Optometric Marketing through Online Advertising

If you’re an optometrist using 21st-century methods of online advertising, you’re already attracting potential new customers each and every day. Optometric marketing is venturing into exciting new realms that reach out to—and draw in—new customers in unprecedented numbers. If you’re ready to grow your patient base and have more control over the type of patients you attract, this new form of optometric marketing is for you.

Like all forms of marketing, optometric marketing is an evolving process. Traditional methods—newspaper ads, flyers, newsletters, radio and TV ads—are becoming increasingly less effective. Not only that, they cost a lot. By themselves, they aren’t enough for a solid optometric marketing program.

Thinking differently is the key here, and with the technology at our disposal, we have the answer. The Internet has grown and matured into an indispensable asset for any business, including your practice.

Do you have to be highly Internet-savvy to attract potential patients? Of course not. But following the advice listed below will definitely attract patients to your website:

• Provide clear information about your business: phone numbers and working hours should be visible on every page and also included in the meta-tags for search engine optimization purposes.

• Register multiple domain names, including potentially common misspellings of your site name.

• Understand the concept of keywords and how using them can increase your traffic.

• Create a blog in which you write about topics relevant to your practice that will also be of interest to clients.

Optometric marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. With the advent of online advertising, your reach can be as broad, if not broader, than traditional print media—and at a fraction of the cost.

Building Your Practice through Optometry Websites

Our patients have spoken, and they’re increasingly saying that they’d like to do their business on the internet. You probably already have a website for your optometry practice, but are you getting the most out of it? I have found that a few simple modifications can turn most optometry websites into excellent resources for patients.

There are many considerations to make when building a website for your practice, but I suggest simplifying the process by thinking of the process in terms of content and how your patients will access that content. Your patients will need to contact your office, so how do you want to display contact information, and what contact information do you want to include?

Your patients will also want to know about the products and services you offer. How will you display these items? You could give each product and service its own page, or list all of your products on one page and all of your services on another. You could even “tag” each product with a link to the manufacturer’s official website.

Some patients might even want to know about the history of your practice: how long it has been established, how it came to be established in the first place, and who works there. And speaking of “who works there,” including information about the optometrists and staff who work in your office—perhaps their own personalized pages, even—is definitely a plus.

Finally, you should consider linking to other relevant optometry websites, such as your state’s optometric association, and other vision-related sites.

While nothing will ever replace face-to-face customer service, well-designed optometry websites go a long way toward building, maintaining, and growing the practices they advertise. Be sure to keep your practice’s website updated to keep up with our ever-growing, ever-changing marketplace.

Eyecare Marketing and Email: What Do Your Patients Want to Know About?

Whether you’ve been broadcasting to your patient base for years or just getting started, figuring out what information to share with your patients can pose an interesting challenge.

As professionals, we spend a lot of energy on describing conditions and treatment plans in layman’s terms – for a live audience who generally need to know what we have to say – in the moment.
But what do you talk with your patient about when they are away? In other words, what do they want to hear?

Here are a few ways of ‘re-focusing’ on what people want to hear about from you…

1. Forums – Do a google search on ‘eye care forums’ and see what comes up. (Warning: Try not to get caught up in the debates you’ll invariably find regarding fees, policies, etc.)

2. Do a general google search on ‘eye problems’ – the most popular are a reflection of the most traffic…

3. Brainstorm/Reflect on the most common general questions people have for you or ask your staff what they often hear people ask…

4. Try the google ‘adwords’ tool below. Type in the name of a condition or simply, type ‘eye problems’ and see what comes up. Pay special to average monthly search volume.

Here’s the link:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (Estimates total searches and AdWords clicks & CPC)

Once you’ve found a topic that you like, remember that effective eye care marketing and email starts with the ‘conversation’.

Optometric Marketing and Email: Flex Spending Reminders

Even at this time of year, its a good idea to remind folks of their flex spending dollars. Email is a great way to spread this valuable information.

As part of our normal email newsletter, we use the P.S. as an announcement forum…most people skip/scan down to this part anyway…

So, in other words, we use a “PS. Don’t forget about your flex dollars”.

Its also important to have your web designer build a landing page with more information detailing how flex money works…The page will give more details about how flex spending or HSA accounts work and (as any good optometric marketing program should) prompt patients to explore your website and call/make an appointment.

Click this link for more information about effective optometric marketing.

An Optometric Marketing Approach to Birthday Post Cards

My predecessor always sent out a monthly birthday post-card mailing.
He swore by it, yet we dropped it as part of our optometric marketing strategy.

I think the reason had more to do with staff time in processing the monthly mailings and the fact that it was difficult to determine the effectiveness.

Then came email and we learned how to broadcast practically anything – as long as you have a good reason. (Sometimes, you don’t even need a good reason). Birthdays are a great reason and again, another way to touch your patient base.

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