Digital media has become an important area of any company’s marketing strategy – especially Physios, Chiropractors and Osteopaths. To help you create a better online presence, we have created a bucket list for you to tick off in 2019, which will help you effectively use the power of digital media.
1.Make sure your website is professional
Your website needs to look great, be easy to use and of course, designed for search engine optimisation – anything that creates a better experience for your clients. A study shows that 75% of consumers admit to making a judgement on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design, so it’s important that you understand who your target audiences are and what they want to get out of your website. This way you can tailor information and the online experience to meet their needs.
Creating a website can sometimes be seen as scary or too “techy” – but that’s simply not the case anymore! Ease your fears with websites such as Wix, Foursquare or WordPress, which help make building a website easy. These websites provide you with simple templates and easy to follow steps – no experience in website creation is needed! If these websites still remain too tricky, or you simply don’t have the time, enlist help! Find someone local, or jump on UpWork or Fiverr – these websites put you in touch with people around the world that will create your website for a fee – they’re extremely budget-friendly.
2.Make use of Facebook
You may have heard the odd person spruiking that “Facebook is dying”, however Facebook still remains to have one of the highest levels of reach. It has 2.2 billion active users per month in comparison to Instagram’s 800 million. This level of reach increases your visibility to potential customers. Facebook is a tool that can showcase your clinic, convey your high level of skills, engage with your clients, distribute information and show potential clients that you care, are professional and make them feel comfortable with choosing you (yep, a simple social page does a lot!). These features are important for not just today’s millennial generation, but all generations (baby boomers are the fastest growing group on Facebook). It’s now the norm to look at a business’s social platform when we’re thinking about booking a service or buying a product. So make sure you post content regularly (about twice a week minimum) and reply to comments!
3.Develop a content Plan
Having a content plan in place is helpful to streamline social media management, blogs and emails. The basis of a content plan is to list possible social media, blog and client email content and when in the year it needs to be posted/communicated. If you’re on one of our content subscriptions, well you’re lucky as we do all the hard work! All we would recommend you do is list any staff birthdays, events you’re taking part in or clinic announcements, and schedule them in each month alongside our subscription posts/blogs/emails.
If you’re not on one of our content subscriptions, you should think about it (as it’ll save you hours and hours of time, money and effort each month!), but if it’s not your thing, that’s ok! As above, schedule in staff birthdays, events etc, and then also decide what you want to write for your blog and client engagement email each month. Pop it all in a spreadsheet against dates and months. Then google some health days, sporting events, annual celebrations, information about injuries and the body etc, and add all those to it to.
Your finished content plan might be an excel document, with a new tab for each month. Down the left side, list 8-10 social posts, blog and email headings, and then next to each, write your social media post content, or topics for your blog and email. Then it’s time to get writing! Make sure you include a photo, image or video with each piece of content. Once you’ve written all your content, try and schedule it in at the end of each month for the following month. That way, all you need to do is focus on replying to comments throughout the month. A good guide is to post at least twice a week on social media, and send one blog and one client engagement email each month. If this sounds all just a bit too much – see point 4…
4. Hire an expert to help market your business on social media
If you’re too busy or don’t think you could use social media or blogs to their full potential, you always have the option of working with a partner. As experts, whoever you work with will help step up your digital presence and engage with existing and potential clients at a higher level than you would normally.
There are several advantages to outsourcing your digital marketing to an expert. Of course you get higher quality marketing, but ultimately it saves you time and effort, and sometimes, depending on what you outsource, even money! It doesn’t have to be expensive either – you can sign up to a no-contract social media, blog and email subscription with us for $75/month, specifically for physios, osteopaths and chiropractors (yep it’s less than the cost of one patient appointment, and other packages start at just $25/month). Our subscriptions are for people who don’t want to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars each month on marketing help. Alternatively, check out your local area for marketing companies, recent uni graduates, or ask your practitioners to get involved! Work out what you can hand off so you have the time to focus on the core of your own business.
Digital marketing can be really powerful – both organic and paid content. Set yourself some marketing goals this year, and stick to them… Your stress levels, and back pocket, will be grateful 🙂