Are You Missing What a Social Media Megaphone Can Do For You?

A successful online marketing campaign, and by this I mean a campaign includiing social media marketing, begins with a good understanding of your target market. You have to know these people INTIMATELY. You have to be able to specifically understand:

• What keeps them up at night?
• What are their biggest fears, challenges and frustrations concerning what you do?
• What are the issues and worries running around in their head concerning what you do?

If you don’t know this and just go with your gut of unverified assumptions, you may be whispering your message instead of yelling it at the top of your lungs.

A lot of us service providers mistakenly assume we know how our customers think and how they will answer these questions. The truth is it’s really hard for us to do that. We are the experts. We know our craft well. I like to say “we’re contaminated” and that creates in us a blind spot.

If you followed part 1 of this series, you’ll remember I used plastic surgery clinics as the example business. Let’s continue with that and go over how you write your blogs and record videos to act like megaphones amplifying your message to your ideal customers (or patients for these clinics.)

When you think about how people approach having cosmetic surgery, no one deep down inside wants to know how a doctor does what he does. As a matter of fact, if you knew more about that, you might decide not do it. You figure the MD went to medical school. They know what their’re doing. You may want to know if they’re board certified. You want to know they have a clean record, but that’s about it. The gear head tech stuff that goes on in the operating room is a “who cares.”

What sort of information am I interested in learning?

• Well if I’m a lady who’s had a few kids and is thinking her marriage is rocky because of her post-baby body, I’d want to know you understand my fears (founded or unfounded) about losing my husband. The surgeon and their team can be positioned as a team looking at their patients holistically. You deliver a message, “We aren’t just mechanic that’s fixing what’s broken or worn out. We understand your dilemma, concerns and what you are wanting to accomplish.”
• If I’m a divorced woman with no current promising relationships, I want to know you understand my fears about growing old alone. I need to look good in my online dating site picture.
• If you’re talking to an older woman concerned about the bags under her eyes, she wants to hear that you get her grieving her lost of youth.

These are very different discussions from the nips and tucks there are the common vocabulary of the surgeon.

This change in approach, tone, approach and vocabulary screams, “We aren’t just another cosmetic surgery center.” Remember that the average person doesn’t know much about what you learned in medical school. Their ability to judge you as a good doctor is zero. If however, they meet with a surgeon that “gets me,” they’ll be sharing that with their friends. They’ll say things like, “My surgeon is a brilliant doctor.” The reality is that perceiving you as qualified doctor has little to do with your abilities. It has everything to do with how your patient evaluates you using completely non-medical criteria.

Now I get a lot of business owners tell me, “Doing this makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel like I’m manipulating or taking advantage of these people.” My response to that is, “You provide a really good service. You can service them as well or better than your competitor. How could you NOT connect with these people the way they need to be reached to get them to notice you?”

With this in mind, how you specifically run a marketing campaign can vary. Let’s continue with the plastic surgery clinic. This should spring ideas in your mind about how you can promote your business:

• You could establish a YouTube channel showing pre-op visits with the surgeons. Those talks should include the “why” behind their visit. This should be fun and enjoyable for someone considering a procedure. If the person watching the video thinks, “He works with other ladies just like me,” you’re right on.
• You could have a YouTube channel that shows the surgeon in action in the clinic and not necessarily in the OR. You have them talking to the nurses and their support team. You show the surgeon as a sharp leader who is respected by their employees. A lot of people believe surgeons are arrogant. This would dispel that misconception so you connect better with potential patients.
• On your website blog and then Facebook, Instagram, etc., you show before and after pictures. If you can do a day in the life of a patient before and after, that would be super. Imagine the impact of showing a woman confidently uploading her post-op picture to an online dating site.

I’ll continue with part 3 of this 3-part series with answers on how you can move forward with a plan like this.