Marketingblatt 2017 english

Issue 10

w-4.com Content

Demand Generation

Content Marketing

Corporate Publishing I

Corporate Publishing II

Predictive Marketing

Evangelism Marketing

W4-Mitarbeiter im Interview

Optimize marketing-sales alignment

Data-driven and personalized

Customer magazines and digital marketing

Develop a common strategy for your print

Make predictions based on data

Strong brands turn customers into advocates

account manager and communications consultant

page 1 and 2

page 3

page 4

page 4 and 5

page 6

page 7

page 8

DEMAND GENERATION

OPTIMIZE MARKETING-SALES ALIGNMENT Every B2B marketer's main objective is to generate demand for the products and services of their business.

Ideally, this demand becomes a long-term business relationship. In doing so, marketers should be able to make predictions on the number of qualified leads their activities generate over the next few months.

Before we go into more detail, let us define demand generation. Demand generation is an integrated and measurable process that encourages interest for products and services with the intention to increase revue. That is why we should not confuse demand generation with lead generation, although both terms are often used synonymously. Lead generation is a process that gathers information about clients, usually through content that requires registration. As we will see, lead generation is an integral part of demand generation.

THE THREE PILLARS OF DEMAND GENERATION 1. Draw attention You cannot generate demand if nobody sees you.

There are many methods to draw attention to a business›s products and services and companies usually make use of several of them:

Outbound marketing: • • • •

trade fares telemarketing email marketing advertising (ads, cost per click etc.)

Inbound Marketing: • social media marketing • search engine optimization (SEO) • content marketing (videos, blogs, white paper etc.)

Content marketing is one of the main drawing points here as it is the basis for many other activities such as social media marketing or SEO. Generally, companies should consider that they need budget not only to create engaging content, but also for distributing and advertising said content. There are

various ways of doing this, such as Facebook Ads, Google AdWords or sponsored posts on LinkedIn. If you invest in content, make sure people will see it!

Creating engaging content that people seek out is also one of the main lead generation approaches.

Prospects give up personal data in exchange for content. The gathered data can then be used for outbound activities, such as email marketing.

«Content marketing is the focal point of efficient demand generation. It is the basis for other measures such as SEO and social media marketing.»

People should be careful when they consider buying lead lists. On the one hand, there are legal restrictions that differ from country to country.

2 | Issue 10

Which of the following aspects of the purchase process have changed over the past year?

B2B Marketers top demand generation priorities

We spend more time researching purchases

80%

We use more sources to research and evaluate purchases

73%

We rely more on peer recommendations

62%

We conduct a more detailed ROI analysis before making a final decision

61%

Focusing on lead quality over lead quantity

83%

Improving campaign results

71%

Improving sales and marketing alignment

61%

Expanding content library to drive campaigns

59%

Generating increased lead volume We spend more time using social media to research vendors & solutions

57%

34%

Source: The 2016 B2B Buyer`s Survey Report

Improving the depth and accurancy of our database

54%

Top 4 reasons why buyers chose the winning vendor

improving ability to measure and analyze marketing impact

34%

Source: DemandGen Report, February 2016

The vendor demonstrated a stronger knowledge of the solution area and the business landscape

97%

The vendor demonstrated a stronger knowledge of our company and its needs

94%

The vendor provided content that made it easier to show ROI and/or build a business case for the purchase

90%

98%

Furthermore, the quality of these lists should be evaluated carefully. There is no use for contacts that will never develop demand for your products.

2. Lead nurturing Once you have generated leads, they lion›s share of the demand generation process kicks in. You have started the conversation in the first step of the process. But now you have to keep the conversation going. However, lead nurturing is more than simply keeping in touch. All further activities have to develop a sustainable customer-brand relationship. This can take a lot of time in B2B – patience is key.

The goal of lead nurturing is to develop marketing qualified leads that can be handed over to sales in the final stage of the demand generation process. Just because a prospect has become aware of your products and considers a new purchase does not mean that you and not your competition will close the deal.

Research shows that buyers increasingly invest more time to evaluate future purchases today (download of infographic for more demand generation statistics).

Other than the above-mentioned content offers (e.g. white paper) two approaches are worth a shot: demo versions and trial periods give prospects the opportunity to experience the quality of your products first hand. Reference management is another effective approach. Case studies and peer reviews show that your products deliver the performance your marketing promises.

Direct mail 1%

54% Vendorwebsite

Webinars 11%

THE TIMELINESS OF A VENDOR`S RESPONSE TO INQUIRIES!

Source: The 2016 B2B Buyer`s Survey Report

What were the first three resources that informed customers about the solution in question?

49% Peers/colleagues

Social media 13%

35% Industry experts/analysts

Email 15%

20% Outreach from vendor sales/reps

Industry event 15% Source: The 2016 B2B Buyer`s Survey Report

Various marketing automation tools can aid you by making this process more effective. The tool integrates your marketing with your CRM and continuously provides analyses for on-going marketing activities.

3. Align marketing and sales The final stage of the demand generation process is handing over the marketing qualified lead to sales.

This requires a previously agreed-upon guideline that defines what a marketing qualified lead actually is for your business. This is done best with an ideal customer profile that describes all the criteria that a lead has to fulfill in order to be considered for sales.

This also includes criteria that disqualify the lead for sales. Defining this ideal customer profile together will help to bring marketing and sales on the same page. It moreover helps your marketing staff when they develop content for the lead nurturing process.

A successful demand generation process also consists of aspects such as data management. Professional data management is the basis for many of your activities. Not only do you use data to make predictions on business opportunities, you also need data to create user profiles that in turn are used for personalized marketing activities. Data management comes also into play when analyzing and optimizing your on-going efforts.

Demand generation is an increasingly technology-based marketing approach. That is why the pro-

19% Trade or business media

cess requires a marketing automation solution such as Hubspot, mautic or Eloqua.

The benefits of demand generation for your business: • • • •

You develop a reliable sales pipeline.

You align marketing and sales.

You increase the return on investment.

You can develop more targeted marketing activities.

Our service: Whether it is inbound or outbound, from conception to realization, we develop demand generation processes that fit your needs.

Get in touch!

We develop your digital brand and communication strategy.

Get in touch: Sarah Wilhelm, swilhelm@w-4.ch

Dowload our free infographic on «demand generation» here: resources.marketingblatt.com/ demand-generation-grafik

Issue 10 | 3

CONTENT MARKETING

DATA-DRIVEN AND PERSONALIZED

Content Marketing seems to have become the solution to all marketing challenges these days. However, solely creating and distributing content does not do the trick. Successful content marketing is data-driven and personalized.

The rise of content marketing to a core marketing strategy has good reasons: Google and other search engines want to show their users relevant content. This means providing only basic information on the website and not using any other digital communication channels is not going to land a spot among the top results on the rankings. Please note: no content, no visibility.

Content has also become the basis for customer interactions. Customers research information across various channels. And this information has to be made available first. Users willingly give up data if this information presents an added value to them. This data can be used to develop products, plan marketing activities and use a more personalized approach to content distribution. Please note: no content, no customer data. An equally important side-effect of good content: informative and entertaining content fosters a positive brand perception.

This is how customers become more attached to a brand.

These reasons in favor of content marketing investments have been widely publicized. However, content marketing is always changing as digitization continues to affect all aspects of life. Developments like artificial intelligence and big data bring new opportunities for automation and personalization.

The future of content marketing Great content is more than the odd white paper made available to a diffuse target group. Nowadays companies have access to a wide range of data that can be used in various ways to offer customers a rich communication experience across channels.

Touch points are plentiful and they encompass different departments, from content marketers to the social media team, customer service and sales – content marketing affects the whole business today.

That is why good content marketing is:

1. data-driven: Content has to be fitted to individual target groups. The prerequisite for this is data about the interests and the behavior of customers. Hence companies need to have a professional data management platform (DMP). All data are available independent of their format in a central place for staff members of all departments.

Data analyses provide insights about the needs of individual user groups.

2. bidirectional: Content marketing is not a one way street. The objective of your content marketing should be to trigger interactions with your customers to learn more about them. Brands can also have users participate in the creation of content via crowdsourcing. Chat bots are a new development that present another opportunity for one on one bidirectional content marketing: the chat bot can make information available to customers in an automated conversation with users.

target groups. More and more, businesses will have to offer individual customers personalized content.

Chat applications offer the most potential here. Data-driven, personalized content marketing does not end with the creation and publication of content, but includes subsequent conversations.

Your benefits: • • • •

Better customer experience More sales Collaboration across departments Valuable insights for product development

Our service: From content creation to content automatization, as certified partner of several marketing automation vendors we can help you from consulting to implementation. Get in touch!

3. automated: Responding to every interaction manually is virtually impossible. Automation is key to keep up with the demand for information tailored to individual needs. An example of this are email reminders when customers abort a check-out process or chat bots that interact with users on messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Skype or WhatsApp. 4. useful: Customers only interact with content that is useful to them. Therefore, content marketing should not be about developing content containing messages that the brand finds important, but content that users will actually seek out.

Usefulness also refers to making information available in an uncomplicated manner. Find out where prospects look for information and invest in these distribution channels.

Businesses that are able to generate and process data via content marketing and social listening can offer customers real personalization. The future of content marketing is not about tailoring content to

We develop your digital brand and communication strategy.

Get in touch: Janine Rost, jrost@w-4.ch

Dowload our white paper on «data-driven content marketing» here: resources.marketingblatt.com/ content-marketing-whitepaper

4 | Issue 10

CORPORATE PUBLISHING

CUSTOMER MAGAZINES AND DIGITAL MARKETING “Print is dead!” - We all have heard this before. However, print still fascinates people and there is a steady stream of new publications despite all the proclamaCreating a customer magazine takes a lot of effort.

And as we all know, effort and costs go hand in hand. Compared to online media, the success of print communication is not easily measured. Since magazines are usually free and analogue, neither sales nor traffic can be used to gain insights on the magazine‘s effectiveness.

tions of all the naysayers. Customer magazines are still a popular marketing tool in many sectors. Whether they are effective largely depends on strategy.

3. Efficiency: Articles with journalistic quality appear more authentic. Readers also spend more time with print products than with individual web sites. It all comes down to a simple question: Which online ad enjoys 20 minutes attention?

4.

Customer loyalty: Customers usually find the magazines directly in their mail boxes. The magazine regularly presents updates on the business and its services, but also provides information that goes beyond the promotion of new offers. Take a health insurance company as an example: the customer magazine could include recipes for healthy dishes as well as workout tips. Customers will appreciate the added value offered by the print magazine.

5. Content is king: The customer magazine should not be viewed as an adverting tool. Its purpose is to give customers and business partners information they will appreciate. At the same time, the magazine can be used to make customers curious about new developments. When browsing through the pages of the magazine, they might find topics of interest they have not yet been aware of. Look at it this way: they are not being advertised to, but they discover new products through the magazine.

6. Increase revenue: The customer magazine is a great tool for image and customer retention.

It can also drive revenue as it offers plenty of space to place products and service within an information-driven context. The value of products can be illustrated with concrete application examples.

Customer magazines and digital marketing strategy: Many companies have recognized the shift in media consumption from print to digital. This does not necessarily have to be bad for print magazines. Digital media can increase the effectiveness of customer magazines by extending them digitally.

Nevertheless, sectors such as the energy and health industries value customer magazines as a valuable tool. They have plenty of reasons to do so: 1. Image: A carefully designed print magazine on good paper leaves a more lasting impression than a website usually does. Moreover, the magazine is completely in control of the business publishing it, which gives it ample room to strengthen brand awareness. A good balance of information and entertainment engages people intellectually and emotionally.

2. Look and feel: One of the reasons why print is still alive is that it offers a different sensory experience than texts displayed on a screen. Depending on the type of paper used, the feel is totally different. So is the smell (ink or perfume). It also requires different movements (turning of pages).

Moreover, a magazine has a stronger presence in the lives of people. It is a physical object and as such readers may return to reading it more often than to a social media post.

However, this does not mean that publishing a PDF file of the customer magazine is a sound digital strategy. Rather, marketers should try to bridge the gap between digital and analogue. There are many different ways in which this can be done. The goal is to generate marketing qualified leads and to be able to measure the effectiveness of the magazine.

Extending customer magazines digitally

reply to these questions on social media using given hashtags or via email.

Another possibility are online forums created by the company. The business could encourage readers to join the online forum to further discuss the content of the magazine, e.g. application examples given in the magazine or to ask the business questions that were not sufficiently addressed in the print product.

MULTIMEDIA CONTENT Let us return to the health insurance customer magazine example for a brief moment: the magazine includes workout tips to stay in shape. Even though the workout can be described in detail and feature photographs, the readers could also be asked to scan a QR code to be redirected to the business's YouTube channel where they find a video of the workout.

INFORMATION You discuss an application in the customer magazine. Maybe you have produced a white paper in the past tackling a similar issue. Why not give your readers a link to the white paper. If they want to access the white paper, however, they have to fill out a registration form. This way you gain additional insights about your customers while enhancing the value of your customer magazine.

DISTRIBUTION It not only works from analogue to digital, it can also be the other way around. Encourage online users to subscribe to your magazine by promoting it on social media and your website.

Create a landing page with a registration form and generate new leads!

Customer magazines can still be valuable marketing instruments as long as they are part of an integrated marketing strategy. Paramount the the effectiveness of this endeavor is tracking actions triggered by the magazine. This requires marketing automation software that keeps track of every communication channel you use and stores the generated data centrally. By bridging the gap from analogue to digital, the software will also be able to track the traffic generated by your magazine.

The benefits at a glance: • •

Generate valuable customer data.

Create a seamless customer experience.

• Offer customers a rich communication.

• Track the success of the magazine.

The main issue with customer magazines is that they usually do not generate data. That is why businesses have to come up with ways to link their magazines to digital media.

There are many ways in which this can be done: DIALOGUE Customers always value businesses that want to hear their opinions. A customer magazine does not have to be a one way street. Businesses can use the magazine to ask customers about their opinions on various issues. The readers could

Dowload our free infographic on «corporate publishing» here: resources.marketingblatt.com/ corporate-publishing-I-grafik

Issue 10 | 5

CORPORATE PUBLISHING

DEVELOP A COMMON STRATEGY FOR YOUR PRINT AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

Customer calendars are a popular giveaway. But do these print products still offer value in the age of digitization? The challenge is developing a strategy that brings together print and digital communications. We show you how this can be done.

The notorious Pirelli calendar is the most prominent example of the marketing potential that customer calendars have. When its first edition was released in 1964, its makers could not foresee that the exclusive not-for-sale calendar would become a cult object. Even though only important customers and valued business partners receive the calendar as a gift, the release of a new calender created a lot of media publicity for the brand year after year.

tion of a brand. A cult object such as the Pirelli calendar makes the brand appear more glamorous and valuable. Since the calendar is not for sale and distributed to customers and partners as an exclusive gift, its recipients feel especially appreciated.

People love gifts – even more so when they are exclusive items only they can have.

Print products in digital marketing

phones. Since the calendar is distributed in December of the previous year, this approach obviously requires a lot of planning in advance.

The strategy should however be clear: using promotion codes or OR codes to draw customers to digital communication channels so that they continue the customer journey. A positive side effect of this is that marketing tools such as marketing automation software can track the traffic and the traffic source.

Businesses now drive revenue with their calendars while keeping track of the effectiveness of the calendar itself.

However, the first release of the famous calendar, in which renowned photographers such as Helmut Even though digital media have become more comNewton photograph equally famous models in art- mon in people‘s everyday lives, print products can fully erotic poses, also falls into a different marketing still be relevant. Apart from image cultivation, they era. The early 1960s were a time that the success- can have other positive effects – not in spite of but Communication strategy ful cable drama Mad Men only recently resurrected thanks to digitization.

– new clients with both a hint of glamour and nostalgia. Print was then the dominant medium next to television and ra- Communication strategy New customers usually find a business online, for example via Google Adwords or social media. The dio. The success of campaigns could not be tracked – existing clients as well as today. Moreover, target groups were not first touch points should link to landing pages. Theas fragmented in this long-gone era of mass com- A business sending out customer calendars to its se landing pages ideally offer users an added value. munication. Today, we live in a narrow cast environ- customers knows that many of them are already This could be an online game, an entertaining video looking forward to receiving it. They have become or an informative white paper. ment: individual target groups find content tailored to their specific interests online and in a wide range an integral part of the business relationship and serve customer loyalty.

Users get access to this content by registering on of publications and TV channels. online forms. This is how users become leads and Do customer calendars still have value under these However, businesses do not have to settle for this can be marketed to in a personalized way. As soon changed circumstances? After all, many people use effect. The goal has to be to make customers cu- as they become paying customers, they, too, becotheir mobile phones to keep track of appointments rious about new offers. That is why the calendar me recipients of the customer calendar – both as today. Yet, and the Pirelli calendar is a perfect ex- should include additional information and content a measure for customer retention and to generate ample why calendars should not solely be defined with added value such as promotion codes. revenue. The circle begins anew. through their use-value. It is also an aesthetic object adorning consumers kitchen walls or the offices of Take a fashion brand as an example. The brand bestows customers every year with a calender business partners. that features stylish fashion photography. In order How to integrate printed From this observation, the primary value of a print to promote the new summer collection, the brand communications into digital product is clear: As a material object, it ensures that could include a corresponding note in the respectimarketing? Learn more in our infographic: the brand has more than a fleeting presence in the ve calendar sheet, such as “Discover the new styles lives of people. It is an everyday item and as such for the summer now!” Customers could, for exampresources.marketingblatt.com/ corporate-publishing-II-grafik le, be taken to a landing page featuring the summer establishes a visible presence. Other than that, a calendar is also a tool that influences the percep- collection by scanning a QR code with their smart

6 | Issue 10

PREDICTIVE MARKETING

MAKE PREDICTIONS BASED ON DATA

Anyone familiar with the advantages of marketing automation will be truly inspired by predictive analytics.

The data analyses on which predictive marketing is based are even more powerful thanks to a wider analysis base and allow even more accurate predictions for conversions in direct marketing.

Until recently, the predictive analytics approach was still the preserve of global players such as Amazon. Small to medium-sized companies are now benefiting from these analyses too - with powerful, cloud-based analytical tools making it possible.

With the results of the new marketing technologies, Sales and Marketing can make predictions regarding marketing successes and sales opportunities in different target groups even more accurately and respond more efficiently to situations. This saves time, money and drives the conversion rate upwards.

Predictive marketing is more than lead scoring Predictive analytics draws on additional sources from the Internet for the data analysis. While marketing automation solutions focus their data analysis on the channels linked in the system, predictive analysis tools offer the ability to process a larger volume of data than is currently the case even with lead scoring models in the context of marketing automation. Predictions made using marketing automation solutions are based on the analyses of user-based digital footprints: which links are clicked and how long does someone stay with certain offers? This data is used to create profiles. Sales sees how actively the individual users get to grips with what the company is offering and can therefore focus on active, promising contacts. This is extremely useful for how they address customers. Predictive marketing, however, goes one analytical step further.

The data from the tools is linked with external data to calculate sales opportunities. Has a company rented new premises? Is it currently taking on lots of new staff? How is the current business doing?

Have new patents been registered? How is the credit history? This information sets the data from the company‘s own communications offerings in a wider market context. Building on this knowledge, new prospects and calculation options are created, especially in B2B marketing.

Examples of predictive marketing Below are two scenarios illustrating how predictive analytics support the selling process: EXAMPLE 1: The company representative sees products in the online shop or in the product configurator on my website for a specific application. At the same time, the analysis tool in the company‘s online news registers announcements regarding the expansion of a business unit that is relevant to the product. Notifications are also posted on Xing regarding the company‘s job advertisements - and bingo! The predictive marketing tool triggers an alert and Sales can step up.

EXAMPLE 2: A customer has acquired a machine. For the seller, it is obvious that a range of services will become interesting to the customer within a predictable time window. The marketing tool automatically manages the data and plans the appropriate time for relevant marketing activities even before the customer indicates any demand for them.

«Align production more closely with demand and make more accurate sales predictions.»

THE EFFECT: Companies do business more efficiently. The improved management of the data history is therefore intended to predict future demand from previous and current transactions and to initiate corresponding marketing measures.

Predictive marketers have better chances ....

•

of increasing the speed, scope and value of their leads from the start to finish

• of optimising targeting and segmentation using A/B tests • of reaching potential customers with regular, targeted cross-channel measures • of driving market-ready strategies forward with marketing analyses • of establishing data science teams that will drive the data-based business models forward Make high-turnover predictions based on data COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 1: Companies leave a lot of signs on the Internet. Learn how to read these signs and serve your customers where the pressure points will be developing soon.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 2: Use information gathered from the data analysis regarding customer needs to develop new products and services.

Advantages of predictive marketing • You can increase the effectiveness of your marketing • You can prioritise sales leads more effectively • You can align production more closely with demand • You can make more accurate sales predictions

Learn more about «Predictive Marketing» with our free infographic resources.marketingblatt.com/ predictive-marketing-grafik

Issue 10 | 7

EVANGELISM MARKETING

STRONG BRANDS TURN CUSTOMERS INTO ADVOCATES

Customers do not become advocates for a brand just because its product features are great. Brands that manage to make their customers ‹bring the good news› expand their reach and improve their image – without taking action themselves!

Evangelism marketing is the advanced form of word-of-mouth marketing. The objective is to develop clients who believe so strongly in the brand that they become its voluntary advocates. This means that they convince others to trust the brand without receiving any reward. They recommend the brand and its products out of pure belief, hence the term ‹evangelism marketing. This approach therefore goes beyond loyalty programs such as bonus miles.

«We all trust friends› recommendations more than advertising messages.

Evangelsm marketing has the goal of getting people to talk about your brand.»

Companies that successfully develop customer evangelists profit in various ways: • the comparably low costs bring a high return on investment • the brand becomes recognized in a positive light • an ideal approach to market intangible services • improves customer loyalty and lowers costs for new acquisitions There simply is no form of communication as valuable as this approach. After all, we all trust the recommendations of friends more than advertising messages. However, this form of marketing takes both time and consideration. The following eight steps provide a framework for developing your own evangelism marketing strategy: Who are your clients? This is marketing 101: define your target group!

What do your clients think? Research the desires of your target groups. A quick online survey is usually too superficial to get real insights. Do individual interviews to get to the bottom!

Do you take your customers seriously? Getting data is one thing, putting the data to work is something else entirely. Customers appreciate brands that take their wishes seriously and that are interested in optimizing their products and services. Be open to customers› suggestions!

Do you know your competition? Customers do not become advocates because they have a mediocre product. They want to use the best. Therefore, keep an eye on the competition, especially with regard to what other people think about the products of your competitors. Use these insights to differentiate your brand!

«Evangelism marketing ist more than a single marketing activity. This approach includes a wide array of aspects from customer service to social media to special marketing campaigns.»

Do you have engaging content? You want to be perceived as original, innovate and trustworthy.

However, you cannot expect your customers to do this for you by themselves. Give them something they can work with and that they can share. Content is king! Therefore, create videos they might like to share or develop gamification elements that keep them engaged.

Do customers have a convenient way of interacting? Once people are convinced of your products and they like everything you do, they should be able to share their feelings with their peers. Mo-

tivate them to share your newsletter or viral video and make it as easy as possible. The same applies to interacting with your service!

Are you approachable? Some companies hide behind contact forms that are not easily found.

Then they wait a couple of days for a response.

Companies that approach service in this way will never develop brand evangelists!

Are your employees happy? Your employees are the ones who interact with your customers. If they are happy and motivated, they will provide a great customer service. Invest in your employees happiness!

Our service: Evangelism marketing consists of many aspects. A marketing automation solution can simplify this approach a great deal. We would be happy to advise you on the subject. Get in touch!

From strategy to implementation, we are happy to help. Get in touch: Get in touch: Jörg Wenzel, jwenzel@w-4.ch

Learn more in our free white paper on evangelism marketing: resources.marketingblatt.com/ evangelism-marketing-whitepaper

8 | Issue 10

W4 - Marketing meets Information Technology

INTERVIEW

Full service for digital marketing communication: W4 provides consulting as well as creative and technological services from a single source. Digital strategies for indirect sales as well as the marketing and positioning of products and services in need of explanation are our specialty. Our experience spans more than 20 years and our clients are market leaders in the manufacturing, capital goods and technology industries.

LILIAN SCHWARZWELLER

SERVICES Conception and Developing a strategy Sales Factory Content-Studio Mediadesign, Illustrations and Animations Software Development Management Systems

SOLUTIONS Marketing Automation Content Personalization Content Marketing Enterprise Apps Optimized Landing Pages Digital Marketing/SMO Video Content E-Mail Marketing SharePoint Branding 3D-Visualisierung Exhibition Marketing Text Creation and Online Journalism PRODUCTS Mautic Akeneo CommunityNet Dynamische PDF‘s HubSpot Magento Moving Image 24 Neos

Online Communication Business communication Advertising campaigns Print Communication Personal Marketing Marketing Cooperations Mobile Marketing Social Media Marketing Search enginesOptimization (SEO) Illustration Google Adwords

Open EMM Oracle Eloqua Oracle Cloud Typo 3 WebPrePrint WordPress Site Core Drupal

LOCATIONS SWITZERLAND Idastrasse 14, CH-8003 Zürich Tel.: +41 44 533 50 35 Stadtturmstrasse 19, CH-5400 Baden Tel.: +41 56 500 40 55 GERMANY Königsbrücker Strasse 70, 1. HH DE-01099 Dresden Tel.: +49 351 418 889 50 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslavovo námestie 17, 81102 Bratislava Tel.: +421 221 02 55 56 CHINA Room 1305, Floor 13, No.6, Wuliqiao No.2 Street, Chaoyang District, 100012 Beijing info@w-4.com, www.w-4.com

Managing Directors: S. Wilhelm, M. Naas, J. Zscheile Owner: J. Wenzel

About the Journal Issue 10 Publisher and Editorial Office: W4 Marketing AG, Zürich Edition: 2000 Ex

Lilian Schwarzweller, account manager and communications consultant

As long as people get sick, the health services will always have a steady “customer base”. But competition for patients is becoming more fierce.

This increases the need for effective marketing strategies.

Mrs Schwarzweller, what is the significance of marketing in health services and doctor›s practices?

Lilian Schwarzweller: Since people get sick in the course of their lives, there will always be work. Compared to the world of business, marketing has played a subordinate role or none at all for a long time, especially in the countryside. Meanwhile, however, the need for marketing also increases in healthcare. How a practice is positioned in the “market” is becoming more and more important, for medical practices in urban areas in particular. In the countryside, there are still many practices without a website or social media account. But here, too, changes are on the way.

There are many reasons for this development. First, patients have the freedom to choose their physician. Increasing competition in the form of «practice chains» and mergers, new opportunities provided by digital technologies and a change with regard to patient structure - keyword digital natives - make marketing indispensable to survive on the market in the long term. Depending on what is required, marketers make a distinction between between customer and referral marketing.

Can you explain what that is?

Lilian Schwarzweller: Referral marketing does not affect all specialist groups and only plays a role in specialist physician groups bound to referrals. The goal in referral marketing is to promote and maintain contact, business relations and collaboration among colleagues. You use all marketing measures to attract, develop and maintain referrers.

For this purpose, it is necessary to evaluate the data from the practice‘s information system according to individual referrers in order to develop suitable measures and to react and respond according to the «performance» of the referrer in a timely manner.

However, customer marketing is more important, but it is better to speak of patient marketing. As in business, marketing measures serve to «sell» the service to the end user. It is important to note that practices are dependent on generating a certain share of privately insured patients as «customers» due to economic challenges. This is due to the different billing rate between public and private insurers and the fact that privately insured persons usually have a higher

affinity for specific health care services. The goal is to keep patients and generate new ones, fulfill and create needs.

What legal restrictions should be considered?

Lilian Schwarzweller: The physician‘s law provides information about what is permitted and what is not. The medical profession has changed considerably in recent years. Until a few years ago, doctors were forbidden to advertise. However, in the course of the liberalizing jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court on the professional rights of freelancers, the provisions were adjusted and allow for a certain degree of marketing. Objective, professional information is permitted and advertising is generally permissible. Only «unlawful» advertising, which improperly affects the lay public and could cause an indirect health hazard, is forbidden. This includes, in particular, subjective, misleading and comparative advertising. In addition, for example, physicians are forbidden to use eye-catching advertising, superlatives, self-praise or references to letters of recommendation. Furthermore, there are a number of regulations in the Telemedia Act, which should be taken into account as well.

What does successful marketing in health care look like?

Lilian Schwarzweller: In addition to a good website, the future of marketing for practices is clearly in search engine marketing. One can already achieve a lot with local search engine optimization and AdWords ads. The beauty in this area is that it is mainly local. Being able to be found online is a given in the world of business. Health care lacks behind, but it is catching up.

Not only is it important to be found online, practices have to find a way to differentiate themselves from their competition. It is also necessary to create solutions that make it as easy as possible for the customer to claim a service. Here, digital solutions are required with regard to scheduling and the processing of patient and/or referral data. As mentioned, I also see potential in referral marketing as figures show that most patients choose a physician based on recommendations. Here, for example, online evaluation portals like Jameda play a role. There is also a growing interest in social media marketing among physicians.

Thank you for the interview.