To run a successful practice, eye care professionals must balance many moving parts and areas of the business competing for their attention. Often, it is helpful to outsource some of these responsibilities to help lighten the load—including marketing. By leveraging experts who have extensive knowledge and experience in engaging current and prospective patients, eye care professionals can free up time to focus on the areas of practice in which they are trained to excel. Brian Woolf, owner of Woolf Eye Lab in Pasadena, Md., shares why he made the decision to invest in a marketing agency and the ways the partnership has benefitted his practice.
Marketing can be essential to the success of a practice. What has been your approach, and why did you ultimately decide to partner with a marketing agency?
As an optometrist and practice owner, I found myself juggling the many moving parts that come with operating a successful business. With the various practice management responsibilities, from enhancing the patient experience
to staff development—and everything in between—it became too much for one person to do alone. In 2020, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a need to promote our practice more than ever. We decided to turn to the experts by finding a marketing agency that could help us amplify our efforts beyond traditional word-of-mouth marketing.
How did you find your marketing partner?
Our approach was simple. We searched online for advertising and marketing agencies in our area and narrowed it down based on who had experience in health care and could best meet the needs of the practice.
What have been the benefits of working with a marketing agency?
The biggest and most obvious benefit is that it takes some work off my plate. Hiring a marketing partner has allowed me to focus more of my time on what I do best, which is providing eye care. Our marketing team takes care of all our social media, direct marketing, and advertising. They provide us with regular performance reports for our various campaigns, as well as valuable recommendations based on industry trends. They can identify what marketing methods are most effective for our practice, what platforms resonate most with our patients, and more.
What have you learned from working with marketing experts?
Return on investment is key, and I’m results driven, so it admittedly took me a while to understand that the results of our marketing efforts wouldn’t be instantaneous. It’s important to take the time to learn what works in marketing to your target audiences. Once you have that figured out, you’ll see the results of your marketing efforts take shape over time.
What has been one of your greatest marketing success stories?
Knowing that a growing segment of the population has presbyopia, we developed a marketing campaign to encourage patients 40 years and older to consider switching to multifocal contact lenses. With the help of our marketing team, we created branded e-coupons that were distributed through an email campaign. As a result, we did see an influx of patients coming into our office with their coupons and interested in learning more about multifocal lens options.
