Digital Destination
Got a handle on the digital landscape for your business? Here, we share the top five digital marketing strategies for 2019 from entrepreneur.com.
- Video Marketing: Pro tip: try streaming live on Facebook or Instagram.
- Artificial Intelligence: AI is on a roll in digital marketing—especially via chatbots.
- Voice Search: “Hey, Siri…” Take note that voice search is changing search results.
- Marketing Automation: Think, how can you automate marketing tasks to make time for other tasks?
- Authenticity: Here’s to keeping it real. A Stackla report states 86% of consumers indicate that authenticity highly influences their decision to support a product or brand. —Kerri Ann Raimo
Walmart+Health Care
Discount retail giant Walmart is making inroads to partner more closely with its customers for health care (including eye care). According to a report on cnn.com , recent moves include a deal with Anthem to encourage its Medicare enrollees to buy their over-the-counter health and wellness supplies at Walmart, and the opening of 19 in-store urgent care centers in the South. Seems like a sage move, as the path to healthcare providership has already been paved with its 3,000 in-store vision centers, free health screenings at 4,700 locations, discount Rx drug plans, and its offering of free hands-on help in enrolling in Affordable Care Act and Medicare policies. —Susan Tarrant
Membership Perks
In a move seemingly aimed at taking back some of Amazon’s health product business, CVS started a pilot program in Boston that includes free delivery on most prescriptions and online purchases, access to a pharmacist helpline, a 20% discount on CVS-branded products, and a monthly $10 coupon. The Care-Pass costs $48 per year—about half the cost of an Amazon Prime membership.
If successful (the company hopes to expand nationwide), we may see the program crawl into CVS optical centers. Will other big-box chains with established vision centers adopt similar membership programs to encourage one-stop shopping and healthcare access? —S.T.
