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?

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.