Can you help with that? Yes, we can.

In today's world as a business owner, it's not just about being FOUND online when people are looking for you but don't know your name... it's about being CHOSEN by them.

About 5 years ago, an old friend of mine (and client from my last company) had connected to talk about his medical practice. Arguably, this guy and his wife (also a doctor) were both wicked smart, but as my grandmother would say, they admitted that digital marketing was not their "bailiwick." He had just left another neurosurgery practice to start his own company and as could be expected, his name was associated with last group, all over the internet.

We got to talking about how Google was not going to favor him and for that matter, present him as a top option for the searcher, with the current state of his online presence. To make matters worse, his website was not being updated on a regular basis, nor was it even mobile friendly! So why would Google choose to show him? One of the Google local search algorithm's primary goals is to give the "right answer" for the local searcher, as quickly as possible. So at the end of the day, regardless of how good of a surgeon he was, he was not going to make it into the "3 pack" which is another name for the "map and listings" section on the first page of a Google local search.

After sharing with him that our award-winning digital marketing agency got our start as one of the very first local search engine optimization companies in the nation (after our dial-up business days) he asked me "Can you help with that?" My answer was "Yes, we can." I actually think I said "Actually I can't, I'm not smart enough. But we do have a whole team of really smart people at our office that can ;-)" All of that to say, we brought them on board with a comprehensive digital marketing plan that would include local seo, some paid ads and social media.

Remember my statement about our team? Enter Melissa Lisk, Digital Marketing Strategist and the whole team supporting her, who specialize in marketing and lead generation for medical practices nationwide! She got to know the doctors and their practice, created an annual marketing calendar and has ultimately become an extended part of their team. The team cleaned up all the bad data, consistently employs best practices for medical digital marketing, supervises the ongoing management of the local online presence and all within the confines of the HIPAA privacy rule.

Melissa even encouraged them to add, our Review Marketing plan, Renown. As I previously stated, it's not just about about found, it's about being chosen and REVIEWS really help with that. Think of they way you select someone when doing a local search. Don't you look in that maps section and glance at the top 3 and look at how how many reviews they have and their star ratings before taking your action? 85% of the actions by local searchers occur in the top 3 listings of the local search section up through the paid ads portion of a search result. That means only 15% are clicking into more results including the "organic" section of a search which includes all the websites. So it's less about ranking your website higher and more about ranking your Google My Business listing higher and making sure your reviews are reflective of your offline reputation.

So, how'd our team do, you ask? Well, at the time of this article, Capital City Neurosurgery is the #1 search result in the local search, map pack section of Google when you search "Best Neurosurgeon in Columbus Ohio." (What's crazy is I never promised #1 because I never would...and for all intents and purposes the "top 3" IS the number one section for first page results of Google in today's world) Also, with that review marketing strategy, we helped them get from very few reviews to now a whopping 279 reviews and an aggregated 4.95 star rating!!! That includes all their Google and Facebook reviews as well as all the other medical specific platforms' reviews that we have pulled into a real time feed.

The practice has gone from being primarily driven by medical referrals to actually getting people that are searching for Neurosurgeons at their "Zero Moment of Truth" which is when they are experiencing pain and wondering if they need surgery. The other added benefit is when they do get a medical or personal referral and someone says "you should check out Dr. Kelly Kiehm and Capital City Neurosurgery" his online presence now reflects his offline reputation and they are more likely to call, because of what they see! It's gone so well that the doctors have started another business and who did they ask to help them? You got it, RevLocal. So when people ask me "Can you help with that? My answer is even more emphatically "Yes, we can!"

For more info on RevLocal's services and a complimentary analysis of your business or non profit's online presence, feel free to message me and I can get you connected with one of our consultants.