6 Optometry Marketing Ideas That Will Grow Your Practice & Attract Patients

Are you gearing up for the new year at your optometry practice? A new year means more opportunities for growth and change for your business and marketing strategy. With millions of people working from home, knowing how to treat those tired eyes is the next big opportunity. 

We’re here to inspire you to try and adapt to the new way of doing business. Here are some tactics to revamp your optometry marketing and attract ideal patients. Follow along as we outline these 6 ideas you should utilize in 2021.

Idea 1. Integrate an Online Store into Your Website

If you sell eyeglasses or contact lenses at your practice, why not do so online as well? People have embraced online shopping for almost every facet of life and eyewear is no different. In order to capitalize on this, adding an online store to your website provides convenience to your patients that they didn’t have before. 

Here are a few examples of products you can advertise online:

• Eyeglasses 
• Contact Lenses 
• Blue Light Blocking Glasses
• Online coupons or promotions your optometry office is currently offering  

The benefits of offering your eye care products on your site as well as in-person include:

• 24/7 Shopping – Instead of having to come in-store to get their glasses, contacts, eye drops, etc., they order them on the website and have the products shipped to them.
• Keeping Track of Metrics – an online store can track where a customer clicks as well as the purchases they make, and how often. This can give you insight into the buyer’s journey and products that many are interested in. 
• Wider Availability – a physical store is usually limited to the buyers in that local area who can come to your practice. When you sell online your products can be offered to a wider variety of potential buyers. 

Are you interested in offering convenience to your patients? We can help you do it! Learn more about adding an online store to your website now. 

Idea 2. Get Active on Social Media

If you aren’t already active on social media, it’s not too late to get started. Using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to build a connection with your followers is another way to increase engagement and traffic to your website. You can take advantage of these platforms and find those interested in you and grow your brand. 

Social media is a conversation and interacting with your followers is how you stay top of mind. It is an inexpensive, yet very effective way to increase your online presence. 

Follow these eye care specific pages so you can always have relevant content to share with your followers:

• EyeSmart – American Academy of Ophthalmology –  this page posts content about eye diseases and information on how to protect your vision. 

• American Optometric Association – this page highlights any news or updates regarding the optometry industry. 

• National Eye Institute – this page is an excellent source for any information about all eye care factions (optometry, ophthalmology, and opticianry) as it is part of the National Institutes of Health, a federal government agency. 

Do you follow iMatrix on Facebook? We share eye care content as well as useful marketing tips just for you! 

Read On: Eye Care Social Media Marketing Ideas to Boost Engagement

Idea 3. Offer a Referral or Loyalty Program to Your Patients

Retention is an important part of any business. You don’t just want one-time patients, you want people to continue to come to your office and have those people advocate for how well-run your practice is. 

If someone has been a loyal patient of yours, you can offer a referral or loyalty program. When a patient has a certain amount of visits to your optometry office or refers a friend, you can either offer some form of a reward or discount. This will encourage existing patients to keep coming and bring more friends with them!

Some ideas you can try include:

• Refer-A-Friend: Ask your customers for referrals in exchange for discounts.
• Family Checkup Deal: Offer discounts for full families. For example, a four-person checkup for a reduced price.
• Yearly Loyalty Program: Offer reduced rates that stack every year if your patient comes in annually. For example 5% off, then 10% off, then 15% off each consecutive year.

Idea 4. Send Out Patient Surveys

Have you ever wondered what people thought about your business after they left their appointment? Surveys offer a way to find out! Patient feedback gives you an insight into things that your practice may be doing great at and areas that could use some improvement.  

If you have yet to send out surveys to your patients, the end of the year is a perfect time! The feedback you receive can equip you to make better decisions regarding your business and how you can patient satisfaction in the new year.

You can send out simple surveys asking questions like: 

• How was your experience during your visit to our optometry office?
• What did you like/dislike?
• Are you satisfied with your new eyeglasses/contact lenses? 

Take this opportunity to reflect on your responses. Are your patients happy with your service? Is your office environment professional and well kept? Could you add a little flair to spice things up? How about some snazzy optometrist posters to liven up the office? Get creative and have fun with it!

Idea 5. Respond to Online Reviews

Responding to online reviews is an important part of patient satisfaction. Before the internet, word-of-mouth marketing was one of the few ways to get your name out there and to an extent, online reviews are the new word of mouth. Take this opportunity to reply to some reviews and address negative ones in a professional and timely manner.

Their confidence in your optometry office increases as they see patients talk about their encounters online. This is why reputation management is a powerful marketing tool to have at your disposal. 

Did you recommend LASIK to a client or get them a custom pair of glasses that they just loved? Email them with an invitation to leave you an online review on your Google reviews, Yelp, or both. You may be pleasantly surprised at what a satisfied customer can say about your practice!

Learn More: How to Encourage Clients to Leave Feedback and Strengthen Your Online Reputation

Idea 6. Advertise Your Practice Using PPC

PPC, which stands for pay-per-click advertising, is a form of online marketing where you pay a fee every time a user clicks on your business’s ad. It is essentially a way to buy traffic to your website versus getting it organically through SEO. 

Before you begin crafting your PPC campaign, you must select keywords that are relevant to your industry and the users you are trying to target. Some keywords that may be useful for your practice include optometrist in (your location), eye exams near me, eyeglasses in (your location). Once you have selected your target keywords, you can bid on those specific keywords for ad placements. When someone does a search query on one of the keywords that are related to your ad offering, your PPC ad appears in the search results. 

Although you may have done your research, selecting valuable keywords is only one component to creating a successful PPC ad. 

You also need to consider:

• Compelling messaging in your ad copy that captures the attention of users. For example, 2 Pairs of Glasses for as Low as $59.99 or Glasses Ready the Same Day – Anderson Optometry.
• The quality of your website’s landing page (it should be optimized with a call-to-action on the page).
• Getting creative. Yes, PPC ads are meant to increase traffic to your site and in turn generate revenue. But, you should focus on how appealing your ads are to the human eye. Designer-quality ads will encourage the user to stay on your page. 

Implementing Your Optometry Marketing Strategy 

The new year is approaching quickly and you may be scrambling to get your optometry marketing ideas together. Finalizing all of you and your staff’s ideas and then executing them while also trying to run a practice can be time-consuming. But, it doesn’t have to be.

Our team of experts is here to make sure you succeed! To get started on an effective marketing strategy that will help you reach all your goals in 2021, call us at 800.792.8384 or click here to learn more about our digital eye care marketing solutions.