Less Advertising, More Content Marketing

By + on June 20, 2012 in Internet Marketing, RealSelf, Reputation Management, Social Media

Doctors need to hear this often, because I still see them spending far too many marketing dollars on magazine ads and listings in web directories: the path to good web marketing is content. Tony Quin at imedia connection writes:

Across the digital world marketers are learning the same lesson, advertising, and more significantly the marketing funnel as we’ve known it, are becoming ineffective tools for influencing how consumers move to purchase. Consumers are no longer willing to be shoved down the path to purchase, like meat being pushed through a grinder.

This isn’t just a change in tools; it’s part of the fundamental shift in how the consumer economy works. We are now well into the digital age with technology providing the infrastructure of this new economy. But we’ve quickly evolved past the time when the novelty of the infrastructure was enough to motivate us.

Tony goes on to state that the winners are going to be companies and brands that turn their marketing machines into content creation machines. This perspective aligns with our past posts about the decision process followed by aesthetic patients is a journey, not a purchase funnel. The answer for a doctor is, again, to provide or enable a steady stream of high quality content (including patient stories and reviews) that help people get informed and feel empowered to make a decision.
Today I was sent this Yelp post that validates this perspective, and for the plastic surgeon, it accomplishes a vital marketing objective. It propagates a positive word of mouth. This was propagated by the fact the doctor centered his online effort toward being helpful rather than solely promotional (you can see Dr. Connors answers hundreds of questions on RealSelf).

About TomS

Tom Seery is the founder and CEO of RealSelf. Tom is a frequent speaker at medical conferences about practice marketing, reputation management, and competing on the web. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/seery
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