Like many companies we’re using August downtime to prepare for the Autumn onslaught, our busiest time of the year.
Over the next few weeks we’re going to run a series of posts encouraging you to get your marketing house in order to make sure your business is operating at maximum effectiveness.
The economy is on the up and consumer confidence is higher than it’s been since the big meltdown – the next four months are going to be busiest you’ve had in six years – prepare for it!
1. Photography
Show off your practice in the best possible light with a refresh of your photographic portfolio. The summer light makes it the perfect time to revamp your website images or update your brochure.
OFFER: For the month of August we’re offering a photo shoot of you, your clinic or your staff (or all three) for half the usual price.
Our photographic service is for half a day shoot and then editing up to 20 final shots which can be used on brochures or your website.
Usual cost £500 – August price is £250*
* must be booked and completed in August * travel costs apply
If interested drop us a line and we’ll get you booked in.
A recent report from leading financial institution Deloitte has shown that the Life Sciences sector – covering pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical technology – is in rude health in 2014. Certainly the UK government is firmly backing growth in this sector with its Strategy for Life Sciences, which was launched a couple of years ago.
But why should the Life Sciences sector be exploring digital marketing to continue its expansion?
# 1 Digital marketing makes for a level playing field If you’re a global pharmaceutical business or a small niche player, you have the same digital marketing tools at your disposal. The important thing is to not adopt a scatter-gun approach but to develop a digital marketing strategy whereby you can measure the rewards.
# 2 An innovative sector such as Life Sciences is all about communication This sector is at the forefront of product innovation and the internet should be your key means of communicating these to the outside world.
# 3 People are searching for products There are 5,000 + searches per month in the UK for ‘pharmaceutical companies’ on Google, with high numbers related to purchasing products.
# 4 Become an expert and reap the benefits LinkedIn has a strong medical section with over 15,000 groups discussing a potentially relevant topic to your business. By positioning yourself as an expert in your field it is proven that it can facilitate sales. Blogging and disseminating content on relevant sites can further strengthen your position as an expert.
https://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Katharine-Griffiths.jpg282282Katharine Griffithshttps://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Untitled-1_0006_bhm-slider-logo-white.pngKatharine Griffiths2014-06-20 08:05:092014-06-20 08:05:09Digital marketing and the Life Sciences Sector
Technological advances are all about making us work better or smarter. One recent US launch is Figure1 which is an image sharing app for doctors. This allows doctors to share important information and follow cases all within a secure internet site that protects patient confidentiality.
The question, though, is always whether technology can make us redundant. Also from the US is PocketDerm, a teledermatology consultation programme developed by two dermatologists to provide customised skincare advice for acne sufferers without them even having to make an appointment.
Patients can sign up to the app and upload photos of their acne problem where their acne treatment is customised and shipped directly to the patient.
https://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bhm-account-photo1.jpg722728Aaron Davishttps://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Untitled-1_0006_bhm-slider-logo-white.pngAaron Davis2014-06-20 07:51:002014-06-20 07:51:00Tech news: apps to make you work clever
You may have a brand new machine in-clinic you want to promote or you want to highlight your top procedures and let people know what you do really well.
The microsites can contain different and more detailed information than you main site and by having microsites promote your products or services, you can extend your reach in the local market.
Your microsite can feature a couple of keywords relevant to that particular procedure or treatment whereas your main website will have a much wider message.
2. Location, location, location
Microsite can help you dominate local areas for these key treatments/areas. This can be reflected in the URL – it can be worth taking a look on a domain site such as LCN to see if URLs are available for your key treatments in combination with your local area even if you’re not planning on pushing the button yet on this marketing strategy.
3. Issues with your main site
Sometimes you may have problems with your main site that is making it ineffective in terms of optimisation and also converting visitors to your site. A microsite can free you up to deliver better results than you main site in your prime money-making areas… and they can prove very cost effective.
https://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Katharine-Griffiths.jpg282282Katharine Griffithshttps://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Untitled-1_0006_bhm-slider-logo-white.pngKatharine Griffiths2014-05-15 10:28:562014-05-15 10:28:563 Reasons You Need a Microsite
Plastic surgeon Mr Sudip J Ghosh had commissioned us to move both his own site – SJG Online – and a shared site with plastic surgery colleague Mr Alan Park over to a WordPress platform.
The brief:Platform switch and fresh new design for Just Cosmetic website.
The finished product: Just about to go live so check back…
SJG Online is the website for Mr Sudip J Ghosh, a plastic surgeon based in the Home Counties. He approached us as he’d had a website built a few years ago but it had never worked the way he wanted. The traffic was really not great, it wasn’t appearing in any of his key treatments despite there being extensive content on the site and he wasn’t able to change any of the details which was very frustrating as some were now very out of date.
The brief:Build a WordPress website, with a fresh and exciting design. WordPress is a great platform as Google loves it and it has a easy-to-navigate Content Management System.
Initially, some of the inherent problems in his original website seemed obvious. There was flash on the website that Google doesn’t read and doesn’t really like. However, when we were moving the content over to the new website, a more major problem came to light that would explain some of the problems he was having with Google.
We provide content writing services to our clients and most are happy to take advantage of these – we have a team of experienced writers and our Editorial Director has many years’ experience as a journalist in the beauty, health and medical arena.
With SJG Online, the content was all there so it seemed that it was just a case of moving it to the new site – as a matter of course we always proof content if it is supplied to us, just to ensure it’s as perfect as possible and as our Editorial Director was checking the content she noticed some slightly odd phrases and even a random doctor’s name thrown in. So she CopyScaped the content, which had been commissioned in good faith by Mr Ghosh, and discovered that it had been copied from numerous websites – some American, but some from Mr Ghosh’s UK plastic surgery peers.
Google punishes you for duplicate content and virtually every page of Mr Ghosh’s content had duplicate content on it. We went back to Mr Ghosh and explained the situation to him. Once the site is live, Mr Ghosh has opted for an ongoing content package so our Editorial Director wrote a small amount of holding content for each page and then over the next few months we will be writing comprehensive replacement copy for each page.
The finished product: Just about to go live, so please check back…
What’s a starter website package? These websites are small, off-the-peg websites that get you started without having to outlay the cost of a bespoke, all-singing, all-dancing website that can cost you thousands of pounds.
The great thing about these websites are that they are flexible and can grow with you. We build our starter websites on WordPress which has a fantastic Content Management System. This means that you can add to your website either through pages or posts, increasing and strengthening your online presence.
Then, at any point, you can give your website a new look or revamp and you’ve not lost any of the great online work you’ve done.
Brief:Mr Amit Sinha is a general surgeon with a special interest in Laparoscopic and Minimal Access Surgery. He works mainly in the NHS, but was keen to start building his private practice. At this stage he did not want – or need – a purpose-built website so opted for our Starter Website Package.
Our editorial team wrote the content for the website – maybe not one of their most pleasant jobs as it was mainly about the condition piles and its treatment but it was certainly informative. As the build progressed, Mr Sinha was keen to add a few flourishes to his website so opted to have our designer to create images and sliders to give it a polished feel.
We also added a blog as Mr Sinha is keen – work permitting – to start adding to his website with regular blog posts. We recommend all our clients start interacting with their website in this way, however we are aware that time is tight and many of our clients opt for one of our ongoing content package, either as soon as they go live or at some point down the road.
All our editorial team have a great deal of specialist knowledge and all our material is checked by our Editorial Director, copyscaped and optimised before it goes up to ensure it’s working as hard as possible for you.
The finished product:To see how the website turned out – and some particularly gruesome pictures! – please click here.
We had done a website swap for Mr Tariq Ahmad to a WordPress plastform and he was so pleased with the results he asked us to build him microsites for key procedures he performs in the Cambridge area.
The brief: Microsites are simple websites, with just a few pages and are particularly effective for optimisation purposes. He initially had three microsites – BreastAugmentationCambridge, TummyTuckCambridge and FaceliftCambridge – and then recently he asked for a fourth microsite for RhinoplastyCambridge.
Mr Tariq Ahmad is keen to increase his dominance in the Cambridge area so he’s also asked us to add ongoing monthly optimisation packages for the four microsites to his main website optimisation.
The finished product: Below are the four microsites. We’ve given them all a consistent look and the great thing about these microsites is that they can embed video on the home page to take advantage of the fantastic videos we produced for Mr Ahmad.
Last week we published a piece on how important content is for making your website work harder for you and your business. At BHM Media we’re totally on board with this message and because we have previously worked as writers and journalists, we find it easy to churn content out (sorry, I don’t mean ‘churn’, obviously I mean craft well-written, quality content).
However, this week we have had a number of questions on how best to write content and what advice we can give to those dipping their toe into online marketing. We’re always happy to answer any questions at BHM Media, but I thought I’d put together some top tips that might make things easier.
1. Write for your audience
Identify who is – hopefully – reading your content and write for them. You are an expert in your field and you should convey that knowledge, but write for your prospective patient or client, not your peers. And don’t be afraid to add personality.
2. Grab their attention
To capture a visitor’s attention, you need to use a compelling headline just as they do in the newspapers. Also that title is what the search engines will pick up so it has to be relevant. One way of doing this is thinking of how your visitors might be searching for the services you offer. Rather than just typing in ‘boob job’ they might ask a question, such as, “How do I get a natural look with a breast augmentation?”, so reflect this in your titles.
3. Be careful with keywords
Establish in your mind what keywords you’d like to be optimising for – that might be a specific treatment in a specific area. Use phrases with these keywords so both the visitor and search engines can identify what your post is about, but be careful. Don’t stuff a piece indiscriminately with these keywords. You’ll turn off your visitor and can even get penalised by the powers that be.
4. Think about images
It’s not just the written word that’s important to both visitors and search engines. More people respond to images over text – which is why video can be so important – so you should incorporate images that are relevant in to your posts. Google provides search tools that can help you find copyright free images.
Remember, to give the images a title that corresponds to the keywords you’re aiming for.
5. Monitor what you’re doing
Google Analytics is a free and powerful tool that can help you track what all your hard work is achieving and show you how users are interacting with your site. It can help you fine tune the content you’re writing as ongoing posts and give you pointers on what you can do to your existing pages to improve them.
There are lots of other things that you should be doing with your content – proper tagging of articles into a hierarchy, meta descriptions and titles, going for the long tail – but we can cover these another day.
It’s your website, so you are the best person to be writing this content, but if you don’t have the time to update your site regularly, then we can provide well-written, quality content that is relevant to your specialty. If you have any other questions, give me a call on 07768 571493.
https://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Untitled-1_0006_bhm-slider-logo-white.png00Katharine Griffithshttps://www.bhmmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Untitled-1_0006_bhm-slider-logo-white.pngKatharine Griffiths2014-02-07 12:24:422014-02-07 12:24:425 top tips to make your content go further
Mr Tariq Ahmad is one of our top customers. We initially produced a set of treatment videos for him and had a great day working with him. As a result, when he decided he wanted to revamp his site then he gave us a call.
The brief:To switch his existing website over to a WordPress platform and to add a blog. Despite having a website for a number of years and having a number of pages with extensive content, he was concerned at the poor performance of his website in search engine rankings.
As a matter of course, we always proof content to ensure that it is as clean as possible. Mr Ahmad’s original site and content had been built by a website design company based in the US and there were lots of American spellings and phrasings that we edited at the same time.
As with another site we’ve worked on recently, the Editorial Director spotted a few odd comments so CopyScaped the website and found that virtually every page was duplicate content, which would go some way to explain why the site had never performed adequately for Mr Ahmad. We wrote new content for Mr Ahmad to replace the duplicate content.
The finished product: Click here to see the finished product. After getting his site live, Mr Ahmad opted for an optimisation package that meant constant good quality content is posted on his site on a monthly basis. It’s a pleasure to keep working with Mr Ahmad.
