The following 10 eye care practice marketing tips can help take your eye care practice from average to exceptional. Even if you aren’t able or ready to tackle all these activities just yet, by simply reading this article you are taking the first step to a more profitable practice.

1. Write a formal business/marketing plan.

This is the single most important task you can accomplish to make your private eye care practice more successful. Creating a business/marketing plan forces you to analyze your patient base, your market, your competitors, your fee structure and commits your ideas and plans to writing. Going through the exercise of creating a business/marketing plan will make your eye care practice more competitive, even if you do not execute your plan. If you do complete the process of creating a formal plan and begin executing that plan, you will be well positioned improve your practice profitability.

2. Get current with technology.

In this day and age, you need to have a dedicated fax line, high speed internet, a website, email, Windows 2000 (or newer), integrated practice management software, a CRM (customer relationship management) platform, and a networked computer system as the bare minimums. Not having these basics puts your practice at a competitive disadvantage. Ensure that you and your staff are trained and proficient in the use of technology – hardware, software and equipment.

All of these investments, when properly used, will lower administrative time and costs, improve productivity, increase the amount of time you and your staff will have to see patients (make money), and increase profitability.

3. Measure, track and test everything.

You already do this with your patients. Now expand this concept to encompass everything in your practice. Without hard, accurate facts, it is very difficult to spot trends, notice irregularities, measure results or determine key financial metrics (such as revenue per patient, profit per patient, average patient lifetime value, patient satisfaction, man-hours per patient and/or return on investment). Once you have systems in place to measure and track effectively, you can then begin to “A/B” test changes in your procedures to help you reach your desired results.

4. Set realistic expectations.

Nothing spells failure like setting unrealistic goals. Telling your staff you expect perfect attendance or thinking you can double your practice revenue in two years is bound to result in disappointment. Look at historical data (obtained from measuring, tracking and testing – see point #3) for your practice and compare that to national benchmarks. Setting several mini-goals that require incremental, single-digit percentage point improvement will increase the likelihood of success for accomplishing your big-picture objectives.

5. Empower your staff.

One of the biggest concerns usually reported by ECPs is the ability to attract and retain quality support staff. This challenge is often complicated by competitive labor markets, unrealistic salary expectations (you get what you pay for), and a lack of time committed to training and supervision. Getting your staff more actively involved in the entire process of running and promoting your practice is an easy way to give them a sense of ownership and hence, buy-in.

Task your staff to create formal policies and procedures, complete with minimum compliance standards. Give your staff the opportunity to define the standards. If they meet your expectations, your staff will be much more likely to exceed the standards as they set them themselves.

Again, setting realistic formal standards allows staff members to know where they stand performance-wise. This can help reduce the stress often associated with not knowing if they are doing a good job. Additionally, having your staff write formal descriptions of their daily tasks and responsibilities will help you identify holes, duplication of efforts and also give you the basis for a staff training manual.

6. Build a search engine-friendly website.

Every three seconds, someone is conducting an online search for an eyecare provider-related product or service. If you don’t have a search engine-friendly website, one that is designed to improve the likelihood of showing up in search engine queries, you are missing out on a lot of potential new opportunities. While any website is better than not having one at all, if you cannot track new patients through your website you will likely feel that the time and money spent developing it was a waste.

A note of caution is due here. Don’t blindly accept your website designer’s/provider’s word that your site is “optimized.” Do your own research on organic search optimization or seek out the advice of a search engine optimization (SEO) / search engine marketing (SEM) expert.

Also, don’t overlook the benefits of adding an e-commerce functionality to your site. Offering your patients the convenience of re-ordering their contacts online directly from your website at least gives you a fighting chance to retain the replacement contact lens business of the 20%-30% of contact lens wearers who purchase lenses online.

7. Commit a defined amount of time and money for marketing.

Make a 12-month plan for your marketing activities and expenditures. Look beyond your Yellow Pages ad or the standard news paper ad you run to tie your marketing activities in to events or causes that will enhance the “buzz.” By planning 12 months out, you can ensure there are no last minute efforts that fall by the wayside because you were just too busy. It will also help you plan around times of the year when you typically expect business slowdowns. For historically slow months when cash flow may not allow large marketing expenditures, plan on giving a presentation to a local school or community group, or write an article for your local newspaper.

If your marketing efforts are paying off (you are realizing a return on your investment that meets or exceeds your expectations), consider increasing your spend. Invest in what is working and eliminate what is not (See Tip #3, Measure, Track and Test).

8. Data-mine your customer (patient) base.

Understanding segmentation, targeting and positioning is crucial. This requires that you already have patient information readily available in some form of a relational database. If your practice still has only paper files, see Tip #2. At the very least, create an Access database with your patient contact information, date of birth, sex, condition, prescription, family members, insurance plan, and date of last visit. There is a good chance you can find the talent to create such a database within the extended circle of your own practice (computer savvy, high school-aged children of your staff will frequently jump at the opportunity to earn a few extra dollars to complete such a task).

Once you have this information in a database, you can segment your patient-base. This exercise is helpful in understanding your actual patient mix. With this knowledge you can then plan out a strategy to attract more of the type of patients you want (see Tip #9).

9. Conduct targeted direct marketing campaigns.

Getting more business from your existing patients is easier and more cost effective than getting new patients. Granted, you constantly have to seek out new patients, but your efforts will be much more successful if you target communications to the right audience.

Try a direct mail letter to your 25-40 year-old female patients who wear glasses and who have not been in to your office for 18 months or more. In the letter, encourage them to make an appointment to come in and discuss all the new contact lens materials and technologies currently available. Chances are good that this exercise will pay for itself and then some (measure, track and test for best results – see Tip #3).

10. Seek out / take advantage of expert outside resources.

Last but certainly not least, take advantage of the existing resources available to you. Many of your current suppliers have tools you can use to more effectively market your practice. Some will even offer to help offset the costs associated with promoting a product category they supply. Talk to your suppliers to find out what special programs they may offer to help you out.

When all else fails, seek out an outside marketing expert. Yes, this will likely cost you money. But, employing the services of an outside marketing/public relations firm to do much of the “heavy lifting” can give you the extra hands and the expertise to propel your practice to the top of your competitive market.