MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR PRIVATE PRACTICES

Marketing is essential to staying in touch with existing patients, and reaching out to your community to bring in new patients. Here are two marketing investments that resulted in increased patient volume and revenues, and one investment that marketed the practice effectively to recruit new employees.

Self-Made Video Displayed in Office Waiting Area

We created a DVD with videos we found on YouTube from eyecare vendors highlighting the benefits of products such as anti-reflective lens treatments, multifocal contacts and Optomap for retinal health.

Cost: $100

Videos, which Dr. Woo and her employees created, allow patients to learn about the eyecare and products available to them, as they wait for their appointments to begin.

Results: At least three patients per week inquiring about multifocal contacts, at least 10 patients per week opting to receive retinal imaging, and at least three patients per week inquiring about blue light-blocking anti-reflective lens treatments.

What made this investment so effective? It's a great way to educate patients as they wait, time when they would be looking for a way on their own to pass the time.

Tips for other practices that want to do the same? Find free videos online, or get permission from companies you'd like to work with, to use those vendors' videos, and find someone who can splice the short videos together and display them in the waiting area or in the exam rooms while patients wait.

Ad in Local Newspaper

We felt that, in addition to reaching out to patients everyday on social media, it was worth making contact through our local newspaper with a display ad that ran for around two weeks. Particularly for older patients, ads in print can be effective.

Cost: Approximately $500

Results: About 30 new patients