Your Eye Care Marketing Niche

ou know how a lot of practice management consultants will say you need to develop a specialty within that practice?

Low vision, specialty contact lenses, and vision therapy come to mind.

It’s true.

So, why don’t you just have one big practice that does it all?

As optometrists, we pride ourselves in being the general eye guy – we can take care of most problems – or at least get people to where they need to be.

So why all the fuss about developing a side-specialty?

For the very same reason why niche-focused marketing is the most
effective way to grow your patient base.

You see, today, in early 2009, we have become a very specialized
society.

For example…

Years ago if you needed legal advice you went to a general attorney.

Today, if you needed an attorney for something, you wouldn’t think of going to a general lawyer.

You’d choose an attorney that specializes in your area of need
(i.e. divorce, personal injury, trial, intellectual property, etc.)

(We’ll talk about WHY in a second.)

And, we see this kind of specialization in every area of commerce… from ultra-specialized doctors all the way to stores just for a specific type of sunglasses.

Fact is, today, people want products and services that appear to be designed for their specific, targeted needs.

They want a SPECIALIST, NOT a generalist.

If they have cardiovascular problems, they want the cardiologist. Not a general doctor.

If they have a foot injury, they want the podiatrist. Not a general doctor.

If they have chronic sinus problems, they want a sinus specialist. Not a general doctor.

Funny thing is… people will happily pay more money for a specialist than they will a generalist.

It’s why the cardiologist gets paid a heck of a lot more money than the general M.D.

Or, why a Mercedes Benz mechanic gets paid a lot more than the Goodyear mechanic.

People want SPECIALISTS, and they happily pay more for their “perceived” expertise.

**So, what does this have to do with the low vision or vision therapy and you and your practice?

Well, the reason the practice consultant recommends these specialities and doesn’t want you to have just one big general practice that they don’t want to be perceived as one big general practice!

You want to accommodate those sliced, targeted, specific groups and their needs.

In return, you are able to attract a larger share of each of those little
groups AND charge a lot more for the service.

Which is the same exact thing you should do when marketing your practice.

You NEVER want to appear as a generalist in your marketing because it totally devalues what you do and causes people
to NOT think of you as a specialist or expert.

Hence, general eye care marketing lowers the perceived value prospective patients have of the care you provide.

Instead, what you want to do is target specific niches and conditions in different marketing pieces, so you position yourself as a
specialist in that particular area.

This makes prospective patients feel you are an expert with solving their problem and INCREASES the perceived value of your care.

Remember, people want someone who is an expert with solving their needs. NOT someone who is just a generalist.

My point is this…

Specialization in marketing is key, today, because of society’s move toward specialized solutions for their specific needs.

They want stuff just for them.

Good thing is, you don’t need multiple offices to accomplish this.

You just need specialized marketing that does it for you.

Eye Care Marketing: Effective E-Newsletters The Easy Way

You would think that once you’ve collected a the patient emails, uploaded them to your email delivery system, and refined your website, that the rest would be smooth sailing.

What’s the big deal, right? You get a ton of email newsletters in your inbox. Which ones do you read?

But a lot of people have a hard time from here.

Obviously, you have valuable insight on a subject people need and want to know about. But how do you deliver this efficiently

Here are the keys:

Keep it short and sweet.

Everyone is busy and we tend to scan ‘E-stuff’ quickly. And ‘Sweet’, in this context, also means lively – so keep it fun where appropriate.

Speak in your voice.

This a personal connection. Much more so than most imagine. If you are thinking about all those emails in your inbox, STOP. This is different. Your patients SEE you in an  entirely different manner than we see marketers and spammers. This is an email coming from the Doctor!

Give THEM something valuable.

Say you’re on a long flight. Your neighbor – a really nice, well-adjusted person you could get along with. They have problem-X and they want to know how and why it happened to THEM and what THEY can do about it. Tell them. Who knows better than you? If someone does know better than you, tell them that too.

Show them how to act.

We all need a little guidance. If you have a link to your appointment schedule or if people make appointments the old-fashioned way (they call), then remind them about. And tell them specifically what to do – as a service.

Once you have that, the next step is simply a matter of pressing send! Then watch the appointments fill in.

Not ready for this? Most doctors have a tough time with this aspect of practice.  Click to learn more about email marketing for your practice.

Optometric Practice Management and the Internet

Consider two ways of looking at optometric practice management:

One practice looks at it in terms of what’s worked in the past for acquiring and retaining patients. Assuming an “If it’s not broken, why fix it?” mentality, they continually return to ads in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, and on the radio to get the word out.

Another practice relies on the same means of advertising to a point, but has added a new dimension to their optometric practice management. This practice is increasingly moving toward communicating with patients over the Internet. They maintain regular contact with patients via e-mail and have a great-looking website with printable coupons and free eye care advice.

Any idea which practice is most likely to gain new customers in today’s competitive marketplace? I think it’s pretty obvious: the second one. Using the Internet to build your optometry practice is of immense importance when growing your practice.

But what is the best way to use the Internet to your advantage? Here are some tips that will get you started.

Growing your practice in today’s competitive marketplace is no easy task. Traditional means of getting the

• Write a periodic newsletter and send it to patients via e-mail.

• Build a better website. Include special offers to visitors, and offer them the opportunity to sign up for you e-newsletter.

• Ask visitors to return. It’s amazing what a simple, “Thank you, come again!” will do for your optometric practice management. Courtesy counts.

• Ask for a referral. In other words, if you can tell a patient is happy with the service you’ve provided, see if they can’t recommend some of their friends, relatives, or co-workers to visit you. Make things easier by handing them a few extra business cards for good measure.

One thing to remember about the e-newsletter: federal spam legislation now requires permission from the people to whom you intend to send your messages. Your patients have to agree to get e-mails from you. By creating an “opt-in” for these patients, you’re following the guidelines and showing your courtesy at the same time.

Want to market to your current patient base effectively? Following the practice management suggestions listed above will get you on the right path.

Eye Care Practice Management in Today’s Competitive Marketplace

Growing your practice in today’s competitive marketplace is no easy task. Traditional means of getting the word out to your patients—ads in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, and on the radio—are effective, but also costly. How can you expand your practice without also paying more? Does optical practice management need to cost a lot?

Fortunately, it doesn’t. You can harness the power of the Internet to do all of the things that traditional advertising did for you, and at a fraction of the cost. Your current patient list is like a pot of gold waiting to be discovered. By revising your optical practice management to be in step with current best practices, you’ll be well on your way to outperforming the competition.

Here are some ways you can market to your current patient list:

o Write a periodic newsletter and send it to patients via e-mail.
o Build a better website. Include special offers to visitors, and offer them the opportunity to sign up for you e-newsletter.
o Ask visitors to return. It’s amazing what a simple, “Thank you, come again!” will do for your optical practice management. Courtesy counts.
o Ask for a referral. In other words, if you can tell a patient is happy with the service you’ve provided, see if they can’t recommend some of their friends, relatives, or co-workers to visit you. Make things easier by handing them a few extra business cards for good measure.

A quick note on the e-newsletter—make sure you get permission from the people to whom you intend to send it. Federal spam legislation now requires that people give you permission before you send an e-mail to them. By creating an “opt-in” for these patients, you’re following the guidelines and showing your courtesy at the same time.

Want to market to your current patient base effectively? Following the eye care practice management suggestions listed above will get you on the right path.

Optometric Marketing on the Internet

What does your optometric marketing plan look like? A typical plan—successful, but typical—might rely on getting the word out to patients via the Yellow Pages and ads on radio and television. There’s nothing wrong with this approach in and of itself—except when you compare it with what you can do on the Internet.

If you want to increase revenue and see a steady stream of new patients, you need to be conversant with how the Internet and your optometric marketing plan can work together to produce results. The great thing about it all? It’s actually pretty easy!

First, consider the following: How do people—particularly young people—get their information today? Increasingly, it’s not from magazines, TV, or newspapers, but rather the World Wide Web. Your optometric marketing plan needs to take this into account. But how?

It’s one thing to be on the Internet, and another thing to be able to found there. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Metacrawler are you friends in this case, as are directories like dmoz.org. Make sure your site is listed and available to the major search engines. For starters, you can submit your site to Google here.

When you consider content for your website and other Internet-related matters, the following tips will make a difference:

• Send out an e-newsletter to patients who opt to receive it. Your newsletter should contain coupons redeemable for things like eyewear and contact lenses, as well as interesting optometry-related articles for your patients to peruse.

• While you’re at it, put some of those articles—or others you or your staff write—on your website, too. It’s a professional touch.

• Submit your articles to article database sites like e-zinearticles.com. Use the articles to link back to your site. This is a simple way to increase traffic.

While this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of using the Internet to grow your practice, following the tips listed above will give you a great start. Your patients are moving forward—is your optometric marketing plan going with them?

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