“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.” – Daniel Burnham
If you’re from Chicago, or a big architecture fan, the above quote is likely familiar to you. If not, here’s a quick primer on Mr. Burnham and his famous statement about the virtues of going big rather than going home.
Responsible for designing and running the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—which at that time was the largest world’s fair ever held—Burnham was renowned as an architect with New York’s Flatiron Building and Washington, D.C.’s Union Station among his designs. He was even more renowned as an urban planner with his imprint on the development of Washington, D.C., Manila. His 1909 Plan of Chicago helped guide the growth of the city, protected the city’s lakefront from development, encouraged the development of parks throughout the area, and influenced urban planning across the globe.
But what does this accomplished architect and planner from the late 19th and early 20th century have to do with digital marketing? Well, he was not only someone who brought vision and a big scope to his projects, but he was adept at making them real, and really successful. This was because he made big plans, and this got people excited about making those plans happen.
This same spirit can be applied to your digital marketing, especially when you focus your efforts around a single big idea. The difference here is that your big plan should be something that stirs your prospects’ blood—to paraphrase Mr. Burnham—and when you go big in this way, it can generate big rewards.
Figuring out exactly what this big digital marketing concept should be is the first step, and while the exact format can go a number of ways, it’s important for this idea to be something that stands out, demands attention and most importantly provides value to your target audience.
This big content idea could be a video or a webinar, or it could be a high quality eBook. It could be an interactive digital environment that serves as a hub for information on the clinical or practice management challenges your products and services help practices overcome. Another big idea is an interactive digital tool such as a product discovery quiz, an ROI calculator or tool for digitally designing an operatory using your products.
The key with all of these ideas, is that they are single place for the rest of your marketing to focus, and they provide a reward valuable enough to convince prospects to submit their contact information in exchange for access.
If you have an in-house team to make these big ideas real, that’s a great start, but if not, finding a partner capable of bringing your vision to life is key. It’s important to make sure your final piece isn’t something done with a cookie cutter approach, and instead supports your existing branding, presents a unique opportunity to your prospects and entices them by being just a bit different. With our years of full-scale digital media and web development experience, Dentalcompare is uniquely positioned in the dental market to execute these types of projects.
Once you have a central concept and your big idea is ready for your prospects, the next step is to point all your marketing efforts in the same direction. Sure it’s great to have a link to the content on your company website, but to really maximize the effectiveness of this big idea, you need to spread the word about it as far and wide as possible.
Online ads on a range of sites, and similar email blasts should invite prospects to your central content piece. Even print ads can be used to point toward this central hub. This will provide multiple opportunities for prospects to encounter your messaging, and repetition of the same message in multiple places helps encourage conversions.
Even better, this type of coordinated effort is not just a scattershot of media placements, but something that can be honed to optimal effectiveness over time. Using multiple calls to action and uniquely identifiable links from your different media partners will allow you to test the effectiveness of everyone you work with, and will allow you to fine tune your messaging throughout the campaign.
These campaigns also can spread beyond simply pointing people to a single big content piece. Once the main hub of your efforts is created, you can break off chunks to deliver pieces of the content in a variety of formats. A video webinar can become a series of articles. A digital tool can be used for a story of how a practice used it to design and then build their dream practice. Repurposing pieces of your big idea into multiple formats can help spread the message, while teasing prospects with a taste of what they can expect when they register for full access.
Going big with your marketing efforts takes planning and coordination, but with the right partner to help you find and create your vision, it can pay off in a major way. This big idea can inspire your team, excite your customers and drive new people to your products. Contact Dentalcompare at [email protected] to learn how we are ready to help you every step of the way.