I have been getting this question a lot lately. For some reason, everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing. Well, here is the answer.
Right now, I am seeing a lot of yellow pages and print advertising canceled or not being renewed. Part of this is a trend coming from my coaching and retainer clients. I regularly recommend using tracking telephone numbers on print ads so that it is easy to see the direct response activity that comes from print ads. In the year end evaluations, many of my clients were surprised at the huge difference between calls being generated from their web sites as opposed to their print ads. I was not surprised but they often need to see it in black and white. Normally large mass media expenses are not justified. They feel good but Internet-based marketing is much more productive. This has led to a huge run in Pay Per Click campaigns in our clients recently.
These new bolstered Pay Per Click campaigns work really well with our low-cost Keyword SEO program. This is becoming a model that we are seeing over and over both in cosmetic dentistry and surgery. I have always recommended some sort of pay per click but, even today I was informed that the Pay Per Click campaigns we were running were so targeted and effective that they were beginning to impact some clients’ organic optimization. This has to do with relevant traffic being driven specifically to our client sites. Bottom line here, our approach is augmented even further through a stronger Pay Per Click campaign. This is also a trend we are seeing.
Finally, we have had a run recently on new, upgraded designs in web sites. In the next 2-3 weeks, we will be debuting some new web sites for cosmetic surgeons. I would definitely put these projects into the “high-end” category. Yes, we are getting a lot of requests for web sites for this time of year. People are re-tooling their web strategies, adding video and trying to distance themselves from those who are sitting and waiting. That is the third trend we are seeing: new, updated web designs.
So, when you go back to work after the new year turns, what is at the top of your agenda. Please let me know what we can do to help. Just email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com. And, happy new year to all.
