What is it?

Social media marketing is all about engaging your target audience on a socially digital platform. It’s the act of creating unique content to promote your business, products and brand on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

There are a number of ways social media marketing can benefit your business, but to keep it brief, let’s narrow it down and take a look at the top four reasons.

Brand Awareness: Now that you’ve established your brand (see the Brand tab), it’s time to embed that brand into your consumers’ lives. Brand awareness represents how familiar your target audience is with you. In 2018 there were over 3.2 billion people across the globe using social media – that’s half the world’s population! Just by simply listing company details (i.e. your website) and product information on one platform, you are already increasing your brand’s exposure by a significant percentage. You can do this by including direct links in your profile, bio, and posts.

Customer Relationships: Social media has been proven to boost brand awareness by driving up engagement. Social engagement includes things like comments, likes, shares, and re-posts. By connecting and engaging with your followers, you’ll be able to build lasting relationships between them and your business. Social media is also a great place to capture customer feedback – ask your followers about your products and their experiences. Show them that you value their input and gain free market insight at the same time!

Learn About Competitors: Social media is a great place to gain insight into your competition. Visit their profiles and see what exactly they’re doing as far as social media tactics, how they promote their products and how they interact with their audience. See what’s working – or not working for them and use that information to influence your strategy.

Generate Leads and Boost Conversions: Promoting your products on social media is a simple way to improve lead generation, boost conversions, and increase sales. You know that you’re advertising to the perfect audience because these are people who have opted to engage with you by following your account. Here are just a few tactics you can use: contests; live videos; sell your products directly through your social profile.

How do I get started?

Research: Build off of the target audience research we spoke about in the Analysis tab to determine who your buyer personas and audience are so you can target their needs and interests appropriately.

Pick Your Platform(s): Once you’ve determined who your target audience is, it’s time to pick your platforms. It’s important to avoid stretching yourself too thin. More doesn’t necessarily mean better. Pick the platform(s) where your target audience is and make the most of it.

Here’s an audience breakdown of each platform according to HubSpot: Facebook = Generation X & Millennials ; Twitter = Primarily Millennials; Instagram = Primarily Millennials; LinkedIn = Baby Boomers, Generation X & Millennials; Youtube = Millennials, closely followed by Generation Z; Snapchat = Primarily Generation Z; Pinterest = Primarily older Millennials and younger Baby Boomers.

Content Creation: Create engaging, follow-worthy content. To help you get started, consider the content your competitors are sharing and how you can uniquely promote your products. Also, take full advantage of the features offered by the platform you’re using (i.e. Instagram Stories or Facebook Live videos). Finally, your content should always include a call to action – for example, adding a link to an Online Hearing Screener when promoting your hearing clinic encourages engagement and can result in a new lead.

Scheduling Strategy: You might be wondering how often you should post content on your social media channels. Remember, you should only post when you have quality content to share. One of the easiest ways to ensure your content is shared as planned is to use a social media management solution. These tools can help you with scheduling posts in advance and with monitoring the engagement activity.

Analyze: Analytics helps you understand which of your social media tactics and strategies are working and which aren’t. You can do this by reviewing and managing metrics such as – data about your level of engagement, likes, follows, shares, and all other interactions on each platform. Click here for more information on tracking social media metrics. 

What is it?

Email marketing is the practice of sending marketing messages to prospective and current customers via email to sell, educate, or build loyalty.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

You should use email to build upon an existing relationship with your subscribers and leads by providing relevant, valuable information to encourage them to take action. There are several purposes to email marketing, including:

• Brand Awareness
• Marketing Your Products
• Building Relationships
• Promoting Content
• Generating Leads
• Nurturing Leads

How do I get started?

The key to successful email marketing lies in the creation of a strong email marketing strategy. Think of the following five steps as an outline of your strategy.

Establish Your Audience: Like anything in marketing, start with defining who you are speaking with. Once you do that, tailor your messaging to fit their needs. Remember, an effective email is a relevant one.

Define Your Goals: This requires some light research. Figure out what the average email stats are for your industry and use that to help you set your own goals (i.e. open rates; click-through rates; response rates).

Sign Up Forms: An email list is a group of users who have given you permission to send them relevant content. To build that list, you need ways for prospects to opt-in to receive your emails. It’s important that you create enticing opt-in forms that offer relevant information, have an attractive design, is simple, and flows well.

What is it?

It’s estimated that a staggering $124 billion was spent on paid search marketing in 2018, and only in the United States. Paid search will continue to grow due to how highly effective it can generate new business, and advertisers will remain keen to invest.

Paid search is a digital marketing strategy that gives advertisers the ability to show their ads on search engines’ results pages such as Google and Bing. This form of advertising utilizes a pay-per-click betting strategy, meaning that the advertiser only pays when the users click on an ad. Typically, the advertiser who bids the most will receive the best placement on the search results page. Most paid search ads are text-based and contain a title, description, and path name. However, other factors such as ad content, competition, land page content, and website usability can also play a role.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Paid search is an excellent way to quickly generate relevant and engaged traffic for your clinic’s website. Ads can be rapidly created, and campaigns can be customized using the keywords and targeting pertinent to your marketing goals. Google provides a lot of data, making it easier to make data-driven decisions helping your clinic control and optimize spend. In addition, Call to Actions (CTA) such as form submissions, chat conversations, and even phone calls can be readily traced, empowering you with the knowledge needed to tweak your campaigns when required.

How do I get started?

All paid campaigns are unique, with some comprising of a handful of keywords and ads. In contrast, others may have numerous keyword groups, landing pages, bidding strategies, and various other layers. A paid search campaign can be as simplistic or elaborate as the needs of your clinic dictate. A modest campaign on Google or Bing can be set up in an hour and generate traffic shortly after, while more complex ones could take months to create and demand ongoing maintenance.

Various tools and services on the market can help your hearing clinic with paid search, such as WordStream, HubSpot, Optmyzr, and more. These solutions, along with others, have unique features and pricing, and you’ll want to find the best fit for your hearing clinic’s marketing needs. Additionally, both Google and Bing have keyword research tools in their platform that make the process of building a campaign more manageable to navigate.

What is it?

Organic Search Marketing is more commonly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This marketing strategy is used to gain unpaid traffic from people searching and clicking on organic listings in search engines such as Google. Organic traffic tends to be very qualified, and with its low cost, it typically has a strong ROI.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful marketing strategy that can generate lots of high-quality and low-cost leads for your clinic. Not only will SEO increase the number of people visiting your clinic’s website, but it will help keep your brand top-of-mind.

People expect instant information, and SEO will help ensure your clinic’s content appears as people search Google during their hearing healthcare journey. Not only will this help your clinic establish a sense of trust, but it will also drive highly qualified people to your website. In addition, having well-designed web pages with clear and easy-to-use contact forms and chat boxes will help your clinic generate leads 24/7.

How do I get started?

The process starts by ensuring your website looks professional, easy to use, loads fast, works well on a mobile device, and is loaded with great content. There are many great online resources that can help get your clinic started with SEO, but it also takes time, effort, and research.

Do some keyword research. Come up with a list of keywords that you want to rank for in search and use these keywords throughout your website. Make sure you use these keywords in your titles, page descriptions, and navigation. In addition, keep an eye on your web analytics data looking for new search keywords trends.

What is it?

Print marketing is known for being authentic and trustworthy but can quickly become outdated and come with a high production and distribution price.

Digital marketing is known for its ability to be customized with an ever-growing array of targeting capabilities. Budgets can be easily adjusted, and data-driven decisions can happen in real-time.

Print and digital marketing are two very different marketing tools, yet, when combined, they can have a symbiotic relationship.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Well-designed advertisements in print stand out and can go a long way towards promoting your hearing clinic’s brand. Printed media is often viewed with a high level of credibility, and print advertising can be particularly effective at targeting people who are not digitally savvy. In addition, an advertisement in a print publication lives on the page forever and can be viewed multiple times. Direct mail is another effective print marketing strategy and increases branding on a local level exceptionally well.

Digital marketing promotes your brand online and helps attract relevant traffic to your clinic’s website and social media channels. Digital advertising is straightforward to track, making it easier to make data-driven advertising decisions and optimize advertising spend. Advertisements can be modified in real-time and can be promoted using both paid and organic methods.

Numerous clinics have noticed success by combining their print and digital marketing. QR codes and shortened URLs can be used to send people to unique online landing pages from a print advertisement.

How do I get started?

Print marketing strategies will vary significantly from one market to another, and it’s essential to identify reputable publications in your local area and specific industry. Many publications have hybrid packages that allow you to advertise in both their print publication and digital platforms. In addition, various direct mail companies can help you run a campaign quickly. It’s important that you have a good CRM with accurate customer records; this will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your clinic’s direct mail efforts.

Digital marketing can start quickly. There are plenty of companies that provide professional digital marketing services, or you can elect to manage it yourself. Start by sharing your clinic’s brand online and provide your audience with compelling and informative content.

What is it?

Webinars, not to be confused with a pre-recorded webcast, are live sessions allowing real-time interactivity between the presenter and attendees. Both webinars and webcasts have plenty of uses, but the most important benefit is the ability to educate and engage an audience.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Webinars are very useful in any industry, specifically when you want to communicate directly with your audience. They can support the following:

• Educate your audience about your business.
• Build authority in your industry or niche.
• Demonstrate your product to customers.
• Onboard new customers to your product.
• Training both new and existing employees.
• Generating leads for your business.

How do I get started?

• Choose your topic: Make sure the topic is of interest in your market.
• Choose a date and time: Certain days and times work better than others. Schedule a time that you think will accommodate most of your audience.
• Choose a host for your event: Ensure the person is comfortable speaking to an audience and is a subject matter expert in the topic.
• Promote the Event: Create a hashtag, and promote the event via social media, email promotion, word of mouth, etc.
• Build the Content: Create visually appealing content that tells a story. Don’t rely on words on a slide; the speaker should be able to provide the details.
• Host the Event: Ensure to record the live event so you can provide the content on-demand after the fact.
• Follow up: Send thank you emails to all attendees and “Sorry you couldn’t make it” emails to all that signed up but did not attend.

What is it?

The role of promotions/giveaways and or contests are an integral part of the marketing mix. They tend to focus on attracting the attention of consumers and motivating them to take action or make a purchase.

Promos (short for promotions) are limited-time offers or events that are held to encourage consumer engagement.

Tagline: “For a limited time, receive a free t-shirt with every completed hearing test.”

Giveaways are when a business gives an item or provides a service free of charge to consumers for promotional reasons.

Tagline: “Receive a free hearing test with every eye exam.”

Contests are events in which individuals (or teams) compete for a prize. They are a great way to get user-generated content. For example, ask participants to post pictures of themselves performing an in-store hearing test for a chance to win something of value.

Tagline: “Send us your best pic, and the winner will receive an all-expenses-paid cruise!”

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

The most important purpose that a promotion serves is that it sets a business apart from its competitors. No company will ever need to run any promotions if there wasn’t any competition.

Increased Sales: The sales will increase as a result, and with a successful promotion like this, the business will get more return on its investment.

Brand Recognition: People like familiarity, help make yourself identifiable

Social Media: People are more likely to share via social media if they have a chance to win something

Reach New Business: The opportunity to win something is a great tactic to get someone’s interest in your business over the competition.

Loyalty: Existing customers and new customers welcome promotions and giveaways

Gather Data: Learn more about your demographic from the people submitting valuable information to your contests and promotions.

Build email Lists: Emails can be powerful marketing tools, whether you send product updates, newsletters, sales notifications, or some other information. Have potential customers include an email address to enter the giveaway.

How do I get started?

Define Objectives: What is it you want to accomplish? This will help define what strategy to take, i.e. contest, promo, giveaway.

Set Goals and Metrics: How many people do you hope to reach? How much will this cost you vs how much more business will it generate?

Set a Timeline: How long will the event last? When will it start? Who qualifies to participate?

Monitor and Track: As the event takes place as well as post-event, be sure to monitor, track and test the results. This will help to determine if it was successful and if it is worth doing again.

What is it?

Jell-O is one of the best-known brands today, and that’s due largely to a solid content marketing strategy. One hundred years ago, the company employed some creative content marketing strategies to educate its audience on Jell-O’s benefits. The company ran colorful hand-drawn advertisements in some of the most celebrated publications of the day, eventually employing a young Norman Rockwell. The ads proudly declared that Jell-O was ‘America’s Favourite Dessert.’ Real growth happened after the company started publishing and giving away cookbooks and recipe cards that proudly showcased the usefulness of Jell-O. Soon Jell-O became a household brand and a must-have pantry item.

Content marketing is an excellent tool that can help promote your clinic’s brand by distributing valuable and engaging content to your target audience. Jell-O’s content marketing strategy is still applicable today, more than a century after its launch. Instead of pitching a sales message to their audience, they decided to identify and educate the public on an issue and how their product could solve it.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Your audience is seeking information pertinent to their individual hearing healthcare journey, and a strong content marketing strategy ensures they come to your clinic for that knowledge. In addition, it helps you establish your clinic as a valuable source of information within your community.

Digital marketing and content marketing work hand-in-hand, which isn’t only confined to the text on your website. Video, podcasting, and webinars have all proven to be compelling content marketing channels. Regularly posting relevant and educational content drives more targeted web traffic and creates more leads. It also can help power and grow your social media, email, and paid search traffic by strengthening relationships with your audience.

How do I get started?

Every content marketing strategy should start with a firm understanding of your target audience. Then, you’ll want to produce and share high-quality content that your clients want to interact with. Web analytics is an excellent tool, allowing you the ability to immediately understand the kinds of content that work best for achieving your marketing goals, helping you make data-driven decisions for future content ideas.

The most beneficial content marketing happens when companies commit to posting content frequently. Long gaps between posts can damage or even destroy a content marketing plan. It’s not the length of the content that matters; it’s the quality. Post content that’s engaging, unique, and memorable with a clear call to action.

What is it?

While a case study and a testimonial may seem similar, they do have some key differences. A case study is detail-oriented and focuses on the full story from purchase to implementation to post-sale. A testimonial focuses more on how it made a difference for a customer and how it could benefit others. These are typically short and offer a glimpse at why they chose the product or solution they did.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Case Studies and testimonials are often the deciding factors in a potential customer’s decision. By showcasing the great experiences your existing customers have had, you increase your chances of building trust with prospects and encouraging them to convert.

How do I get started?

• Create a list of your most satisfied customers: speak with your team;, who do they have good relationships with? Look on social media for positive feedback from happy customers
• Show the customers what’s in it for them: Highlight the advantages when presenting the idea. For example, a case study showcases the customer’s brand and accomplishments.
• Determine what you need from the customer: Make the process as painless as possible for the customer. If it is a testimonial, offer suggested ideas instead of making them create them. For case studies, provide the customer with the questions you want to ask ahead of time. Interview them once and then send them the draft for approvals and edits.

What is it?

The lead nurturing definition is simply developing relationships with your leads and nurturing them through the buying process. There are many ways to generate leads, but just because someone gave you their information does not mean they’re 100% ready to give you their money. This is where lead nurturing comes into play.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

When a business focuses on lead nurturing, they make 50 percent more sales at a 33 percent lower cost. This means your ROI is even better when you, as a marketer, focus on nurturing each lead generated rather than the sales team going in for a hard sell. The time it takes to nurture your leads is nothing compared to the ROI you will see because of it.

How do I get started?

• Segment Your Audience: The important first step is ensuring that every person who goes through your campaign is at the same spot in the buying process so that they’re all nurtured together correctly. You don’t want to send someone at the beginning of the buying process content and calls to action meant for someone in the middle or end of the buying process.
• Offer Something of Value: Lead nurturing is a give-and-take kind of strategy. You can’t expect your customers just to give you their email address, their time reading your content, and ultimately their money without giving them something in return. Offer them an ebook, webinar, or other assets that may be of value to them.
• Create an email Marketing Automation Process: Be sure that each email has an objective or a goal. The idea behind the lead nurture campaign is a journey moving them further down your sales funnel

What is it?

Public relations (PR) is the business of persuasion! You are trying to convince your audience to purchase your product or service or support your position or recognize your accomplishments. It is essential you tell your story in a positive way.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

There’s an old saying: “Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for.”

Advertising is paid media; public relations is earned media. This means you convince reporters or editors to write a positive story about you or your client, your candidate, brand, or issue. This offers more credibility as it is told by a third party. A company may spend $$$ to purchase ad space in a magazine with no results; however, a free article from a third party may end up with more results and less cost. Public relations helps to build trust in a community and improves the visibility of your business.

How do I get started?

• Understand what is newsworthy: Ask yourself the question, “why would anyone want to read this? What’s in it for them?
• Create the story: Bring your personality into it and make it memorable
• Follow other stories: Become active in responding to other relevant stories. Have an opinion and get noticed.

What is it?

Event marketing is planning, organizing, and executing an event for the purpose of promoting a brand, product, or service. Events can take place in-person or online, and companies can either host an event, attend as an exhibitor, or participate as a sponsor. That being said, in this article, we will focus on the process of attending/sponsoring an event rather than planning one. While both have comparable steps, the process of planning a full event has much more detail. If you’re interested in learning more about that click here.

What will it do for me? What’s the purpose?

Event marketing helps companies be successful — they are used to generate new business, nurtures and progresses existing relationships, provides one-on-one customer engagement, builds brand awareness, and encourages product & industry education. Event marketing isn’t just one thing, it could be a variety of different events – conferences, tradeshows, seminars, workshops, pop-up shops, launch parties, and of course, all of these events can take place virtually.

How do I get started?

1. Research: In this phase, you should focus on establishing a budget; target audience; objectives; timeline & resources that you’ll require.

2. Booking & Signing: Now it’s time to dive into the administrative portion of the planning process and begin securing what you’ll need for your team. This typically consists of – signing contracts for event participation; registering your team; booking accommodations & flights; booking equipment; preparing collateral & establishing the best way to keep track of the new contacts you meet at the event.

3. Team Management: When sending a team to an event (or coordinating one virtually), it’s important that everyone has access to the same information and feels aligned with one another. A good way to ensure that is to build out an agenda with all the key information your team will need to know. In this agenda, it’s important to include the event schedule and everyone’s availability; venue location; event theme/concept, and anything else they should be made aware of before attending.

4. Promote: Before your event takes place it’s important that you communicate your participation. If you have access to a pre-show mailing list, use it to reach out and promote your attendance. It’s also never hurts to post on social media while onsite at the event (be sure to interact with the event pages and use their hashtags to increase engagement).

5. Onsite execution: You’ve planned and planned and now it’s time to execute! Make sure your team feels confident with travelling to the location, checking-in to the hotel, registering at the event, and preparing themselves for their scheduled activities. Most importantly, make sure that your team has your contact information and if they ever run into any problems, they know that they can reach you for assistance.

6. Evaluation: How you measure the success of an event depends on the established objectives you and your team set during the research phase of planning. For some, it’s all about the amount of new leads you acquired, for others there might have been one key customer meeting that needed to be executed in order to advance an opportunity. No matter, it’s important to schedule a wrap up meeting with all involved to discuss the good, the bad & whether or not it’s worth going to again the following year. And remember to record this evaluation in your event notes so that it’s easy to access when planning next years schedule.