The Hearing Pages

I have come across Markus Hilbert several times on some of the sites that I wander through undertaking research and conversing with other folk in our industry. He has always struck me as a man who has it going on, although this may be because a lot of his views coincide with mine own. Tends to lead to make you perhaps not quite impartial. I watched last year as he worked up to the release of the Hearing Pages. As he explained the conceptual thinking behind the site, I thought to myself, doh!!! I am afraid another “Why didn’t I think of that one?” moment in my life. Any way, I still think me and you Markus, we’re the cool kids.

I have watched the site deployed with great interest and was more than happy to see that it met my vision of what had been described. The site is attractive, easy to use intuitive and a soft marketing coup for any practice. I coined a phrase last year in relation to a strategy I outlined to some customers and a friend I met online, the phrase is “Marketing By Osmosis”. What I meant was marketing your brand in a non marketing way or soft marketing.

The features on this site allow any practice to market by osmosis, set up your account, lay out your profile, specify the surrounding distance that you are happy to answer questions from and then wait for potential Patients to contact you. Yeah, you heard that right, they will contact you. Basically if someone within your coverage radius poses a question, you get an alert giving you the opportunity to answer that question.

You should handle the answer carefully, don’t charge in with come and see me and we can talk. This is just the courting stage, you have just started to flirt, this isn’t the first date and even kissing is out of the question. Answer the question honestly using your own voice, the response will include your details and a link back to your profile. The more questions you answer the stronger your reputation becomes. This will draw people to your practice without the need to actively target and reel them in.

The Profile Page

Your profile page on the site is an excellent tool to be leveraged to its full extent. Ensure every tab is filled in with real detail. Upload pictures of you and your team. Outline your product offering. Use the News and Updates tab as a living blog roll placing all your ongoing news and campaign offerings.

Current promotions, wahoooo, I nearly wet myself when I saw this tab, place your campaign offerings here with big pictures, I mean big ass pictures and any electronic ad copy that your manufacturer made available.

It just goes on and on, a reviews tab, ask your Patients to join the site and leave a review. Most Patients are happy to do this. Mine were, I had a ton of reference/thank you letters. I know if I had asked those Patients they would have happily gone the extra mile for me.

Forgive my exuberance, I really think this site is fantastic, I think you can leverage this site for real benefit for your practice. However, you really need to do it properly. This can be used as an element of your ongoing marketing strategy, it will drive real engagement with potential Patients. Potential Patients will view your profile, make sure it represents you as you wish to be perceived. Then you should proudly identify your connection to the site on all your web channels.

The site is positioning itself as a go to tool for consumers, with its pose a question, forums, blog roles and instrument pages. I feel that it will grow into just that over time, the go to tool. Supporting it and encouraging that growth will inevitably be good for your business. You should be there and be well dressed, because your potential Patients will probably be and you can bet your bottom dollar that your smarter competitors will also be. If you are not already leveraging this site you should be, because its a no brainer.

I would like to point out that this review is unpaid and I have no affiliation to Hearing Pages, However, if they want to bung me a few quid my address is 33…………….