You want what’s best for your practice and your patients; that’s why you’re open to anything new that comes your way that might help you achieve your goals. Sometimes, all that glitters is not gold. In these cases, your best bet is to look at the big picture.
Imagine This …
You receive a call from an agency that specializes in marketing through online ads. They are clear on their very reasonable price and the ads they will run for your practice, and you’re willing to take a chance in the best interest of your business. True to their word, this agency creates a catchy campaign that appeals to the masses. The problem is, once the ad is setup and launched, what happens next? If part of their service does not include all that goes along with marketing, such as checking the ads to see how they are performing, looking at the ads they’ve launched on Facebook to see if anyone has commented so they can respond, and optimizing these campaigns — then they’re not putting the interest of your business ahead of their own. The easiest part of all ad campaigns is the front loaded process of setting everything up but what happens after that is where the real magic happens. Not all companies are willing to put in the hard work, which comes after all the bells and whistles of what they sold you. One example of this, recently we saw a Facebook ad that launched and had multiple comments on the ad, some of which were not very flattering for the practice. The company that launched the ad was not monitoring this ad and did not address any of these comments.
Not addressing the comments not only can reflect negatively upon the image of your practice and be deterring potential patients from contacting your practice if they see the comments not being responded to; however, it could also have lasting effects on the overall branding of your practice on social media outlets.
The Best Approach Is a Comprehensive Approach
While some agencies may seem to offer the latest, greatest, and shiniest approach available, a single-focused marketing campaign is not what’s best for your business. In the example above, the agency that specialized in online advertising followed through on what they promised; the problem was that they offered no support beyond their narrow focus, leaving it up to the business owner to scramble for a way to recover from the damage done on the ad and for them to figure out the rest. Everything you do to market your practice must work in concert; your website, emails, blogs, reputation management, and social media efforts have to work together in order to provide the most comprehensive and effective marketing campaigns. Without this equilibrium, you’re sure to lose patients in one way or another.
When you think of what’s necessary in your kitchen, most of the integral pieces will have multiple functions; the only single-use tool you have is likely your fire extinguisher. The same can be said of the components you use to promote your practice. When you’re tempted by the shiny new thing in the window, consider how it will work with every other marketing tool you’re utilizing. If it’s good for one task and nothing else, toss it out with the $30 boar-bristle radish scrubber.
