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Cultivate your practice’s visibility on the Internet
Websites, social media and email provide the tools for you to market your practice to current and potential patients.
The first place a potential patient searches for information is not the Yellow Pages, but the Internet. Savvy doctors recognize that this is the best place to market their practice.
There are five fundamental pillars of online marketing: organic search, direct online advertising, local marketing, social media and direct email marketing.
Organic search
Organic search is the position or ranking of your website as it appears to those searching for you or your service. This pillar is easy to understand and verify, but it is complicated to get that top spot on a search query. You can improve your placement yourself at little to no cost, yet it may be the most time consuming and complex of the advertising strategies.
Agustin L. Gonzalez
A great substitute for spending money on Internet advertising is investing time on organic search placement, but you must have discipline and patience to see results over time.
Search engines operate under a simple concept. When people search online, the text that is searched is matched with the website that delivers content of the best possible match. Website ranking is accomplished through the use of an algorithm that evaluates the text, images and content of your website. All of these data are then weighted and ranked, and the result is what makes your office website noticed by search engines and prospective patients.
The simplest way to learn if your website is “crawled” or looked at by search engines is to go to the master search engine. I suggest you visit www.google.com/addurl and ensure that your website is listed on Google search. Many search engines rely on Google rankings and algorithms to perform their search.
Direct online advertising
Direct online advertising is another good way to increase your online presence. This works similarly to printed media advertising. You pay a company to advertise online with banners or text exhibited in content-relevant websites or content searches. The idea here is that you are paying to be found by potential patients as they are searching for products or services similar to those you provide.
Online advertising works better than printed media advertising simply because a potential patient who sees your website is more likely to be ready to make an appointment. You are targeting a person who is actively looking. In other words, your ad or website will show up when patients are looking for your service or eye wear. This strategy also allows you to have more control of when and where your office advertising is displayed.
There are two methods of direct online advertising. The pay-per-click method generates a charge to you every time your ad or banner gets clicked. The pay-per-impression method charges you a predetermined price for a predetermined number of impressions accessed. Google Adwords is an example of direct online advertising. Visit google.com/adwords to learn more or create an account.
Local online marketing
Local online marketing is a way to selectively reach patients in your region, city or community. Local business listings work best if you want to drive online information seekers and potential patients into your physical location. It usually works when combined with a traditional retail-based offer.
The majority of consumers today use the Internet to research for products or services, especially in their local area. Local business listings get your business in front of those potential patients, and these service listings are usually free of charge. Some services may require paid subscriptions. An example of a free service would be www.Yelp.com, while a paid subscription would be www.zocdoc.com.
Google is considered the leader in many of these local business listings and is also free. Visit www.google.com/placesforbusiness.
Social media
Simply put, social media is the most diverse and time consuming but perhaps most rewarding of any of the online marketing strategies. Social media lets you get closer to your audience, interact, start conversations, offer promotions and enjoy the benefits of human relationships.
It is important to realize that the power of just one relationship can be exponential. While you connect with the person with whom you are interacting, you are also introduced to their family, friends and co-workers.
This is a two-way medium in the sense that the message can be delivered from you to your patients as well as from your patients back to you or others inside their social circle.
Audiovisual presentations have been part of social media for a number of years, and www.YouTube.com is the primary medium. These tools allow you to deliver voice and video and provide a business message in a controlled environment.
Blogs allow you to deliver editorial content. Blogger.com is the primary blog medium.
The social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the three best examples of social media that provide interaction between the messenger and the recipient. Google +1 is the new reputation-based social medium. At present it has limited interactive ability.
Getting started in social media is easy. Go to blogger.com and create your own office or personal blog to share ideas and information and interact with your patients. Access www.YouTube.com, where you can upload, create and share videos about your office. A common video is a tour of facilities or a brief introduction of your practice philosophy. Registration with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is free, and you should secure your name even if you have no plans of using these services at this time.
Visit Google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html to learn how to include Google’s +1 button on your website. This local business listing is becoming an important way to recommend people and places and may some day be factored into the search algorithm.
Email marketing
Email marketing is an easy and cost-effective way to maintain a direct presence on your patient’s desktop. Emails make it easy to promote offers and provide updates to existing patients through direct email marketing.
While email marketing is limited to those people with whom you have developed a relationship, it is effective. Offers and promotions can be drafted and repeated on future dates. We promote new product lines and new medications and provide information (together with Facebook and Twitter) on weather-related office closings.
Email marketing works best when you want existing patients to return more frequently. It is useful to remind of them why they have chosen your practice to provide their eye care needs. It is a straightforward way to share promotions, products and other business news to engage existing patients and garner repeat business.
There are many popular email service providers with diverse offerings available to create and manage your email campaigns. Constantcontact.com is one of the most commonly used.