Ophthalmology Marketing Company for Eye Doctors
New patients are looking for solutions to their eye care needs - a good marketing strategy will help them find and trust you with their care. But how do you know which marketing strategies are right for your ophthalmology practice? This guide examines 6 of the most effective Ophthalmology digital marketing channels so you can decide which is right for you.
The Ultimate Guide to Ophthalmology Marketing
Regardless of how long you’ve been in business, marketing is how you attract and retain patients, which makes it key to sustaining your practice for years to come. There are lots of companies out there that claim to know how to do it – but how do you know who to trust? How do you even know where to start?
We created our Pyramid of Success guide to answer these questions (and more) and to help you see how each piece of a digital marketing strategy fits in with the whole picture to help you achieve marketing success.Â
Digital Marketing for Ophthalmologists
Digital marketing is the practice of crafting a strong internet presence, this can be achieved with active social media pages, informative blogs, email campaigns, multimedia content (i.e. video, practice photos, Sight Selector Animations, etc.), accurate directory listings, and most importantly, your website. Online marketing and a strong internet presence for ophthalmology practice is crucial to generating new patients.
Ophthalmology Website Design Overview
WHY IT MATTERS
of users' mistrust of a medical website is directly related to web design elements.
Your website is the basis of all of your marketing efforts. If you’re spending lots of money on other marketing strategies for your ophthalmology clinic and still not seeing the results you expected, the problem could very well be your website. A good ophthalmology website gives your patients an instant first impression of you and your practice. It showcases your specialties and skills that set you apart from your competition while providing a safe, easy-to-use experience for your patients.Â
Excellent ophthalmology websites have some things in common:
- They work across all of the platforms your users access them with – from mobile to desktop to tablets
- Frequently updated with new, relevant contentÂ
- Redesigns happen at least once every two years
- Hosting happens on secure, trusted platforms that don’t expose users to security breaches or downtime
- Conversion elements like forms, phone numbers, chat support, and other contact options are present and easy to use
Test if your ophthalmology site is mobile responsive.
Essential Ophthalmology Website Design Elements
- Mobile Responsive
- Clearly Branded
- Conversion Focused
#SliceOfAdvice
Quick tips and tricks on website design and digital marketing basics.
Ophthalmology Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
WHY IT MATTERS
of all traffic from the average Google search goes to search results on the first page.
There’s a ton of misinformation out there about SEO. The truth is, search engines reward the same things your users value: correct information on a site that works well and is safe. To accomplish this, Google and other search engines weigh various factors such as the content of your site, the security protocols in place, its performance across mobile and tablet devices, and the accessibility of your site for users with disabilities.Â
What can you do to help your website rank higher?
- Make sure the technical elements of your site are working correctly - this includes your title tags, meta descriptions, site security certificates,Â
- Regularly adding new content in the form of blogs and site content
- Build relevant, high-quality backlinks
5 Key Strategies to SEO Success
- Content Optimization
- Link Building
- Site Structure
- Local Directories
- Website Technology
Local Ophthalmology Directory Listings
WHY IT MATTERS
of consumers who perform a local search ultimately visit a store within 5 miles of their current location.
Local search is incredibly important for ophthalmology practices. Your prospective patients are searching for you locally. Managing your local directories and search listings makes sure they find you. This isn’t a one-and-done process – carefully monitoring your listings for inaccuracies is just as important as accurate coverage across platforms.Â
What’s important in a local listing? It’s known as NAP information and stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. These three listing elements are the key to making sure your listings don’t get your business penalized.Â
Managing every aspect of your local listings is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Local Power was created to make management easy by putting everything into one place.
Ophthalmology Practice Information to Keep Accurate
- Name
- Address
- Phone
Managing Reviews for Your Ophthalmology Practice
WHY IT MATTERS
of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Searchers looking for ophthalmology care use online reviews to help them decide who to trust. Can you blame them? Reviews offer a chance to see the results other patients have had with your practice, as well as how you handle negative reviews and customer service. Successfully managing your online reviews means successfully managing the reputation of your ophthalmology practice.Â
Customers aren’t the only ones looking at your reviews. Search engines judge them too. Specifically, they’re looking at three things:
- The number of reviews
- The overall sentiment of the reviews
- Your responses to each review
Ophthalmologists have special concerns when it comes to reviews and HIPAA compliance. This, combined with the time-intensive nature of requesting and monitoring reviews across multiple platforms, is why we created Review Power.
Top Review Sources for Ophthalmologists
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
WHY IT MATTERS
of people say social media affects their choice of doctor, hospital, or medical facility
Social Media has become a staple of every practice and is now embedded in an online user’s journey to becoming a patient. It can help instill trust and encourage connection on a more personal level. However, it’s easy to underestimate the amount of work required to run an engaging, successful social media presence that helps you stay top of mind with your current patients.
The key to doing social media successfully is planning, from the goals of your profiles to which content you’ll post. Social Power gives you a calendar view of all of your social media posts while providing templates and designs for you to work with.
Tips to improve your social media:
- Consistency is key
- Engage with your patients
- Define your target demographics
#SliceOfAdvice
Quick tips and tricks on social media for ophthalmology practices.
Ophthalmology Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
WHY IT MATTERS
of people say paid search ads make it easier to find the information they are seeking on a website or a search engine.
SEM is often referred to interchangeably as pay-per-click (or PPC for short) because you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and lands on your ophthalmology website. What are you paying for exactly? The prime real estate at the top of a search engine results page. Because this is a paid strategy, having knowledge of budgeting, ad writing skills, and a solid website to convert the traffic you paid for is the key to success.
There’s a reason this strategy lives at the very top of our Pyramid of Success. If you’ve mastered every other piece of ophthalmology marketing, this is a great strategy to grow your business even more. It’s also the most time-intensive.Â
SEM Power is the platform for you if you don’t want to manage it on your own.
Recommended Ophthalmology PPC Budget
| Optometry | $750 - $1,000/month | $1,000 - $1,500/month | $1,500 - $3,000/month | $3,000+/month |
| Ophthalmology | $1,000 - $1,500/month | $1,500 - $2,000/month | $1,000 - $4,000/month | $4,000+/month |
| SendInBlue | Yes. 9,000 emails/month. | $25+/month | Very Easy | Very Easy |
Ad Quality Score Factors
- Maximum bid amount
- The click-through rate (CTR) of your ad
- The relevance of each keyword to its ad group
- Landing page quality and relevance
- The relevance of your ad text
- Your historical AdWords account performance and site engagement
Ophthalmology Email Marketing Overview
Email marketing for ophthalmology practices can be difficult to generate new patients because you will need the potential patient’s email. However, if coupled with a referral program, email marketing can greatly increase your new patients! If you pursue email marketing in-house there are two important factors to consider when choosing an email marketing platform for your ophthalmology practice: Ease of Use & Price. Many providers dictate price based on the frequency of emails and email list size, so you will want to consider how many emails you will be sending, both frequency and quantity.
Our typical recommendation for a practice is to aim for 1 email a month which includes: any monthly specials, referral program information, and helpful blog posts. You also want to be collecting email addresses in person in your office and have a connected form from your website to your email marketing software.
Top Email Marketing Benefits
- Stay Top of Mind
- Upsell More Expensive Procedures
- Increase Referrals
Overview
Having an active blog comes with many benefits; an ophthalmology blog can drive traffic and new patients to your site, create content to share on social media or through your email marketing, and helps with your website’s SEO strategy. A blog enables you to consistently create content for existing patients and new patients. There is also the added benefit that even if you redesign your website you will always have your blog’s content! Many ophthalmologists opt to have an agency supplement their blogging content or hire a freelance writer. The most important aspects to any blog is that posts are consistently added, each blog post is focused on a single topic, and the blog needs to have tremendous value for the reader. Being an ophthalmologist you have a wealth of knowledge and sharing that knowledge helps; your authority as an ophthalmologist, drives more qualified traffic to your site, and helps users understand ophthalmology procedures, what they entail, and their benefits.
We recommend every ophthalmologist have an active blog, but because it can be time-consuming to keep updated you should explore using an ophthalmology marketing company to supplement your content. This will ensure your ophthalmology blog always has fresh content and gives you the flexibility to add your own blogs at your own pace!
Creating an Engaging Blog
- Post Consistently
- Choose Topics that will Resonate with Your Patients
- Always Have a Call-To-Action
Traditional Ophthalmology Marketing
- Generating New Patients: Effective
- Do It Yourself: Very Difficult
- Typical Cost:
- Local TV: $200 - $1,500 per 30 second ad
- Local Radio: $500 - $8,000 per week
- Billboards: $500 - $20,000 per month
- Regional Newspaper Ads: $700 to $15,000 for ¼ page ad
- Mailers: $250 - $2,000 per 1,000 mailers
Traditional marketing is focused on getting in front of patients offline. These channels typically are pay to play and are outbound focused (patient didn’t seek out your marketing message) verse digital marketing channels which typically are focused on inbound leads (ophthalmology patients that are seeking a solution to their problem and come across your marketing message). At MyAdvice we realize there are benefits to traditional marketing so we have included tips, but inbound and digital marketing holds great potential for generating new patients. Web marketing for ophthalmologists is worth exploring for your ophthalmology practice.
Offline Ophthalmology Advertisements (TV, Radio, Billboards, Newspaper, & Mailers)
Traditional marketing can be a great way to reach new patients and can instantly impact your ophthalmology practice. However, you need to make sure you have a clear goal for each of these ads and have a set process to track the ROI for each marketing channel. You can track the effectiveness of each source with a specific landing page on your website or having a specific phone number leads can call. These channels are typically large investments and take months to measure the ROI and the value they generated for your practice. The prices listed above do not account for the creative production of the ads.
Traditional marketing is on the decline and becoming less effective, harder to prove its ROI, and you need to consider your digital marketing options.
Important Pricing Factors
- Circulation / Reach
- Demographics
- Impressions
Let's talk GROWth.
If you seek answers and help with the items listed above, you’re in the right place. We can help move your ophthalmology practice to the next level with our digital marketing services. For over 20 years, we’ve been building the healthcare industry’s most beautiful websites and optimizing them for search.
Schedule a 30-minute GROW consultation and we’ll work with you to create the roadmap – and show you how we can help you get there.
Social Media Marketing for Your Ophthalmology Practice