Optometric Marketing: Think BIG, Act Small

Whatever the size of your optometry practice, you never want to sit back and assume that you will always have the same number of patients that you have now. If you have a busy practice, you may feel optometric marketing is a waste of your time. 

Growing practices mean healthy practices. You should never become apathetic about the current state of your business. Competition is always waiting around the corner to take your patients away. Optometric marketing is most important tool you can use to attract new business. 

Large healthcare practices may spend a lot of money on big advertising campaigns to draw in new patients. They also offer treatments that other similar practices do not. Their websites have a lot of pertinent information to assist their patients. Office staff is well trained and focused on the customer. However, large practices often lose patients because they do not give individualized attention. They march one patient after another through the office like an assembly line. 

Offer your patients something different. You can give them all the benefits of a large practice, whether you have a large or small patient base. You can do this without sacrificing your small office appeal. 

· Make sure that each patient feels special. Your patients are gold. Treat them as special individuals, and they will reward you by referring new patients to you, and continuing to come to your practice for optometric care. It is easy to forget that patient care is the most important thing your practice offers when your practice is growing. Always remember that the guy down the street will be happy to treat your patient the right way when you forget. 

· You need enough staff to care for your patients. Growth of a practice could  mean adding additional doctors and administrative staff to handle the load. 

· Consider offering additional services to add value to your practice. Look around at your competition and see what services they offer to their patients. Research bigger practices in other localities for the same information. Innovation is respected in our society. When you add new services to your optometric practice, your practice will definitely grow. 

· Use technology wisely to keep expenses down. Technology has replaced a lot of employees over the years. By updating your software and hardware, you may be able to offer better service to your clients without adding too many staff members. 

Stepping outside the box by thinking like the big practices and generate ideas that will lead to growth. Don't forget to include optometric marketing in your business strategies. The customer service you offer as a small practice scores big results with your patients. Remember to blend the two wisely.

Most doctors use less than 20% of the potential of their website for gaining new patients. A great looking website is only one part of getting patients from the internet. Are you getting as many patients as you can from yours? You may find the free expert guide, '7 Mistakes Doctors Make When Getting Their Website Done', a valuable resource.