“Ask Your Doctor…”
Hey folks,
I remember a time in the late 90s when Big Pharma started advertising on TV. Prior to this, drug manufacturers didn’t do direct-to-consumer advertising, relying mostly on pens, pads and promo items delivered directly to doctors’ offices. There were also stories about doctors getting kickbacks for prescribing certain brand drugs to patients. In an end around, the drug dealers circumvented the FDA and went straight to the FCC and won approval to market brandname drugs straight to you in the comfort and security of your living room. Voila! Retail medical marketing was born. The drug companies were happy because they were selling more drugs. The doctors were happy because they were prescribing more drugs. And Americans were happy because they were taking more drugs. But with the advent of interactive web and social media, a funny thing happened to most medical practices in the last decade. ACA (aka Obamacare), has cut margins for most doctors’ offices and all of a sudden, doctors started to panic and most medical businesses without brands found themselves suddenly competing for patients. Suddenly doctors — who had never had to market themselves before — discovered they had to spend dollars on marketing. I run across business owners who often believe that they do not have to spend dollars on marketing, “because they’ve never done it in the past.” That kind of thinking can be dangerous, and if you don’t believe me, “ask your doctor…”
Monday, June 13th – The Show Must Go On
On Monday, we continue to roll out our new campaign for Swift Creek Mill Theatre. Their latest show, The Hallelujah Girls, opened to a packed house last weekend and rave reviews in the Chesterfield Observer. It’s a great show and I recommend that everyone go see this hysterical comedy. Click here for tickets.
On Monday evening, I presented to the Board at Swift Creek Mill, recapping our work over the last eight months. #TheShowMustGoOn
Tuesday, June 14th – Young Americans
On Tuesday after my Rotary meeting, I met with one of our new members, Sage Robertson. Sage has experience banking, financial and insurance. He’s a great guy and you should connect to him here on LinkedIn.
While I was working in Richmond, my wife, Sue, was in Norfolk passing her citizenship test and finishing the last steps of the process to become a U.S. Citizen. Tuesday night we celebrated in the most American way possible by grilling on the back deck and playing David Bowie’s Young American on a loop.
A few weeks ago, I asked readers of the Weekly Report to send us information about worthy charities in the Richmond area, and you sent us some great info. Here one upcoming event you should get involved in. The CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation is hosting a live music marathon on Saturday, July 30th, 2016 at Center of the Universe Brewery. Thanks to Cris Leonard from Hanover Fire & EMS, a loyal Weekly Report reader, for passing this along. Contact Roger Reynolds, event organizer, (roger@cjstuf.org) to get tickets!
Wednesday, June 15th – Sugar High
On Wednesday morning, I went off my low-carb diet, in a big way. I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet with Bill Brown when he suggested we meet at the Midlothian Sugar Shack location. The hour networking with Bill flew by, partly because of the caffeine and sugar buzz, but mainly due to the fact that Bill and I have so many connections in common. Everybody at work now loves me because I brought back an extra dozen including a couple of Maple Bacon donuts for Sophie and Kaitlin.
Thursday, June 16th – Just Google Us
On Thursday, I didn’t get any billable hours because I’m knee deep in proposals and RFPs. We’ve been getting a lot of requests for our services, all of over the Commonwealth, from Northern Virginia to Tidewater to Southwest Virginia. We’ve been working on our search engine optimization of our website and for most keywords regarding Richmond marketing agencies, we’re at or near the top of Google. We do a lot of SEO work for clients, but earlier this year we decided to boost our own site and we have gotten some impressive results. (Hint: we can help you too, call us 877-623-6246).
Friday, June 17th – Work-Life Balance This morning, we hosted our friends from Burson-Marstellar, Alliance Group, and our friend, Andy Farmer from the Virginia Energy Sense program, to discuss digital marketing initiatives for the second half of the year. I don’t know what they liked better, the ideas we came up with or the Alamo BBQ we fed them.
Shortly after the meeting, I threw a couple of fishing poles in the back of “the Beast,” a cooler full of cold ones and a six-foot tall eighth grader (my son, Jack) and we started making the drive to the Outer Banks to celebrate his “graduation” from middle school.
“Vision without execution is just hallucination.”
– Thomas Edison
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