Using Facebook and other social platforms to integrate your practice into your client's community is one of
Question:
Using Facebook and other social platforms to integrate your practice into your client's community is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to increase your profile. This is modern word-of-mouth; the average Facebook user has 234 friends and these are likely to be mainly similar in age, location and demographics. So if you impress one client and they tell Facebook, that's 234 people who are likely to be the ideal demographic for your practice.
We all know it's much more powerful if someone else raves about how good you are; integrate it to your website and you're onto a PR winner. The Zoetis business consultancy team have worked hard to create an innovative new service to help practices with the daunting task of setting a digital marketing plan with some great results already.
For example, Laurie May began working with this practice in May 2013. The practice had never felt the need to invest any time or money in marketing because they had never needed to, but with increasing competition and declining footfall they were worried they might be missing something.
After an initial meeting with the leadership team, Laurie conducted a review of current marketing activities for the practice. This involved a website review, client demographic profiling, practice observations, and key performance indicator (KPI) analysis.
This showed that the website was not popular or well optimized and engagement in social media was poor. In addition, client profiling showed a large potential to attract new clients in the area and highlighted that their communication preferences were internet and email.
During an initial session with Laurie, the practice was introduced to Zoetis's bespoke digital marketing plan with the aim to increase new clients. To begin with, this involved some key actions to increase their search engine optimization (SEO) for the website, further improve their use of Facebook and the creation of an integrated digital campaign via email.
Laurie supported the practice to begin making changes straight away: improving their website and starting to promote the practice through Facebook. The change in trends on their Facebook page can be seen below:
One of their most recent posts was shared by 220 people and reached an audience of over 10,000; an impressive response.
This increased social engagement has already delivered tangible results to the practice: 70 new equine clients have registered representing a considerable increase in potential revenue and the practice have had to recruit an additional equine vet to handle this up-turn in client numbers.
a. In your opinion based on the above case study, why Laurie choose Facebook for platform of promotion?
b. Discuss what the company should do to remain competitive in the marketplace.
c. Should the company continue to use Facebook as a marketing medium, in your opinion? What is the reason for this? And what advice would you give to the company in order for it to remain competitive in the market? Give an example to support up your statement.
Expert Answer:
a Laurie chose Facebook as a platform for promotion due to its potential reach and the modern wordof... View the full answer
