Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
Facebook – When people think social media the first thing that tends to pop to mind is Facebook. It is the most climbed “social media mountain” for marketing journeys. The highlights of Facebook to know are as followed:
Founded: In 2004
Numbers: As of October 4, 2012 there are over 1 billion active users. In the USA 137.6 million users.
Business Only Platforms: Yes, there is a separate business only pages vs. Personal.
Time Per User/Per Month: 7:45 hours a month in the US
Business Needs to Devote: Minimum of 5 hours a week on their Facebook Page.
Mobile: 54% of month users access Facebook through a mobile device.
When starting your marketing efforts in social media Facebook is one of the first ones to approach. Why? Because the sheer number of people using it and the amount of time they spend on Facebook. In eight years Facebook has become integrated into people’s lives. It is where they are building and maintaining relationships. (more…)
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media, Veterinary Websites
Posted in Content, Facebook, Google, Search, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
Many times at Beyond Indigo we talk to people who are moderately to extremely overwhelmed with their marketing Journey. For most veterinary hospitals they do not even know where to start, what to do or how much time it is going to take. I don’t blame people for being overwhelmed. There is significant amount work, time and knowledge involved in a marketing program. If you are on the overwhelmed train, here are some points to consider that I have gleaned from 1000‘s of veterinarians about why planning for this Marketing Journey can be so overwhelming. Maybe you can relate to some of them.
Overwhelmed Issue Number One: Since most veterinarians and their staff have had to conduct very little marketing until recently, there is a steep learning curve to get up to speed. Most veterinarians still tend to be between 1996 and 1999 in their online marketing initiatives. Hospitals still try to build websites themselves, have servers located in their physical buildings and are struggling weather to use Yellow Pages or not. The problem is how to quickly learn 15 to 17 years of knowledge in a short period of time? Where to start?
Overwhelmed Issue Number Two: Who in the heck does the marketing program? Many hospitals are trying to tackle it completely by themselves and noticing it causes a juggling problem. Multiple people are tapped to do different aspects of the marketing program but nobody really is in charge. Then the message from the hospital is not consistent either in tone or timing. Or the marketing program goes really great until a new problem or focus comes into play and it is forgotten for awhile. This causes gaps with building and growing relationships which is the primary function of online marketing today. The problem is how to have the staffing resources and time to keep the marketing program ongoing. (more…)
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Content, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Positive Based Marketing, social media, social media marketing, Veterinary Websites
Posted in Content, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing, Websites | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013
When a person goes on a Journey we think of a trip that has multiple stops and extends over a period of time. Other times we use the word “Journey” to mean a process that is an every changing that allows us to grow and develop. It is time to think of your marketing program as a “Journey”. A process that involves more than one “stop” and is every changing and every growing. Why? Because frame of mind is everything to embracing a process. If you are still in the mentality that you check the box once a year on your marketing and then go back to medicine, then your business has a higher chance of not maintaining and gaining new relationships. Lack of maintaining relationships could mean less customers and that would be suboptimal.
For your marketing Journey there are a few essentials to sneak into your travel back pack that will be your roadmap and guide along the way. Every aspect of your marketing should fall into these guidelines.
(more…)
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Facebook, Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing, traffic, Veterinary Marketing
Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013
I read with enthusiasm the recent VeTeam Advisor supplement in the September 2012 issue of the NAVC Clinician’s Brief. The topic was how to reverse the decline in feline visits to veterinary hospitals. The authors, Drs. Rodan, Brunt, Nahama and Schori, as well as Karen Gavzer, a highly respected practice management consultant, should be proud of their accomplishment. I’ll try and summarize their findings and recommendations, but you should check out the article in its entirety.
The Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study from 2011 showed us that cats make up 52% of the pets in the US but only 39% of the patient base in veterinary hospitals. Additionally, an estimated 50% of pet cats receive no medical care between spay/neuter and euthanasia!
The authors broke the causes down into two major categories: pet owner reluctance (i.e. not knowing that vet visits are needed for indoor cats, not realizing how good cats are at hiding disease) and physical deterrents (i.e. unpleasant experiences with carriers/transport, difficult cat embarrassing the owner).
(more…)
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, blogs, cat friendly, Cat visits, Content, Profit
Posted in Content, Google, Mark Olcott, News, Uncategorized, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
In today’s increasingly competitive environment, we veterinarians are not immune from our clients’ tightened purse strings. Paying close attention to overhead and pricing decisions is always important, but during tough economic times it becomes literally a matter of life and death for industries that depend on disposable income. Wal Mart grew to be the biggest company in the world primarily by focusing on providing low prices, and their motto is: “Always low prices.” Everything they do, from their relationship with suppliers to their early and continuing devotion to information technology, is aimed at lowering their costs so they can pass these savings along to their customers. I’m not saying that the Wal Mart model is a perfect fit for professional service providers, like veterinarians, but there are some lessons we can learn from them.
In particular, Wal Mart has mastered the concept of “marginal cost” with respect to the pricing of products. Marginal cost can be defined as the cost associated with selling one more unit of something, whether that something is a bottle of shampoo or a dog spay. Let’s take surgeries, for example, and assume your fixed costs (i.e. rent/mortgage—things that don’t change depending on how busy you are) are $1000 per month attributable to your surgery room. Then add up the variable costs: surgeon time, suture, anesthesia, autoclave costs, cage space, and technician time attributable to surgery. Let’s say this is $100 per procedure. So your surgery costs are $1000 per month PLUS $100 per procedure. If you charge $250 per procedure, you would have to do 7 per month to cover your fixed costs. But on that 8th, or marginal, procedure your cost is only $100, netting you $150 profit for each procedure you do above 7 per month. (more…)
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Google, Profit, Websites
Posted in Blogging, Google, Mark Olcott, Marketing, Uncategorized, Veterinary Marketing, Websites | Comments Off
Saturday, October 27th, 2012
It’s no secret that today’s veterinarians face a number of challenges that our predecessors didn’t. Oversupply of veterinarians, educational indebtedness and loss of pharmacy revenue to major retailers are but a few issues facing the profession. I’ll be writing about all of these in the coming weeks, but each of these “clouds” has a distinct silver lining if you know how to find it. As a practicing veterinarian and, more recently, an MBA student I have come to grips with one cold, hard fact: that’s business. While challenges certainly exist, we must remember that the wind is at our back in many important ways. The pet industry is one of very few TRULY recession resistant industries in the US. Americans spent over $50 billion on their pets last year, despite tough economic times, with veterinary medicine representing about $14 billion of that total. More and more people are considering pets to be members of the family, and this is a meta-‐trend that I believe will continue for the foreseeable future. Will our profession be the same in 10 years as it is now? No, it won’t. Rather than grow frustrated about market realities that may be beyond our control, we all must redouble our efforts on those things we CAN do something about. For example, don’t get overwhelmed by how fast computer technology is changing or that you don’t understand “the cloud”. Focus on making small, easily reversible decisions that will grow your practice. Even if something doesn’t work, you want to “fall forward”. For example, do you have a website? Are you on Facebook? You may not be online, but I promise you that your clients are. Ignore this at your peril.
In my next post I’ll take up the topic of pet insurance, and why you should be embracing it in your practice. And I don’t mean just putting brochures up front and hoping people ask about it. I mean you, your technicians, and front desk staff should ALL be discussing it with each and every one of your clients, ESPECIALLY during puppy visits.
About Mark D. Olcott, DVM: Originally from upstate New York, Dr. Olcott received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from State University of New York at Geneseo. He graduated from the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in 1995 and moved south to get away from the 6-month long winters! After an 18 month stint as an equine veterinarian, he has been a small animal practitioner since 1997. Over the last several years he has been the co-owner of 5 DVM small practice, a mobile ultrasonographer, and an emergency clinician at The Life Centre in Leesburg, VA. Dr. Olcott has particular interests in cardiology, pain management, and the use of ultrasound as a diagnostic modality in small animal practice. He is a published author, and holds two patents for an intelligent, automated pet feeder he invented.
He lives in metro Washington, DC area with his wife and 3 children. They have numerous pets including a dog, 3 cats, a rabbit and a saltwater tropical fish tank. Dr. Olcott in enrolled in the executive MBA program at the University of Maryland, and in his limited free time is an avid outdoors-man.
Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Google, Mark Olcott, Marketing, News, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing, Websites | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
This is the second part of the excerpt from one of our free Wednesday Webinars series. Presented by our Director of Project Management William Lindus. In our previous blog post we talked about the difference about writing for print material versus for the web. In this second part we go into more details about how to make your web copy work.
Let’s talk about how to make your web copy work. The first, and probably most important piece of advice I can give is to avoid technical jargon. This is particularly difficult for veterinarians, as you have built your education and your careers on highly technical terms, phrases, and acronyms. For example, you should use phrases like ‘chronic kidney disease’ instead of ‘chronic renal failure.’ It can be okay in some cases to use more technical terms… but make sure you back these technical terms up with phrases anyone can understand. Example: If you are writing a web page about your staff cardiologist, make sure your copy prominently discusses ‘heart health’ or similar phrases. Your web copy should be written at the same level that US Today writes, which is at about an 9th grade reading level. Be specific with the points that you make on your site. Superlatives (phrases like ‘we are the best’ are often over-used in writing), but if you can back your superlative up with a specific, your statement is no longer just fluff. Instead of saying, ‘we are the best,’ imagine how much more powerful it would sound if you said, ‘we have been voted the best veterinary practice in Anytown, USA.’
Also, remember that this copy is for your clients, and should be tailored to what they want. Make it about them! You don’t need to include your mission statement on your website. I’m sure your mission statement is great, and I’m sure it reflects who you are as a practice, but think about this: Every mission statement a veterinary practice has ever created says something about providing, ‘high quality veterinary care,’ and such phrases become meaningless to the consumer on the go. Instead, get to the point with what services you can provide your client. This next point terrifies most veterinarians: don’t be afraid to use your web copy to upsell. Most of the time when I bring up the concept of upselling to veterinarians, I’m greeted with either looks of shock or looks of fear. After all, marketing isn’t something that most veterinarians are used to. However, your website is as much a web marketing tool as it is an information source. Use this to your advantage! For example, if one of your pages is about pet vaccinations, it is a great idea to discuss the benefits of purchasing pet medications from your clinic (or through an affiliate that you trust) as opposed to through other sources. Not only are you driving revenue for your business, but you are also providing a service by keeping your clients from purchasing pet medications from risky sources.
There are a few guidelines that a good web copy writer will follow when writing for your site. These can actually be quite nuanced, but here are a few to get your feet wet. A website’s home page should have less than 100 words of content, and this content should contain the ‘value proposition’ for the site. The value proposition is your brand promise, or what your customers can expect from you. What is the end benefit that you are offering? What service do you offer? Who do you offer it to? Why is this useful? Your home page content should answer these questions in 100 words or less.
Internal pages on your website (anything that isn’t the home page, basically) have a bit more leeway. You can comfortably fit between 250-500 words of copy on a web page, although much more than this and your client’s eyes will start to gloss over. Bullet points are your friend here, as is a ‘choppy,’ easy to scan layout. Internal pages should drive your customers to some sort of action. This may be as general as turning the reader into a new client for your practice, or it may be more specific. Think back to the example from earlier about the pet medication link on a vaccination page. Headlines should be short and efficient. Stick to headlines that are less than 80 characters, and make sure your headline uses the key phrases that users may be scanning for.
Posted in Blogging, Content, Digital Marketing, Google, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing, Websites | Comments Off
Friday, August 17th, 2012
Is social media presence an option? If you want to grow your business, then ultimately, no, having a social media presence is not an option—it’s essential these days.
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Savvy Consumers. Today’s consumers are savvy about where and from whom they purchase products and services. They take the time to research online before they ever pick up the phone or get in their car to make a purchase. By having a social media presence that is both engaging and engaged, it helps reassure clients that your business is reputable and cares.
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Humanize your brand. Social media gives your business the opportunity to reach out and actually connect with your audience. Real one-to-one relationships are formed.
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Your competition is using it. The vet down the street is likely using social media. If you aren’t currently engaging and interacting with social media, how easily will you be found? And just because you aren’t participating, doesn’t necessarily mean others aren’t doing it for you.
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You target audience is using it. Here are a few quick facts about Facebook.
a. 845 million monthly active users at the end of December 2011 b. 483 million daily active users on average in December 2011 c. 425 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011
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Google counts social sharing when ranking. When many different people on social media refer to your content, your website, or your videos, it means those individuals find your content useful, entertain, informative, or all of it. When this happens, the search engines pay attention and in return use this as a factor to provide better search engine placement for your content.
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It’s the next generation version of word-of-mouth marketing. One of the best ways to interact with potential clients is by way of people who have already experienced what your brand has to offer. When your social media presence starts to generate conversation and reaction, such as likes, shares, tweets, pins, etc., it’s a visible reaction of their approval and they are sharing this with their friends and family.
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Provides transparency. Social media is an open book. If someone likes you, that’s great, everyone can see it. If someone doesn’t like you and mentions something negative about your brand or experience, then this too is available to the community. Many successful clinics that leverage social media use this as an advantage to show how in tune they are by replying and finding a way to close that loop. This shows to those watching that your clinic has integrity, values interaction and criticism, and cares about its clients.
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Opens up conversation. Your clients are the best people to learn from when it comes to making things better. By asking questions about their experience or their needs, you will get an understanding as to what clients are looking for. Social media for small business success is truly about listening as opposed to marketing
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Aids customer service. Use your social media outlets to answer questions concerning customer service. By doing it this way, you can not only highlight to your community that you are available, but also get other people within the community to provide answers and support to new or potential clientele who have per haps experienced the same issue themselves.
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Brand exposure. Everybody wants a larger piece of the pie. The more targeted people who are aware of your business, the greater the chance you have of turning those individuals into paying clients and them becoming an advocate of your services.
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, branding, conversation, customer service, Facebook, Google, relationships, savvy consumers, social media, word of mouth
Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Google, Online Reputation Management, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
Google Plus
Just as we were enjoying our Memorial Day weekend, Google went quietly about making some significant changes to its algorithm that heavily impacts local businesses. If you want to understand how to keep being “seen” in Google, these new changes must be adapted in your practice’s online marketing program.
First Change: Google Search Results Went Hybrid
This past year, when we used Google for an online search, the results would show paid advertising at the top or far right (which only 25% of people click on), with local search results shown next — listed in packs of 7 or 10 and accompanied by corresponding map markers starting with the letter “A,”, followed by organic (non-local) results. Google has now integrated organic and local search results together, which currently display on the search results page in varying ways — in packs of 3, 5 or 7 for example, depending on the search query. Search results are still formatted with paid advertising at the top or right under the map on the results page, but you’ll now see organic results listed BEFORE, and blended with, local search results. How does a business become listed in this new hybrid format and at the top of local search results? What we have learned is to focus on the following:
- It is crucial to have a custom-designed website that can be optimized (coded) down to the page with local search terms, specific relevant industry keywords (veterinarian, pet cancer, etc.), and appropriate geographic regional terms.
- When choosing location keywords, check how close your business is to the center of the city. To do this, go to Google Maps (maps.google.com) and type in your city and state; e.g., Minneapolis MN. Google will then display a marker on the map with the letter “A” — where it considers the center of the city to be located. This letter “A” is what Google calls the “centroid.” The closer your business is to the this centroid, the more “votes” your local business listing receives toward being near the top of local search results for that city. With this approach, Google is attempting to make the search experience most relevant to the searcher’s query.
- Plentiful (five or more) positive online reviews help maintain good positioning in Google Local Search. Google purchased the Zagat review site and is now incorporating these reviews into Google local listings. Reviews are becoming increasingly important. Having reviews associated with your business listing is yet another key ranking factor and one of the many signals Google looks for.
To read the rest of this article in a PDF format please click here: Fasten Your Seat Belt – Google Made Changes Again
Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Beyond Indigo Website Marketing, blogs, Google Places, google places search, Online Marketing, online reputation management, Search Engine Optimization, Veterinary Marketing, Veterinary Marketing with Beyond Indigo, Veterinary Websites
Posted in Digital Marketing, Google, Marketing, Mobile, Online Reputation Management, Online Reviews, Search, Search Engine Optimization | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
Google+ is a social media site, a search engine, and a news feed all rolled into one. In addition, content that is found in your Google+ pages and circle of friends is used to offer search results in the part of Google called Search Your World. Having content that is current is a must to keep your readers interested and secure a solid placement in the Search Your World feature. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when crafting content for Google+:
- Update regularly. Posting one to two times per week on Google+ is sufficient to keep your page looking fresh and relevant, but don’t be afraid to post much more often than that if you’d like to devote a little more time to the site.
- Create posts that are unique to Google+. If you already have Facebook and Twitter accounts, don’t just recycle the same content on Google+. While it’s okay to share some content, you should create posts that you haven’t shared elsewhere to give users an incentive to add you to their circles.
- Share content. Similar to Twitter, Google+ is a great place for sharing links to useful blog posts and articles, whether they’re yours or someone else’s. When you’re sharing content from other people, be sure to add a short comment along with the link to make your posts more engaging.
- Post links to online coupons and offers. Google+ doesn’t allow you to host promotions or coupons directly on their site, but you can link to special offers or promotions that are hosted elsewhere online, such as your blog or website. This is a great way to encourage people to spread the word about your business because they can share your posts with their friends.
- Be engaging. Reshare content that your followers have shared on Google+, and request that people reshare your relevant posts as well. Don’t be afraid to ask your followers questions about what they’d like to see. Google+ is still a new network, so everyone is feeling their way around to determine what they want it to become.
Tags: Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Google, google + pages, google plus, google plus pages
Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, Google, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off
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