Realizing Your Marketing Plan through Online Advertising

Q: How can I use online advertising to expand my practice?

A: It’s easier than you think.

Marketing is a crucial part of any optical practice management plan, and with the Internet we have one of the most powerful tools ever created for putting our plans into action. More than with radio, television, and newspapers, you can use the Internet to harness broad-based yet extremely efficient advertising methods that will significantly enhance your practice. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should.

When optical practice management teams use traditional marketing methods—radio, television, and newspapers, as mentioned above—they miss out on a world of potential contacts. And that’s to say nothing of the cost of traditional advertising. Radio, television, and newspaper are simply more expensive. While these methods do reach customers, you can reach just as many people for a fraction of the cost with Internet advertising. That’s an opportunity to jump at.

No tool is better-suited than the Internet for reaching existing clients, past clients, and potential future clients. Online advertising is a 21st-century way of tackling a 20th-century issue—namely: I have a business, and I want clients for my business. How will I attract clients to my business?

The best way to advertise your practice on the Internet is through your own website. Make sure your patients know your URL and that your site is attractive and easily navigable. Collect patients’ e-mail addresses so you can send them updates that link back to your site, and watch as your number of daily visits increases.

Putting your marketing plan into action has never been easier. By spicing up your website, using business cards effectively, and getting patients’ e-mail contacts and communicating with them electronically, you will be well on your way to modernizing your practice and attracting new customers in the process. Who said optical management practice had to be difficult?

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.