10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Ophthalmology Marketing

As the old saying goes, ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.’ However, using tested and proven ophthalmology marketing strategies can help your practice reach more potential patients and boost your online presence. As a result, your ophthalmology practice can stand out among the competition and enjoy a steady stream of new and existing patients with a solid digital marketing plan.

1. Go Beyond Traditional Marketing

While engaging in traditional marketing tactics has its strengths, they have their limitations. If you give away fliers to passersby, you’re limited to the people who pass through your practice. Online marketing can broaden your reach exponentially, and possibly give the services you need a boost with a more solid push as well.

There are many ways to go about marketing your practice. Here are some foolproof healthcare marketing ways for you to increase your market share and generate leads as well:

2. Upgrade your Website

Simply having an ophthalmology website isn’t enough in this increasingly competitive world. You must present your website in the best possible light, not only at your practice but in the online space as well. This is the single most crucial step in online marketing to promote your business.

Many practices have their website, and you should make yours count. Your web design should be equipped with all the essential elements you need to establish your brand identity and attract your target audience. Plus, it would be best to look into various assistive features to make every website visitor’s experience more convenient.

The website’s visuals should be appealing. It should reflect your practice’s distinct personality. The way you design your landing page should have your target market in mind. That’s why you should pay attention to the fonts and color schemes you use. While you can opt to try risky color combinations, you should those that mirror your business’s ideals and branding.

When it comes to accessibility interface, you should ensure your website loads fast for keyboard users and people on their smartphones or other devices. Thus, orientation adjustments should be made accordingly.

All information about your ophthalmology practice should be up-to-date as well. This means you should include all your services and products, including Lasik surgery or refractive surgery, if applicable, in your web design.

Your office address and operating hours should be there as well. It would also be great if you could add high-quality images of your practice. This way, new patients would know what your clinic looks like even before they head there.

3. Take Advantage of Social Media Opportunities

Social media is a powerful digital marketing tool to reach your local community and expand your client base. It can be a total game-changer when it comes to reputation management. This marketing effort can lead to patient retention and attract new patients as well.

To get started, you need to set up social media pages for your practice. It’s important that you set up a business page on various Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram platforms. Like in your website, you should ensure that your social media pages are updated with all pertinent details, such as your practice address, operating hours, and website.

What’s great about social media is that there are many ways for you to promote your ophthalmology practice there. For example, you can highlight a more direct marketing campaign and experiment with marketing strategy tactics to reach a wider audience.

4. Types of Social Media Posts

You can enlist the help of satisfied patients by developing compelling content for reputation marketing. You can also put more focus on the other services that need a little boost. That’s why you should offer no-obligation consultation sessions on social media.

One popular way for online marketing in social media is to use fun and appealing, informative posts to start education and open up conversations with your patients. As a thriving practice, you should ensure that you post quality content regularly. In addition to posting regularly, you should interact with your patients. Being proactive on social media will reinforce your excellent service and friendly team.

5. Create Educational Videos

If you and your team have some extra time on your hands, you should consider developing simple videos. For example, you can highlight some of the services you specialize in, show the new equipment you’ve invested in for visual impairments, and even share some tips for seizure-prone users.

What’s great about video content is that the audio element on videos can help reach out to blind users. It also adds a human element to medical practices. It shows new patients how relatable you are and how you’re passionate about giving the best ophthalmology care. It also offers patients how your services produce desirable results.

You can utilize the videos you make for various ophthalmology marketing platforms as well. You can show them to your current patients by displaying them on your practice’s television. You can also upload them on your website and various social media platforms. You can even use them for your email marketing efforts.

This digital marketing strategy is so efficient that you don’t need fancy equipment to get started. However, ophthalmology practices need to have an excellent smartphone to shoot videos. That’s why you should consider adding this strategy to your marketing plan.

6. Try Pay-Per-Click Advertising for your Practice’s Specialties

Different ophthalmology practices have their strengths and specialties. For example, one of the most popular digital marketing methods is investing in search engine advertising, also known as pay-per-click (PPC).

What’s great about this digital marketing strategy is you get what you pay for. Essentially, advertisers or businesses bid for their ads to be placed in search engine sponsor links, where their ads can appear if someone searches a related keyword. It’s a great way to complement your search engine optimization or SEO efforts.

PPC advertising is a great way to optimize your local SEO efforts. While you can organically reach the first pages of search engine results, you can buy your way into the coveted top spot through PPC advertising. Ophthalmology practices pay each time a user clicks on their ads. This means you only pay every time new patients visit your website through the ad.

One good way for ophthalmology practices to get into PPC ads is by advertising their unique specialties that other eye care industry professionals can’t offer. For example, if you provide special services that cater to motor-impaired persons, you should use PPC ads to reach your target audience.

7. Attend Eye Care Conferences

One traditional marketing strategy that can boost your reputation management is attending eye care conferences. By attending these events, not only can you enhance your knowledge in eye care and expose yourself to various healthcare marketing trends, but you can also market your ophthalmology practice in various ways.

Networking with other medical practice professionals is a tried and tested way to get patient referrals. Plus, not all eye care professionals are ophthalmologists, so you can even develop a referral program with professionals from the same local area as you.

There are many ways to build relationships at eye care conferences. You can do line demonstrations, hire a booth, walk around the venue, and network with local attendees. You need to participate according to your strengths and budget.

As you immerse in your networking efforts, you must take the opportunity to learn new digital marketing strategies as well. With the number of ophthalmology practices participating in the event, you can get ideas on how to market your ophthalmology practice better. There is no perfect method for ophthalmology marketing, and that’s why you should learn through others’ experiences as well.

8. Start an Ophthalmology Blog

In your years of experience, you’ve probably encountered a lot of eye care-related problems and issues. To improve your SEO ranking and reinforce your expertise in the industry, you should consider starting a blog for your practice.

Write compelling content that centers around the common questions and concerns your clients ask you. By talking about them via blog posts, you can demonstrate your well-versed you are in the subject matter, and you can give your website a boost as well.

Aside from using your digital marketing platforms, you can promote your blog by word-of-mouth as well. For example, when a patient asks about a concern you’ve discussed on your blog, you can inform that person you’ve written about the topic on your website. This way, they can refer other people who might be encountering the same eye care-related challenges.

9. Keyword Research for your Blogs

When writing blog posts, you must use the right keywords to boost your online presence. This way, when possible new patients research the topic online, your ophthalmology practice’s website would pop up. This marketing effort helps reach a more targeted audience.

Aside from using the right keywords, you must write blog posts in simple terms. You have to take note that not everyone will understand complicated ophthalmology terms. Hence, you should register as if you’re talking to someone who knows little to nothing about eye care. The key is to keep it simple.

Even if you’re not a confident writer, you can enlist the help of freelance writers to help articulate your thoughts for you. Of course, you need to ensure all the information they detail is correct. In addition, it would help if you supervised their writing style, so it remains authentic to your brand voice.

It’s not enough to churn out regular content. You should utilize your other digital marketing tools at hand to give your blog a boost. You can share the articles on your practice’s social media pages and even your profile as well. You can include them in your regular email newsletters, too.

10. Partner with Marketing Consultants

When it comes to digital marketing, there will be hits and misses. Mistakes are inevitable in your marketing journey. With everything you have on your plate, you should consider enlisting the services of a qualified marketing consultant.

A good marketing partner can help you identify what your practice needs to boost your online presence. They can also uncover potential areas for opportunity. For example, if you’re encountering website accessibility challenges, they can help you develop a profile that significantly reduces distractions. In addition, if you’re challenged in managing inbound leads, they can help you with accessibility adjustments on your website.

Hence, you should strive to find Google-certified consultants so that they can give you the best options when it comes to marketing your practice online the right way. In addition, a good marketing ally can help you maximize your budget and achieve your goals more efficiently and cost-effectively.

While digital marketing partners can also make mistakes, they’re trained to look for solutions and help you come up with better strategies moving forward. Of course, there’s no perfect way to market ophthalmology practices, but with the right partner, you have a better chance of getting ahead of the competition.

Your Ally in Digital Marketing

Navigating through the world of ophthalmology marketing can be challenging, but with the help of tried and tested marketing partners, you can overcome the obstacles thrown your way. You can attract new patients and increase patient retention at the same time by working with experts that can walk the talk.

For more information on digital marketing packages that include ophthalmology marketing strategies, call 800.792.8384 or click here.