I know, I know…. we are all wondering what is going on with the Google ban on recovery centers?
Before I speak too soon, I want to introduce myself.
Hi everyone! This is McKell from MarketingHy, I am the girl who works with my husband (Chase @MarketingHy) and helps businesses with all of their online marketing needs. I absolutely LOVE what I do and I love helping clients grow their businesses.
Enough about me… if you haven’t already heard about the big ban that Google made on recovery centers earlier today, then I hate to burst your bubble, but it happened.
Before you completely lose your cool, I have a question that you should ask yourself….
“Should you or should you not be concerned about the Google ban on recovery centers?”
My answer is easy…. NO!
There are so many other ways to drive business to your recovery center online.
Ever heard the quote, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”?
This is the perfect analogy for those of you who have only been using Google Adwords to help drive business to your recovery center.
If this is you, then I hate to break it to you but it looks like you probably should be concerned about the ban on recovery centers.
On the other hand, for those of us who are being proactive and doing more, then there should be no fear. There is hope!
What are you currently doing for your recovery center’s business?
I work with a lot of different clients, all from very wide spectrums and each client’s online strategy is different. Because each strategy is different, that’s exactly why they are getting results and their recovery center is thriving.
The one strategy that never let’s me down and produces results every time, is a good client testimonial video.
Check out this video I shot for one of my recovery clients. Her name is Jodi and she is probably one of the most strong enduring women that I have met.
The recovery center’s owner and myself wanted to capitalize on client sobriety… so we had this idea to roll out a sober story sequence where we selected clients that had previously been thru the recovery program and were celebrating their “sober birthday” (how long had they been sober for).
With each client that told their story, it was so specific and special for each of them. There was a lot of meaning and vulnerability that came with each story told.
By being able to capture a video of something so intimate for these recovery clients, it was exactly what my recovery center needed and it’s exactly what every recovery center needs.
Addicts want to know that they are not alone. They want to know that the recovery center they choose is one with validity and heart.
I am getting personal over here for a second, so bare with me… I am the type of girl, that has raging emotions both happy and sad ones. So to be honest, filming each of these clients telling their story was extremely emotional for me. I was behind the camera with tears rolling down my cheeks.
Without fail, each client that shared their story with me, resulted in mascara running down my face. It was such a special experience for me to be apart of.
So what I wanted to do was capture a video in a way that spoke to me, that would also be able to speak to other addicts that might be struggling with the same thing.
This is why I wanted to create a video that would hit other addicts right in the sweet spot. Nothing too pushy, or cheesy, just raw, real video.
Advertising on social media
Social media is exciting and the potential is endless (there is nothing that gets me or Chase more excited unless it’s chocolate cheesecake).
The coolest part about social media is the ability to be able to connect with so many other individuals that have similar interests, values, and beliefs.
The more transparent we can be as individuals, and as a brand, the more we are going to thrive in an industry that is needed by many.
Drug addicts want to know that there is help for them. They want to know that they are not the only person who is struggling with an addiction. They want to know that they can change their life. And more importantly, they want to know that it is possible.
This is EXACTLY why video is working so well for my recovery clients.
Here are some stats on a Facebook video ad that I am running with the video of Jodi that I shared with you earlier.
By combining both Facebook and a great video into one, I was able to help out my recovery center immensely and don’t have to even think twice about the Google ban on recovery centers.
Think outside of the box and try something new. Whether it’s video, an email blast, or new headline on your landing page, don’t be afraid to try it!
And… more importantly, DON’T be afraid of the Google Ban on recovery centers!
Hey everyone! This is Chase from MarketingHy I have had the amazing experience lately with helping some of the nation’s biggest names in the drug and alcohol addiction niche.
A subject that is constantly on my mind is,
How important is branding for an addiction recovery centers?
There are many rules when it comes to digital marketing for a company like this. Some of today’s top marketing venues such as Facebook, Instagram and others have strict guidelines for what you can and can’t-do.
And now, come to find out earlier today, Google is cracking down on Adwords and Google listings for rehabilitation centers.
Let me take you back to this morning….
I jumped in my car and on my way to the office I hear my phone chime in.
I pull into the parking lot, open the article and am greeted by a headline on how,
“GoogleIs going to be cracking down on how they market addiction recovery centers.”
Now What? – was the first thing that popped into my head.
Then I thought for a second and I actually became pretty excited!
The answer comes back to what I personally think is the most important part of any business.
BRANDING!
Something that is easier than ever in today’s era with tools like social media. Yet, most rehab centers completely skip this step.
We use branding to show the entire world who we are and exactly what our business stands for.
And the best part, it’s FREE!
So… how do you start to really brand your Business?
There are a couple things I want to go over but first, let’s starts with two simple questions.
1. What specific value can you bring to your clients?
2. Why do you want to bring this value? What drives you and your team to get up every day?
The answers to these questions will be what shapes your brand and builds relatability with the people who come across your content. People are constantly seeking solutions to solve their pain points.
Now that we have that down. Let’s discuss the benefits of branding.
Have you ever heard the term,
“people hate to be sold, but they love to buy?”
People are tired of seeing ad after ad as they search through their social media (SPAM).
More and more people are using Ad blocking technology for that reason exactly. That means it will be harder and harder to reach your target market.
The best thing about branding is you are selling at a macro. You are literally placing ideas into people’s minds as they find out more about your product.
As you build your brand and people begin to learn more about who you are, in return it builds trust. Once people have gained value from you and what you offer, only then will they look into buying or signing up from you.
Now… how can you put this idea of branding out to your clients?
The answer is simple…. Content Creation!
I’m not talking about having a meeting and saying,
“Well today is national hot dog day. I think we need to make some posts telling everyone to race out and eat a hot dog.”
I’m saying we need better more thought out creation. Too many times we get caught up in what everyone else is doing and posting that we lose the focus of pushing our brand forward.
Here are some steps to creating great content…
1. Go back to your what and why
2. Focus on adding value to your clients through what you offer
3. Craft up a post using these two points (make sure to have an end goal in mind education, sales, finding new clients, etc.)
4. Find the best platform to push your content out on
5. Quality Consistency is key
Now let me ask you a question…..
Who do you go to when you need to find answers online?
The kid who just started, or the trusted expert?
The final key is this,
YOU MUST BECOME THE TRUSTED EXPERT IN YOUR NICHE.
Becoming a leader in your industry creates trust and brand credibility.
When a mom has a child that needs help, your recovery center has to be the first one that comes to her mind.
Investing time into content creation is one of the best ways to leader in your industry.
Almost all buyers purchase based on the influence of content they see.
Once you have branded your business as the GO-TO in your industry, people will start to take your word more seriously and the influence your business has will increase dramatically.
Here are a couple key points to remember:
1. Don’t always talk about how great your business is – remember, it is always about the value you can bring to the client. You must give value before asking for a dollar
2. You probably have years of experience – don’t be afraid to give your knowledge to those looking for it. Find ways to get out in your community and speak
3. Always be yourself (build your own brand, not someone else’s)
4. Find which platform your personality fits best (video, blogging, social media, etc.)
5. Always remember to keep your brand in mind
In the world of digital marketing, tactics change on a daily basis. But one thing will always remain the same…. BRANDING IS EVERYTHING!
Build a brand that adds an immense amount of value to people’s lives and they will organically come to you. There is endless potential in doing so.
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” The Bible
Confused yet?
Let me explain.
One of the big mistakes people make when creating a video, especially from scratch, is they don’t POLARIZE. They do not do want to offend anyone so they keep everything general.
Polarity is probably the number one reason why a video and your message fails.
We work with some of the biggest companies in the world and it’s frustrating how much effort, money, and resources are spent trying not to offend the masses. Instead of focusing their message on their fans and users, they get distracted and try and create a message that makes everyone happy.
Not saying you can’t have both…
Well actually, yes I am.
Lukewarm is the enemy.
Examples…
“Please make sure the drawings include one girl, one black guy, two Chinese people, one gay guy and a tranny. We want to make sure the world knows how diverse we are.”
“Our product or service is for everyone. We have to make sure we include the following features…..”
“We can’t say that. We may offend someone.”
“Hurry take down the video because we had a complaint.”
“But ignoring a portion of our customers needs might backfire. Our complaints could skyrocket.”
Or… “We’re getting calls from some of our customers who find our video offensive. Shouldn’t we create videos that all our customers like?”
I always tell my clients that a great way to know if their marketing works…is by the number of angry responses you get. You will have haters.
“When your messages cause polarity, it attracts attention and people will pay for it. Neutrality is boring, and rarely is money made or changed created when you stay neutral. Being polar is what will attract raving fans and people who will follow you and pay for your advice.” Russel Brunson
This may hurt…
If you’re like me, you hate when people do not like you. It’s actually a real struggle for me. I come across that it doesn’t bother me, but deep down it does. I want people to like me and my intentions are to help them.
Every email sequence I send out, I will get a couple of harsh responses sent back to me. It’s frustrating and can turn into a time suck. I used to respond, but I have learned to let it go and spend time and resources with those who are my fans.
For every 100 people that love you, there’s a few that will hate.
Just move on.
“You see, marketing formulated for the masses is guaranteed to deliver quiet and understated ad copy, and creating a likable ad isn’t your goal. Again, your goal is persuasion. So choose who to lose and let the cash register determine the success of your marketing.”
Here’s a story for you.
Have you ever wanted to admit that you are #2 in your market? Me neither. I would think this would be a formula for instant disaster.
Think again.
In 1962, Avis was going under and they needed to make a change quickly. Since its inception, Hertz was the dominate player in the care rental space and AVIS was clearly going down.
So the ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach decided to pitch a different kind of Idea to the executive. They would embrace their second-place status as a sneaky way to tout the brand’s customer service.
I have not idea how they got the executives to buy into this. I can hear the complaints now. I guess when a company is desperate they are willing to try anything.
Here is a screen shot of the ad.
“When you’re only No. 2, you try harder. Or else.”
Within a few years Avis had taken a huge market share and were no longer #2.
Here’s another one of their ads.
“Don’t be afraid to polarize people. Most companies want to create the holy grail of products that appeals to every demographic, social-economic background, and geographic location. To attempt to do so guarantees mediocrity. Instead, create great products that make segments of people very happy. And fear not if these products make other segments unhappy. The worst case is to incite no passionate reactions at all, and that happens when companies try to make everyone happy.” Guy Kawasaki
When can this polarity fire?
When you cross the line into CRAZY.
A good example of this is Kathy Griffin. She has always been polarizing and it served her well. She has made millions. You either love her or hate her. She had a loyal following that produced a lot of money and fame.
But…
Everything came to a screeching and pathetic halt with her latest stunt. Kathy Griffin crossed the crazy line. Even her loyal fans have deserted her.
This seldom happens so do not let Kathy’s story be an excuse on why you should not push the line.
A video that is trying to target everybody: skinny, fat, big, small, old, young. May not offend. But, it’s just another flavor of vanilla. If you don’t polarize your audience, you don’t create a following.
If you do not create a following, you will not have enough persuasion to get them to purchase your product or service.
Here’s a simple video on 10 ways you can market you business.
Some of these will work for you and some will not. The key is to learn them, test them, and then keep testing.
10 Ways to Market Your Business
The Video transcript (forgive errors)
Hey, guys, what’s up? This is Jace with Marketing Hy. Normally I don’t shoot live videos, but we’re going to do it today, so this ought to be interesting. I am going to go over 10 ways to market your business, okay? We’re going to try to get this done in about seven minutes. We’ve got 10 things to jump through.
1. Do you have a Website?
The very first thing you want to do if you’re going to market your business, especially online, is, website. Okay, get a website, get a good website. I always look at websites. I get a lot of people who request marketing proposals, and so first thing we do is go check out their website, what is their messaging? Is their website set up correctly? Do they have Google Analytics in place? Webmaster tools? All those little things that make all the difference. Have they got Pixels on their website? So the very first thing you want to do is make sure you have a website that is up and running and done properly. You can get them done for $1500, and some people like to spend $10,000. But normally you should spend between $1500 and $4,000 to get a good website.
2. YouTube Channel
Okay, number two is, YouTube. Make sure after your website gets done, get yourself a YouTube channel, brand it with your branding, brand it with your message. A lot of times people up at the top of YouTube will just put there an image, and then they don’t put their website where they should. I mean, you can add links to the cover photo. They don’t do any of those types of things. What I like to do on my YouTube channel is use it as an extension of your website, and make sure you put your value proposition up at the top. Okay?
3. Facebook Page and Facebook Ads
Number three, Facebook. Get yourself a Facebook page and go out there and make sure you are running Facebook Ads. Facebook is very, very good at finding your target audience. You can use Facebook and create … I mean, you can upload your email list. You can download your contacts from your LinkedIn, upload them into Facebook and then start running them ads. You can market your ads to mothers who have 13 year to 15 year old children and they live in these areas. I mean, you can get really targeted. Now, Facebook is the hot thing right now. It will probably change as more and more people drop off of Facebook it can hurt the advertising, okay?
4. Adwords Campaign
Number four, Adwords or Google Ads. I always want a company to run search ads. Okay, now you might not be able to spend a lot there, the return on investment might not be there, but it will be for certain key words. You just have to be careful, make sure you get the right keywords.
8. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
We’re going from four to eight here, SEO. Search engine optimization is big in my book. I like search engine optimization because once you create a really good article and push it up through the search engine it is there and it’ll stay there for a long time. So you just have to get used to creating good content and then get back links to that content, and that’s how you win at the SEO game.
5. Conferences (speaking and booths)
Number five, conferences. Okay, if you’re a small business and you are looking to get some good exposure, I like to go speak at conferences, okay? I will try to speak anywhere from about 10 conferences, like Pubcon, SMX, I like to do business things, DECA, all those types of things I like to speak at, just because when I speak at a conference I’m able to give them value and then in return a lot of times people are there to do business. So they’ll call you up, “Hey, I want you to run my ads.” And stuff like that. Booths, I put on there two booths. I am iffy on booths. I haven’t been able to get a really good return. I’d rather go speak and then attend the speeches.
6. Direct Mail Campaign (still testing this one)
Number six, direct mail. Okay, not a lot of people are doing it, but everyone likes to look at their mail. If you are a person that goes home and looks at his mail, then you probably should be running a direct mail campaign, okay? I am testing that right now. I have not been the greatest at direct mail but I am going to get good.
7. Radio for local area
Number seven is, radio. I’ve got a chiropractor that we do business with and we market for him, and he likes radio. He does a local radio show, gets a lot of leads. It’s harder if you’re going to go national, that is a little bit harder to get a ROI, but if you’re a local business, local chiropractors, financials, it’s good to do a radio show. Gets you some good exposure, and on top of that, whenever you’re doing a radio show, people immediately think that you’re an expert in that industry.
9. Cold Email
Okay, number nine, cold email. Okay, so I like cold email, but it’s being overdone. If you look at my email you would see tons of cold email and they try all these little tactics to say, “Hey, did you look at this?” They’ll put forward and all that, and they’ll be like … I need to think of an example. I’m on the spot, can’t think of it. Blah. I’m not going to go look. Okay, but just no, cold email, I think it’s getting overdone. What I like to do is I go to Upwork.com, I hire somebody to find the websites that fit my target audience, they will then get the contact information and they’ll just email them and they’ll be straight up and basically say, “Hey, here’s our value proposition.” We don’t try to trick them. If they’re interested, they’re interested. If they’re not, they’re not, okay?
10. Hustle
Number 10, hustle. Okay, part of owning a business or starting a business is you have to learn to hustle, you have to get up early, you have to go to bed late, especially if you’re broke, okay? My very first business I started I graduated college, went out there, and me and my friend didn’t know what to do, and he said basically, “Hey, I know how to do mortgages.” And I was like, “Okay, I like money and I like finances, let’s do it.” So we started our first business and we knew nothing, and like I said, we were just graduated. Now, I did own a window washing company, which put me through college.
Basically, my goal was to run a million dollar business, okay? And I wanted to do it quickly. When I was young I wanted to retire when I was 25. Obviously, I’m never going to retire now, I like work too much, okay? But what I did every morning, I got up, I learned my craft, I studied from like five o’clock til around eight o’clock, then from eight o’clock I opened up the phone-book and I started to just dial numbers, trying to see if people were interested in what I had to offer, which was refinance purchasing, real estate, stuff like that.
Then I would go knock doors, I would just go in neighborhood and knock doors. Now, I did not close anything for the first four months, but once that fourth month hit it was like a waterfall business, just boom, everyone started to close. Never looked back, and just kept doing those habits of hustling, networking, talking to people, and that’s how we grew that first business, and we’ve done many since then. So if you’re a business, you’re just getting started, be prepared to hustle, and apply those things, those 10 things. If you have questions you can always go over to MarketingHy.com, and that’s Marketing H-Y, not H-I, .com, and there are some tutorials, lots of tutorials. There’s a university that will show you how to do YouTube ads, Facebook ads, whatever you need.
And that is it; enjoy.
