Boothe Media recently got back from ASCRS in San Fransisco, and we came away with several ideas on improving your medical/lasik advertising. One of the main things that will help you, is knowing your future patients age. With the drop in the economy, many Doctors have moved from Lasik to IOLs, Cataract, and other surgeries paid for by medicare. For this particular entry, I will be using Lasik and IOLs as an example of how to market and advertise to the correct patient demographic.
IOL and Cataract Patients – The Traditional and Older Patient
The IOL and Cataract patients are the “baby boomers” and are a little older in age range. This demographic responds to traditional forms of advertising and if your medical practice is aiming at this group, you should use radio, tv, newspaper, etc. There is plenty of material on traditional advertising out in books and on the internet, so I won’t cover.
Lasik Advertising – The Young Patient
The Lasik patient is a younger patient and is responding less and less to traditional forms of medical marketing. This new generation reads the newspaper on the internet, reads blogs (much like this one), watches TV, listens to the radio, listens to pod casts. To many, this new generation is a complete mystery and advertising to this group can be a difficult task. When it comes to this generation, the internet is not being used nearly enough.
Simple Ideas on Using the Internet in Your Advertising and Marketing
There are some obviouse ways to make the internet work for you to improve your Lasik patient volume. One is pay per click (PPC). Organic listings in search engines is another really good way. This is about as far as some practices go to advertise on the internet. Consider using social networking sites to target your demographic. Produce some low budget youtube videos about your patients before and after surgery. Make your banner ads interactive or use compelling video/animation to draw patients in.
Knowing your audience isn’t always easy, but we have given you a few ideas to experiment with in your medical advertising campaigns.
