In the past, consumers didn’t give a lot of thought to choosing a healthcare provider — they simply went to the nearest hospital. Today, however, consumer choice in the healthcare industry is at an all-time high. Unfortunately, many hospitals and medical practitioners still haven’t adjusted to this change. As a result, those companies often lack a clear understanding of their brand influence.
The better you understand your brand influence, the more you can promote sustainable, revenue-generating business practices. For that reason, businesses today are especially concerned with understanding and measuring their brand influence. This article takes a look at some of the ways to measure influence, as well as what you can do to improve subpar consumer awareness.
Quantitative Methods of Measuring Brand Influence
Brand influence is a notoriously abstract piece of information to try and capture. Yet as the analytics movement continues to gain ground, marketing experts have introduced a number of ways to quantify brand influence. Of particular use are the following four metrics:
- Direct website traffic
- General site traffic
- Demographics
- Social Engagement
Direct traffic occurs whenever a visitor arrives on your website without clicking a link on another site — for instance, by manually entering your URL in a browser address bar. Site traffic measures a broader range of sources in drawing people to your website. In addition to direct traffic, site traffic also accounts for search engine traffic paid search traffic, referral traffic, and social media traffic.
Monitoring fluctuations in website traffic can provide valuable information about how a particular ad campaign has affected consumer awareness of your brand. Demographics, by contrast, permit you measure how well you are managing to reach your core audience. Finally, social engagement gives you an even better idea about how willingly key demographics actually interact with your company.
Qualitative Methods of Measuring Brand Influence
All of the strategies discussed above collect actual data pertaining to your influence, thus allowing you to implement benchmarks and standards of success. Yet quantitative strategies only manage to provide a partial picture of your overall brand influence. For a more complete picture, you will need to incorporate qualitative strategies as well. The four most useful are:
- Social Listening
- Review websites
- Google alerts
- Brand awareness surveys
Social listening involves closely monitoring social media accounts. This is in order to learn what people are saying about your company and about your industry at large. This strategy allows you to learn about the kinds of questions and concerns your customers (and potential customers) may have. It also allows you to stay on top of important industry terms and trends.
Likewise, review websites offer an irreplaceable way to learn what actual customers have to say about their experiences with your company. Many marketing managers also choose to set Google alerts pertaining to their business, in order to receive up-to-the-minute news and information about breaking topics.
Finally, many healthcare providers choose to take a more direct route to receive feedback, by asking customers to complete brand awareness surveys. Such surveys help to paint a picture of how knowledgeable people are about your brand. Also, it indicates how likely they might be to recommend it to others.
What to Do When You Don’t Like What You Find
Brand awareness is a powerful concept and one that growth-minded hospitals and healthcare providers must take into account. However, what happens when your quantitative and qualitative measurements of influence all fall short of the desired mark? The answer, in most cases, involves expanding your brand messaging in order to reach target demographics in a positive way.
Terraboost offers one of the most effective ways to expand your brand awareness. By sponsoring one of Terraboost’s wellness stations, you can harness the power of a network that reaches up to 200 million consumers a day. To learn more about how to successfully boost the brand influence of your company, contact the experts at Terraboost today.
