What happens when you put an optometrist and an expert optometry marketing specialist in a room together? One dad found out while searching for an eye doctor for his two daughters, ages three and six. As it turns out, great ROI isn’t the only benefit a digital marketing strategy should bring to an eye care practice.
The Hunt Begins
Mr. Dad didn’t just want any old doctor. He wanted an OD who catered to pediatric clients – ideally a developmental optometrist who could determine whether his daughters had any binocular or functional vision problems.
After scouring through dozens of Google search pages filled with corporate chains and private equity practices with lackluster, uninformative websites, he finally found The One. It was a local private optometrist specializing in pediatric care and offering vision therapy. His website wasn’t great. It looked ok, but it really didn’t offer up a lot of information about the doctor or the practice. But it had fantastic Google reviews. So Mr. Dad thought, why not?
Great Service, Terrible Visibility
Mr. Dad booked an appointment for his daughters at the local practice and was glad he did. The clinic was immaculate, the bedside manner was superb and the doctor took the time to really assess the girls’ eye health. His daughters even said they had fun afterwards. There was no question they were dealing with a world-class optometrist.
So why the heck was he so hard to find?
This practice is a perfect example of the importance of digital marketing. You can have the best service on the entire planet, but if no one can find you, it doesn’t matter – a point Mr. Dad proved when he noted this particular practice’s waiting room seemed deader than an abandoned cemetery.
What Gives?
A quick bit of research showed this doctor’s competitors were doing almost nothing with their websites. A little SEO targeting, and he had the potential to rank at the top of search pages in no time. So what was the problem?
The doctor had his hands full managing his practice, who has the time to work on their digital marketing and online presence?
Time vs. Money
Our doctor was educated and tech savvy. He understood social media marketing, SEO and how to maximize his own digital presence. His problem was he didn’t have enough time to do all those things.
The doctor calculated that the number of times he would use a marketing service in a month, divided by the total cost, would equate to about 40 dollars an hour. “My time is worth WAY more than 40 dollars an hour,” he chuckled. Furthermore, the doctor decided he could reinvest all his newfound free time back into the parts of his practice that had been struggling. In particular, he was hurting for patients so bad, he didn’t have the profitability to grow his specialty services. Now nothing was holding him back.
Google Reviews Make All the Difference
Never underestimate the power of Google reviews. They’re your practice’s measure of trust, and directly correlate with the quality of care your patients associate with you. It’s not uncommon for a business to not hold the top spot in Google search rankings, but still get a lot of new patients in their door because of great reviews.Find out how . . .
Get Added Value with Digital Marketing
An OD’s time is the most valuable commodity in the equation, and it’s good for any practice to think about the value of their time when appraising any cost or marketing solution. You can do all the marketing yourself. Absolutely. But doing it well means a lot of research, reinventing the wheel, time spent writing, listing, optimizing, posting…
What a digital marketing service offers is an opportunity for practices to see the impressive returns they want while they do all the legwork. What they’re really selling is time. Time to reinvest back into growing your practice and doing what you do best: Being an absolutely fantastic eye doctor offering phenomenal quality eye care.
You’re worth way more than 40 dollars an hour.
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