In the Digital Age, it’s easy to be confused by the ever growing array of digital marketing channels.
With social media marketing, content marketing, online promotions, use of customer reviews for reputation building, email & text marketing, analytics, and more, many providers are overwhelmed with the selection.
To exacerbate the situation, there is no shortage of “digital marketing experts” and marketing platforms touting “expert solutions” that “will grow your practice” based on simply using SEO, or social media marketing. So, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the many options to engage existing and prospective customers, and what mechanisms will prove MOST EFFECTIVE FOR YOUR PRACTICE to find new patients.
Unlike the “old days” where the phone book and patient recommendations might prove effective, today, marketing has gotten MUCH MORE COMPLICATED albeit more sophisticated.
These days, the only real way to be successful in marketing your practice is by using an INTEGRATED MARKETING APPROACH, much like a conductor making beautiful music leading a symphony orchestra versus using a single instrument.
Integrated Marketing is a holistic approach to marketing. It helps ensure that you LEARN QUICKLY AND INEXPENSIVELY what marketing mechanisms and channels are most effective for growing your practice. When done right, Integrated Marketing ensures that you discover the most effective marketing approach for growth.
Integrated Marketing is a strategic marketing process specifically designed to ensure that all outbound marketing communications, messaging and promotional mechanisms are cohesively delivered across channels, and are focused on delivering a unified, differentiated message to your target audience.
There are numerous reasons why you should use Integrated Marketing to market your business in today’s digital age. Below are just a few of the reasons…
- Integrated Marketing is inherently cross channel: Integrated Marketing uses a combination of communication tools and social media channels to spread your message. By combining these various tools and strategies, integrated marketing ensures that the target audience is reached quickly and effectively. Integrated Marketing can draw upon the power of traditional media tactics with newer digital marketing tactics, such as social media, content marketing, and online promotions. Today, rather than relying on just one approach, astute companies use a combination of marketing mechanisms and channels to attain optimal results.
- Integrated Marketing focuses on prospective and current patients: Successfully Integrated Marketing starts and ends with the target audience. It starts with knowing who your target is, thoroughly understanding their needs and then crafting your key message to reach them. While many concentrate only on garnering new patients, the growth and longevity of your practice, also depends on the satisfaction of returning patients. The word-of-mouth reputation from your existing patients is your most powerful resource to the future of your practice’s growth. Integrated Marketing can be used to spread this message.
- Integrated Marketing helps provide consistent messaging across all touch point: A key marketing success factor is that your patients see and expect a consistent message of your brand and experience across all their touch points with you and your staff. This is where Integrated Marketing shines. Your logo, website, social media, services, and practice brand should project a consistent message.
- Integrated Marketing has checks and balances: Each marketing channel has its strengths and weaknesses. Integrated Marketing helps to leverage the strengths of one to offset the weaknesses of another, thereby improving overall marketing effectiveness and reducing costs.
- Integrated Marketing helps save you time and money: By using a good Integrated Marketing System, you can often get more done in an hour than many people accomplish in a day. Speeding up the learning process, and finding what works for you, saves both time and money. If you choose to work with external communication suppliers, you can work with only one integrated marketing firm, rather than separate solution providers.
- Integrated Marketing provides tracking, reporting and helps ensure continuous improvement across channels: Integrated Marketing ensures that all marketing elements are monitored, tracked and reported across marketing channels and mechanisms. It ensures that the data meshes across marketing mechanisms, and is displayed in centralized dashboard. Thereby enabling continuous performance improvement.
So, now you know more about incorporating an Integrated Marketing approach to your practice. In the Digital Age, the need for Integrated Marketing and its many benefits is greater than ever before.
For more information on how you can effectively use Integrated Marketing to promote your practice, contact Kristine Grace at kristineg@intellahealth.net.
by Kristine Grace, Dec-1-2016