Last month was the 18th anniversary of Sam Kinison’s death. Kinison, a former revival preacher, was known for his fire and brimstone comedic delivery and trademark scream. I was thinking of the late great comedian recently while writing a capabilities piece for our agency — an e-doc on how we’ve helped clients build a stronger web presence. It seems to me Kinison’s classic bit on solving world hunger offers an important lesson on the topic:
"You want to stop world hunger?" Kinison asks. "Stop sending them food. Don’t send them another bite. Send them U-Hauls. Send them luggage. Send them a guy that says, "You know, we’ve been coming here giving you food for about 35 years now and we were driving through the desert, and we realized there wouldn’t BE world hunger if you people would live where the FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!"
It’s a hilarious, tasteless rant. And for medical device companies struggling to increase their Web presence in these lean economic times, the advice couldn’t be more relevant: Go where the food is! In other words, instead of worrying about how to get customers to your website, why not take your website to your customers?
Think about it. Today, your customers are too busy to go hunting around the Internet to find information. And thanks to websites that aggregate syndicated content, they no longer have to. Now content is fed to them through a single web page, eliminating the need to click on individual websites. It’s easier for your customers and it’s boosting their demand for instant gratification. Satisfy them!
Post product videos, blogs, articles and press releases on as many aggregation websites as possible. Which ones? It depends on your customers. To find out where they go for information, you may have to do a little research, i.e., ask them. But for some of our clients’ customers, popular sites include RSS4medics.com, medicaldevicestoday.com, clinicalevidence.bmj.com and, of course, the site you’re on right now.
And let’s not forget YouTube, where many researchers and physicians search for videos. That’s why Massachusetts companies such as PerkinElmer (NYSE:PKI), Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and Millipore (NYSE:MIL) are posting them there. The best ones are viral, meaning they’re intentionally designed to be fun and entertaining so customers will want to share them with one another. But bottom line: It doesn’t make sense to have a video on your website but not on YouTube, since customers might never make it to your website.
I don’t mean to minimize the importance of your corporate website. But if you’re hungering for a greater web presence, take my advice: Get a U-Haul, get some luggage and go where your customers are!
Tod Brubaker is an associate creative director / copywriter at Seidler Bernstein. He has extensive experience in general consumer and medical B2B advertising and communications. Tod’s work has won numerous industry awards, including Cannes, Addy, Rx Club, and top honors for print from the Johnson & Johnson James E. Burke Marketing Excellence Awards.