Health care marketers shouldn't bypass search

With all the focus on health care marketers crafting social media strategies, it's important not to forget about (the less topical but still effective) search ads. Because the search volume on leading engines Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask is still tremendous.

Some 66% of respondents to an iCrossing study in December 2007 said that they used one of those engines to find health info in the past year, compared to the 46% who navigated to health portals like WebMD.

Is your brand strong enough

Do you ever take time during the day to ask yourself a very simple question: is our brand strong enough to be the one that customers will want to do business with next year? Or 2-3 years down the road? 

Why do customers seek out your brand? What do they expect to see from you; to gain from you? And where do they think/do you think you really shine? There are many other questions like these, and they're important to answer. Because as easy or hard as it is for you to answer them, so too is it for your customers. 

Here are a few ideas for you to ponder as your brand grows and matures. 

• explore your strengths: what do you do best, what do you have the ability to do that you're currently not doing, what should you be doing to build your strengths for the future

• express your strengths: are they "brandable" as unique processes or services; which others can be used to build your image with current and prospective customers

• extend your strengths: how can you leverage your strengths in specific areas where you have little or no experience - through new products and services, with new partners, through new channels.

So, are you strong enough?

The proactive health and healthy lifestyles brand

Healthy brands are proactive. They are enablers. They allow us to be more and to achieve more, than would otherwise be the case. 

Here's a list of the differences between proactive and reactive (soon to become irrelevant) brands. Proactive brands:

- lead with actions versus words

- are coherent rather than consistent

- engage rather than lecture

- transform rather than preserve

- encourage relationships versus individuality   

- are bottom up versus top down

- let us inside versus hiding behind the curtain

- extend beyond their category

- liberate customers versus control them

Learning to pull versus push

To push is to press against something or somebody in order to move that object or person. Today, if we push, we will move audiences away from our products and services. On the other hand, if we pull, we are more likely to draw a willing crowd. 

The mass audiences we once advertised to are now splintered into thousands of niche groups demanding personalized marketing (if they agree to receive it at all). Pull, the ability to attract desired audiences, has become a critical method to grow and deepen customer relationships. 

Facilitating the freedom of consumers to engage when and how they want to (to pull them in), will mean the difference between winning and losing in this new environment. Pull tactics include:

• blogging

• podcasting

• webinars

• white papers

• newsletters/e-zines

• on-site content

• experiential events

• mobile

• social networks

• viral video

• games

By surrounding products and services with the communication, community and collaboration opportunities that new technologies provide, brands become more attractive - engaging - and become destinations that consumers value and want on their own terms. 

Failing to adapt to these new realities will mean that you eventually go the way of the dinosaur.