In the era of technological boom of digital communication devices in many sizes, have you ever considered how many screens are involved when delivering your dental marketing message? With the growing consumer aspirations and availability of technology, it has become imperative to give potential patients the content they want on the digital device they want. You need a cohesive strategy to connect your marketing efforts seamlessly across multiple screens.
Experienced marketers and communication analysts work to understand consumer behavior with regard to multi-screen marketing. Once you have insight on how your targeted potential patients interact with information across multiple screens, it gets easier to design and adapt your online marketing strategy to optimize your efforts. The important communication screens that you need to consider in your marketing strategy include televisions, laptops and personal computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Follow a holistic approach
Marketing experts who analyze the impact of various screens on consumers recommend that marketers adopt a more holistic multiscreen marketing approach. Before you define your best possible multiscreen dental marketing strategy, look at the relationship that potential patients have with each screen, and which type of content to leverage within your promotional campaigns. People tend to form an emotional connection with their devices, which must be understood.
To begin with, dental marketers should understand that television is the most familiar and trusted gadget in most people’s lives. Computers are considered more sage-like, with a perennial stream of knowledge where consumers turn for information and insights. Tablets are akin to an explorer, where consumers can take an immersive content journey into new territories. Smartphones command the most personal and intimate relationship, where the content should be highly individualized, personal, and relevant.
Multi-screen responsive website design
Once dental marketers recognize the importance of addressing the information and engagement needs of potential patients through multiple screens, they need to take the first step in the right direction. They need to evaluate whether their dental practice website is responsive to multiple screen sizes. A very large number of patients now search information online through their mobile devices.
If your dental website is mobile friendly, patients will be able to review your site comfortably on their smartphone or tablet. However, if users find hindrances in surfing through the website, the dentist stands to lose a lot of potential patients who might get distracted and leave the website to look for other sites that are mobile compatible.
Layered online engagement
Most conventional dental marketers focus on developing a “mobile” marketing strategy or a “social media” marketing strategy as a standalone tactic. However, instead of placing devices and platforms at the center of their marketing strategy, marketers should put consumers at the center and develop layers of marketing around them. Which screens or platforms are targeted should be determined from a combination of the marketing goals of the dental practice and the innate needs of its patients.
For instance, if patients want to gather information about new procedures and services and how they can be beneficial to them, the marketer must drive deeper engagement. The marketer can begin with snippets of information or teaser ads in social media to ignite the curiosity of potential patients.
Patient-centric thinking
Dental marketers should not get trapped by new tech features or platforms, and should think about how useful these features might be for their target audience. To form patient-centric thinking, it is important to think from a patient’s point of view.
Marketers should step back and think about the patients who interact, engage, and receive dental services. They should consider what services and procedures these patients need. What is the best platform to engage them based on those needs? Marketing strategies should be driven by the answers to these questions,and not on the basis of innovative features the latest media platform.
Provide multi-screen experiences
In many cases marketers make the mistake of assuming that the target audience is less tech-savvy than they actually are. Today’s average consumer is driving up the demand for seamless multi-screen information experiences. Patients want to be able to transition naturally between their physical and digital environments.
Consumers are quick to reject sites that do not serve their needs, and they move on quickly to other options in the crowded digital space. Online readers are looking for quick bites or snippets of content that offer a break or a fleeting moment of entertainment. Dental marketers should keep this in mind when they develop multi-screen content to keep the target audiences engaged across platforms.
