertise. When you are promoting your practice on social media your end goal is to get them back to your website to sign-up for your email list, book an appointment, or fill out paperwork, how do you give them an incentive to go back to your website?

When blogging just like everything else we have spoken about it is all about consistency. One blog per month or two, as long as you do one each month, these are no longer 300-500 word blogs, these are cornerstone blogs which means 1500+ words per blog. We recently wrote a blog on how to share your blog, in that post there is a FREE download, a blog checklist, you can download it here.

Your blogs should cover content that your audience wants to learn about, whether this is myths around vaccines, childbirth, new momma tips, etc.

This is where you tie the above 1-4 items into your blogging. In each blog post you will be:

  • Making an image you can share onto Instagram
  • Make a “teaser” video for Instagram with 3 inside tips from your blog
  • Create a longer video for IGTV about your blog
  • Create videos to go inside your blog post – you will place these videos on YouTube then insert them into your blog posts
  • You can also create a content upgrade or call to action for your readers to sign-up for your email list. Here is an example of a great blog post

Your website/blog is your hub, you want to drive traffic to your hub. Once your blog is complete you can then share it to multiple platforms with links back to your site, this helps reach new potential patients as well.

As you can see through these 5 different marketing platforms, they each allow you to grow your practice and connect with your audience on a deeper level. They all work based on consistency and planning. This is why having a digital marketing plan is so important.

If you are ready to take control of your digital marketing and want to see how to implement these tasks into your marketing plan please schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation with us today! 

How to Use Digital Marketing to Grow your Healthcare Practice

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How to Use a Content Upgrade to Grow Your Business and Email List

In today’s world of digital marketing, it is important to stand out from the crowd and really be able to provide your audience value.

Today, we will be discussing the importance of utilizing content upgrades for your business.

These are FREE downloads and added benefits to your blogs that your audience wants.

How it works:

  1. This shows your audience that you are an expert in your industry, by providing valuable content on a topic your audience is already looking for. You are able to connect with them and start building trust with them. It’s about the – Know, Like, Trust factor. 
  2. By utilizing Content Upgrades it allows you to grow your email list. Having a strong email list to market to is like gold. This happens because in order for your audience to receive their free content upgrade they need to enter in their name and email.  Another key factor to using Content Upgrades is you are able to understand your audience more and really know what they are looking for so you can write more content for them. 
  3. Once you have their email address you can remarket to them with future items similar to your content upgrade, this is called the nurturing process, building the trust with them so they will want to do business with you.

So, let’s take this one step at a time and go through the process of what a content upgrade can be and then how to create one.

Content upgrades are the free downloads that you sign up for in exchange for your name and email address. The content upgrades can be a variety of things. 

One key place you can look to start thinking of what your content upgrade should be is your FAQ section on your website. This FAQ section gets a TON of SEO benefits from Google, so looking at what your top questions are or event turning those FAQ into a content upgrade.

Here are a few examples of content upgrades.

These upgrades can come in many shapes and forms, but typically include:

  • Tools and Resources List
  • Secret Podcast Episode
  • Checklist of the steps taken in the blog
  • Regular Checklist 
  • Additional Related Content
  • Downloadable PSD files or other design assets
  • One Month Free of your product or membership site
  • A Printable
  • Swipe Copy (people love swipe copy, FYI, this is used more for affiliates, content they can copy and paste to promote your product or program)
  • Transcripts for Audio or Video Recordings
  • Worksheets to support a blog post
  • eBook
  • Case Study
  • Interactive handout
  • Video series

You can also think outside the box and include:

  • 15-minute phone calls
  • Strategy reviews
  • Free sessions
  • Etc.

The goal of these upgrades is to increase the number of subscribers on your email list.

All of these items can be used to grab the attention of your target audience. You are creating a valuable piece of content that your audience wants, they then give you their name and email to download this content upgrade.

Now, that you have an idea of WHAT a content upgrade is, it’s time to start planning what you should be creating for yours.

We have a worksheet for you to go along with this blog and to be able to jot down your ideas. Please download your free copy now to continue with this blog. (See how we are using a content upgrade?!?!)

Download Your FREE Content Upgrade Worksheet

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It’s very important to be clear about what you are going to create, and understand that you will have multiple content upgrades. You may do a content upgrade for each blog post, or each service you offer.

For example, if you are a nutritionist and work with clients one on one, you may write a blog and your content upgrade would be a grocery checklist or a food substitute checklist that your audience can download for free then they learn to trust you.  Then if you have another blog or maybe even promoting your coaching services you may have a 3-part video series as your content upgrade to help your audience know, like, and trust you along with giving them valuable information within the video series.

Now, that you have figured out your topic and then format you want to create your content upgrade on, it’s time for the fun part!

How to Create Your Content Upgrade

To create your content, you could have a:

  • PDF: These are great for workbooks, checklists, Guides, etc. Simple tools like Word, Pages, Google Drive Slides, or PowerPoint are all easy to save as PDF’s.
  • Email Course: These don’t even require PDF’s. In an email course, you are sending valuable information over the course of a few days. This makes it so the recipient isn’t overwhelmed by information and sees your name pop up more frequently. MailChimp allows for automated email sequences, which is a great free way to share this content.
  • Free consultation: All you need here is your phone. You can use Calendly.com to set time blocks that you are available for consultations to reduce the back and forth.

As subscribers are added to your email list, it is important that you are tagging these individuals with what they were interested in. For us, for example, someone who is interested in information on how to manage their Facebook, won’t be interested in information designed in educating other social media managers. We want to make sure any future emails we send to our list align with the topics they initially were interested in.

Let’s dive a little deeper and talk about how to create each of these things. 

1. Use Google Docs or Word to put your thoughts on paper or screen

I love using Google docs because it is a live document and you can use it from any device, it is also great if you have a team that will be working on this project together.

Don’t worry about fonts, colors, visual appeal at this point. It is just about getting the words on the paper at this point.

You can add images and change font later once you have the content complete. Sometimes, I worry too much about the visual appeal at the beginning that I lose focus on the value of the content.

2. Time for the Creative Part – Creating your Cover

Graphics are very important to your content upgrade, they are the main thing that drives the attention of your viewers. We use an awesome tool called Canva, this is where we create the cover image, you can use the 8.5×11

They have Free themes you can edit, add your own font, brand colors, images where you can do one of two things here, you can just create your cover

3. Creating Your Google Doc into PDF

If you choose to use Canva just to create your Cover image then you would download that image to your computer, then head over to your Google Docs and insert that image on the first page.

Then you will want to make sure you have a footer with your contact info:

  • Company Name
  • Website
  • Email Address
  • Logo

Check to make sure you have the images in the correct areas, the fonts you want and the right brand colors. If you do not have the correct brand color number you can use this FREE Chrome extension ColorPick Eye Dropper, this works to pull the correct color number that then you can add to Google Docs and Canva.

Once that is complete you can go to File > Download As > PDF

Save it to your computer. This saves it in an 8.5×11 PDF.

4. Adding the PDF to your website

You want that PDF to have a URL so you can add it to your sign-up form within MailChimp or Lead Pages. 

You can upload this PDF to your WordPress website into the media area, this gives you the URL so you can hyperlink the download within your welcome messages in your sign-up form. We love to use MailChimp because it is free and very simple to use.

5. Bringing it all together

Now, you have everything created and ready to start having people sign up, right?

It’s time to create your landing page and your form so people can start signing up to get your free content upgrade.

Like we said in step 4, we use MailChimp because it is simple and easy to use.

There are other options like using your website or LeadPages as well. In the video below it walks you through the MailChimp process.

Wrapping it all up

I hope from this blog you are able to see the big picture behind these content upgrades/free downloads. There are so many different ways you can tie these into your marketing. One thing I love about content upgrades is it gives that extra oomph to your blogs. I love the creative process of creating a content upgrade.

Have fun with this process and maybe create 2-3 to start and see which one performs better!

Lead Growth Management

Social media networks and search engines can change their algorithms without warning. Email marketing is currently (and historically) the most effective way to continue building trust with prospects, increase recurring revenue, and see an ROI from other marketing efforts. The Social Speak Email Marketing team works with your strategist to build content upgrades, welcome series, and newsletters to stay top of mind.

We are here to help!

 

 

How to Use a Content Upgrade to Grow Your Business and Email List

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How to be the Go-To Health/Wellness resource for your local audience

How to be the Go-To Health/Wellness resource for your local audience

The health and wellness industry has been booming which is amazing!  Companies and people are finally taking their health seriously and are looking for reliable resources to guide them and their staff to a more healthier lifestyle.  Though that is great, it does mean that we are seeing more and more health and wellness companies pop up.  So the question is, how do you become the “go-to” resource for your community?

Networking

Networking within your community is the best way to self-promote, create relationships, and see what your community is looking for in terms of a health and wellness resource.  There are many great ways to connect through local networking:

  • Lunch and Learns– Set up times with local businesses to come in during lunch hours and present on a topic or provide demonstrations.  Corporate health has been on the rise and companies are paying more for preventative care now more than ever.   With you demonstrating what your services are or presenting on a common health issue that the company may address, the employees and upper management will start to see you as their resource and will most likely come to you for future needs.
  • Community workshops/events– These are great events to showcase what you offer and what your specialty is.  It’s also a way to see what the local needs are in terms of services or topics they are interested in.  The more you are seen in your community, answering questions and presenting on topics, the more people will remember you as the health and wellness person.
  • Webinars– Webinars can connect you to the people in your community who may not have the option to meet you one on one or attend an event you are at.  They are can download the webinar and watch it when it’s convenient for them so you can reach a larger population and they can refer back to it anytime.  Another great thing about webinars is that you can link them to your site and social media pages from the video to help drive traffic to your sites right away.

Networking in the community #wordofmouth #networking #smallbusiness #healthandwellness

Content Upgrades

Content upgrades can give your local community a sample of what you offer.  These can work for multiple types of health businesses from health coaches to clinics through different types of content upgrades:

  • Resource Guide to your Niche- This guide can show off some of the services you offer by offering information or a go-to guide on specific topics.  People can download it and have material that will drive traffic back to your site for more information.
  • Cheatsheets, Challenges, and Checklists, Oh my! – All of these are great action-based materials.  That means it gives your community something to follow up with or physically try.  Challenges get people motivated, excited, and talking about your content and business.  Checklists can be referenced over and over again. They are also easily updated to accommodate multiple topics.  And who doesn’t like a cheat sheet that can help make their health journey a tad bit easier? Add items such any numbers, conversions, quick reference points for a health topic, etc.
  • Free Trial– Get people using your services with a trial run.  This can give them a snapshot of what you do in your business and can spark interest.
  • Case Study– For more clinical businesses or businesses that want to show scientific benefits, case studies can be used as content upgrades.  They give your community facts about the types of services you are offering, but, always make sure that you site the case study and check that it’s from a reputable source.

Social Media Content

We are living in a social media time.  Most people, once they meet you, will look you up on social media.  The content you post can have a huge impact on their impression of you and your business.  Create an engaging and education-heavy environment through your media content:

  • Engaging Instagram stories– Using Instagram and Instagram stories can be an amazing way to engage your community.  You can utilize IG Stories to post personal messages, ask questions, and create a buildup to an event.  Followers can comment on your stories or you can respond in real-time when doing a Q&A session.  To see how to use IG Stories more in depth, check out our previous blog:  Using Instagram Story Tools to Engage your Viewers
  • Tagging other Resources– A great resource knows other resources in the area and since we can’t be an expert on everything, we need to work on gaining other reliable resources.  You can tag them and lead your followers to other reputable resources in the area which builds relationships with residents as well as local businesses.
  • Videos to showcase your specialty– Social media videos can connect you with your followers through your work.  You can post demos of what you do, testimonials of successful past customers, or anything that aligns with your specialty and what you are trying to accomplish through your business.

Professional Networking

Building relationships through community events is very beneficial but there is a whole other community you may be missing- the professional networking community.  Corporate health and reaching the working community can open other doors for your business.  There are also really fun ways to network with local businesses:

 

  • Trade Shows– These events can give you an insight into what the needs may be based on questions asked.  It’s also an opportunity for you to meet locals and other business owners and while building relationships.
  • Hosting a Lecture Series– Hosting a lecture series for local businesses can give you a way to present what your business  can offer their employees and why you should be their contact for all things health related.  By setting up a series, you can display what you offer and continue to bring in new topics of interest when you come back.  As a health resource, people will probably have many questions so following up the series with a Q&A can have a great impact on how you are received as an expert in your field.
  • Industry Happy Hours– These are fun ways to get business owners out in the town and be able to connect outside of work.  These are great events to build relationships, see what the needs of businesses are, and have a little fun while doing it.  They are low-pressure but be sure to have business cards or samples of what you do.
  • Join Organizations– By joining local organizations, you are showing the neighborhood that you are invested in the community and care about what happens in it.  You will also get opportunities to be more involved in the local events.  The more you can get out into the neighborhood, the more people will get to know your face and what your business stands for.

These are just some of the ways to that you can build up relationships, get involved in your community, and support the local people in their health journey.  Relate to where your business is and fulfill a need.  Once people start to see you around more, see that you are invested in the community, and see your passion/knowledge of what you do, you will start to become the first person they think of when they think of health topics.

Professional Networking #networking #businessnetwork #supportlocal

Content Upgrades for networking #cheatsheets #checklists #freetrial #challenges #promocode

 

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