Online Content Marketing for Ophthalmology Practices

In his February 20 video blog for Healio, Dr. David Evans, CEO, CEATUS Media Group, delves into the finer details of online content marketing.

In recent times—particularly during the Covid era—more and more people have been turning to the Internet to find surgeons, dentists and services in general. In the video blog Dr. Evans discusses ways to connect with these people through content marketing.

Even before the pandemic, people used the Internet for a variety of services. But since March of last year, they’ve been using it for everything, from ordering meals to looking for a doctor.

Education = Conversion

As Dr. Evans explains, this provides a big opportunity for healthcare practices. Through content marketing, you can educate patients on the services your practice offers. This can be accomplished a number of ways, including but not limited to:

• Blog posts
• Newsletters
• Social media posts
• Newspaper advertorials

The idea is to establish your target Internet users’ needs and then educate them on how to satisfy those needs.

According to Dr. Evans, it’s common for doctors to assume that potential patients understand more than they do about the specialty.

For example, one of the most common searches relating to LASIK is, “What’s the difference between LASIK and cataract surgery?”

You read that right.

As crazy as questions like this may sound, they provide a huge opportunity for eyecare and other healthcare practices to educate the potential patients asking them, in turn forming connections that lead to new patients.

Another example Dr. Evans cites: Most people don’t know that LASIK can now be used to correct higher levels of astigmatism, or to correct presbyopia. Here’s your chance to tell them— and maybe convert them into future patients!

What Types of Content?

To do so, you need content marketing. According to Dr. Evans, different patients respond to different mediums of marketing, so a good strategy is to provide education in a combination of mediums, from written testimonials to videos featuring the practice’s doctors talking about their philosophies. Some people really like social media posts. Providing a combination of these is the key.

It’s important that the information you provide be easy to understand. Try to avoid making it too technical. Dr. Evans says he constantly sees doctors using technical lingo on social media posts intended for a patient audience. This is a mistake because for many patients it’s intimidating and incomprehensible.

As Dr. Evans explains, the goal is to produce eighth- to twelfth-grade level content.

At CEATUS, we continually monitor Google searches and other factors to assess patients’ needs and then develop customized strategies to ensure our clients satisfy those needs. We can do the same for you.

If you have any questions, give us a call.