More than half of the companies in the United States give the job of handling their marketing to outside agencies. This is convenient for smaller companies especially since the cost of having their own marketing department far outweighs the benefits, and it is both cheaper and easier to have an experienced agency do it for them.
Before making the decision and choosing the right marketing agency, there are several things to consider. The first one is the reputation of the company that will be hired. Don’t underestimate word of mouth. People like to brag about their business decisions, and if they are happy with their marketing agency, you will hear about it, the same way you will if they are unhappy. Ask for credentials, but do your diligence and ask around. Make sure to ask how many of their clients are with them for more than just one project. This is an obvious tell of how successful the agency is in retaining their clients. Almost anyone can make a good pitch and land one job, but if a client returns for more, that usually means that the first job was well done.
Most of Chicago marketing companies will have a full specter of services, but you should make sure before signing anything. You don’t want to discover that the agency doesn’t do social media after you have penned the contract.
Make sure you understand how the agency operates. This will allow you to deal with any problems that occur down the road more efficiently, since you will know who is responsible for what. Instead of wasting your time on the phone trying to determine who can fix a problem, you can go directly to the source.
State your objectives clearly. A marketing agency has to understand what exactly you want from them if they are to come up with a solid marketing plan. Decide what are your priorities before setting up any meeting, this will help both your company and theirs in the long run.
All these are even more important when it comes to healthcare. It is baffling how little healthcare companies know about their marketing and what strategy to pursue in order to increase their revenue. This is especially true for their websites, which 95% of healthcare executives believe are the primary driver for the new business they get. Compare that to the fact that 81% of customers are unhappy with their healthcare experience and it is easy to see that there is a stark contrast between what executives want their websites to look like and what customers expect to find there. The disconnect between those two is sometimes hard to believe, at least until you take a look at healthcare websites and see for yourself how many of basic web design principles are ignored during their creation. The question is whether this is a decision made by the marketing agency or their clients, but that doesn’t change the fact that abysmal healthcare website design puts off people from using the services. In order to rectify that, here are some tips that any healthcare company should insist on when dealing with their marketing agency and web design.
Data visualization is one of the major ones. Healthcare websites are usually chock full of data, but the way it is represented makes it hard to follow and often has a contrary effect to the one intended. Instead of compelling customers to use their services by displaying data that proves the quality of their work, they drive them away by shoveling mountains of incomprehensible data at them. Always insist that the marketing agency presents the data in easy to understand the way that leaves no doubt in your potential customers’ mind about the efficiency of your company.
Patients are often baffled by the language doctors use when they address them. Don’t make the same mistake in your marketing campaign. Make sure that the message you are sending is easy to understand by each of your customers and provide them with insight so that they can make an informed decision.
Finally, keep your navigational structure simple. A complex website taxonomy will only baffle your users and drive them away from your websites, right into the arms of companies that honor these principles and have carefully considered which marketing agency is best for their needs.
