How to Market Lasik Surgery in a Highly Competitive Industry

There’s no doubt about it: The LASIK eye surgery market is growing. According to a study by Market Research Future, experts expect the LASIK market to grow by 6.5% between 2017 and 2022. More and more individuals are choosing laser vision-correction surgery to correct astigmatism, myopia, and hyperopia.

With this market growth comes a newfound opportunity for LASIK providers to increase their revenue and expand their reach. However, the more popular LASIK surgery becomes, the more competitive the market will grow, making it essential that your practice stands out from the other surgery providers in your area.

Marketing plays a major role in sharing your business with your community and convincing individuals to choose your practice over others. Thankfully, you don’t need a designated marketing department or a steep marketing budget to implement successful strategies to grow your LASIK surgery practice.

Here are eight practical methods to market LASIK surgery in a highly competitive industry. Then check out Weave’s eye-care practice software here to see how to streamline your marketing and practice management.

1. Create an Engaging, User-Friendly Website

In this modern digital age, most individuals expect businesses to have their own websites. If your LASIK practice does not have a website, you should do everything you can to put one on the web as soon as possible.

• Potential and existing patients could visit your website for any number of the following reasons:
• To learn more about your practice
• To find your address and contact information
• To read patient reviews
• To see what services you offer
• To get an idea of your branding
• To see if your methods are modern and high-tech

Without a website, potential patients would not be able to answer any of their questions about your practice without calling you directly. Unfortunately, many individuals are not willing to call a business to find out more information, leading them to move on to a LASIK practice with an informative website.

Your first step in marketing your LASIK surgery practice in this competitive industry is to create an informative, engaging website that potential patients can use to learn about your practice. Your website should be modern and easy to navigate, and you can even use it as a digital reflection of your practice’s values and LASIK procedures.

2. Engage Potential Patients with Content Marketing

Individuals considering LASIK surgery often perform extensive research about the surgery before scheduling their first appointments. One way to engage potential patients and bring business to your practice is to include informative content on your website about the LASIK process.

Including accurate content on your website can help strengthen patients’ trust in your practice and convince patients to schedule LASIK surgery in general. However, incorporating SEO strategies in your content can also help improve your site’s web traffic and search engine rankings.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing your website’s visibility to potential patients. Using SEO techniques, you can help your website stand out among the competition, encouraging individuals to visit your site and schedule with your practice instead of other practices in the area.

Content marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. Using web content to your advantage is an excellent way to stay competitive in the LASIK surgery industry.

3. Simplify the Scheduling Process

LASIK surgery has become a popular solution for individuals with specific vision problems. However, even though this surgery is safe and effective, some individuals still hesitate to take the first step and reach out to your LASIK practice.

One way to help potential patients overcome their fears and schedule with your practice is to make the scheduling process as simple and easy as possible. Using Weave, you can incorporate an online scheduling program on your practice’s website. This program can allow patients to schedule their own appointments right from their mobile devices or computers.

This streamlined scheduling process could encourage hesitant patients to go ahead and schedule their initial consultation, bringing you new business.

4. Focus Your Messages on Patient Experience Over Surgeon Practices

LASIK is a highly technical surgery that sees continued growth and advancements each year. For example, the introduction of the femtosecond laser in the early 2000s vastly improved the precision and speed of LASIK surgeries.
While your practice may be tempted to advertise these technical improvements for the surgery process, you should instead focus your marketing and content on how the patient experience has improved. Tailoring your advertisements toward the patient experience is more effective in convincing patients to schedule LASIK surgery and grow your practice.

5. Prioritize Communication with Potential Patients

Potential patients are more likely to schedule LASIK surgery with your practice if they know that you care about their experience. One way to demonstrate your commitment to their experience with your practice is to increase your communication with them before and after they schedule with you.

Many LASIK practices find that they do not have time to call every patient with appointment reminders and follow-up questions. Thankfully, Weave offers an automated solution that allows your practice to prioritize communication without sacrificing the time you need to spend on other tasks.

Weave Messages is a patient communication program that can send personalized, automated texts to your patients. Using this program, you can send an auto-text to every patient who requests more information about your practice, encouraging them to take the next step and schedule an appointment.

You can also send automatic appointment reminders to patients, reducing the time you and your staff need to spend making calls to patients. Weave is flexible and innovative, allowing you and your team to set custom time and message parameters and personalize your text messages to suit your branding.

6. Use Patient Reviews as a Marketing Tactic

When potential patients research your practice, they probably look to reviews from former patients to predict their own experiences with your LASIK office. Encouraging patients to leave reviews can act as an effective marketing tool to bring in new patients.
Weave makes it easy to encourage patients to leave reviews of your practice. Using the Weave platform, you can send automated texts to patients within a specified time after their appointment that invites them to leave a review about their experience. If desired, you can tell Weave to send additional texts over the several weeks following their appointments.

Weave’s review management program can also allow you to receive notifications every time someone leaves a new review of your practice. If you find a negative review, you can immediately respond to it to rectify the situation. Publicly responding to this review can show potential patients that you care about their experiences and try your best to fix any wrongdoings.

7. Improve Brand Recognition with Email Marketing

One of the biggest struggles for LASIK practices is turning leads into sales. It’s safe to say that most people who could benefit from LASIK surgery have considered it in the past. Still, many of these potential patients eventually forget that LASIK is an option or choose not to proceed with the surgery.

Sending personalized, informative emails to these potential patients can help improve brand recognition of your LASIK practice and convert these hesitant individuals into actual patients. Weave makes it easy to craft customized email marketing campaigns that reflect your practice’s values and engage potential patients.

Weave Email Marketing is a tool that streamlines the email creation process. You can use this tool to write emails from pre-written email templates and include images from the Weave library. Weave makes it easy to craft mass communications and personalized messages that engage patients, making them more likely to schedule LASIK with your practice.

8. Use Insights to Strengthen Patient Trust

Showing potential patients that you remember them and care about their experience with your practice can be the last push they need to schedule LASIK with your office. Demonstrating patient commitment can also encourage past patients to recommend your practice to friends and family.

One way to enhance your patient commitment and trust is to use insights to learn everything you need to know about a patient as soon as they call your practice. WeavePOP is a program that shows you valuable patient information when you receive an incoming call from a potential or existing patient. WeavePOP can show you:

• The patient’s name and contact information
• The patient’s birthday
• Patient family member information (if their family members are also patients)
• Upcoming appointment information
• Overdue balances
• Incomplete tasks for the patient
• Special notes about the patient’s appointments or needs

You and your administrative staff can use this information to stay informed about patient needs and communicate any pertinent information to them when they call your practice. Doing so will show your commitment to their satisfaction every time they interact with your team.

The Weave platform makes it easier than ever to attract, engage, and retain patients for your LASIK surgery practice. If you’re trying to stay competitive in the ever-growing LASIK market, having a toolset like Weave can make your marketing and engagement process simple and effective.

For more information about Weave, request a demo or call our team at 888-579-5668 today.