Dr. Sian in one of the exam rooms in his practice. Dr. Sian says that online marketing requires a proactive, well-thought-out strategy. An industry partner like Ocuco makes doing that a lot easier.
Optometry digital marketing strategy
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By Harbir Sian, OD
Nov. 6, 2024
When patients have myriad online retailers to choose from for glasses and contacts, your optometry practice needs a next-level digital marketing strategy.
Here are the details on the digital strategy my practice implemented over the last decade, including how we received just the support we needed from a key industry partner, Ocuco.
Online Marketing, Ongoing Challenge
Marketing your practice online is not a one-and-done deal, but, rather an ongoing pursuit. With Google frequently changing its search ranking algorithms, you can’t rest on your laurels because you recently revamped your site and post to social media everyday.
For example, we improved our website in recent years to make it possible for patients to purchase at-home dry eye treatment supplies and contact lenses without leaving our site.
Prime Patients for In-Office Purchases
We don’t currently offer online eyewear sales, but patients have everything they need to pick out and virtually try on our products.
Our staff can then pull the frames the patient indicated they liked online. They arrive with our staff ready to hand them their most-liked frames to try on in-person.
Our interactive online frame showroom helps us convert more patient visits into sales and saves both the patient and our team time in the optical.
Online Appointment Booking Functionality is Crucial
Consumers are used to looking up, and purchasing nearly everything, anytime and anywhere. Why should eyecare be any different?
Having online appointment booking functionality on your site makes it possible for a super-busy patient to finally get around to booking their eyecare at 10 p.m., or even in the middle of the night on the weekend. They don’t need to go to the trouble of e-mailing your staff and waiting for a response, or worse yet, having to take a break from work to call your office.
Meet Patients Where they Are; Don’t Expect them to Look for You
Most of your patients spend significant time on social media sites ranging from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok. The patients who book appointments in our office are increasingly telling us that they found us on a social media site.
For that reason, my practice has a presence on all three of those sites. Younger patients do more research on social media than on Google. Social media often is the first place where they look for an eye doctor.
In addition to having a practice presence on sites like Facebook and Instagram, an OD needs to be aware of, and maintain, their personal branding. Many patients will take the additional step of looking up an optometrist’s professional profile on LinkedIn. They want to see your professional credentials and how you present yourself.
A site like TikTok can be intimidating, but you can dip a toe into marketing on this platform with a simple video on a topic like “Top 5 reasons to switch to daily disposable contact lenses.”
Find Local Influencers
Some of the key people your patients follow on social media are local influencers. These are people from your geographic area—the closer to your practice the better—who make recommendations on local products and services.
Consumers admire these individuals and take their word for it when one of these influencers says they found a great eye doctor or impressive eyecare products and services.
For instance, our practice established relationships with a local makeup artist and a local fashion blogger, both of whom have a strong following, with most of those followers based near our office. The fashion blogger’s followers listened to her when she shared how we successfully fit her in multifocals, freeing her from reading glasses.
Influencers like fashion bloggers and makeup artists are ideal for attracting new patients and shoppers to your optical. They care about their appearance and are motivated to find the best eyewear they can. They also are often highly interested in contact lenses.
Searching on social media for fashion bloggers, and others with a style-related focus, in your city is an easy way to find these individuals. Your practice can then follow them and reach out to get them to come in for an exam or try out your products and services.
Find an Industry Partner that Supports Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Almost everything we do as part of our digital marketing strategy is supported by Ocuco.
Ocuco will build a website for a practice, creating a site that is search engine-optimized to appear at the top of the search listings. They also will help you build, or even launch, social media that attracts patients looking for a new eye doctor.
Importantly Ocuco will also provide detailed metrics on what is and isn’t working in your digital marketing strategy, so you can make the adjustments you need to grow your practice.
The key to winning against online retailers and larger competitors as an independent OD is reaching patients where they are already spending the most time online. Then, you want to make it easy for them to book an appointment and access your products and services. Ocuco has all the tools to help us do that.
I will be presenting a COPE-approved webinar, sponsored by Ocuco, on Nov. 14, 2024, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Click HERE to learn more and register.
Harbir Sian, OD, is the owner of Clarity Eyecare, which has two offices in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area. To contact him: harbirsianod@gmail.com
