BUSINESS

  MERCHANDISING

ONLINE REALITY CHECK

DON’T LET YOUR WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS DATE YOUR PRACTICE

GINA M. WESLEY, O.D., M.S., F.A.A.O.

THE HEAT IS ON, the heat is on” . . . what, you say, as in “Summertime” (also a great song.) Just as we can date ourselves with music references, our websites and approaches to social media can date our practices as well. OK, I admit, I could use some improvement in these areas, but awareness is half the battle. The truth is we all need a reality check when it comes to our practices’ attempts at “getting out there” digitally. As much as many of us would like to ignore how important a practice’s online presence is for businesses, professional reputations and just general education, times are not a changing.

Let’s consider a couple ways to improve one’s merchandising presence online.

1 START WITH THE BASICS

You should have a website at this point, and I invite you to take a look at it. Really! Just as we should all, occasionally, sit in our exam chairs as our patients do to view the lane as they see it, we should all peruse our practice websites every now and then. Does your practice website draw you in? Is it easy to find, say, the practice’s phone number and address? Check it out on your smart phone. It should be just as easy to navigate, and the prompts for contacting the practice should be even more accessible. Remember, search engine optimization takes into account how mobile-friendly your website is, so what I’m reminding you of is pretty simple, but important.

2 CONNECT EMOTIONALLY

Are consumers connecting emotionally with what they see on your practice’s website? We’ve all visited great websites. What was it about the ones you have visited that made you stay and look beyond the home page? Conversely, what poorly constructed website features can you think of to avoid? Consider adapting some of the features you found on the great websites.

For example, I think videos and pictures that tell a story are a thousand times more compelling than words. This past year, I upgraded my practice website to contain more professional videos that allow the visitor to “meet” my practice and me. Trust, after all, is the emotion we would like our patients to feel when learning about us. It’s hard to get that from words on a website page.

3 GO BEYOND A FEW SITES

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. . . There are a multitude of other outlets to consider, and if the Internet seems overwhelming, that’s understandable. The good news: There exist companies that can help you manage all this, with expertise that I’m pretty sure go beyond most of our competencies. And the ROI justifies the investment in these services. We can’t all be Justin Bazan (see “Social Media,” p.57).

How patients find us, continue to connect with us and fortunately, or unfortunately, make decisions about becoming our patients relies much on our practice’s presence online. Remember that merchandising goes far beyond “product.” OM

DR. WESLEY practices at Complete Eye Care of Medina, a Vision Source practice, which she opened in 2008. She was honored as Minnesota’s Optometrist of the Year in 2011. Email drwesley@cecofmedina.com, or visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment to comment on this article.