We saw the digital marketing landscape transform in more ways than one in 2014. Marketing data grew in prominence; intelligence on audience interests, their intent, and how they use technology to address their requirements became vital to delivering optimized online experiences. Today's online audience is informed, entitled, and demanding. They expect their online experience to be seamless, customized, and entertaining. This being said, it is now time to look at how 2015 will shape up. Will it be a year of changes and upsetting upheavals or will we see a more refined digital marketing landscape emerge?
THREE SPECIFIC AREAS OF FOCUS FOR AESTHETIC PRACTICES
Luck definitely favor's the prepared. With that in mind, here are a few things that you should focus on as we embrace 2015.
BENCHMARK YOUR MARKETING GOALS – There are always areas in your marketing plan that you might want to assess or reassess. This helps ensure that everything ties in neatly with your original goals while also providing you with a comprehensive understanding of where you need to go next.
MARKETING DIVERSITY IS THE NORM – The Internet of things demands that you meet your audience in a place, time, and device of their choice. Customize your marketing message to reach audiences over desktops, laptops, and the variety of mobile devices and operating systems out there.
DATA WILL DRIVE MARKETING – Marketing data will become a crucial element in driving your marketing strategy. Your audience will generate a vast amount of information that can provide greater insight into what they expect from your practice, so put a measurement system in place.
CONTENT MARKETING IN 2015 – DO IT THE RIGHT WAY
The time has come to firmly say goodbye to the traditional digital marketing strategies. The emphasis for aesthetic practices will be on creating content that is more relevant and inspiring to their audience.
- Establish authority and gain trust with your audience by consistently providing valuable content via a variety of channels.
- Focus on creating content that is highly relevant and provides insight or is entertaining to your audience in the form of articles on your practice website, articles and blog posts on popular websites, eNewsletters, and case studies.
- Ensure your visual vocabulary and communication is crisp, trendy, and ready for instant consumption.
- Personalization of content in 2015 will make huge strides and will continue to push the 1-to-1 marketing ideology.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN 2015 – WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
Ensuring that your campaigns and content “scale down” on mobile is vital. However, as mobile grows in value and importance, you might want to focus on mobile first and then plan on scaling up on desktop and laptop content.
7 STEPS TO A ROBUST SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
- Make sure your audience can experience and access everything, from all your marketing communication to websites and social posts over their mobile devices.
- Select the social media networks you want to be on; base your decision on where your target audience hangs out.
- Plan out the frequency of your posts (per day, or per week, etc)
- Plan out your content strategy and determine what you want to share – look at everything from links, and tips, to quotes, and content from other relevant sources. Select the form of update that showcases consistency.
- Revisit your plan on a regular basis, collect and understand the results from all your social activity. Tweak your plan based on those results if and when necessary.
MOBILE MARKETING – DELIVER CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT EXPERIENCES
Mobile is moving fast and expanding on an exponential scale. In 2015 cosmetic surgery practices will need to start focusing on providing their audiences with contextually relevant experiences based on their expectations and in context to their specific location.
4 STEPS TO IMPROVING MOBILE MARKETING IN 2015
- Micro Target – Find ways to customize online experiences for your audience. This is the age of personalized experiences that deliver a level of exclusivity.
- Improve Engagement and Response – Leave it to your users to decide how they want to receive and interact with all your marketing communication.
- Match the message with the Recipient – Create marketing messages that are the most relevant to the specific needs of your target audience. Give them what they want and they will respond in kind.
- Multiple Channels Increase Information Consumption – Your audience uses a variety of mediums to digest information. Make sure your messages are responsive to the plethora of devices out there. More importantly ensure that they are consistent across all channels.
KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Effective digital marketing for your aesthetic practice will only happen when you understand and meet the preferences and behaviors of your target audiences immediately. In 2014, precedence was set with respect to content marketing, while both social and mobile saw wider adoption across all industries. The focus in 2015 thus will be on further improving and implementing the trends in these three areas in ways that will foster greater interaction between target audiences and their online environments.
Naren Arulrajah is President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete Internet marketing company which focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education and the online reputations of Cosmetic Surgeons. With a team of 130+ full time marketers, Ekwa.com helps doctors who know where they want to go, get there by dominating their market and growing their practice significantly year after year. If you have questions about marketing your practice online, call Naren direct at 877-249-9666.
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