Search is search right?
Most people would say search is search right, websites are websites? Most search terms used for hearing aids are pretty international? Generally, they would be right, however, what we find is that the psychology of prospects is not necessarily the same across the world. The feelings of loss they have, the general psychology of hearing loss is strikingly similar across the world. What isn’t similar is the elements that motivate people to take action, at least the elements on websites, it is something that was brought home on our last build. Confused yet, I am, so let’s look a little deeper at what I am trying to say and see if even I can understand it.
The Australian website
We have just done a website for a hearing aid centre in Melbourne, Australia, it’s our first one so we undertook some research into the Australian market to get an understanding of what is what. The results of the research were interesting to say the least. Search patterns are similar in Australia in relation to hearing loss and hearing aids as they are elsewhere. However, what we found was very different was the trust and authority of the profession there. It has taken a great knock in the last couple of years, which was compounded by a documentary on ABC last year.
We found that the documentary and a series of articles had very much affected the perception of the profession and the industry in Australia. What was really interesting for us was how that would affect the copy and visual elements that we would have to use on the website. The general feeling over there is that Independent audiologists will probably look after you better than national outlets. While we push that in our sites all over the world, it seems that in Australia we have an especially receptive audience.
Changing copy and elements
It has meant that we have taken every opportunity to drive trust on the site, through the copy and the visuals. We have also really pushed home that this is an Independent hearing aid centre. That in itself can help to drive trust in Australia right now. What was interesting for me here was the changes to the norm that we took because of a cultural sensitivity. We have already considered this type of strategy, we have tested different CTAs in different markets. We find some work well in America, but wouldn’t work as well in the UK. Prospects have different cultural norms, people are people except, they’re not.
Even the manner or tone in which we write can change between markets, authoritative medical professional can work in some markets and would be ignored in others. In essence, what I am trying to say is that we adapt to the expected prospect. It goes back to something I learned years ago about buyer personas. You should always construct buyer personas, they give you an idea about who you are targeting in your marketing. Buyer personas can be wide or extremely focused and narrow, the widely held belief would be the more focused your buyer persona the better for you to design a content strategy to reach them.
General personas
I would tend to agree with the general thought about focused buyer personas, however, when we are building a website for a new territory we start to look at a general persona for that territory. We have a look at the general ideal and cultural sensitivity of people from that area. Because knowing that gives us a clearer idea about what and how we are going to pitch to them.
Texas & San Fransisco
For instance, are you going to speak to a Texan in exactly the same way as a San Franciscan? Will the same wording undertaken in the same manner reach them both equally well? Hey they are both Americans right? We will leave that one there, so I think you will agree that you need to be aware of who you are generally pitching to. Because if you are, you will pitch better, pitching better means higher engagement and higher engagement means better conversion. Have a think about that one.