Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd62

Online marketing strategy - how &whyIn this article I would like to lay out my argu-ments for engaging in non-traditional onlinemarketing channels for audiologocal practices.I’ll discuss the multiple channels available, thecontent type on each channel and themeasurement of results. I realise that many ofour profession believe that our demographicsare not online. Hence any online marketing is awaste of time and money. I believe they arewrong, in fact I know they are. So let us exploresocial media and marketing together in rela-tion to marketing for audiological practices.

The why?We have moved into the age of disruptivetechnology, the truth of that statement is easyto see around us every day. Our attitudes andhabits as a society are changing, particularlythe channels of communication that we use.More and more, people are communicatingthrough social web channels, and we buildonline communities that increase our socialconnections beyond family and friends, tofriends of friends and even strangers. Perhapsthe explosion of this type of engagement isrooted in a combination of our need to relateto our friends and family members who areremoved from us by distance and also as areaction to the lost sense of community thatappears to prevail in our society.The World Wide Web, whether it is used for

searching or communication has become thego-to tool. Whilst initially this phenomenonwas driven by tech people and the young, ithas become accepted throughout society inevery demographic. As I grew up, if I wanted tosearch for a business that provided a particularservice I picked up the ‘Yellow Pages’. This is anaction that admittedly some of our patientsdo seem to do. However, I cannot rememberthe last time that I looked at the Yellow Pagesand my children do not even know what it is!

I had an hilarious conversation a while agowith my seventeen year old son pertaining tothe phonebook. After trying to explain theconcept I settled on telling him it was Googlebefore the dinosaurs died! There is nothing likechildren to make you feel old.As we know, some of our demographic still

use the Yellow Pages but they are few. Moreand more of our patients are turning to theweb and the ubiquitous Google to supplytheir required information. Not only are theyusing search engines but many of them areusing social networks to communicate andbecoming involved in communities withshared interests. This fact is borne out byresearch results from around the world.I present in Table 1, thanks to Pew Research

Centre, the survey stats of internet users in theUSA. I would like to point your attention tothe age demographics results. Ninety-onepercent of individuals between 30 and 49 areactive on the Internet. These are the childrenof your prospective patients.Seventy-seven percent of adults in the USA

aged between 50 and 64 are online, and thesepeople should be viewed as your long-termprospects. In fact, some of them are yourprospective patients right now. Don’t forget,our customers are getting younger due tobetter education and increased lifestyle expec-tations, so people are searching out treatmentfor their hearing loss earlier and earlier at amuch younger age.Fifty-three percent of USA 65 year olds and

older use the Internet. These are your potentialpatients and indeed some of your existingones. Who reading this would not like to beable to reach 53% of their possible targetmarket?

Your motivationMarketing to our demographic is not justabout newspapers, magazines and direct mailanymore. Nor though is it just about online

Social Media & Marketing ForAudiological Practices

Geoff Cooling,Author, Just Audiology Stuff Blog

CorrespondenceE: geoffreycooling@gmail.comWeb:www.justaudiologystuff.com

Declaration ofCompeting InterestsNone declared.

Seventy-seven

percent of adults

aged between

50 and 64 are

online, these

people should be

viewed as your

long-term

prospects

Geoff Cooling has worked in hearing health care for a number of years and in his

spare time is author of the Just Audiology Stuff blog, which covers commercial

strategies for health care and specifically hearing health care. Geoff has experi-

ence of working as a hearing health professional for a large national retailer, and now is

employed by a large hearing aid manufacturer. An advocate of social media, Geoff offers his

advice for using Web 2.0 for information provision, community engagement and marketing

purposes.

63Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd

marketing channels. I have heard it said thattraditional marketing is dead and has beenreplaced by online marketing but I don’t thinkthat is truly the case. However, I think that weas an industry have to become smarter andmore adept at targeted marketing across allavailable channels.I think that it should be a combined

approach using the best media for your busi-ness both traditional and new. I also think thatboth of these channels should and can bemixed and combined across individualcampaigns. I think that this synergy canincrease your exposure and engagement andsupply a constant flow of business to yourpractice. In effect, it can reduce the cost perlead over time allowing you to better copewith the pressure on margins that are to theforefront of everybody’s mind at present. Sowhere does social media fit in our industry’smarketing mix?

The channelsFirst let us look at the most prominent onlinechannels used right now. There are four mainchannels that are being used by other indus-tries and indeed some members of our ownindustry. They are Facebook, Twitter, Google+and blogs. So, how are these channels used toa commercial advantage? Each channel isdifferent, the goals and usage profile tend tobe quite different across the channels.However, before we do, I caution you, thesingle most important online channel for anaudiological practice is their website. The useof social media channels is especially impor-tant to support and boost your websitesearch ranking through keywords.

FacebookThe management of a Facebook page tendsto be a mix of content curation, finding andposting links to information that you judgemay be of interest to your target audience,and content manufacture — the manufac-ture of good content that you deem will be ofinterest to your audience and will show yourprofessionalism and expertise. Facebook isalso a place where you may build relationshipswith people. Facebook users actually tend tospend quite a bit of time on the site.

TwitterTwitter is much more about content curationand some sharing of links to your owncontent. The following that you build up onTwitter will expect more engagement and willprobably engage with you more.

A blogA blog is where you and your business canshine. A blog is all about content

manufacture. It’s where you supply contentthat shows your professionalism, knowledgeof your subject and dedication to yourpatient. A blog is where you provide goodquality articles on your subject, give clearadvice and discuss the latest developments.

Google+Somewhat of a cross between Twitter andFacebook. An important channel because ofthe Search Engine Optimisaton (SEO)advantages of having a presence and sharingon the site. It is also a mix of curation ofcontent and posting links to your ownwebsite.

Channel Strategies

FacebookOn Facebook, the first thing to do is to setup a business page, the content strategy forthis page is to position it more towards an

advisory platform and less as a promotionalchannel. In order to do this, you can mix andmatch content from third party pages such ashearing aid manufacturers and hard of hearingassociations around the world. In fact thisapproach actually will leverage those pages toyour advantage by allowing your page to bevisible in the stream of the third party pages.This allows you the opportunity to connectto some of their followers. Those followersobviously have an interest in your productsand services or else they would not befollowers of these third party pages.The content does not have to be strictly

hearing related, as our patients’ hearing lossdoes not define them. Our patients arepeople with lots of life interests and hobbies.Promoting items such as gardening tips aspart of your strategy may lead to engagementwith people you may have not reachedbefore. The posting of local information onyour page is also ideal, as is ‘liking’ local club

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% who use the Internet

All adults 82

Men 83

Women 82

Race / ethnicity

White, Non-Hispanic 84

Black, Non-Hispanic 77

Hispanic (English- and Spanish-speaking) 75

Age

18-29 97

30-49 91

50-64 77

65+ 53

Household income

Less than $30,000 / year 71

$30,000-$49,999 87

$50,000-$74,999 93

$75,000+ 97

Educational attainment

No high school diploma 58

High school grad 75

Some College 90

College + 95

Table 1. Demographics of Internet Users in the USA.

Above is the percentage of each group of American adults who use the Internet, according to our April2012 survey. For instance, 82% of women use the Internet.

Sources: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project’s Spring Tracking Survey conductedMarch 15th – April 3rd, 2012. N = 2,254 adults age 18 and older, including 903 interviews conducted bycell phone. Interviews were conducted on both English and Spanish.

Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd64

pages and re-posting their content. These arean excellent source of both localised contentand possible new followers.Facebook adverts as a medium are highly

targeted and not nearly as costly as you maythink. The benefits over traditional marketingare that it is live, vibrant and you have completecontrol over who it is delivered to. You cantarget the adverts by age, interests and evengeographic areas. So in other words, I couldplace an advert and target it to every Facebookmember over 55 in Dublin. How cool is that?

TwitterTwitter is a different type of platform, whichis used to deliver links to content, be it yoursor others that you think is fascinating. Youpost those links in the hope that yourfollowers will find them fascinating and willengage with you in a deeper way. It’s likewhen you were five and found a ten inchworm in the garden. You just had to show itto everybody. Twitter is a bit like that.There is a thriving audiological commu-

nity building up on Twitter. I am consistentlyon the site and a lot of my connections offerreally valuable information. A lot of thecontent I use and some of my ideas for blogposts have come from Twitter. So in this wayyour use of Twitter actually feeds into yourcombined online strategy.Twitter is really important for learning

from others, passing on useful informationand listening in. The last one is probably themost important, Twitter can be effectivelyused to listen in to conversations pertainingto products you supply and your brand in alocal and targeted way through its searchfacility. Even though Twitter is limited to 140character posts and messages, I can truly sayI find it the most engaging of platforms.Your Twitter strategy should be to tweet

links of interesting content with your ownobservations intermingled with links to yourFacebook page and blog content. Youshould engage with your followers, thankingthem for their follow and any re-tweets ofyour posts they undertake. This engagementwill build into a community of sorts over aperiod of time.

BloggingAs I said earlier, a blog is where you get toshine, where you get to show everybodyhow professional and caring you are. In orderto do this you need to give direct, honestand undiluted advice. Write in your ownvoice, being true to your own thoughts, ifyou do not, your content will be stilted andyour viewers will see through you.You should also invite credible comment

on the posts that you place on your blog.

Again ensure that you answer as directly,honestly and as openly as possible. Your blogis not a news section, although it is okay torepost content that you find really interestingonce you reference it and discuss why you findit interesting.

Google+Google+ is an interesting channel. and thereare millions of accounts, but hardly anyoneuses them. However, this is not a reason toignore this channel. As we know, Google isubiquitous across the web. So purely for SEOreasons having an active presence is probablya good idea. Again this site can be used topost links to interesting content and moreimportantly links to your own content.Those are probably the most used chan-

nels out there, however there are many more.A recent addition is Pinterest, it is becomingquite popular. It is a visual site, a site whereyou post visual content as opposed toworthy prose.Before you rush into social media, sit down

and outline your strategy for the elements ofyour online media and the content that youwill provide. You should research and thinkcarefully about the following questions:� What are your key areas of expertise? Arethey different in any way from others?

� What can you tell your customers thatothers can’t? What is your unique sellingpoint?

� Can you better inform customers abouthearing loss? If so, how?

� Where will you draw information from foryour content? Other users, traditionalmedia, manufacturers?

� How will you manage your social mediachannels? What technology will you use tomake it easier?

� Who exactly in your organisation willmanage it?

� When a disgruntled customer posts anegative comment, how are you going todeal with it?

� If somebody complains on one of yourchannels, how will you deal with that?I didn’t say it was going to be easy! Just

looking at the last few questions it becomesobvious that social media channels are some-thing that you need to outline a strategy forand not one that fits on the back of a postagestamp. Having said that, it is worth it, it is fun,it is quite exhilarating, it helps you to engagewith your customers and potentialcustomers for free! Running the social mediachannels for my company has been an inter-esting experience.The experiment so far has been a success;

the very fact that I am writing this article istestament to that. I have engaged withpeople worldwide, I have introduced newcustomers to our brand. Several peoplearound the world now are customers of mycompany because of their engagement withus on the web. I have faced most of the ques-tions I mentioned earlier, and in fairness I hadnot thought of them before they occurred.So when they did happen I had to think veryquickly and without prior planning. Notsomething I would advise for you, reader.My comments, answers, advice and offers

of help offers were just right to deal with thesituations that came up. I would not recom-mend that course of action to you though;think very carefully about every angle beforeyou set off on your journey.The exercise is not only worth it, it has

become an imperative. For SEO reasons youneed active social media channels. Thesechannels will assist you to drive and leverageyour website in the organic search rankings.Because that is the core strategy, social mediainvolvement is about supporting your coreonline marketing channel. Your website.

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