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Jessica Osborn, Marketing Coach & CEO at Jessica Osborn
Branding is one part of a marketing strategy, so a marketing agency should deliver brand as part of their remit, while a brand agency wouldn't deliver marketing services. There's definitely some degree of overlap in the strategy area but a branding agency wouldn't advise on your offers and pricing, but they would help you with your positioning, message and reputation build to attract the right people.
As someone who's spent 20 years in corporate marketing prior to running my own business I can say that the terms 'marketing' and 'brand' are often misunderstood.
Brand is not just visual identity, it's much more about reputation and message.
Marketing is not just customer acquisition, it's the entire business strategy of building a reputation, attracting, converting and servicing customers, even the end of the customer journey is an opportunity to create a good experience to build brand equity.
Can anyone share some advice on how to create a marketing strategy for a new product?
32 views
Steve Gray, Director at Gray Capital Investments
First let's start with a question... You got started in business, did you include marketing costs in your original budget? Did you have enough capital to cover that cost as well as the rest of the start up costs?
When you did your initial plan did it include a marketing plan? Target market - who they are - what challenge you will solve for them - how you will get into their heads?Oh and a swot analysis of your competition?
Did you take a look at what marketing the competition does, did or otherwise? Did you say to yourself, I wonder what that costs, and did you do your research to find out what they are payng to market the way they do?
Is your brain hurting yet? :)
Now take a look at whats available, in short, heaps... but it falls into a bunch of loose categorires.
Now you could do TV adverts at 3 am and get a very cheap rate on those adverts and that would be awesome and be a budget conscious way togo, but the results? probably not so hot, unless you are aiming at nightowls etc. ;)
Forst thing is who do you want your customers to be? - If you sell a product or service to plumbers then get your message in front of them where they will see it, not in some obscure place where the advert was cheap but no plumbers got to see it.
Second thing, you need to know is, how often people need to see your 'advert' before they twigg you even exist... then how many before they actually buy, there can be a BIG difference! You might have a cheap advert in a magazine that goes straight to your target market, but if you only put it in once, don't expect a big result, or any result for that matter.
Thirdly, make your business stand out with a professional logo, masthead or similar and be consistent with the image and colours etc.
If your business is localised, you could do social media adverts and set the criteria for where your advert shows up to your area only, that can work well.
Your next challenge is the copy writing, to ensure the advert hits the mark for the reader.
Do you have a page on social media? If so your work here is to get the numbers of readers, followers etc to grow over time so each time you ad something to it you get a good response. The same with an email sign up on your website. Grab people as they get on board and feed them.
Most people give up on social media becasue it tends to take up a LOT of time, especially initally as they have a hard time figuring out what to say about what they have, do or otherwise.
Welcome to the minefield of marketing, it can serve you well or it can BLOW UP with one wrong step, so tread carefully. :)
Hatty Bell , Community Manager at SavvySME
Amazing insight @Steve Gray - so much to think about! Where do we start?!!!
Tom Valcanis, Copywriter at I Sell Words
I was a Marketing and Communications Manager at a not-for-profit once and I did a lot of thumb-twiddling and call-answering. But when it got busy around event time, I was working 12 hour days. So it all depends on what your strategy is and whether you need a dedicated team or not.
You can build a good marketing team without having the team be on site all the time. I don't think a business will need video production five days a week. Having them come in for strategy and tactical sessions every so often makes sense. Marketing professionals are used to collaborating with many different companies at once - it might seem counter-intuitive to non-marketing people, but it's common for me to work with a certain video production company and their competitor all in the same day on different projects. It's the nature of the industry.
Hatty Bell , Community Manager at SavvySME
Good points @Tom Valcanis . Outsourcing makes it easier to hire experts suitable for a particular project or suited to a certain style.
Does anyone have any suggestions for healthcare marketing best practices?
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Jvalin Sonawala, Owner at Market Your Biz
This is a Premium Business member
There are various ways you can market your business.
One of the most used ways is to promote it online, digital marketing - the most advance way of marketing. Nowadays businesses do need online presence too to expand their business.
Does anyone have any advice on how to market a health clinic or health practice effectively?
358 views
Sara Neumann, Director of PR at Nuvolum
As you know, the healthcare industry is constantly changing and evolving, so it's important to stay nimble and map out your objectives. I'm in healthcare marketing for oral surgeons and dentists and here are a few marketing and PR strategies I implement that have been successful in increasing brand awareness and ultimately increasing new patients.
1. Create videos featuring your physicians.
YouTube is the second most popular social media platform behind Facebook and is the second largest search engine behind Google. Video content not only can help market your practice and help you stand out from competitors, but it can also boost your SEO. Now more than ever it's important to stay human, and videos help establish a comfortable doctor-patient relationship that can help attract new patients and retain ones you already have.
2. Give back to the community.
Retargeting past and current patients to promote services and procedures is an all too often overlooked healthcare marketing tactic. For example, offer a promotion, reward program, or even a free service. One of my dental clients offers free teeth cleanings for children during February which is National Children's Dental Health Month. This is a great way to earn press, get new patients in your practice, and boost patient loyalty.
3. Social media
Instagram is a visual platform that offers an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience in a new way. If you’re a physician in aesthetics or cosmetics, Instagram can be a fantastic tool to generate new patients. Utilizing Instagram to share before and after’s and successful aesthetic results can be great exposure for your practice and show off your advanced capabilities as a doctor. Facebook provides a two-way communication channel and is an extremely targeted tool. You're able to interact with your audience and give a "voice" to your practice. It's also a fantastic advertising platform.
Hope this helps!
Hatty Bell , Community Manager at SavvySME
Thanks for your insight @Sara Neumann - it sounds like building community online and offline is key within healthcare? Connections are so important!
SEO Director at Prosperity Media
Founder and CEO at Smart Solutions PR