Targeting An International Audience
The Internet is an amazing thing. It has the ability to make the world a much smaller space. No longer do you have to limit your patient base or you plastic surgeon marketing efforts to your immediate area, you can easily expand on the Internet to include the whole country and even the world. Plastic surgery patients are often willing to travel for particular procedures. In fact, when visiting forums on hair transplantation, it's clear that traveling for a procedure is common, if not the norm.
If you decide to include an international audience as part of your target audience in your plastic surgeon marketing efforts on the Internet, there are a few things to keep in mind. These include differences in language, cultural assumptions, color expectations and so on.
- Language. Even visitors to your website who are from the U.S. aren't necessarily native English speakers. As such, don't assume that all visitors speak your language. Be careful when using slang or culture-specific terms and phrases. Another great tip is to use images to emphasize your text, just be certain that they don't increase your load times.
- Color. Different cultures have different ideas about colors. For instance, white symbolizes death and mourning in many Asian countries but in the U.S. it's associated with purity. Color doesn't just effect different cultures differently, but many different demographic groups as well. For instance, purple is generally a great color for a younger audience but not for an older one. Take care when choosing your colors and your color combinations.
- Cultural Expectations. Cultural characteristics can effect how visitors view your website. These can include characteristics like social hierarchies, political structures, gender roles and so on. For instance, while it's common in the U.S. to use the pronoun she' rather than saying he or she' or he' to refer to a general or unknown figure, this may not be as accepted in other cultures.
While you may not be able to create a site that perfectly appeals to the entire world, there are minor changes that you can make to make your website a more accepted one globally and to ensure that it doesn't offend.