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The post We’re back appeared first on .
]]>After a couple of years during which we had to scale back our activities, we’re now able to stat accepting new projects. We’re available for content creation, PR consultancy and sustainability programmes.
At some point soon, we’ll be available to take on new websites and full PR programmes again. Chris and Cary are both healthy again, and we’re rebuilding our team of associates and specialists. So if you’re looking for a specialist in digital imaging, medical imaging, services to dentistry, practice management software or sustainability, please get in contact. We’ll be happy to discuss your requirements and how we might held.
Please email chris@precisionpr.co.uk or call +447432 189149.
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]]>The post Press Release – Enspec expands Systems Studies Team appeared first on .
]]>Enspec expands Systems Studies Team
High demand for specialist skill creates new career opportunities
22nd September 2020, St Helens, UK – Power quality engineering specialists, Enspec Power Limited, is reporting a consistent increase in demand for its power system studies. So much so that it is expanding its system studies team, and currently searching for new trainee engineers.
“We’re specifically looking for new electrical engineering graduates,” says Enspec director, Tim Rastall. “Because systems studies require a unique approach to the work, we’re looking for people who want to learn the unique skillset and develop their engineering capabilities towards Chartership. It’s an area of our business that has enjoyed constant growth, and demand is outstripping our current capacity.”
Enspec’s clients include renewable energy projects, power transmission networks, and manufacturers connecting to the national grid (including one of the world’s most famous car makers). They are increasingly recognising the benefits of carrying out system studies early in project cycles to ensure grid code compliance. As a specialist in the field, Enspec is now taking on engineers to build the team from the bottom up.
“We have a policy of staff development, and a clear promotion and succession strategy,” explains Tim Rastall. “That is one of the best ways of building specialist skills and retaining them within the company.”
One of the products of this strategy is Kerim Ozer, who’s promotion has led to the recruitment drive. “I joined Enspec as a new graduate 4 years ago, with the objective of becoming a chartered engineer,” says Kerim. “It’s been an exciting journey, helping grow the systems studies services as I have learned new skills and taken on more and more responsibility for increasingly complex projects. Enspec has provided me with excellent support to develop my engineering career.”
Tim Rastall hopes to have someone in post by the end of the year. “COVID-19 has made it a bit trickier to recruit than it might have been, but we’re still hoping to have at least one new starter in post by the end of the year. We’re advertising for recent graduates with a particular interest in this aspect of engineering and ambitions to complete their Chartership. We’re based in St Helens, but whoever comes on board will have opportunities to work all over the UK, and possibly Europe.”
Enspec Power Systems offers a ‘full-stack’ of survey services for grid code compliance and power system analysis – both independent studies and turnkey study and solution offerings.
For more information on vacancies, visit the Enspec website: https://www.enspecpower.com/ or contact Tim Rastall on 01744 347547
//-ends-//
Notes to Editors
About Enspec Power Ltd
Enspec helps organisations to make money and to save money – professional engineers can do this! It offers specialist engineered products and services such as Power System Studies, Power Factor Correction, Harmonic Filters, Reactive Compensation, Point-on-Wave Switching and Site Services. The company helps all manner of heavy electricity users such as utilities and renewables, oil and gas, manufacturing and other industries.
Enspec has been making businesses more profitable since 1998 when its sibling founders, fed up with the bureaucracy of larger organisations, decided to go it alone and set up a friendly, flexible engineering company.
Two decades on, the Enspec team is still a friendly bunch and one of the UK’s leading independent specialists in power quality engineering. The team really understands electrical power systems and is passionate about what it does and what’s happening in the wider world of technology.
Enspec is a progressive member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) with links to academia – so if the team don’t have the immediate answers, chances are they know someone that does.
You can find more about Enspec Power Limited at: https://www.enspecpower.com/
Press Contact
Chris Webb
Precision PR Limited
Sible Hedingham, Essex
M: 07432 189149
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]]>The post Double celebration for Enspec appeared first on .
]]>Power quality engineering specialists, Enspec Power Limited, today announced that David Jones, company director and joint founder of Enspec, has been made a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology for his contribution to the work of the IET in inspiring, informing and influencing the global engineering community to engineer a better world.
David’s many contributions to engineering include developing the company’s industrial energy-saving equipment and power quality solutions as well as developing safe working practices, such as those needed through the COVID-19 lock-down. He has been successfully co-running Enspec for over 20 years, and was the driving force behind Enspec’s initial development into equipment manufacturing. David (49), said; “This is a great honour which reflects the work ethic and innovation culture we’ve created at Enspec. Our philosophy has always been to help clients to improve their processes, to save them money and increase their profitability, which we can do as electrical engineers.”
That work ethic and culture allowed Enspec not only to protect the jobs of all its staff during lock-down, but to find new practices to deliver existing projects on time and even win new business. David continued; “We are involved in a number of major engineering projects that realistically couldn’t be paused, so we immediately had to develop new safe working practices. Much of our industry shut down for at least two months. Although we had to pause manufacturing for a few weeks while we made adjustments that met Government guidance, we were able to implement home working for management and engineering staff very quickly, which meant that we have been able to fulfil all our contractual commitments and retain all our staff.”
Enspec uses a cloud-based IT infrastructure that enabled an immediate switch to home working. A vehicle single occupancy travel policy further reduces cross-infection risks between staff. At the company’s manufacturing site in Washington, Tyne and Wear, Enspec has implemented hand sanitising stations, PPE and shifts, allowing for a prompt return to work – some manufacturing staff were furloughed for a short period while these changes were implemented.
David said; “As well as needing to find safe ways to continue working, we had staff whose partners work in frontline roles, so they needed support to be at home to care for their children. We also put in place processes to support staff who fell ill or were self-isolating, but I’m thankful that we’ve not needed to use them.” To date, none of Enspec’s staff have reported COVID-19 symptoms. And the new practices mean the company is able to continue with plans to recruit two new apprentices during the summer.
//-ends-//
Enspec helps organisations to make money and to save money – professional engineers can do this! It offers specialist engineered products and services such as Power System Studies, Power Factor Correction, Harmonic Filters, Reactive Compensation, Point-on-Wave Switching and Site Services. The company helps all manner of heavy electricity users such as utilities and renewables, oil and gas, manufacturing and other industries.
Enspec has been making businesses more profitable since 1998 when its sibling founders, fed up with the bureaucracy of larger organisations, decided to go it alone and set up a friendly, flexible engineering company.
Two decades on, the Enspec team is still a friendly bunch and one of the UK’s leading independent specialists in power quality engineering. The team really understands electrical power systems and is passionate about what it does and what’s happening in the wider world of technology.
Enspec is a progressive member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) with links to academia – so if the team don’t have the immediate answers, chances are they know someone that does.
You can find more about Enspec Power Limited at: https://www.enspecpower.com/
For more information about digital, traditional and hybrid PR campaigns, please contact us by email or call Chris on 07432 189149 (please leave a message if not immediately available)
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]]>The post SEO Work for Shine Partnerships appeared first on .
]]>When it comes to ‘The Web’, with surprising difficulty it seems. So Shine asked us to have a go.
Shine Partnerships Limited provides supported living to mental health service users across North London. It’s a successful business, growing on the back of an 11-year reputation for quality care and excellent facilities. And this year the company opened three new locations, providing support to 40 new service users.
Two of those locations were formerly owned and operated as residential care homes for the elderly by businesses that ceased trading and sold the premises. But they had been operating for several years and had made various half-hearted attempts to promote themselves on the web. The result is that there are several entries for both on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) register (and unfortunately, neither of them had glowing inspection reports). As a result, many other websites and specialist search engines included references to those locations.
The net result was that when Shine opened their new services at Carlton Lodge, Limes House and Maryland House, Google searches produced details for the businesses that used to own those premisses (Seaforth Lodge and Rose View Care Homes).
This is going to be a long process as there are so many 3rd-Party relationships involved. So far, we’ve carried out a number of Google searches on both business names to create a target list – not easy because the low search volumes mean these searches keep changing.
Top of the list in both cases is the CQC. Both houses produce the CQC registration details, and an archived entry for the last inspection report. Unfortunately, the CQC (though helpful on the ‘phone) won’t change those registration details on our say-so, so Shine’s CQC registered managers have to change that themselves. And the archived inspection report will keep showing at least until a new report is carried out – sometime during the next 5-years!
The first thing we could change is the ‘Google My Business’ panel that displays on the right. That includes verifying ownership of the entry. This is done by a code provided by Google, delivered in a number of ways;
The thing is, Shine’s staff work shifts, so trying to make sure the person opening the mail knows what to do with the postcard is a stress point.
Once we had verified ownership, we were able to make changes and submit for Google’s review. Those changes have now started to appear and are there when a search for the service name is carried out. When a search for the old entry is made, a 2nd Google My Business box appears and suggests the new Shine service as an alternative.
The next thing to do was to contact all the specialist search engines and request changes. Many ‘phone calls and emails and online forms later, some of them have changed entries, some of them don’t seem to be in business anymore, and others take their information from the CQC or Google!
Two which we have been able to change though are Yell.Com and 192.com. It takes a while for those changes to be approved and indexed, but they are well-used sites, so their influence on search results is important.
It is also important to create some entries for the new properties so they can be found in a search under their own name. We created blog posts on Shine’s website for each new service. We also wrote a formal press release, distributing to mental health-focused magazines and website, and also North London local newspapers.
Stories about the new services will benefit from the higher volumes of searches enjoyed by these sites, and back-links to the original release on the Shine website.
Partially yes. And over time, the quality fo search results will improve as the CQC entries change, the 3rd-party specialist search engines update, and as the entries for 192.com and Yell.com index. Publications and websites that pick-up the press release will also produce helpful search results.
Meantime, just have to wait – change another bit – write another story – and repeat …
If you are buying new business premises, make sure your solicitor checks that the old owner signs over ownership of the Google My Business account, and any other premises specific website entries to you. It will save you loads of work and loads of money down the line, and shouldn’t cost you a penny.
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]]>The post ICO Registration Certificate appeared first on .
]]>The post Cary in the press appeared first on .
]]>Cary has been in the press again, this time writing for the BDJ-Team magazine about working in Special Care Dentistry and the switch from nursing to admin.
Her role is to manage referrals into a special care dentistry service. It’s a new service to Cambridge CDS (CCDS), allowing all the referrals for CCDS to be centralised and handled by one hub, and for the initial pre-assessment appointments to be made by one team.
Taking on a newly created role has meant facing the challenge of learning new IT systems, developing the procedures needed to run the service every day, and then teaching it all to two junior staff. I’m also responsible for advising people with problems accessing the service, dealing with complaints, and some telephone triage of my service and the minor oral surgery service.
You can find the full article at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41407-019-0209-0
We are a rare beast amongst PR agencies. Our directors have between them decades of PR experience, years of understanding digital and medical imaging technologies, and a genuine, up-to-date GDC Registration number! So if you want to work with a marketing agency that knows how to tell your dental technology story, better contact us by calling Chris on 07432 189149 or emailing cary@precisionpr.co.uk
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]]>The post New website goes live for Shine Partnerships Ltd appeared first on .
]]>We’re truly proud to announce the launch of our latest client website project – www.shinepartnerships.co.uk
Shine Partnerships Limited specialises in providing high-quality [CQC Registered] supported living and floating support services for forensic and/or complex needs mental health service users. With 10 houses (and two more about to launch), Shine provides the care needed for tens of people in North London who have experienced mental health problems and are now returning to life in the community.
Designed and built by associate design consultant Dawn Li with project management by Chris Webb, the site also makes extensive use of photographs by the well-known corporate photographer Harry Chambers.
With 28 live pages, plus a news/blog page, this is the biggest single website project carried out so far by Precision. It incorporated 3 separate photoshoots across 10 locations – each requiring careful recording of photo permissions, etc.
The project took considerably longer than the two weeks first envisaged due to complex demands on the client’s diary. However, the results are visually stunning while maintaining a level of brand continuity from the previous (very out of date) site.
The campaign objectives for the website are to:
We also identified the need for simplified on-going maintenance to keep up with the businesses growth plans. And the ability to re-use assets across multiple channels of communication.
The key technical requirements included:
Built using WordPress with a custom template, the new site meets all three criteria. The final part of the project will be a short training session. This will demonstrate how to post news, make simple amendments and carry out software updates to plugins and other behind-the-scenes elements.
If your website is in need of a refresh, please call us. We are particularly interested (and skilled at) developing sites for integrated marketing campaigns. We would love to talk to you about how we could do this for your business. Contact us by email or tel: 07432 189149
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]]>The post A Crisis of Confidence appeared first on .
]]>At the recent BDIA Showcase exhibition, I took the time to visit the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority), and I was frankly shocked. Not by their stand, nor the work they do in stamping out fake instruments. But by the sheer number of items they had seized at that very exhibition: 15,816 individual items from two stands, Retail Value £19,160.
It would appear that the Dental Industry is rife with counterfeit and uncertified instruments and materials. They can be bought quite easily on the internet, and even at professional conferences and trade shows.
There are several counterfeit issues in dentistry. The most serious can have potentially life-threatening consequences. Problems with fake drugs are the most obvious.
It’s very tempting to buy drugs from cheaper suppliers, and the internet makes it possible to find suppliers all over the world. However, if you buy from an uncertified supplier, do you really know what you’re getting? Do they contain the stated dose of the active ingredient? Are they made to the same standards as those from mainstream suppliers? Do they infringe on a patent or steal some other form of intellectual property?
Should you suffer an incident that involves fake drugs, how do you suppose a regulator might respond to you?
Exactly the same issue applies to cleaning and decontamination materials. Legitimate manufacturers and suppliers invest heavily in quality control to ensure their products perform to specification. But without that certification, do you know if those materials work? Can you be sure that they aren’t corrosive to your expensive equipment and instruments? Will they harm your patients, your nurse or even you?
But what prompted me to write this article was what is happening with fake instruments. I was shown a number of examples. Finger spreaders that were cheaply made with a plastic handle that could be pulled from the shaft. Curing lights with a power supply that posed a fire hazard. Ortho file systems that carried the logos, packaging and instruction leaflets of a quality brand, but which were clearly fake. And handpieces that were badly engineered and likely to fail unpredictably.
And worst of all? Fraud carried out by practices themselves by using out of date materials or previously opened batches that had not been resealed or stored correctly. Or deliberately buying fake instruments and unregulated drugs and materials to save money.
Dentists have a duty of care, and that extends to all members of staff and includes using approved and properly managed materials and equipment.
This is not the Wild-West. We have many regulations that govern dentistry, and they are there for a reason. Quite apart from failing to meet GDC and CQC standards when you use fake instruments and materials you are likely to be breaking the law and could face criminal charges (with all the consequences that follow).
Pretty much every device sold in the UK should have a CE mark. CE marking is a certification mark that indicates conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area. Without that mark, you shouldn’t be buying or using that device. This is particularly important in medicine and dentistry.
Should you have an incident involving a patient, using non-CE certified instruments could invalidate insurance policies, and would almost certainly provide grounds for sanctions from the CQC and the GDC. If you are using counterfeit instruments then there is also the possibility of a civil action by the owners of the trademark. And, of course, the MHRA could seize your dodgy instruments meaning you have a sudden and unexpected bill for legitimate replacements.
There are three regulators involved in this. I sent questions to the MHRA, who have been very helpful (see the question responses below). The CQC responded by pointing me to their website. The GDC failed to respond. You can draw your own conclusion and do your own risk assessment based on that information.
My information is that the CQC and GDC carry out a paper checking exercise during inspections. So long as you can show you are keeping records they are fine. They rarely carry out physical checks on the legitimacy of instruments or the storage and use of part batches. Nor do they frequently check the legitimacy of drugs.
However, all that could (and probably should) change overnight.
The Unique Device Identification (UDI) is a system used to mark and identify medical devices within the healthcare supply chain.
The IMDRF (International Medical Device Regulator Forum), the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission are aiming for a globally harmonised and consistent approach to increase patient safety and help optimise patient care by proposing a harmonised legislation for Unique Device Identification (UDI), using global standards. And even if the UK leaves the EU, UDI will be implemented during the spring of 2020.
And when it is, dental practices will need to keep records of every UDI marked device. Ambitions for tracking and tracing are that patient treatment records will include details of what instruments and equipment were used during treatment.
And that means that the CQC and GDC box-ticking exercise will become much more complicated. And they will have a very simple method to verify the legitimacy of instruments and equipment.
You have been warned.
The MHRA website provides some very helpful information about ensuring the legitimacy of instruments, equipment and materials.
On top of that, you need to start thinking about improving your stock and instrument management. This has led to a whole new class of software appearing at dentistry shows, such as the Insightdental from Smart Dental Solutions.
But you also need to ensure that your practice management and administration staff understand the regulations around purchase and storage of drugs, materials and instruments. They have to avoid ordering in bulk to gain discounts if that material isn’t going to be used and stored within specification. They have to ensure they don’t fall foul of counterfeiters. And they have to buy from legitimate suppliers with a trackable supply chain back to the manufacturers of the basic ingredients and components.
The rules are there to protect patients, staff and practice owners. Step outside these rules and someone or something is at risk. And the risk that you will be caught and sanctioned, even if your infringement was accidental, will increase significantly next year.
More information about Insight Dental from Smart Dental Solutions can be found at: https://smartdentalsolutions.co.uk/
You can find the MHRA at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency
To contact Precision PR, please email chris@precisionpr.co.uk or call 07432 189149
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]]>The post One couple’s day out in Birmingham – at the BDIA Showcase appeared first on .
]]>Apparently, people we know think we’re a bit weird. “What are you doing this weekend?” they ask. “We’re going to the BDIA Showcase at the NEC,” we reply. “Oh! Why?”
Why indeed? Including the trip to Colchester to drop our youngest son at his brother’s house for the day, the NEC is 156 miles from home. So it better be worthwhile as we’re investing a whole Saturday.
After Cary’s obligatory McDonald’s breakfast (amazing what she’ll agree to for one of these) and a stop off at the surprisingly pleasant M6 Corley services, we hit a bum note.
We arrived at the NEC as planned just after 11:00 am. And it seems that the entire UK caravan and motorhome community chose the self-same time to visit their trade show. A queue to get onto the site, queues for the carparks, queues for the transfer bus. Not a good start to the day.
We finally made it into the building just before noon, and dodged the bag search. NEC, please take note – Security didn’t have their A-team on duty. It was then an easy walk to Hall 3. The bus driver had announced Hall 5, but he wasn’t part of the A-team either.
Registration was in the hall entrance. This is a good thing as you don’t have to wander around the atrium trying to work out how to register and get in. Note – the A-team weren’t issuing the passes, but it was such a simple process they couldn’t muck it up too badly.
Walking in, the walkways were clear, straight and wide, decorated with a pleasant cerise carpet. BUT no pre-made packs, no goody bags, and the show guides seemed hidden (we found ours on the way out!).
‘Crowd’ might be a bit of an exaggeration. We spoke to several exhibitors who said Saturday was the busiest day, but it certainly wasn’t what you’d describe as crowded. One said he thought seriously about pulling out of Saturday as Thursday and Friday had been so quiet. Others thought Thursday had been acceptably busy, but that Friday was a write-off.
Halls 3 & 3a are not the biggest halls at the NEC, and it was difficult to see how much had been occupied by the show. There were several theatres which were large, and these made it difficult to see how much space was used. We certainly don’t think the halls were fully utilised. That said, the back of the exhibition was very close to the back doors.
Well, more like one exciting new thing. 3D-Printing is about to come of age in dentistry. We spoke to a couple of suppliers of 3D-Printing kit who told us that a number of processes and materials have been approved by the FDA for use in the United States. Certification is currently underway in Europe, and once complete, 3D-Printing will be available to both laboratories and dentists for making appliances such as dentures and clear aligners.
Beyond that, there wasn’t anything particularly exciting to shout about.
Carestream! Not a sign of them. They were completely absent. So were all the practice management software vendors apart from Software of Excellence, Dentally and Systems for Dentists. If anyone else was there we couldn’t find them – which amounts to the same thing (only more expensive).
Several of the big kit suppliers were also missing, though several others were exhibiting (Planmecca, Durr, Belmont, Acteon, etc).
Nobody had ‘stupid’ attention-seeking stands either – certainly no scantily clad Santas or inexplicable ‘dwarfs’.
The MOD recruitment stand was empty too, which was a shame as we wanted to talk to them. Right at the back of the show, they probably gave up after the poor audience on Thursday and Friday.
We went to the BDIA Showcase last year at the London Excel, and we thought that was a great show. This wasn’t. The audience was poor, and exhibitors were relatively thin on the ground.
Did we achieve our aims? Yes. We met the two organisations we had planned meetings with and our discussions will progress. The fact that the crowds were so thin on the ground probably helped. We also had a chat with a few other interesting organisations. But if we had been going for some other purpose I don’t know that we would have thought the show a success.
Shows rise and fall in a complex cycle. Each grows through investment, success and rinsing phases.
The BDIA showcase at the NEC is in serious danger of moving into the rinsing phase. I would recommend to the organisers (and to exhibitors) to ignore the NEC and focus on London Excel.
Dentists earn money by seeing patients. Some of them earn A LOT of money. If you want them to give up money to attend, better make it worth their while and tell them WHY they should be there. The same applies to persuading them to send their staff during the week. And also the staff themselves if you want them to attend on a Saturday.
Likewise, picking a date during a major religious festival (Diwali) celebrated by a significant part of your target audience is dim.
Outside of the efforts of individual shows, exhibitions as a whole go through a success cycle.
We’re not entirely sure where they are in the UK. Some shows are succeeding, some aren’t. They are definitely doing well in consumer markets – B2B is more of a mixed bag.
On the continent, European mega-shows in Holland, Belgium and Germany look like they are maintaining their popularity and value.
But what do you do if you are focused on the UK market? If you’re not a European-wide brand, the pan-continental mega-shows are just too expensive, and the audience too disparate.
We continue to recommend that dental businesses exhibit. However, we would suggest that the London Dentistry Show and BDIA Showcase in London are better exhibitions than BDIA Showcase at the NEC.
The organisers of the Dentistry Show at the NEC during the spring have assured us that they are taking action to correct the deficiencies of this year’s show, and that may well make it a recommendable show next year.
But at the moment, we recommend using your exhibition budget to also create your own smaller events. More effort – possibly. More manpower needed – definitely. But success will be due to YOUR marketing efforts, and focus will be on YOU.
If you attended or exhibited at the BDIA Showcase at the NEC, we would love to hear your views. Contact us at cary@precisionpr.co.uk or call Chris on 07432 189149.
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]]>The post Case Study: Pearl Dental Software appeared first on .
]]>BHA Software‘s dental practice management software, Pearl, is well established. In fact, it’s the third most used product of its type in the UK. However, because the company had always sold Pearl through word of mouth, it had received very little marketing investment and simply didn’t look the part.
Early in 2017, work was well advanced on a new version of Pearl, boldly named Pearl Dental Software. The established ‘Pearl Plus’ had reached the end of its development life and was built on a old-style architecture. With new work patterns emerging and many regulatory changes expected within dentistry, Pearl Dental Software needed to provide up-to-date features built on the latest development tools and based on a cloud architecture.
Such a major change in the product would be bound to cause some customer concern. So, the new product needed to be good. It also needed to tell users and potential customers it was good too. For BHA, it was time to invest in marketing.
Also in early 2017, Cary Cray-Webb (a registered dental nurse and nurse-tutor) and Chris Webb (a technology PR professional for nearly 30-years) decided that it was time for some creative thinking of their own. Chris had spent years managing in-house PR teams to create some highly successful communications campaigns. He had also spent years working for PR agencies and freelancing. Read more about us.
Precision started business development activities and was soon in touch with BHA Software. BHA requested a proposal. After a visit to BHA’s office in Leicester, the deal was sealed for a content-based social media campaign.
Precision would help BHA build LinkedIn profiles and attract members of the dental profession to connect. BHA’s profiles would then share content, such as case studies, opinion pieces and articles from the Pearl website. This would develop the company’s visibility and credibility, and drive traffic to the website. There was only one flaw in the campaign plan – the website.
Unfortunately, the Pearl website was not up to the job. It looked, shall we say, ‘unattractive’. Worse still, it didn’t actually have the capability to curate the content necessary for the social media campaign. A new website was needed. One that looked fresh, reflected and described the product, and that could ‘compete’ with the websites of competitive products.
Working with Precision’s associate website designer, Dawn Li, Chris drew-up a specification for the new website. BHA quickly accepted the proposal. Development was scheduled for the site to be in place in time for the official launch of Pearl Dental Software – in just a few weeks.
The new site was built on the WordPress platform. This provided three key advantages:
While the new website was being built, content for the social media campaign was posted directly to LinkedIn or hosted on the Precision PR site. This was transferred to the new website ‘Opinions and Ideas’ section once the site was completed.
Creating a new website soon became the lead element of a full-on re-branding exercise. Dawn recommended that the Pearl logo needed updating. It needed to show that Pearl Dental Software was a new product – not just a re-platforming of Pearl Plus. Precision PR treated her design as an integral part of the project – other agencies might have chosen to charge for it as a separate project.
BHA quickly adopted and adapted the new logo for the product itself. Pearl Dental Software was starting to look as good as it is functional.
The new website was universally viewed as a success. As well as posting on LinkedIn the campaign was broadened to Twitter, and (to an extent) Facebook (each social media platform needs its own approach, so curated content designed for one doesn’t always work on the others).
The key purposes of the campaign were defined as retention of existing customers, and encouraging migration from Pearl Plus to Pearl Dental Software. Precision PR recommended regular newsletters to BHA’s several hundred of user contacts. The same curated content could be sent directly to the people who use and love Pearl Plus. And the message that Pearl Dental Software is even better would get to the people who need to hear it most.
Working with Charlotte Taylor, Marketing Manager at BHA, Precision started designing and editing newsletters. These were sent through Mailchimp, and eventually also taking on the distribution process. These were eventually going out every two months. However, a new plan (launching 2019) will see monthly ‘technical updates’ about the product itself. Newsletters, sent quarterly, will deal with issues and stories from the world of dentistry and dental software.
Precision also works with press and publishers on behalf of BHA. All advertising now goes through Precision who maintain relationships with the key industry publishers and event organisers. As Ben Baker, MD of BHA, says; “This means that we act strategically with advertising and exhibitions. Salespeople no-longer bombard us with calls, trying to fill up an issue. But we still maintain a relationship with the publishers. Precision assesses each opportunity and passes on their recommendations. We can select from options we already know are worth considering.”
At the launch of Pearl Dental Software, Precision PR suggested that video would help customers understand the changes. Precision set-about managing the production of three short videos. They needed to be very ‘personal’, describing why the new product was necessary, what it was capable of doing, and how it would help customers. Ben Baker supplied the personal element.
“I think I’ve met all of our customers and most of their staff,” says Ben. “We wanted to talk to them directly, but individual meetings were going to be impossible. I hate doing things like this, but Chris persuaded me that video would solve the problem.”
Scripts were written, and a production team hired. A customer, JDRM, offered the use of a surgery in Coalville for the filming.
“I think you can see the difference in what we filmed before and after lunch,” says Ben. “It took me a while to relax in front of the camera, and we had to do some editing where I fluffed my lines. But I think the finished videos worked well with our users. Professional enough to be credible, but with me being me as well.”
In total, Precision PR provides about 5-days consultancy each month to BHA Software, plus weekly social media reports and a monthly planning meeting.
At time-of-writing, Precision PR has supported the marketing efforts for Pearl Dental Software for a little over two years. The work includes content creation, PR (media relations and social media), advertising, website maintenance, direct mail (newsletters and updates) and strategic advice.
Pearl or articles related to the product has appeared in several trade publications and journals (including The Probe and BDJ-Team). New customer signings are on the rise (including for the first time, practice chains). The number practices moving elsewhere has slowed to a trickle. All new and more than half of BHA customers are on Pearl Dental Software. And there is a queue of Pearl Plus users planning migrations.
So what does Ben Baker think of Precision PR?
“Precision PR opened our eyes to what could be done with marketing. They provide us with very cost-effective campaigns and don’t expect us to continually payout for extras. What they quote is what they charge. This predictability is really important for a small company such as BHA. Cary’s inside knowledge of, and opinions about dentistry are always useful. And Chris has dealt with companies of all sizes, creating many different campaigns for a range of technologies. So they always have ideas for both marketing and the product. I would thoroughly recommend Precision PR Limited to any technology business.”
For more information, or for a chat about how Precision PR could help your business improve its brand, marketing and communications, please go to the call us page, call Chris on 07432 189149 or email chris@chrisprecisionpr.co.uk
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