Special thank you for today’s guest post by Steve Vargo, OD, MBA. He is an expert in the field of technology and it’s utilization in optometry. Enjoy!
In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s important to keep our name and practice in front of our patients. While nothing replaces face-to-face communication as a relationship builder, technology can be used to stay connected with our patients between annual eye exams. But how many of our patients are we actually reaching?
Social Media
Facebook recently announced that the average post from a brand page only reaches 16% of fans. Why is this number so small? Well, if your fans are not on Facebook when you post, they may never see your update. Secondly, many people don’t realize that most your fans never receive your posts in the first place. To prevent a cluttered news feed (and likely as a way to encourage paid, promoted posts), Facebook is only sharing them with fans who repeatedly return to your page, post on your page, comment on your page, or otherwise engage on your page. In other words, the minority.
Email
Email is a great communication tool, and is becoming a popular way to send appointment reminders. Many practices also have a monthly or quarterly e-newsletter to keep their patients informed about their practice (community events, special offers, etc.). Similar to Facebook, the percentage of people who actually read your messages may be surprisingly low. Email open rates are typically in the 10-20% range. Most are deleted, ignored or filtered as spam.
SMS Text
Texting is rapidly becoming a preferred method of communication for many people. Almost all phones are capable of receiving SMS text, and it has a 95% open rate. For short messages such as appointment reminders or notifications (ie. your glasses are ready for pick-up), SMS text is almost guaranteed to be read. SMS is permission based, so you’re patients must “opt-in” to receive text messages from your practice.
Online Video
Understandably, the technical challenges of creating online video can be intimidating. However, a reasonably priced camera (or even your smartphone camera) and a free YouTube account can allow even a complete novice to join the world of online video. Video can be a great way to put a human face to your practice. Create short videos discussing your practice (services, staff, new technology, etc.) and then distribute them through multiple channels – website, social media, blog, email, etc.
Digital media can be a great way to stay connected with our patients between exams, but simply having a lot of “Likes” on your Facebook page or a large email marketing list can lure us into a false sense of security. If you’re leaning heavily on one communication method to stay connected, consider adopting a multi-channel approach to reach more of your patients (and maybe attract some new ones).
About Steve: Steve Vargo, O.D., M.B.A. is in private practice in St. John, Indiana where he lives with his wife and 2 sons. He also founded iMobile Communications, and frequently writes and lectures about using technology for marketing and communication. His blog is at www.NewMediaOD.com.
