Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most powerful ways to attract visitors to your business website. SEO should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing plan. So for business owners, we’ve created our All About SEO series to guide you through it. Last week, we covered the SEO essentials for you. And today we’ll talk about the types of SEO, why they matter, and what you need to do to grow your site’s traffic.

The Three Types of SEO

The types of SEO are the three primary things search algorithms consider when figuring out where your site should rank in a search. But they’re all critical because they provide the same thing: a way for your site visitors and search engines to understand and navigate your site.

1. On-Page SEO

This is the most basic form of SEO and the one you can control most easily.

On-page SEO refers, simply, to the elements search engines consider on your web pages. Your content, like the pages of your website and your blog posts, is the biggest element of your on-page SEO. On-page SEO is a great place to start optimizing your site because it benefits both your site users and your search engine rankings.

Content

What’s the best way to attract visitors to your site and make them stay?

Writing really excellent, informative, engaging content. In the old days of SEO, stuffing as many keywords as possible into a page was the way to get results. Search engines rank your on-page content for engagement by measuring the amount of time users spend on your site, called your bounce rate. If lots of visitors come to your site through Google or Bing and immediately leave, your bounce rate will be high and your search engine ranking will fall.

Content isn’t just the text of your article, either.

All your web pages and blog posts should have:

• descriptive and engaging page titles
• high-quality images
• a clear call-to-action where appropriate

It’s important to note that while search engines do look at your website as a whole, they rank your pages individually. You want to make sure the content on each page is great – don’t just focus on a few.

You should have a content marketing plan as well if you’re creating plenty of SEO-friendly content.

This means thinking about what kind of content your website visitors and potential customers are looking for:

• Do they need more product information, FAQs, or how-to guides?
• Do they like getting a behind-the-scenes peek at your company or historical information about your industry?

Then plan out a few months’ worth of blog posts and stick to a consistent posting schedule. Recent content is an on-page SEO factor as well because it shows Google your site is still very active.

Keywords

Search engines look for phrases on your pages that indicate what you’re writing about. If lots of users are searching for “chicken taco recipe” and that phrase comes up a few times on your page, along with some related terms, they’ll know what your blog post or page is about.

Using the right keywords helps search engine users find your content. You should perform keyword research to find search terms that plenty of people are looking for – that’s search volume – while not having too much competition to rank for those terms – that’s keyword difficulty.

And avoid making these seven common keyword research mistakes too.

2. Off-Page SEO

The second of the three types of SEO is a little more involved. Off-page SEO is a big factor in determining your site’s authority in the eyes of search engines. Google and other search engines are looking for signals that your site is a valuable resource and a trusted authority.

They measure this in a few ways:

Backlinks

The technical term for other sites that link to your website or content is a backlink. Google likes these because it provides a way for the search algorithm to measure how valuable and trusted your content is by other sites. After all, they wouldn’t link to your content if it were bad, right?

You can get backlinks to build up your site credibility by writing guest posts on other blogs or other above-the-board means, known as white hat SEO techniques. Black hat SEO techniques like buying backlinks can work fast, but they can also get you punished by Google quickly and usually aren’t worth the hassle. Going about your link building in an authentic way takes longer, but the payoff is worth it.

Social Media

Social media can be a great way of increasing your off-page SEO. Having your content shared by your readers and viewers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn demonstrates additional credibility.

This is why sharing your own content on your social media pages and making it easy for others to share from the content itself can help boost your search engine ranking. You can embed social share buttons right into your site, making that signal boost simple for your readers.

3. Technical SEO

Of the three types of SEO, the last seems like it would be the least creative. As such, technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes elements of your web content. It means setting up the structure of your site to make it easily understood by the bots that crawl your site to rank it for the search engines.

Metadata

The tags and data on each web page help tell a fuller story of what your content is about for search engines. For good technical SEO, you should add compelling meta descriptions to tell search engine users what your content is about and draw them in. Plus, adding alt text to your images to tell search engines what your pictures contain – bots can’t scan an image themselves.

Site Organization

Make sure your site is laid out logically, meaning: if it takes more than three clicks to get to any specific page, your visitors will get lost and so will the Google bots. Your urls should be consistent as well – set up your pages to include keywords but exclude the date of publishing.

Ensure your content categories and tags reflect your website accurately and make it easy for interested readers to find what they’re looking for.

Additionally, ensuring that one piece of your content links to several other relevant pieces also helps your users flow through your site and encourages them to stay longer, boosting your search rankings. These are called internal links, and it’s a good practice to include a few in every blog post.

User Experience

Some ways to give every user a fast and easy experience on your site are:

• Making sure your site loads quickly
• Not overloading it by ads or dragged down by too-large images
• Functioning well on any mobile device

Google knows that users are impatient – they will usually abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load. And since increasing numbers of Google searches happen on mobile devices, it includes this information as ranking factors as well.

SEO Services to Help with the Many Types of SEO

Becoming an SEO expert takes a lot of time – something most business owners don’t have. That’s where an SEO service can help. You can save time while still reaping all the great benefits of a thoughtful SEO strategy.

Looking for more personalized help on your digital marketing strategy right now? Schedule a free business review here to find out how we help businesses grow. You can use these insights for inspiration, and let us do the marketing for you.

If you’re a direct primary care doctor, hormone doctor, or concierge doctor would you invest in a professional website? This means not just having a website but also making sure it has all the elements of effective healthcare websites. In a recent blog, we discussed how a custom website can benefit your practice. Will you want your direct primary care practice’s website design to resemble those of magnet facilities and top healthcare organizations or providers? Then you may want to add more than just the basic elements.

Read our blog on Why Healthcare Marketing Should Include Custom Websites to review these beyond-the-basic elements that most hospital and medical websites of the industry would have.

It’s all about the user experience. We know how big of a role patient experience and patient satisfaction would play in today’s healthcare marketing. Patients demand a website design that’s mobile-friendly, user-friendly, easy to navigate, and has social media elements.

Here are the basic rules to follow with web development or web redesign for healthcare providers.

Website Design for Healthcare Providers

A = Accessible

So, how do you make your website accessible?

Use health literacy principles, like plain language, in developing content for your blogs. As a result, your content will be readable and understandable to patients who are not health literate.

Here are other ways to make your blogs accessible to those without any medical background or health knowledge:

• Use layman’s terms and define medical terms when used
• Write in an active voice, not passive
• Use short sentences instead of long ones
• Limit the number of information used

If you’re an ophthalmologist, who specializes in color blindness, make sure your graphics would accommodate your patient population. Make it simple to navigate even for those who are not technologically-savvy. Ensure that your fonts are large enough to be readable by broad age groups.

Here’s a blog on why your website should be accessible for more helpful tips.

B = Brand-worthy

What kind of image does your medical group want to portray?

If you’re a hormone doctor, you may want to show your authority by discussing signs and symptoms and post tons of informative blogs that would help explain your typical patients’ conditions.

Read this blog and understand how establishing your authority could impact your brand.

Your website design can also make or break patient appointments. A haphazardly-done website may make your patients doubt your authority. Will they also receive the same kind of treatment during the consult? You may want to opt for a medical website that looks uncluttered, streamlined, clean, and professional to reflect on how you conduct your practice. You can choose a white background with plenty of white spaces. Choose photos that are clear and crisp. Make each page work for whatever purpose you created it for.

C = Content-Driven

What kind of content would you like to appear on your home page?

Early on, the information architecture of your website should trickle in an organized fashion.

Highlight the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) of your practice on the front page. Then elaborate on it on the succeeding pages. But don’t overdo the need for button clicking. This can impact loading time and may make your potential patients navigate away.

In this blog, we discussed some content ideas for your blogs. In developing content, you can also use the strategy described in the Storybrand Program. This will guide you through a seven-step formula on how to create content that supports your marketing campaign.

Creating engaging content goes beyond blogs and vlogs. Read our blog on Using Digital Marketing to Boost Patient Engagement and learn other strategies on how you can create engaging content. This would include conducting patient satisfaction surveys, asking for their input in advisory councils and safety committee, and getting patient feedback.

D = Dynamic

How often did you wish that your primary health care provider’s website could book, change, or cancel appointments? Or, if you work for a concierge doctor, how often did you wish that you can send reminder emails and text messages, or send prescription digitally to your patient’s pharmacy? Many websites today have patient portals that provide means for patients to view their laboratory results and even communicate with their providers with secure emails.

In the last decade, we’ve seen a rise in the use of smartphones at 81%. Most adults (51%) would read about health information online. So, the demand for a dynamic website has increased. The more functionality the medical website offers, the more value the patients find in it. That’s why websites have played significant roles in marketing and advertising medical practices.

Keep in Mind Your State’s Rules on Website Design for Healthcare Providers

However, knowing these ABCDs is not enough. Unlike many other websites, a healthcare provider’s website must adhere to specific rules and professional standards.

For example, in Texas, there exists an administrative code that lists the kind information that doctors are allowed to advertise on their websites.

Providers can advertise:

• The practice’s name
• Where they are located
• Their hours of operation
• Their fees for services and products they provide
• What type of insurance they accept or payment mode
• The services they offer
• The kind of equipment they use
• The tests they can do for diagnosis
• How many practitioners they have
• How many staff members they have
• The credentials of their providers
• The rates of success and complications as accurately as possible
• How many patients they’ve treated for a given condition
• Which hospitals they are affiliated with

Because the profession is highly regulated, the Medical Practice Act serves as guidance for providers to know what advertisements are prohibited and allowed on their websites. For more information on advertising restrictions, please visit the Texas Medical Association’s website for your guidance.

With the many nuances attached to building and maintaining a website, many medical practices now opt to hire third-party experts to do this, so they can focus on their medical expertise.

We Can Help with Website Design for Healthcare Providers

What about you? Do you think it’s wise to invest in a professional-looking custom website? Schedule your free review here, and we’ll show you the website design that works for your practice.

In the digital marketing world, you need to be super creative if you want to outperform your competitors. We know that video is king, and that we’d all love to use a video production company for just about anything for quality videos. But first, let’s talk about how video got to the top.

We know that 96% of Americans own a digital device, whether it’s a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Yet, how best to engage your customers depends on the profile of your target audience.

And a steadily growing trend that surpassed everyone’s expectations is how American adults have used social media over time. In 2005, according to the survey, only 5% used one of the social media platforms. By 2019, 72% of adults are engaged in social media.

Now, you know where to look for your customers, and you don’t need to travel to several different locations. You only need to post in the right social media channels, and your online presence will be known in more than five different locations! How’s that for efficiency and cost-effectiveness?

So, the questions to ask are: do you know where your customers are and how to reach them?

Social Media Stats Prove: Videos Rule As Content

Here are some statistics to show what we are talking about:

In 2013, 54% of the population were on Facebook, the leading social media channel. Facebook continued to lead until January 2018 at 68%, outranking Instagram (35%), Pinterest (27%), Snapchat (27%), LinkedIn (25%), Twitter (24%), and WhatsApp (22%).

But guess what social media platform blazed at the top of the rank and outperformed Facebook through 2019?

YouTube. See the chart below, as the numbers don’t lie.

At 73%, this highly interactive, dynamic, and visual channel had captured most of the population, especially children.

Based on the January 2019 analysis of YouTube channels with at least 250,000 subscribers, the average duration of videos created that received 58,358 views during the first week was 12 minutes long.

And what’s even more surprising is that only 10% of these videos were created by a video production company.

More Reasons Why Video is King

Certain keywords tend to increase traffic, just like in blogs. And those that cross-promote and mention other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter via links and texts received more views.

So, what does this tell us for digital marketing?

If you have not used videos as part of your digital marketing strategy, you are missing a large chunk of the market and shortchanging your growth potential.

In our previous blog, we talked about why video is important for your brand and how to craft compelling content. It’s worth reviewing the reasons given the above facts.

• Video grabs the audience with emotion
• It paves the way for instant trust
• It’s cost-effective

And in another blog, we discussed the top 10 benefits of video marketing.

Here’s a quick rundown on how videos can help your business.

Videos:

• optimize your blog or article for search engines
• can be shared instantly on social media
• encourage click-throughs when posted on emails
• improve audience engagement
• live longer on the web, boost conversion rates, can be created at low cost, and are mobile-friendly

In addition,

• Consumers prefer to watch videos than read long articles
• Video performance can be measured using data analytics

You can read more about the benefits here.

So, Do You Need to Hire a Video Production Company to Create Quality Videos?

According to research studies, DIY videos created from smartphones actually outperformed polished videos produced by professionals. In fact, it captured the interests of the viewers more than the expensively produced videos. After all, new smartphones have incredible technology, and are easily portable to catch even the most spontaneous events.

So, you can ditch the full-service video offering and do this on your own as long as you adhere to some basic tricks of the trade.

Here’s a recap from our previous blog on how to create a video and script.

• Write as spoken in your natural voice.
• Integrate music, sound effects, characters, and background.
• Adopt the script to your target audience.
• Stick to your script.
• Less is more.
• Rehearse and repeat.

What other things do you need to know when posting videos on social media?

Here are some surprising results from a recently conducted research:

• Square videos (1:1) resulted in 30-35% more social media views and led to greater engagement by 80-100%
• Vertical videos outperformed square videos on Facebook and Instagram feed
• Stories ads are gaining momentum and cost less than feed ads

So, when you post videos on Facebook and Instagram, make sure you take them vertically. Yes, weird as it may sound, this orientation will lead to higher engagement in your social media marketing and, consequently, will be more cost-beneficial.

And this is largely because many consumers have gone mobile.

How Else Can You Use Videos in Your Marketing Strategies?

1. Use videos to increase traffic from your social media or vice versa

• If you have a YouTube channel, you can use videos to lead your audience to your website.
• Conversely, embed a YouTube video in your blogs and articles to lead them to your YouTube channel.

2. Connect your videos to a specific landing page

3. Use videos for your branding campaign

• Some marketers use videos for conference reels, interactive presentations, and interviews
• Furthermore, animation videos can be powerful when your target audience is young
• Some even incorporate animation videos (caricature drawings) as a background to a video lecture
• An explainer video is good for brand stories, and below is an example of an animated explainer:

CAMarketing-C1M-SeedToPlant

4. Use videos to increase customer sign-ups

• Getting more subscribers to your channels will therefore increase your reach

How Can You Use Videos to Benefit Your Website?

1. Create engaging pages with videos

How likely are you to browse a home page when you see a video running compared to a page dense with texts?

Most likely, the video will capture your attention, right? Hence, if you have a short video that summarizes your services, like an elevator pitch ad, it can go well for your welcome page. Put it in the center. Plus, make sure you adhere to design elements like clean, clutter-free, and classy styles.

In addition, you can use videos in your email newsletter.

And remember, creating an enticing email copy is a pre-requisite to getting your reader to click on that video link that you sent with your email. It has to be compelling for the reader to want to navigate away from your email newsletter.

But don’t forget your basics: identify the problem of your reader, then hint that you have the right solution to that problem. However, to get to the solution, the reader needs to click on the link. When the reader does so, he will land on your website, where the video acts as a lead page that would draw your customer to want to know more about your company.

2. Create a silent autoplaying video

Did you ever have that experience of clicking on a website link only to have the volume of the video blasting inside the conference room? You fumble and close the page as fast as you opened it. As a result, autoplay may make or break your strategy depending on how you craft it into your website.

Hence, using silent autoplay will ensure that your reader will have the control to click the sound or continue watching the video while reading the subtitles.

3. Use corporate videos for in-house training that grows your business

Make it part of your culture of lifelong learning. Videos can be accessed anytime, anywhere by employees at whatever pace they choose. Make videos rich sources of educational and training resources for your company.

4. Use videos in marketing services and incorporate it into your web design

If one of your services is app development for a mobile app, you can show through a video demonstration of how your mobile app works. This way, the target audience can navigate it on a smartphone and follow your video instructions from a laptop.

What Other Factors Do You Need to Consider When Creating Your Video?

Define your purpose.

There are many reasons for creating a video.

It can be used to:

• educate
• advertise
• convince
• train
• entertain
• report
• explain
• funnel
• disseminate information

Define your audience.

• If you plan to capture the interest of younger children, you need to choose the right platform that would cater to their senses.
• And to engage teens, you need to choose the right vibe, music, and pace.
• If you are targeting the baby boomers, your background sound and design must draw their attention. Use a bigger font to accommodate eyesight deficiencies.
• Knowing your audience will also guide you as to what platform or social media channel to use
• Young adult Americans (18-24 years old) tend to show up on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter
• More women use Pinterest than men
• When you want to target professionals, 50% of the college graduates would be on LinkedIn

Define your frequency

• Do you plan to post this video as a one-time offering?
• And will it be visible on your website for a long time?
• Or is this a series of videos that you’ll be posting daily or weekly on YouTube?
• Or do you plan to do a podcast?

Therefore, depending on your purpose, you’d be able to decide on the frequency of video production and the complexity.

Know your resources.

If this video would stay on your website for a long time, you may want to invest more time, money, and effort into video production. According to the scale you desire, you can choose whether you’d like to hire a third-party video production agency to produce the video for you.

And if your budget for the video production is small, and you plan to post daily on your social media sites, you can DIY using your smartphone and the free apps available.

But, what about technological skills? Do you have experience with video editing software? Are you tech-savvy? Are you willing to learn? How fast can you pick up a skill?

So now that you’ve decided to make a go at video production, what video editing software can you use?

Based on our web search, the best video editing software are: 

Apple iMovie

• A very intuitive and free software for beginners, included with Mac OS
• Features: library of pre-made transitions, video trimming, audio editing, split screening, 4k resolution support, ten high-fidelity filters, green screen, music support from iTunes and GarageBand and tons of audio tools
• Professional-looking and classy themes and trailers, great chroma-keying tool, theater feature
• Readily shares to iMessage, Facebook, YouTube

Nero Video

• Inexpensive
• Tons of video effects
• Good audio tools
• Reliable file format support for H.265 and 4K
• Burns DVD, Blu-ray, and AVCHD

Corel VideoStudio

• Features: 360-degree VR and 4K Ultra HD and 3D media support
• Multipoint motion tracking and multicam editing
• HTML5 video page creation
• Stop-motion tool, freeze frame
• A wide selection of video-creation tools and with a clean, simple interface
• Fast rendering
• Split-screen video for video collages
• Enhanced lens-correction tools
• Premium video FX apps with a 64-bit engine, special video cleanup tools
• Affordable for beginners

Filmora from Wondershare

• Free mobile app
• Features filters, royalty-free music, motion elements, transitions, trimming video clips, themes, texts, titles, overlays for video customization, noise removal, reverse, precision speed control, color tuning
• Great for basic mobile editing and Instagram videos
• Intuitive design and easy to use
• Social import
• Panning and zooming to still footages
• GIF support

CyberLink PowerDirector – 1111

• Straightforward using tutorials
• Overwhelming options and effects
• One of the fastest
• 360-degree virtual reality footage, 3D and 4K capability
• Clear interface, multicam editing, and speed recording
• Motion tracking and motion-graphic titles
• Square, 1:1 aspect ratio for social media

Adobe Premiere – 111

• Adobe Premiere Rush is free and simple to use for beginners, plus it’s best for fast basic mobile video editing
• You can add music, transitions, auto-correct color, and with Audio Clip Mixer makes sounds easy to control
• Bi-modal: Freeform and Automatic
• Premiere Elements has Guided Edits feature and Text tools and Powerful audio editing
• And now with new artificial intelligence features
• A bunch of royalty-free stock images, graphics, and videos

Pinnacle Studio – 1111

• Motion tracking, 360-degree VR support, 4K and H.265 support, multi-cam, fast rendering, 3D auto-color adjustment
• User-friendly, intuitive, but more expensive and rich in effects
• Tagging and star ratings for media
• Excellent audio and masking tools with Audio Ducking feature

Apple Final Cut Pro X -111

• Professional, expensive because it goes beyond the basics of iMovie
• Features magnetic timeline, touch bar support
• Color correction effect and Interactive animation tool
• Precision editor

Hitfilm Express -111

• It’s free and available for both Mac and Windows, and Best for YouTubers
• Features: Basic editor (splicing, trimming, and audio editing)
• Advanced professional-grade cutting tools, plus excellent online tutorials
• Advanced software includes 180 special effects including green screen, audio, and video filters, compositing tools, layers and masking, 3D video support, animated text editor
• Plus, very professional for the price of your social media status update

We hope that these guidelines were able to walk you through the decision-making process of whether you want to hire a video production company or do it yourself. However, one thing is clear. The takeaway here is that you can use a couple of videos to boost your marketing strategy.

For more information on digital marketing and even business mastery, check out our

John Arnott YouTube Channel.

Leave the Marketing to Us

Not sure how to navigate all the details of a solid digital marketing plan? We can help! Schedule a free business review here to find out how we help businesses grow. You can use these insights for inspiration, and let us do the marketing for you.

Gone are the days when doctors assume the know-it-all role. Patients no longer want to take the backseat when it comes to their medical care. Today we are talking about patient engagement.

In the past, patients went to their doctor’s office with more questions than answers about their health. Now, most patients have looked up information on the internet before they go to a consult. They have read about their symptoms and talked with their friends and families. They may even have a list of options that they think would solve their problem.

Patients want to partner with their providers when it comes to their health. Doctors who refuse to engage with their patients will lose them in the end. Either they lose the patient to the disease or lose the patient from their practice.

What is Patient Engagement?

According to a research article by Kristin Carman, et al. in Health Affairs, patient and family engagement is when “patients, families, their representatives, and health professionals work in active partnership at various levels across the healthcare system—direct care, organizational design and governance, and policymaking—to improve health and health care.”

In short, patients are engaged in their healthcare when they share in the decision-making process and management of their condition.

Why Should You Engage Your Patient?

Recent studies have shown that engaged patients have better health outcomes, get better quality of care, and pay less in health care expenses.

Empowering the patient is much like teaching them how to fish rather than giving them the fish. Patients who know self-care tend to be healthier.

How Do You Engage Your Patient?

The foundation of patient engagement remains basic. Establish a good doctor-patient relationship. Break down the barrier, whether social, language or health literacy barriers. Then the rest of your engagement strategies will be effective.

How do you get started?

Here are key findings from the 2013 Health Policy Brief by Health Affairs to give you some guidance on how to engage your patients.

According to Kristin Carman, et al. of the American Institutes for Research, patient engagement occurs in three levels.

The first is at the direct care level, that is, between the doctor and the patient.

Figure 1. Patient Engagement at the Direct Care Level

What Strategies Can You Use at the Direct Care Level for Improved Patient Engagement?

1. Use Decision Aids

David Veroff, et al. at Health Dialog used studied a large group of patients with:

• heart disease
• benign disease of the uterus
• benign enlargement of the prostate
• hip pain
• knee pain
• back pain

Trained coaches engaged one group in the decision-making process through phone, mail, and or online support.

The other group got the usual support that coaches give. The coaches:

• Presented their treatment options
• Sought patient preference
• Encouraged patients to convey their preferences to their health care providers

Patients who got enhanced support through digital and non-digital means spent 5.3 percent lower in medical costs. They got fewer hospital admissions than the other group by 12.5 percent.

How do you adapt this idea to your practice?

• Use your website to provide online support, including decision aids through videos and blogs.
• Enhance patient education with tools that the patient can access through your website.
• Increase patient access to healthcare providers through chats and secure patient messaging.
• Enable patients to log in through a secure patient portal to convey lab results and allow for patient questions.

2. Patient Activation

Hibbard, et al. at Fairview Health Services found out that those patients who know how to manage their health incurred a lower cost in health expenses.

Those who are not “activated,” meaning they aren’t confident or skilled to take care of themselves, spent 8 to 21% more in medical expenses.

How can you activate your patient in the digital world?

You can maximize the use of your website. Create a tab where you list the available resources that the patient can use to learn more about his diseases and how to manage it.

For example, if your patient has diabetic retinopathy, you can have a blog that outlines your strategy in managing this disease. You can also have a list of other legitimate and credible websites where your patients can get their information. You can post links to journals and studies that show the current trends and approaches. To aid in the patient’s decision-making, ensure that the information you post is readable.

Many patients, even those who hold advanced degrees, are not health literate. The MBA holders will know business technical jargon, but medical terminologies will sound Greek to them.

The second way that patient engagement occurs is at the organizational level, that is, between the institution and the patient.

Figure 2. Patient Engagement at the Organizational Level

What Engagement Initiatives Can You Use at the Organizational Level?

Smaller institutions engage their patients at this level through patient satisfaction surveys and patient reviews. You can easily automate this process through email surveys after every patient visit. Ensure that you get the email addresses of your patients along with their other contact information. You can also mail a survey card with an online link to give more flexibility to your patients.

Many larger institutions invite patients to become part of their advisory council, QI committee, and safety committee. Some ways to increase patient engagement is to do the meetings online or both. Having a patient forum page on your website may encourage the formation of advocacy groups who tend to be more engaged with healthcare issues. Recording your advisory council meetings and posting them on a private channel on YouTube can drive patient engagement to the next level.

All these strategies aim at providing the best positive patient experience.

The third level of patient engagement is at the policy-making (society) level, that is, between public agencies and the patient.

Figure 3. Patient Engagement at the Policy-Making Level

Get Patient Feedback

Encouraging patients to air their thoughts on policies will drive patient engagement. Provide platforms where you can help patients navigate the insurance world. Have an FAQ on your website or list links where they can read about insurance coverage.

What are the patients’ problems and issues that need policies in place?

Can you act as an advocate by giving the patients the venue to voice out their challenges?

You can use digital technology and innovation to reach out to your patients. Even social media can provide a platform where patients can air out their concerns that may need healthcare reform.

Do you have a dedicated marketing department that covers patient stories that may capture the eye of a policy-maker? There are many innovative and creative ways to do more and be more for your patients.

Increasing patient engagement should not be an impossible hurdle for you. Patients engage when the providers and institutions engage and commit themselves to improving patient care. Strategies will emerge when you listen to your patients and take time to assess their needs.

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When you want to advertise on a specific social media network you need to understand that platform. I believe that you can’t just start driving a Tesla if you don’t have a car license or you’ve never driven a car before.

Do you know where you want to advertise?

This is why before starting to design social media ads you have to understand the network where you want to advertise.

I don’t believe that we should use every social media platform. But I strongly recommend to every business who wants to start using social media to only use the ones that work with their product and audience. Let’s say that you are a B2B company and you want to start doing business with seniors and professionals in your area, this is why you should use a social network like LinkedIn.

According to Moz, there are 3 categories of social media platforms:

1. Owned properties: that includes blogs, forums or homegrown social networks (this property is 100% under your control)
2. Rented properties: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Medium, Linkedin (even if you have an official claim to your brand page, but you have no claim to the platform itself)
3. Occupied properties: Reddit, Quora or Imgur. (even if this category is the most removed from your control, but you still can have an official representative who engage with the community).

Many marketers think that social media is more about marketing and less about engaging. Well my friends, let me tell you this: you can’t force love on social media.

That means that even if you create social media ads and you conduct a social media ad campaign, you still have to create valuable content for your community, engage with it, give your audience a reliable customer service or give them the solution for their day-to-day problems.

So, before you start doing social media ad campaigns, I strongly recommend you to write down a social media strategy, start experimenting and knowing your audience and see what you can do more for them every day.

But today’s social media is getting more and more difficult. So you need to stand out from the crowd. And sometimes we need to push our work, our product and our brand a little bit more forward.

Advertisers worldwide will spend $23.68 billion on paid media to reach consumers on social networks this year, according to new figures from eMarketer, a 33.5% increase from 2014. By 2017, social network ad spending will reach $35.98 billion, representing 16.0% of all digital ad spending globally.

And it feels like a social media platform unveils a new advertising tool every single week. But you need to work smarter and try to play the right game for your customers.

This is why I believe understand the platform where you want to advertise is so important.

For example, if you want to advertise on Instagram, you need to know some insights about the platform, who is using it and what are the pros/cons of this platform. Think about that, Instagram has a highly engaged global community with more than 500 Million active users that share daily 95M posts and more than 80% of them are outside the US. But Instagram is mainly a mobile based platform, so your audience is that kind of audience that uses mobile devices on a regular basis.

If you want to do advertising on Instagram you should know that you can send people to your website (make sure that it’s responsive for mobile devices), get people to take specific actions on your landing pages, get people to install and engage with mobile apps, show a video story, make them engage (comment and like) your ad and drive awareness to a broader audience. But how do I know all of these specific tactics Instagram does with their advertising strategy? By looking on their website.

So, to help you read about the top social networks where you can advertise and learn more about their ad specs and other information, I will share with you their link, so you don’t have to start searching them on Google:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-basics

Instagram – https://business.instagram.com/advertising

Twitter – https://business.twitter.com/en/advertising.html

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/ad/start

Pinterest – https://business.pinterest.com/en/promoted-pins

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/

Let me give you a few statistics from brands that used social media ads on different platforms and gained great results:

[Tweet “Heineken Light get 54% of audience (35 million people) in just 3 days using video ads on Facebook.”]

●Adore Me saw a 4000% increase in Pinterest-referred revenue after using Promoted Pins to reach new customers. (Bannersnack)

●Targeted Status Updates on LinkedIn, ADP’s Company Page followers doubled to 85,000.  (LinkedIn)

●Philadelpia saw an 8pt lift in message association, an 8pt lift in purchase intent and 41% sales uplift with their Instagram Ads. (Bannersnack)

●Airbnb achieved an engagement rate of over 4% for one of their Promoted Tweets. (Twitter)

Did I change your mind about the power of social media advertising? I hope so.

Every platform has a specific type of content that has a good traction. Even if we talk about Facebook that gives a lot of freedom when it comes to content (image posts, video, text, instant articles). What you need to remember is that each and every one of them has a specific type of content that is that platform’s  star. For example, on Pinterest, the best type of content you could use are the infographics, on Instagram are the photos and lately on Facebook  what’s working the best are the native videos.

So? Will you adopt these ideas?

Will 2020 be the year you establish a Marketing Calendar?

There’s an old saying that goes like this:
“Something terrible happens if you don’t promote — nothing happens.”

But, you want something to happen with your business. You want it to thrive, grow and make money. To do that, you have to promote your products and services.

How Is There Time to Market When You’re Busy Doing Your “Day” Job?

One solution is to schedule regular marketing initiatives and follow up with action when your calendar dings.

Why? Here’s what the U.S. Small Business Administration says:

“Create a marketing calendar. Break down your marketing plan more specifically into a calendar that shows what type of marketing you will do each month, each week and even each day.

“This can include ad placements, PR campaigns, social media posts and more. By putting your plan on a calendar, you’re committed to carrying it out and things won’t fall through the cracks.”

Like facing any challenge, the first thing you need is a plan. Read on for our guide to help formulate a marketing plan.

Getting Started

Schedule a strategy session with key members of your organization. Plan a half or full day, offsite if possible, and tell your attendees to come prepared to brainstorm. Get together, turn off the cell phones, disconnect from email, and strategize.

Ask questions such as:

• Where are we?
• Where do we want to be in six months, a year, five years?
• How do we get there?
• Which marketing strategies have worked in the past and which haven’t?
• Why should prospects choose us over our competitors?
• How can we convey what differentiates us from our competitors?

Identify some specific goals. It’s no

Search Engine Marketing, more commonly referred to as SEM, is one of the most important marketing channels to generate web traffic. It compliments SEO and content marketing and gets your brand at the top of Google, Bing and all the other search engine players world wide… if you play your SEM cards right.

SEM was once used as an umbrella term for anything to do with online search marketing and encompassed things like SEO. But marketers have since made the distinction between SEO and SEM. SEM now most commonly refers to paid advertising within search engines.

Most importantly, we want you to fully understand why so you can explain that to your clients and sell some paid search advertising like a pro! And trust us, there are a ton of reasons why your clients need SEM – 15 to be exact!

Reason #1: More Money!

The number one reason that any marketing agency should be pitching SEM to their clients is more money! Marketing’s raison d’etre, the reason businesses be in business, is to show me the money!

While Bing, Baidu, Yandex and all the rest offer profitable playgrounds for search ads to bring in more money, Google has some hard data to prove it. According to Google, any business can double their investment on AdWords!

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Of course, anyone who has ever run an SEM campaign in AdWords knows that while this is possible, you have to know what you’re doing to achieve these results. At the end of the day, SEM offers brands and agencies the potential to make more money from their marketing campaigns.

Reason #2: SEM is Conversion-Focused

So while money is typically the main goal of marketing campaigns, other types of conversions shouldn’t be ignored. Marketing campaign objectives like new subscribers, newsletter signups or even contest entries are all alternative types of conversions that a marketer may be trying to achieve.

SEM is an important conversion driver for marketing campaigns of any type. The reason is because paid ads are commonly linked to conversion-focused landing pages or sales pages that move web traffic through the sales funnel. Organic results aren’t typically linked to landing pages, but paid ads are. With this in mind, SEO can support brand awareness and top of funnel activity, while paid ads can really focus on a specific goal and end of funnel conversions. But it doesn’t always go this way…

Reason #3: SEM Can Increase Brand Awareness

While SEM is often considered a bottom-funnel marketing channel, it can also support brand awareness. According to Google, search ads can increase brand awareness by 80%.

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Even if ads don’t receive clicks, brand names are still clearly visible on the top of the fold, and searchers may still read or recognize the product, brand name or URL when they see the ad. Searchers might also take notice when ads include keywords and search terms for competitor brands, as the brain tends to compare things that are listed side by side.

Reason #4: It’s Accessible Even to Small Accounts

One of the biggest hesitations with paid search advertising is cost. Brands and agency clients often think that the costs of SEM will outweigh the benefits; however, as we pointed out from Google’s data in reason #1, if managed correctly you should double your investment in AdWords. So the potential for ROI is there no matter what.

Similarly, it doesn’t take much to advertise on search engines. There’s also no minimum amount you have to spend to run ads. As little as $5 will get you started if you’re on a budget.

The success that you will get for your budget is a different story though. Acquisio has done a lot of work to bring positive SEM results to even the lowest ad spend budgets. Today SEM is available to even small accounts, which is great news for agencies serving SMBs and multi-location franchises that need to spread their budget amongst many location-based campaigns.

Reason #5: SEM is Great for Local Marketing

SEM is an important tool for driving website visits and getting more conversions on almost any budget – it’s even more important if you’re a local marketer though! Local marketing aims to connect regional businesses with the surrounding community that it services. In other words, when people search online for local business services, like “dry cleaner near me” or “food delivery in Montreal,” it’s local marketers who make those queries connect with business listings and ads in search engines.

Google released an advertising package called Local 3-Pack in 2016, which gives local ads the top 3 positions in search results for location-based search terms like city or region names or phrases like “near me.”

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Local marketers have a leg up in Google when it comes to SEM results! Local SEM ads also give businesses a leg up when it comes to generating actual foot traffic for local stores. Research shows that 75% of searchers who find local business information online will then visit a physical store within 24 hours, hopefully to make that purchase.

Reason #6: It Generates Immediate Results

SEO and other forms of online marketing tend to be “long game” strategies that generate web traffic over a long period of time (6+ months), whereas SEM has the potential to deliver immediate results.

Ads typically take minutes to create, and though there is an approval process that all ads must go through before they appear in the SERPs, the average time between creation and ad launch is around one business day. After that you can sit back and watch the clicks roll in! Well that’s not entirely true… on-going account maintenance and optimization is simply part of running SEM campaigns.

The point though is that from the minute your ads are launched, which doesn’t take long, the potential to start getting more clicks and even sales is alive. For this reason alone, SEM is one of the fastest-to-launch traffic strategies out there. Just keep in mind that campaigns should still be optimized for long-term results.

Reason #7: It’s a Consistent Traffic Source

Every business wants consistent web traffic to maintain visibility and sales, but also to be able to plan, forecast and budget. Unfortunately, spikes and drops in traffic are often prevalent and at times unexplained. To mitigate some of the chaos, search ads can be used to generate consistent traffic for certain keywords and help you control the amount of traffic coming to your site at any time.

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One Google study found that “incremental ad clicks make up 89% of traffic generated by search ads but aren’t replaced by organic clicks when ads aren’t running.” In other words, search ads will generate traffic to your site, even when SEO and other marketing tactics fluctuate.

Reason #8: SEM Brings in More Qualified Leads

Of course, it’s not all about generating traffic. One of the biggest benefits of search ads is the ability to bring in the right traffic. You can’t always control who sees your organic search results, but with SEM, you can create a custom audience that will be far more likely to see and engage with your ads than the average searcher. PPC search ads allow you to target specific demographics as well as visitors at any point in the sales funnel, meaning that the traffic you receive from paid ads is more likely to be qualified than traffic generated from organic SEO.

Using negative keywords can also help filter users coming to your site through PPC ads, further improving your odds of converting.

Reason #9: It’s The Quickest Way To Be First

Ads appear first in search engine results. Having a paid search ad gives you a good chance of being at the top of the SERPs (in the ad section of course) if your keyword bid is high enough and your quality score is good.

However, there is one rule to getting clicks in search engines and that’s being on or near the first page. Clicks tend to drop off after that and search engine marketing becomes less effective the deeper you are in the results pages. The image below shows CTR declines for every position, and dramatically after the first page to almost zero.

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So SEM can get you into the first page more easily than SEO would and that’s where all the clicks happen!

Reason #10: Search Ads Work Because They’re Practical

SEM can deliver instant visibility and as we saw in Reason #9, searchers click near the first position. The main reason for this is a practical one. People just want an answer to their query as fast as they can get it, so search ads get clicked indiscriminately.  In one media use survey from Ofcom, 50% of participants could not identify paid ads from organic ads when shown a SERP screenshot.

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In other mediums people tend to avoid ads, but that’s not the case in search engines because they serve a functional purpose and are often not even recognized as ads!

Reason #11: It Helps You Understand Search Intent

SEM can also be helpful for analyzing traffic and discovering search intent. By analyzing the data from your PPC search campaigns, you can see patterns in search terms, which ads receive the most clicks, and the number of conversions for each ad so you can identify important trends.

Understanding keywords (especially long-tail!) offers unique insight about what your customer is looking for that can help inform other marketing channels. Since the era of Not Provided began, discovering search intent through paid search channels and bringing that back into organic has been a frequent strategy. Search intent is also helpful for optimizing your CTAs and landing page copy.

Reason #12: It Gives You More Competitive Data

In addition to insight about your own customers, SEM can deliver insights into your competitors! By checking your competition’s ads and comparing their targeted keywords to yours, you can increase the effectiveness of your own campaign and, in certain cases, actually rank higher than competitors for the same terms.

Competitive analysis tools can help you track keywords and analyze other valuable insights that will improve your marketing campaigns and help drive more traffic.

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Reason #13: SEM is Actually a Diverse Channel Itself!

When it comes to ad options, SEM is not as limited as you might think.

Text-based ads are the go-to, but there are several types of ads you can create depending on your budget, goals, and audience, including:

• AdWords (Google’s online PPC offering) and Bing (Microsoft’s online PPC offering)
• Display Ads: banners at the top, sides or footer of a website or SERPs
• Retargeting Ads: ads that display on other websites based on a user’s previous searches
• Call Tracking: ads are targeted or re-targeted to those who have called a specific number, generally displayed on a search ad

Oh and did we mention Google Shopping ads?! These visual search results stunners drive a lot of clicks and conversions for retailers.

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If you’re not entirely sure that a traditional PPC search campaign will work for your audience, you have other SEM options to try that might better fit your goals.

Reason #14: It’s Great for Mobile Marketing

When Jose Singer, Vice President of Search and Yahoo Gemini Product at Oath, was interviewed about the importance of SEM and mobile search, he noted that 2018 would be about “delivering better mobile ads,” adding:

“Search ads and search data leveraged to deliver more relevant ad experiences based on user [intent] will be a key part of this growth and evolution.”

With a growing share of the mobile market engaging in search, SEM provides a perfect opportunity for sites to capitalize on mobile marketing while still gaining traffic across multiple platforms. After all, most consumers turn to search engines when they’re researching with mobile devices.

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Reason #15: SEM Gives You the Greatest Flexibility

The greatest benefit of SEM is that it gives your campaigns flexibility like no other channel (outside of display). Ads can be customized by audience, type, and even location. Ad budgets can be as small or as large as needed to maximize results. Even the search engine that ads are displayed on can be customized in different ways to create the perfect marketing cross-publisher campaign.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for brands and their customers, so it would stand to reason that there shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all solution for marketing. SEM provides that flexibility with greater options for campaign targeting and subsequent success.

Wrapping it All Up

So why use SEM? It works! These 15 powerful reasons should convince any client to at least give paid search advertising a try. As we said, SEM has the potential to offer instant results, conversions and more money, so client’s shouldn’t need to wait long before they become an SEM believer.

Aside from that, SEM gets brands to the top of the SERPs, it can provide visual Google Shopping campaigns and call-based campaigns, and is great for local marketing and mobile users. It provides flexibility to advertisers and can even help inform other marketing channels!

What is not to love about SEM?

It’s important for brands to focus on SEM so that they can see both immediate and long-term results, analyze that data for better insights, and, in turn, convert visitors into customers. SEM has the power to do all that, and more.

In the past, healthcare and medical websites featured nothing more than an About Us page. But today’s leading medical providers have caught up with the digital trend in healthcare marketing. They have realized that healthcare custom websites are a first step to success.

When marketing your practice, you need not use the common template and have a website that resembles all the rest. Marketing is all about identifying your niche, highlighting what makes you stand out, and what unique services you offer that make your patients loyal to you.

What Do Custom Patient-friendly Websites Look Like?

Magnet hospitals and top healthcare organizations go beyond the basics. They put more care and effort into web design and development.

Aside from their contact information, you’d find the following elements present that make these websites stand out from all the rest:

• Patient Portal
• Blog, Articles, and Educational Tools for Patients
• Description of the Different Services and Departments
• Profiles and Credentials of Providers and Contact Information
• Real-time Scheduling Platform
• Career Opportunities
• Community Involvement

To come up with a custom website that suits your needs, it is our practice at Content First Marketing to create a customized plan for you.

You see, we don’t just build websites. We make sure that the website fits your healthcare marketing plan, your company’s vision, your overall marketing budget, and the like.

On top of creating mobile-friendly healthcare web design with search engine optimization (SEO), we take pains in knowing your goal for having a custom website.

Why Your Healthcare Practice Needs a Custom Website Today

There are many reasons why medical practices want to have a website. And the majority would have the common goals of:

• Showing up on the first page of search results
• Seeing their business grow
• Having an online presence

Some providers want to make their services accessible and convenient for their patients. So, they include an online appointment calendar that the patient can use when the phone is busy.

Meanwhile, others want to add value to their services. This means sending out e-newsletters and appointment reminders with links to health articles and blogs from the website.

Essential Elements of Effective Healthcare Websites

In designing websites, we ensure you’ll have the essential elements necessary for driving web traffic and ensuring business growth.

You’ll find these elements present in all our medical website designs unless our providers don’t want them:

• About Us
• Contact Information
• Services
• Online Scheduling Capability
• Blogs
• Testimonials

We also empower your websites with responsiveness to mobile device use. We understand that design and marketing go hand in hand. If your website only shows well as a desktop and laptop site, and fail as a mobile site, you’d lose more than 20% of consumers who don’t use broadband at home but instead use their smartphones.

In fact, according to the Pew Research Center’s survey findings in February 2019, 81% of the consumers own smartphones. Compare that to the 2011 survey result of 35%, and you’ll find that the trend won’t be going down anytime soon.

But beyond those elements, the healthcare custom website designs become different with each provider’s unique preference in showcasing their services.

Some Examples of Custom Websites for Healthcare

Let us show you how we created custom websites for different providers to match their style even when they belong to the same field and have something in common.

They are all EvexiPEL practitioners. As such, they adhere to a common approach which is described in the following steps:

• Finding the root cause
• Creating a customized plan of treatment based on the cause
• Integrating the health plan into a holistic approach to patient care
• Collaborating and engaging the patient in the plan of care

You will find that the EvexiPEL website we custom-created shows this kind of treatment approach.

Now, check out the websites of the EvexiPEL providers.

Let’s take a look at Evexiasdenver.com. You’ll notice how they wanted us to highlight details about their staff. Getting to know the people who will care for the patients establishes trust early on, especially when the reader sees their credentials and qualifications.

Meanwhile, the Neighborhoodwellnessclinic.com decided that patients need to know upfront what it would cost to get the treatments they offer. So, they asked us to layout the pricing scheme in the open. This would take away the guesswork and facilitate decision-making for the patients.

SaraLembkeHealth.com, on the other hand, decided to use her blog page as an informational page for her products and services. She answers frequently asked questions conversationally. Not only do the readers learn more about products, but they also gain insight into whether the product or service is something they want or need.

An additional feature that we created for some of these websites is an interactive checklist of symptoms that potential patients can check if they have experienced these before the consultation. It adds a unique way of interacting with patients, making them feel more comfortable with sharing their symptoms, knowing that finally someone understands them.

We Can Help You with Custom Websites

A custom website not only positions you among the healthcare industry leaders but also sets you apart from the rest. It enables you to showcase your practice in unique ways that enhance the patient experience.

Designing websites may not be your expertise, but partnering with a company like Content First Marketing, whose forte is to put your ideas and creativity online, will make you a proud owner of your digital platform.

We want your brand to shine on your website and boost your healthcare marketing strategy. And we can do that starting with a business growth call. Schedule it here to get your free review, and together we’ll create a digital marketing strategy.

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Think about the last service you paid for. It could have been for a meal, car maintenance, housekeeping, etc. You might have thought, “Wow! They were really professional and had great service”, or even “I am never going back there again, and I’ll make sure to let my friends know to avoid this company.” Either way, you might have taken the time to provide a review of that company and their service.

Before you chose those companies for their services, you probably looked at their reviews online first. It’s 2019 and we all look at reviews for products and services, even on Amazon, before spending our hard-earned money.

And if you are a business owner, you might start to wonder how those reviews apply to you.

When thinking about the important aspects of growing your business and establishing authority, customer reviews may not be at the top of your list yet. Sure, you know you need some online feedback and preferably 5-star reviews, but what do you really know about them?

Specifically, what do you know about Google reviews?

The truth is that many business leaders aren’t well-versed in the world of online reviews. But we’ve learned that Google reviews are now crucial to the success of any business.

Today we’ll get into the specifics and break down the important facts of Google business reviews, as well as why it all matters.

Google Reviews Explained

There’s no complicated explanation here. Google reviews really are just as upfront as they seem, but our goal is to show you exactly why they’re important.

These reviews are just a way for you (a business) to collect feedback from customers who have bought a product or used a service.

Alternatively, reviews are a way for prospective customers to review businesses before making a purchasing decision—in fact, Forbes reported that upwards of 90% of customers read reviews before buying! The more reviews you have, the more trustworthy you’ll appear to buyers.

Still skeptical? Here’s some data from a 2018 report. Consider these fast facts:

• Google reviews give you credibility without having to spend any money.
• 91% of consumers read online customer reviews to determine whether a local business is good or bad.
• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
• 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to.
• 87% of people say a business needs a rating of 3-5 stars before they will use them.

Why Google?

When you have a question, where do you turn?

Like mostly everyone else on the planet, you probably Google it! And because most people turn to Google for answers, Google reviews hold that much more weight.

Yes, there are other options (Yelp, Facebook, etc.) and certain industries benefit from other review sites, but these are exceptions to the rules.

For example, healthcare providers benefit from health ratings, contractors benefit from Angie’s List, and some businesses benefit from Yelp, although generally Yelp is only beneficial when you pay for it. Businesses that provide for end-users need Google reviews, and even B2B companies can also benefit from industry-specific review services.

Facebook is significantly less powerful because while it will appear in Google search results, it is far below the Google review results of all the competitors and rankings.

So now that we have the basics squared away, let’s get into the steps of how to get these famous Google reviews!

How to Get Google Reviews

We know we’ve given you a lot to think about today, but this is the easy part.

Remember how we just mentioned that 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to?

That’s basically all you have to do—ask. However, you want to make sure you’re doing it in a way that will encourage positive feedback.

Here are our top three tips for getting customer feedback:

1. Be the Best

It should go without saying, but offering excellent service is the first step to getting great customer reviews. When you offer impeccable service and top-quality products, you’ll organically gain brand loyalty. Make your service so good that customers want to tell everyone about it!

2. Ask

Like we said, just ask for the review!

Put up signs around your store or office encouraging customers to reach out online with their feedback. Regularly ask on social media for followers to leave reviews, and utilize digital marketing reviews to get regular feedback. You could even host a contest: posting a Google review gets the participant the chance to win a prize!

3. Engage with People Who Have Left Reviews

Online etiquette can be strange and difficult to interpret, but think of responding to reviews as if you were writing a thank you note after receiving a gift or support from a close friend.

You should regularly monitor your Google reviews and respond to all of them. You should always thank the user for their time and then if the review requires follow-up or there’s concern, you can address accordingly. This will make reviewers feel appreciated and heard and will show readers that you actually take the time to monitor comments and concerns.

How We Can Help

When you partner with Content First Marketing, you can relax knowing that we will take the lead with all of this. We’ll set up your Google Customer Reviews, identify opportunities to ask for reviews, and give you actionable steps and a strategy to ensure your Google Reviews are doing the most for your business.

The Bottom Line

Google reviews, above all else, are the single most important thing you can do for your business – especially if your business has a physical location and services a local area. When your reviews are tied to your Google My Business page, they are also tied to the map pack, which is something your business can’t thrive online without.

When your reviews outnumber those of your competitors, you don’t have to spend as many ad dollars to beat them in search results. Google recognizes a more reviewed business as being more credible, more trustworthy, and more important to the user. Hence your local search ranking will improve as planned!

There is no denying that email marketing is incredibly powerful. It offers excellent ROI and it’s also easy to implement. Yet, many marketers and entrepreneurs have a hard time getting the desired results. Why is that so?

The following are some of the reasons why email marketing fails:

1. Failing to Identify the Right Audience

It goes for all kinds of marketing techniques- targeting the right audience is critical for the success of a campaign. In fact, it’s been found that more than 3/4th of ROI comes from segmented and targeted campaigns.

Before you start shooting emails to a mass audience, it’s important that you study the market first and identify the target users. This can help you create content that resonates with them on a deeper level.

2. Dull Subject Line

Most email users receive more than 50-60 emails a day. So, if you want them to open your emails, then you need to ensure that the subject line of the emails is appealing and maybe even incentivize the user to look into the details.

3. Poor Design

Although the copy plays a huge role in the success of an email marketing campaign, the visuals need to be perfect as well. High-quality graphics reflect professionalism and helps you stand out from other low-grade spam emails.

As you can see, there is a lot to email marketing than you thought. It’s an important segment of digital marketing and you can master it by taking formal education. For instance, you can find the best digital marketing institute in Mumbai for a comprehensive course. You can also take a certificate course in digital marketing with placements on the Internet itself. For instance, there is one offered by TSCMC here.