With a new year starting, so do new resolutions. I’m probably a little late on these, but I thought I’d share them with you anyway. I’m going to spread these over a few short (really, I mean it this time) posts with a handful of resolutions for you. I’ll do my best to keep these resolutions as well. I think that if a group of people commit to a goal and work together to encourage each other, they tend to have more success, so let’s work together. Think of it like a marketers support group.
Before we begin, I wonder how you did with last year’s resolutions? Here’s part 5 of last year’s set of resolutions, with links to the other four parts so you can score your progress.
Onto 2010…
2010 Resolution #1: Stop Talking About Social Media
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I bet I know what you think my next line is going to be. You’re thinking I’m going to say: “Stop talking about social media and just do it!”
Wrong. I’m not saying that.
I’m really saying, “stop talking about social media.”
It’s enough already.
To recap, in 2009 we demanded the FDA call a hearing to discuss social media…and they did (and created a website to track it all). We wrote and read hundreds, if not thousands, of articles on social media. We transformed (read: hijacked) every digital marketing conference into a social media conference. We launched a ton of social media programs even if they represent a conservative start. And Dose of Digital almost became Dose of Social (almost).
Meanwhile, we might have left all that proverbial “low-hanging fruit” to rot on the vine.
Which fruit am I talking about? Here are a few…
Search Engine Optimization
I was recently asked by Ellen Hoenig Carlson to contribute to a mini-book that was all about defining the best opportunities for pharma marketing in 2010. In this book, I got to answer the simple question: “Where should I spend my first marketing dollar in 2010?’
My answer was simple: If you can spend your money on only one thing, it should be organic search optimization. Not paid search; organic search.
I’ve talked about this a million times before, so I won’t into it here (but do check out this post “Pharma Search Engine Rankings Need Fixing“). If you’re not doing this well, you’re missing out on far more than any social media activity will ever get you.
Yes, read that last bit again: “more than any social media activity will ever get you.” There are three reasons for this. First, pharma companies as a whole do so poorly in search rankings that there’s really no way to go but up and the upside is huge; the benefits of appearing in the top search results are obvious. Second, pharma is so restricted in what they are allowed to do in social media that it’s going to be a long time before anyone creates a program that generates dollars for a pharma company. Yes, that’s not the point of all social media, but it should have some direct impact on the company’s performance, however tenuous the link. Other industries, with less restrictions, might be able to make a case to go with social media before search, but I don’t think pharma is one of them. Third, did I mention regulatory issues?
Website Enhancement and Fixes
Search marketing not glamorous enough? Well, you’re not going to like this next one either. Fix your website. Yes, I’ve said that companies might even consider getting rid of their website in my post “Ten Digital Marketing Ideas Pharma Companies Will Never Try (But Should),” but for those who remain unconvinced, let’s fix what you’ve got. Not sure where to begin? Check out my post “A Simple Treatment for Your Ailing Healthcare Website” to see how you can use tools like Google Website Optimizer to make your site work better for your visitors and to increase the chances that they actually ask for and/or continue your treatment.
Upgrading Your Content
Whether you distribute all your content on your brand website or, yes, via social media, it doesn’t matter the channel that it comes from if the content is bad. You can come up with the slickest website or distribution model or send it to a massive CRM list that you’ve compiled over the past 10 years, but if your content doesn’t stack up to the rest of what’s available online, then your efforts won’t matter much.
How can you tell if your content is good enough? Simple. I can figure out that answer with one question: “If You Charged for Your Content, Would Anyone Pay?”
Here’s a little bit from a past post on this topic:
Many of the free things we use online, we would pay for if they suddenly required us to pay. A few examples: if Google suddenly decided to charge for Gmail, would you pay for it? I would. If Nike decided to charge for Nike+, would you pay for that? I would and I bet that I most people that use it would do the same.
“But,” you say, “we’re not Nike. We’re not Google. We’re talking healthcare. I don’t have to worry about these types of companies. I’m worried about my competitors.” Well, they are your competitors. Everything online is you competitor. Everything is competing for your customers’ time, so they’re you competitors. Here’s the thing to remember, people ARE paying for your content. They pay for it with their time, which is both very valuable and finite. When they waste their time, they waste their money.
So, resolution #1 is in the books: “Stop Talking About Social Media.” Who’s with me? I’m not saying you should never do social media, but I’m am saying that before you commit a large part of your time and attention (even if it’s only a small amount of actual dollars), make sure you’re doing “the basics” right. Without these it’s likely even the slickest social media program will fall flat or never meet its true potential.
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