Core Agenda Inc.

https://coreagenda.com/insights/pragmatic-ai/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will likely be transformative over time. But it is still in its early stages. Leaders must consider several core issues, particularly if they are prepared to launch projects integrating early-market AI technologies. A briefing of considerations for decision-makers to maximize AI's promise and avoid repeating mistakes from the past.bb

Pragmatic AI: Considerations for Leaders Briefing on core considerations for AI acquisition decision-making. A primer for leaders on maximizing AI investments while mitigating risks.

IT Is a Rapidly Growing Portion of Healthcare Provider Budgets

Deloitte has reported that the global overall health care sector is growing at an annual average rate of 5.4% between 2017 and 2022. A recent Market Research Future Report estimates that the healthcare IT market will grow at a CAGR of 15% until the year 2023. The obvious takeaway it that IT will represent a significantly growing portion of healthcare budgets going forward. If you are a small or midsize practice, how are you going to make sure that your business goals lead your IT expenditures, rather than IT vendors leading you? Contact us, and get a free independent view on how to approach this challenge from Core Agenda. https://CoreAgenda.com

According to the Nielsen research, Millennials are the least likely of each generation to use a local agent, preferring to go online to acquire a new policy, review statements, make billing inquiries, and file a claim. As a local agent, is your market engagement strategy for this segment up to the challenge of working around this trend in a sophisticated way? Let's chat. https://coreagenda.com

AI for your business? Opportunities but proceed cautiously.

Artificial Intelligence is complex & expensive to implement, with difficult to quantify ROI. A look beyond the market hype for small and midsize businesses.

https://bit.ly/2QdByP8

34% of restaurant operators and owners have a dedicated employee whose full-time job is to market the restaurant through ads, promotions and social media and more. Conversely, 12% of 1,253 restaurant professionals surveyed said that they don't market their brand on social media at all. Facebook remains the dominant platform in the restaurant space, with 91% of restaurants leveraging the channel.

https://bit.ly/30ade0Z

Why Are First-Party Reviews Important?

Most small and medium businesses or practices understand the value of third-party reviews on their behalf. Third-party reviews are those collected by websites such as Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, and TripAdvisor. They are generated independently from the business or practice under review.

First-party reviews are those that are collected and displayed on your website with no input from a business or practice owner. They may be managed by a reputation management system such as Birdeye.

Some small and medium business or practice leaders have the mistaken belief that the value of first-party reviews is only marginal. Those that think this way are ill-advised and missing a tremendous opportunity.

First-party reviews provide prospects with an added assurance that they are in good hands. But more importantly, first-party reviews have important SEO benefits.

Since early 2018, Google began sharing first party review feeds on Google searches. This adds to the fact that first party reviews have long been a component of the Google search algorithm.

Sometimes it is a struggle to get customers or patients to leave a review. Many first-party review processes make it easier than most third-party review systems to leave reviews.

We all know that our online reputations are extremely important. As you work on this challenge, don't lose sight of how important first-party reviews are to you for your digital presence.

Amazon Continues to Lead the Way in a Booming U.S. Digital Economy

The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that U.S. consumers spent $513.6 billion online in 2018, up 14.2% from 2017. U.S. total retail sales only increased 4.8% over the same period.

In 2018, eCommerce sales accounted for 9.7% of total retail, up from 8.9% of total retail in 2017.

Amazon remains by far the largest retail player in the world. What about their 2018 sales?

In 2018 Amazon had $232.887 billion in revenue. The number includes international sales ($65.866B) and Amazon web services ($25.655B), but when you strip those out that still leaves you with $141.366 billion for North America.

It gets a bit fuzzy comparing this North America number as it includes sales for Canada, Mexico and presumably the remainder of the continent. But given the United States' economic dominance, it is a good starting number for some fuzzy math.

Amazon's North American sales in 2018 were 27.5% of U.S. eCommerce. And that same Amazon North American revenue number for 2018 represents 2.67% of U.S. total retail.

This level of success is a testament to Jeff Bezos' leadership from the days of Amazon's 1994 founding in the garage of his home in Bellevue. It should be an inspiration for those who are working to launch their own transformational visions in the digital economy.

Is Your Website Development Project Being Led by Design - or Led by Content?

Website Design - Search the Internet and you'll find countless articles on what to do right and what people frequently do wrong. Avoiding clutter, poor site navigation, slow website loading, not being mobile friendly - the list can go on-and-on. It is easy to get overwhelmed as a business or practice owner. So when many build or rework their websites, design is inevitably at top of mind.

The problem is that content for your website is frequently an issue addressed as a last minute necessity. "We have this great looking, well-designed page - now what should be put on it?" It's hard to find time in busy schedules to engage with your web developer to help them fill your pages - and in the dearth of your input, they'll inevitably fill the gaps from their limited perspective on what your business or practice is all about.

In reality, your website's content is as important - if not more - than design. Content helps you attract, engage, and delight prospects and customers, bring new visitors to your site, and ultimately, generate revenue for your company. If you don't allocate adequate time and resources to get content created that supports your goals, then your website will fail to have the impact that it should have for your business or practice.

The key takeaway? When you are focused on your next website project, make sure that you have a plan for content development that will truly reflect your uniqueness and goals - and which will win attention and build trust in your competitive market.

Market Segmentation for Small Businesses & Practices

No matter what the size of your business or practice, it is important that you put effort into understanding your market segmentation. Segmenting, at its most basic, is the separation of your customers and prospects into subgroups of customers with similar needs and preferences. By doing this, a business or practice can better tailor and target its products and services, as well as its marketing, to meet each segment’s needs. As a result, your marketing budget can be leveraged more effectively and efficiently.

The accompanying article from the Harvard Business Review, "What You Need to Know About Segmentation," provides a great overview to get your head around Market Segmentation.

https://hbr.org/2014/07/what-you-need-to-know-about-segmentation

What You Need to Know About Segmentation

Medical Practice Marketing

Success with a medical practice depends not only bringing in new patients, but retaining the ones that you have. In fact, it can cost 7 times more to acquire new patients than it does to make an effort to retain them.

When you think of marketing, you may focus only on the outreach aspects of this effort. In actually, what you do to engage patients is just as important. Five key areas to keep in mind for patient retention are:

1) Use appointment reminders and confirmations
2) Have a comfortable and welcoming waiting room
3) Market to your existing patients as well as to new patient prospects
4) Train your staff ot engage with each patient in positive ways
5) Use technology to improve each patients experience with you.

To learn more, take a look at this article on "Five Reasons Why Your Patient Retention Is Low"

Five Reasons Why Your Patient Retention Is Low Your patient retention starts the minute patients walk into your office, and it continues well after they leave.  

Are you marketing your business or practice for the unique culture in your region? Or are you using a generic one-size-fits-all approach?
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-states-2015-7

This map shows the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures "The political parties come and go but the values of the regional cultures are always at play."