IN THE PAST few years, the term “branding” has been thrown around a lot — and for good reason. Branding your practice has become an essential component of a successful marketing strategy.
One of the best tools for this is social media. It is accessible, affordable, and easy to use (with some practice of course). Your social media efforts should be focused on attracting patients, building trust, and supporting them when they are ready to make a purchase decision.
While some practices understand what they want to achieve with their social media, they don’t always know where to start. After all, social media does require a decent amount of content to be created all at once. Here are some ways to improve patient attraction and conversion.
Attracting New Patients: The marketing journey a patient takes can be described as a funnel. The marketing funnel typically follows the following format:
1. Awareness; 2. Consideration; 3. Conversion; 4. Loyalty; 5. Advocacy
When all aspects of the funnel are working properly, the patient has an enjoyable experience and will continue as a patient for years to come, not to mention referring friends and family. Social media posts can target a variety of patients at different points of the marketing funnel.
Your Brand and Personality (Awareness): A major marketing challenge is authenticity. Every ECP knows the importance of building trust with patients. Social media can act as a simple platform for your practice to build this trust, showcasing your brand and personality and providing an excellent first connection point with patients.
Your Practice (Consideration): A popular post type within the consideration phase is an educational post helping patients understand the roots of issues. Teaching patients for free is an excellent way to build trust and interest.
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Services and Deals (Conversion): Highlighting your services and deals through social media can sometimes be difficult. It’s important to strike the right balance of informing your followers, but not overloading them. You want your posts to be quick and to the point, sending patients into your practice or calling you for more information. Make sure that all of your posts have a strong call to action at the end of the content.
Interaction (Loyalty and Advocacy): The later stages of the marketing funnel can often get overlooked. However, in eyecare, they are crucial. As an ECP, you know the value of maintaining patients and long-lasting relationships. Using social media, you can continue to engage. Try creating quizzes, reminders, contests, and practice updates.
Fun: Social media should be a fun platform for current and potential patients to learn more about your practice and eyecare in general. As an ECP, social media is another outlet for you to help patients and grow your practice at the same time. Continue experimenting with social media and have fun while doing so.
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