Are you still unsure about the right optometry marketing ideas and strategies to get more patients? If yes, then this comprehensive article on optometry marketing tips will help you to identify the right approach to grow your optometry practice. Eye-care businesses that are just starting or which are struggling to get more clients must make sure to plan and implement marketing ideas for their business because the competition is getting tougher day by day in almost all niches including healthcare. If you do not adopt a “well-thought and researched” marketing plan, then you will be indirectly leaving the opportunity for your competitive businesses. So if you are searching for “How to grow/build optometry practice?”, then follow the below-given tips for marketing your optometry practice.
1. Take Command of your Google ranking
This step is the most crucial for almost every healthcare business today. According to a finding by the “Pew Internet & American Life Project” in the year 2011, 59% of adults in the U.S. look online for health information and since the percentage of people accessing the Internet has grown significantly since then, therefore it can be easily predicted that people looking for health-care services would have easily crossed 75% by now and it is sure to grow with time as more and more people gain access to the Internet.
With such a large population getting online for searching health-related issues, if you do not control your business website listing in Google, then you are sure to lose a big chunk of potential clients. We have specifically focused on Google ranking because Google controls the giant share of internet searches and is the largest search engine in the world. Just having your optometry website created and listed in Google doesn’t make any difference to your optometry practice unless it is listed on the first page of Google because 90 percent of people searching on Google do not browse information beyond the first page.
Now it all comes down to the main question, “How do I get my optometry business listed on the first page of Google?”. In order to get your business listed on the first page of Google, you need to take care of several factors like your site loading speed, the quality of backlinks to your site, the content on your site, the relevancy with search terms, bounce rate etc. Technically, all these terms come under the scope of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In short, it can be said that you must implement the best SEO strategies for your optometry business in order to get higher rankings and more clients.
You can hire an SEO firm for your optometry practice to grow your business. Our firm, HealthBacklinks.com specializes in providing healthcare-related SEO services, so you can get in touch with us to get started in the right direction for growing your optometry practice.
2. Paid advertising channels online
Even though getting clients from a strong organic ranking in search engines is the most preferred way to grow your optometry practice, it is not a quick process because search engines take time to analyze new backlinks and to shift the position of your website in search engines. For people who are looking for a quick boost in the flow of clients to their optometry practice, paid advertising especially the “pay per click” model of advertising is the fastest way to do so. Paid advertising models take less time to show results and therefore opting the paid advertising model for your optometry practice can provide new clients for your business soon.
One catch with the paid advertising model is that it takes proper optimization of ads, keywords and landing pages to provide a positive return on investment. If you lack proper ad optimization, then you may end up paying more cost for client acquisition than the actual revenue from your customer. Depending upon the paid advertising platform chosen, there are various rules and regulations for ads, features, landing pages etc.
The most successful and quality traffic providing advertising medium is “Google Adwords” or simply “Adwords”. Since Adwords has the highest quality of traffic, hence it is also the most competitive one. You can search for local optometrists in Google and most likely, you can see many Adwords ads for it in your city/town which implies that optometry practices in your area are successfully generating new clients from paid ads on Google. Adwords has strict guidelines for landing pages and ad content and so you must first acquaint yourself with its guidelines before running ads on it because it suspends accounts permanently in case of non-compliance of its rules. Alternatively, you could also hire a digital marketing agency to run your optometry ads on Google.
Apart from Adwords ads, some of the most preferred ad mediums are Facebook and Bing. Facebook has a huge user base and getting targeted ads in front of people in your city/town (through Facebook ads) can definitely boost your business. However, people browsing Facebook and any other social networks are not as highly targeted as Google Adwords but the cost per click on Facebook ads is definitely more economical than Adwords.
The next popular search engine besides Google is Bing and it also provides paid advertisement opportunities. The cost of running ads on Bing is way lower than that on Google Adwords, however, its user base and its reach is not even comparable with the traffic quality and reach of Google Adwords.
There are many other smaller and lesser-known advertising options for your optometry practice but the above-listed options are the most preferred.
3. Grow your online social presence
Growing and maintaining a strong presence on social networks has become a common trend for many healthcare businesses. Presence on social networks not only adds credibility to your business but it also helps in getting additional traffic to your business website. Maintaining an active follower base on social networks like Facebook helps in broadcasting your message to your existing followers as well as in bringing new followers. One can easily offer discounts and coupons on their social platform page to get their followers to try their product/service. Apart from this, some creative businesses also make their campaigns viral by holding contests among their followers (offering giveaways and freebies) for posting their business/brand message on the social pages of their followers.
Social pages also tend to rank well in search engines for low competition keywords due to which it helps to rake in some extra customers directly through search engine referrals. It also looks much more professional and trustworthy to add one’s social network links during email marketing, traditional advertising (like billboards, visiting cards, pamphlets) and online paid advertising campaigns. Social networking channels have opened up a completely new marketing paradigm and many businesses are leveraging it to grow their revenues. Getting your optometry practice on social media is one of the key marketing strategies which you can adopt to grow your client base.
4. Traditional offline marketing methods
Even though the share of online advertising is increasing every year due to it being more targeted and effective, yet there is a significant proportion of the population that is still not connected with the Internet. People in the mid and old age groups are not as linked to the Internet as the young age population and this is also true for the rural and semi-urban demographic. Traditional offline methods are still effective to grow your business and you can successfully deploy offline marketing methods for your optometry practice. Let us get started with the offline optometry marketing methods:
a) Involve with the local community
You can involve with the local community by using various events like sponsoring a marathon, holding offline giveaways, holding tournaments etc. You can also try some other creative ideas like distributing customized T-shirts and/or bags to students. These customized T-shirts, bags will carry your business name and logo and it will function as a publicity mechanism for your optometry practice.
b) Free eye check-ups and webinars
You can hold free basic eye checkups and webinars for old aged/students to bring more awareness about your work and to eventually turn it into a branding opportunity. You can also incentivize your webinar attendees to refer your service to their friends/relatives by offering some exclusive gifts and rewards.
c) Information pamphlets
Many people are still unsure about various eye-related complications and they do not take these issues seriously until their condition gets worse. You can distribute informational pamphlets describing common eye-related complications and their remedy along with the promotion of your optometry practice.
d) Billboards on busy streets
You can advertise your optometry practice on billboards of busy and populated streets to get the attention of people crossing by these areas. You can be creative in catching their attention to your ads through the use of funny, weird images related to eye problems along with promoting your business contact number for appointments.
e) Local newspaper articles
You can offer free guest writing for local newspapers and journals on topics related to your business. As you provide more and more free information about eye care and issues related to it, more people would start seeking you for their eye and vision-related issues.
5. Pay attention to your online and offline reputation
Client satisfaction brings new referrals for businesses through word of mouth publicity. On the other hand, client dissatisfaction can damage your reputation and revenue. So it is always crucial to take care of your online and offline reputation.
a) Online reputation
Providing good client service is much more crucial in today’s time because many people search for online reviews about a product/service before trying it. There are many reviews and complaints forums online where people leave positive/negative reviews about the goods/services they utilized. If you have negative reviews online, then it will slowly cause a downfall in your customer base. Many local business/service operators are still ignorant of the power of online reviews but there are many mid to large-sized companies that hire specialized reputation management firms to handle their online reputation because they know the effect of reviews on their business.
b) Offline reputation
Dissatisfied clients can also precaution their friends/relatives about your product/service which can prove detrimental to your business model. On the other hand, a satisfied customer can bring in additional clients for you through word of mouth publicity. You can find many old and established businesses running successfully with little to no promotion just because they serve their clients very well which in turn acts as free publicity for their business.
One key element in client satisfaction is the staff working with you. You must carefully select your staff members as their behavior can affect your clients’ views about your optometry practice.
If you adopt the above-mentioned optometry marketing tips, you are bound to see a visible growth for your optometry practice.
How we can help in your optometry practice?
HealthBacklinks.com focuses on healthcare-related businesses and services, so if you own an optometry practice or any other healthcare-related business, then you can contact us to get started with the growth of your business. We can help you to grow your optometry practice and to gain new patients/clients.