Harris & Ward logo
Get Started

Dentists & Specialists

Chiropractors

Veterinarians

Med Spas

Optometrists

Small Businesses

Website Design

Creative and functional design.

Search Engine Optimization

Outrank your competition.

Local SEO (Maps)

Rank high in maps.

Paid Advertising

Quickly impact revenue.

Photo & Video

Authenticity through digital storytelling.

HIPPA Forms

Ensure your forms are compliant.

Using Meta Ads for Digital Storytelling

Using Meta Ads for Digital Storytelling

by | Mar 28, 2023 | Facebook, Social Media

Using Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) for Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling in 2023

Storytelling has been an essential part of human communication since ancient times. It’s a way to convey ideas, emotions, and experiences through a narrative that captures the audience’s attention. With the rise of the internet and social media, storytelling has evolved into a digital medium, and it’s becoming more crucial for businesses to tell their stories in a captivating way.

In 2023, digital storytelling is more important than ever. With the pandemic still affecting how we interact with the world, people are spending more time online. As a result, businesses need to create content that stands out in the digital space, and digital storytelling can help achieve that.

Digital Storytelling

Are Meta Ads or Organic Positions best for Storytelling?

When it comes to digital storytelling, businesses have two options: organic positions or paid advertising, specifically, meta ads on Facebook and Instagram. Organic positions refer to the placement of content on a platform without paying for advertising. On the other hand, meta ads are sponsored posts that appear on users’ feeds.

While organic positions can be effective, meta ads offer several advantages for digital storytelling. First, meta ads allow businesses to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. This targeting ensures that the content reaches the right people and maximizes engagement.

Additionally, meta ads provide businesses with more control over their content. Unlike organic positions, which can be buried in a user’s feed, meta ads are placed prominently on the screen. This visibility ensures that the content is seen by users, increasing brand awareness and engagement.

How to use Meta Ads for Brand Frequency

Brand frequency is the number of times a user sees a brand’s content over a given period. This metric is essential for businesses because it indicates how often users are engaging with their content. Meta ads can be an effective tool for increasing brand frequency, but it requires a strategic approach.

First, businesses need to create content that is engaging and resonates with their audience. This content should be consistent with the brand’s messaging and tone, ensuring that it’s recognizable to users.

Once the content is created, businesses need to set up a meta ad campaign that targets their desired audience. This campaign should have a specific budget and schedule to ensure that the content is being displayed at the right times and to the right people.

Beware of Ad Fatigue

Ad fatigue is a phenomenon where users become desensitized to ads after seeing them repeatedly. This phenomenon can be detrimental to businesses because it decreases engagement and can even lead to a negative perception of the brand.

To avoid ad fatigue, businesses need to create content that is diverse and engaging. This content should be relevant to the audience and provide value beyond just selling a product or service. Additionally, businesses should consider using different formats for their content, such as videos, images, and text.

Understanding How Your Messaging Fits into Your Audience’s Lives

To create engaging content, businesses need to understand how their messaging fits into their audience’s lives. This understanding requires businesses to research their audience’s interests, values, and behaviors. By understanding their audience, businesses can create content that resonates with them and provides value beyond just selling a product or service.

Tell An Engaging Story (Don’t sell)

Telling an engaging story is crucial for businesses that want to stand out in the digital space. Instead of using traditional sales tactics, businesses can create content that resonates with their audience and establishes an emotional connection. This emotional connection can lead to increased brand loyalty and long-term engagement.

To tell an engaging story, businesses should focus on creating content that tells a narrative. This narrative should be consistent with the brand’s messaging and tone, ensuring that it’s recognizable to users. The narrative should also provide value beyond just selling a product or service. For example, a company that sells outdoor gear could create content that tells the story of a hiker’s journey through a national park. This content would provide value by showcasing the beauty of the national park and inspiring users to explore the outdoors.

Additionally, businesses should consider the format of their content when telling an engaging story. Videos and images can be powerful tools for storytelling because they can evoke emotions and capture the audience’s attention. Text-based content can also be effective, but it should be written in a way that is engaging and easy to read.

Another important aspect of telling an engaging story is to make sure that it’s authentic. Users can quickly detect when a brand is trying to manipulate them with a fake or insincere narrative. To avoid this, businesses should be honest and transparent in their storytelling, and they should focus on creating content that aligns with their values and mission.

Finally, businesses should ensure that their storytelling is consistent across all digital platforms. This consistency ensures that the brand’s messaging and tone are recognizable to users, regardless of where they encounter the content. This consistency also helps establish a sense of trust and reliability, which can lead to increased engagement and loyalty.

In conclusion, telling an engaging story is a powerful tool for businesses that want to establish a meaningful connection with their audience. By creating content that tells a narrative and provides value beyond just selling a product or service, businesses can establish emotional connections that lead to increased brand loyalty and engagement. When telling an engaging story, businesses should focus on authenticity, consistency, and creating content that resonates with their audience.

10 Hidden Benefits of Marketing on Social Media for Orthodontists

10 Hidden Benefits of Marketing on Social Media for Orthodontists

by | Sep 5, 2022 | Dental Marketing, Social Media

10 Hidden Benefits of Marketing on Social Media for Orthodontists

Is your Orthodontics practice making the most of social media? Social media marketing use is widespread, with 51% of US adults visiting Facebook multiple times a day. Expanding your marketing reach to include social media can have incredible results for your business, some more subtle than others.

But don’t just take our word for it. Read on for 10 hidden benefits of marketing on social media for orthodontists.

1. Increase Brand Awareness and Legitimacy

Two of the biggest benefits of any business is the boost to brand awareness and legitimacy. As an orthodontist, this is something you and your practice can cash in on too! If potential customers don’t know you exist, how can they come to you?

73% of small businesses are now investing in social media, and it is easy to see why. Once you’re out there, it’s a great tool for legitimizing your brand. Show off your activity by keeping an up-to-date social media page with regular, new content.

2. Quick Access Social Media Marketing Trends

You’ll have access to unfiltered conversations between potential customers and competitors alike. Understand what your competition is doing well, and their customer complaints.

Your target audience’s activity can also tip you off on any emerging trends. You can tap into those trends via social listening. It’ll show you what customers are thinking when they talk about your business.

This can tell you what products and services your customers enjoy most. It will also highlight any areas they might think you’re lacking in. This way you can make a move to rectify any issues.

3. Competitive Analysis

Social media marketing allows you to spy on your competition. What are they promoting? What sort of ads and campaigns are they favoring? How is your campaign strategy different?

By analyzing these things, you can open up new avenues for your content and advertising. They might be putting a lot of resources into Facebook but not Instagram. You could then focus on user-generated content or influencer marketing to stand out.

4. Better Customer Service

Social media has become the go-to for consumers to voice any concerns or questions. Unlike phone calls and email it is quick and easy.

It’s important that you have positive experiences on show as the whole world can see them. People will know you’re committed to providing a great service if you’re quick to respond.

People are also more likely to want to use your services if they can see you treat other customers well. People want to know they’re valued and can get the answers they need in a prompt manner.

5. Positioning Power

Having an active online social media marketing presence will give your business positioning power. But you have to be active. If your competition has an active Facebook page while you’ve neglected yours for months, it’s not going to look good.

Be consistent in uploading new customer stories and relevant content. This could be meet the team segments, or a tour of your practice. You could even do a ‘how it’s done’ video.

This will show you’re open and active to new, potential customers. Your social media page may well be the first thing they see after a Google search.

6. Better Search Engine Presence

Ad click-throughs and shares flag up to Google as ‘positive searches’. In short, the more browsing via social media, the bigger the boost to your search performance. Social media can present a huge traffic source for your business.
As a content distribution source, you don’t want to ignore social media.

A relevant, engaging piece of content could score hundreds of likes and shares. This can then see a huge upturn in traffic to your site. More traffic means more potential customers.

7. Appeal to Younger Audiences

It isn’t only the younger generation that social media attracts, but they are the ones more likely to need corrective work done on their teeth.

As these will be your future clients, you’re going to need to adapt to this trend to keep up. Otherwise, you might be losing out on business. Without a fresh intake of new clients, your practice won’t have longevity.

To attract this segment of the market, you’ll need to go beyond ads or TV commercials. The current place to be is Instagram. Most Instagram users are 30 years or younger.

8. Humanize Your Business

It’s a trend these days to ditch the stiff, suit-and-tie approach and show something more human. Getting personal with customers on social media is a product of this trend.

People don’t expect businesses to take a more casual tone or show a human side. As they don’t expect it, it’s refreshing to see and increases engagement with your content.

You can also achieve this through activism or charity work. Are your elastics made of sustainably sourced latex? Yes? Then shout about it. People would love to know how you’re practicing sustainability in the orthodontic field.

9. More Leads

This point is a simple one, but the key to any business’ success – more leads. With billions of people engaging in social media daily, your audience is waiting. Through social media content or paid ads, you’ll be reeling in more leads.

People’s purchasing decisions are highly influenced by what they see via social media. Having a positive, active social media presence introduces more people to your services. This, in turn, will convert to more sales as your reputation builds.

10. Build Customer Content and Stories

As an orthodontist, it’s natural to want to show off your great handiwork. But did you know it could boost your business too?

Customer success stories and photos are key to getting higher conversion rates. Social media marketing is the best place to find these and use them to your advantage.

By monitoring tags and mentions, you can share positive customer reviews and stories. This will help reinforce your brand and people will know you’re good at what you do.

The Benefits of Marketing on Social Media You Don’t Want to Miss

So there you have it! Your orthodontics practice could easily be enjoying the benefits of marketing on social media. Don’t delay and see what a difference a social media presence can make to your business.

You’ll see brand awareness and legitimacy grow. Post regular, engaging and relevant content. Customer stories, meet the team and practice tours are a good choice.

Now you know the importance of marketing on social media, be sure to get the most out of it by checking out our article on choosing social media that works for your business.

Dental Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Dental Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

by | Mar 3, 2022 | Search Engine Optimization, Dental Marketing, Social Media

Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

With 199,486 dentists working in the dentistry field as of 2018, being competitive to attract more clients is a crucial responsibility of your dental practice. The average retirement age of dentists is increasing, which means more of your competition is sticking around longer.

1. Having a Weak Website

You need a dental website that looks visually pleasing and is functional. If the visuals are outdated, poor quality, or unappealing, potential clients may click away before they get past the first page. Making the website pretty only gets you so far if visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for.

A well-functioning website is one with easy navigation where patients can clearly find the info they want immediately. It also loads quickly and is secure.

Updating your website regularly also helps. If you haven’t changed anything in years, potential clients may wonder if your practice is reliable and current on other things, like dental techniques.

2. Not Understanding Your Target Audience

Who are your typical dental clients? Your marketing strategy should change depending on your target audience, whether you’re a pediatric dentist, orthodontist, or general dental practitioner. If you cater to low-income families, your marketing will look different than a cosmetic dentist targeting wealthier clients.
Fully understanding your target audience helps with your branding, which is the image you create through your graphics, wording, and all other portrayals of your business. Including your branding in your marketing to fit your audience makes it more effective. Your clients respond better to marketing when it appeals to them or addresses their pain points.

3. Missing Out on Social Media

Social media connects you with current and potential patients in ways you can’t achieve with a website alone. You interact directly with the people who follow your page, which builds a relationship that makes your dental practice different than the competition.

You can also use social media channels to have your loyal patients spread the word about your dental practice. Seeing engaged followers, likes on your post, and shares of what you post builds a positive image of your dental practice.

Social media also allows for stronger industry relationships and cross-promotional opportunities. If you specialize in pediatric dentistry, you might share information or a post made by a local orthodontist. Building those relationships and sharing referrals can help grow both businesses.

Trying to use all social media platforms takes too much effort and often isn’t effective. Choose social media platforms that match your target audience best to maximize your time. Master one or two platforms to avoid spreading yourself too thin.

4. Ignoring Local Search Potential

Your online presence is only effective if people can find you. Search engine optimization helps people find you through searches. SEO incorporates complex factors, including keyword usage, formatting, and quality of your content.

As a service provider, you want to attract local traffic. Massive web traffic doesn’t help grow your business if visitors aren’t local and won’t use your dental services.

Including local keywords and clearly incorporating contact information into your website helps Google figure out where you’re located. This allows you to show up when people search for local dentists.

5. Failing to Adapt Your Strategies

Dental marketing strategies change frequently. If you stick with the same dental and orthodontic marketing strategies, you’ll get left behind.

Incorporating several different marketing strategies helps broaden your appeal. Content marketing, such as blog with helpful dental information, can draw in more web traffic. Email marketing lets you communicate directly to current patients and prospects.

You don’t have to use every possible strategy, but being open to new options can make your marketing more effective. Working with a marketing company that specializes in helping dental practices can help you stay on top of the latest marketing techniques.

6. Not Managing Your Online Reputation

Word of mouth is changing from telling your neighbor about your experiences to blasting your opinions all over the internet. One unhappy patient can drag your dental practice’s online reputation through the mud. But online reviews also help SEO, which makes your dental practice easier to find.

Your online reputation can affect a potential patient’s decision on using your practice. Statistics show that 90% of people go online to look for reviews on businesses. Online reviews hold as much credibility as personal recommendations for 84% of consumers.

One or two negative reviews may not hurt your reputation too much, but be aware of repeated complaints and negative feedback. Monitoring your online reputation can alert you to issues you need to address in your practice.

Increasing the number of positive reviews you have can help overshadow one or two rogue negative reviewers. Providing the best customer service increases the chances of positive reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask satisfied patients to leave positive reviews for your practice.

If you decide to address negative reviews, keep in mind HIPAA regulations and patient privacy. You can’t reveal any personal information or anything related to the care received. You can post a general response acknowledging the situation, but word it carefully and avoid an emotional response or an escalated argument with the unhappy reviewer.

7. Ignoring Data

Trying all the latest trends in dental marketing doesn’t help your business if you don’t analyze its effectiveness. Not every strategy works the same for every dental practice. Simply using various strategies doesn’t mean you’re implementing them effectively.

Google Analytics helps you see your web traffic to see if your marketing campaigns are working. Looking at the sources of traffic and which pages on your site visitors use can help you focus on the most effective practices and improve those that aren’t as effective.

Effective Dental Marketing

Effective marketing makes your practice more visible with potential clients. When done well, it establishes you as a local expert in the dental field.
But simple marketing mistakes can turn away potential clients or make your practice difficult for prospects to find. Since your area of expertise is dentistry, you may not even realize you’re making common mistakes.

Improve your Digital Marketing Strategy Today

Strong dental marketing keeps your practice competitive and helps you attract new patients. Plan a well-rounded marketing strategy to reach prospects via different avenues. If you’re ready to improve your dental marketing, explore our services for more details of what we offer.

Drive Leads with Paid Search

Digital advertising, such as PPC, can be an excellent way to help your business stand out in a crowded marketplace. Contact us today to discuss how PPC can help small businesses like yours!

Organize Your Social Media Strategy with a Content Calendar

Organize Your Social Media Strategy with a Content Calendar

by | Feb 14, 2020 | Social Media, Dental Marketing, Facebook, Harris & Ward

Organize Your Social Media Strategy with a Content Calendar

Written by Allison Cooper, Project Coordinator

Managing social media can be a little daunting at times. Algorithms seem to change as soon as you’ve mastered the previous one, best practices vary from platform to platform, and learning the types of content that your target audiences engage most with can take a while to nail down. 

There’s a lot to consider here and different accounts will be fueled by different strategies – but we all have one common goal – to create engaging content that pleases our target audiences and encourages them to take action – whether that be a like, a follow, purchasing your product, or giving your brand a shout-out.

After you set a few key goals that you want social media to accomplish for your brand, it’s time to put some strategy behind it, which is where content creation comes into play. It’s great if you have awesome ideas for content, but if you have no way to get organized enough to make it actionable, it’s likely that your efforts to wow your audience will fall flat. The key to getting an organized social media strategy is planning ahead with a content calendar.

So, What Can a Content Calendar Help You Accomplish?

Content calendars can make it easier for you to plan social media content in advance, whether that be on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Let’s take a look at three benefits of using a content calendar!

  1. Plan ahead. Using a content calendar can help your team start looking ahead at key dates such as holidays and events that will be important for your brand to capitalize on. This can make it easier to devise a strategic plan for social media campaigns.
  2. Post with consistency. By mapping out your posts ahead of time, you’ll never be without ideas. Putting a content calendar together will make it easier to avoid writer’s block and will encourage more consistent posting across platforms.
  3. Save time. Because you’ll be planning content in advance, it’ll save you a lot of time throughout the week. If you set a day each week or month to plan out content, you’ll be able to use your time more effectively. You’ll know in advance what content is being published and you won’t be drafting posts as you go, which will take a lot of pressure off you and your team. Better yet, you won’t be worrying about deadlines cause they’ll already be met!

Content calendars are also a great way to keep track of the types of content you post and posting frequency. By having access to a week or month’s worth of content in front of you, it’s easier to identify the types of content performing well or poorly. From here, you can see if you need to change up your content strategy, and plan out next week or next month’s content accordingly. Having a broader view of your social media posts allows you to more easily flag types of posts that you want to repeat, and if you set up your calendar efficiently, you have a platform to organize this into a content repository.

Make Your Content Calendar Work for You.

To create your calendar, there are a few different routes to go, and some companies have special applications to help you build your calendar and organize posts. For an accessible solution, Google Sheets or Excel are perfect tools to create a streamlined system that works for you. At Harris and Ward, we create monthly and weekly views in Google Sheets and separate these views into different tabs. We place broader content ideas in our monthly view and draft the actual posts in our weekly tab. If your content moves through a line of approval, Google Sheets is also a good system for sharing between team members.

While there are best practices for creating a content calendar – you can certainly customize it for what works best for your respective social accounts, posting frequency, business model, and much more. In a world where best practices change so frequently, it’s beneficial to have a system in place to plan ahead and make changes quickly. For the social media manager, a content calendar makes this possible. 

What If I Still Don’t Have Time for Social Media?

Social media offers an easy way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products/services. But, there’s no question about the commitment for business owners — strategic social media takes dedicated time and effort. Unfortunately, that’s not a luxury most small business owners have. So, if you find yourself lacking the resources to develop your own content calendar or you just aren’t sure how to begin, contact us today to learn more!