As businesses start to re-open, we’ve had lots of clients asking us how to reassure their customers that things are ‘normal’ again, and to get people coming back to their business.
We spoke to Darlington Gono from 4D scanning clinic Hey Baby Gloucester about how video opened up a whole new way to talk to his customers, and led to a bumper comeback.
– So today I’m joined by Darlington from Hey Baby over in Gloucester, how you doing, buddy? You okay?
– Yeah, I’m good thanks, you?
– Yeah, good. So, let’s just jump straight into it.Tell us a little bit abut Hey Baby Gloucester and tell us a bit about your kind of normal business, what you’re doing and what’s happened since kind of COVID and the lockdown.
– Yeah, so we are a private ultrasound clinic in Gloucester, part of a nationwide franchise. We scan pregnant ladies from as early as six weeks throughout the pregnancy up to about 32 weeks. So we do early scans, early on, to check if the baby’s okay. Very early and then
gender scans at 16 weeks. Normally we do gender scans at 16 weeks and then 4D scans at 24 weeks. So that’s what we’d normally do, but obviously with the lockdown, and pregnant ladies being part of the group that’s vulnerable, means that we need to do only essential services. So during the lockdown we can only do early scans which show more the medical aspects, and then bonding scans as well, just to check that the baby is okay. So yeah, we’ve had quite a bit of change because of the lockdown. But in these challenging times when you want to basically do more of the marketing, (laughs) which is what we’ve done. And you’ve seen some of the videos which you’ve helped us with.
– And I was gonna say, so how did you adjust? And how did your business kind of respond to this?
– So the initial reaction, like everyone else, was it’s a bit of the shock to the system really. We were expecting that we
would have a massive dip in revenues initially. But what we’ve done is focused on what customers need, which is the security that they’re going to come to a safe environment where the risk of infection is low. So we’ve ramped up our cleaning of the building, and we’ve basically done a bit more to make sure that the customer’s safe. So people that come into the building now only come in as one family at a time. And for the families that are coming in, we’re only allowing one adult guest, rather than the usual eight guests. So it’s usually a fun environment where people can be in, all their family and friends. But because of the lockdown we can only allow one guest unfortunately, and children are not allowed anymore. So there’s a few things that we’ve donejust to make sure that people are safe. Focusing on those aspects. And then yeah, obviously still showing that the scan that can give resource the highest value, but then in a very safe
environment as well.
– No, that’s great. And what types of marketing have been working for you over this lockdown period?
– Normally we would do Facebook and Google marketing, and then we would also do events like attending Gloucester markets and mum-to-mum markets,which we can’t do during the lockdown because obviously all of those are closed. And then we redirected our budgets to videos, video marketing, which we found to be extremely good, particularly the leverage with the Facebook and video, Facebook and Google marketing that you’re already doing. So we found that to be extremely, extremely efficient.
– Did you have to adjust the marketing messages and the content? And if so, how did you kind of manage that?
– Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think the message is slightly different to our normal message. So we would normally be very focused on family-friendly messages all about the party moods of having a baby scan. But then obviously in the lockdown, that’s slightly different, we want to focus on the message around the safety of the environment that
we are bringing people in, particularly because obviously, they’re in a vulnerable group. So from our perspective, we need to make sure that they’re definitely coming into a very safe environment with minimal risk of infection.
– What do you think your biggest learning from the lockdown period been so far?
– So I think the biggest learning is that you still need to market. So you’d think normally that if there’s a lockdown or if there’s a recession coming along, first thing that you do is stop the marketing, or yeah, just reduce costs. But actually, these are the times that you go out and still show the customer that you are there, and then you still have a
service that they can value. So in the most trying of times, you still want to be out there. So I think that’s biggest
learning is continue to market, marketing the best way is like video.
– (laughs) Well that actually bring us to our next question quite nicely. So what appealed to you about video as a marketing tool?
– Yeah, so that’s a really good question ’cause we’d never tried video before, we always thought that video was a expensive form of marketing, which would be outside of our budget. But, to be honest, now that I’ve seen the results, it’s almost like, why didn’t you sooner? So what appeals about video I think is the way that you can bring to life your message, ’cause it’s not so easy when your only mode is something that someone is going to read. Whereas for video is going to bring international, they’re gonna be able to see it, they’re gonna be able to hear it. And all those aspects put together mean that you can engage more with the customer. So the initial worry
might’ve been about cost, but I think it’s one of those situations where if you actually explore it, in our conversations, talking through how it actually works, find that it’s actually way more efficient doing videos than some of the other marketing that we do, for example. Because it’s on the same level of costs as attending an event, for example. But then you can have a video
that you can have forever.
– What made you choose Life Media?
– So Life Media, I think we started talking likely because of very good recommendations, (indistinct) and Gary who we both know as well. So we say anything about you guys.(laughs) So, yeah, I think recommendation is the main reason.
– And how did you find the process given the restrictions in place? ‘Cause normally we’d probably meet up, go for coffee, or that kind of thing, and work it out. Or I’d probably come down and visit the clinic before we’d film. And yeah, so how did you find that process?
– So the process I think it was a bit more into the lockdown, so it’s stuff we’re now all used too, so, (laughs) certain people on Zoom spend much all day isn’t it? Like you have Zoom meetings throughout the day so it didn’t sound, it didn’t seem unnatural at the time because it’s stuff we’re all doing at the moment. But yeah, like you say, obviously, which we had done this, this time last year. We would have been going off to Costa or something. (laughs) Eventually we were content. But yeah, it’s stuff that we’re used to now, so.
– What was the overall reception and impact of the videos?
– Yeah, I think you’ve seen the numbers on this, it’s absolutely phenomenal. Like I was saying, I don’t know why we didn’t do video a lot sooner, because obviously you can show the value of your products. That’s what you’re always trying to do with the marketing, show the value to the customer. Because we do know, we put quite a lot of effort in trying to make sure that the product itself is great, the clinic is of the highest standards, but then we still needs to go out thereto tell the customer. And we found that the video’s pretty much done the equivalent of all of the other marketing that we’ve been given. (laughs) So yeah, it’s amazing, absolutely amazing. Doubled our revenue. So yeah, that’s just phenomenal numbers.
– And how do you look at video when we think about it moving forward? And your marketing strategy, moving forward, is video still gonna be a key part of that?
– It is gonna be a key part, major part of what we do going forwards because we now know how efficient it is, and we can see that it can leverage a lot of the other marketing
that you do as well. So it becomes pretty key to what we do, and we know that the customers engage with it as well, so that’s really good.
– What do you think your best piece of advice for business
owners is right now?
– I think it seems like what I said before about what islands, which is keep your message out there, continue to market and show that you are still open, you are still doing business. So yeah, just continue to show that it’s out there.
– And what does the future hold for Hey Baby Gloucester?
– So hopefully it will be a Hey baby Gloucester and another clinic as well in the next 12 months. And then the business in the South West. And then yeah, continuing
to grow that way.
– Amazing. And yeah, tell the viewers how they can take advantage of the offers you’ve got on?
– Yep. So the Gloucester clinic is in Hempsted lane, near Gloucester Quays, for those that know Gloucester well. So that’s how you find us. If you are coming to the clinic, you can jump onto our website as well, gloucester.heybaby4d.co.uk. Or get us on our phone
number, 01452528111.
– Amazing, thank you. Look Darlington, thank you so much for your time today buddy, and it was a great talk, thanks.
