Add marketing to your Facebook page

Justin Bazan, OD, explained how optometrists could take their practice marketing to a new level by combining it with social media during a special session, “Celebrating Technology,” at the 90th annual SECO International meeting in Atlanta.

Dr. Bazan, a social media expert, reminded attendees that social media is not a fad and that Facebook is a powerful tool that can help ODs build their businesses.

He explained that Facebook allows practitioners to market to targeted groups, such as patients you want in your chair, groups who may have heard about you but are not patients, and current patients who are overdue for an eye exam.

Facebook offers many targeting options, such as:

• Gender

• Age

• Location

• Interests

• Relationship status

• Education

• Language

Facebook allows marketers to run more than one campaign at a time. “Try running the same ad campaign, but to a different age group than the one you used the first time,” Dr. Bazan suggested. “Then compare your results.”

Identify patients you want in your chair

Dr. Bazan gave an example of wanting to reach patients who needed his help, such as those who self treat with Visine. He used Facebook to identify fans of Visine who lived in Brooklyn and created an ad inviting them to call him for help. Some 400 people saw his ad, and 62 clicked on his link. Cost was $40.

Find people who have heard of you

Dr. Bazan was recently featured in a New York Post article, and he wanted to reach people who may have read the article. He used Facebook to identify fans of the New York Post who lived in Brooklyn and Manhattan. His $100 ad spend netted him 112 clicks to his practice’s Facebook page.  

Find patients who are overdue for an exam

Dr. Bazan used Facebook to target his own patients who were overdue for an eye exam. First, he identified overdue patients through his own electronic health records (EHR) program. He uploaded this list through the “Manage Ads” option. (Note: You will be using Power Editor, which is a Google Chrome extension. You must use Google Chrome for such an upload to work.) In essence, Dr. Bazan created a target audience on Facebook for his ad. His $20 ad brought him 15 clicks to his Facebook page.

“Facebook marketing is easy and cost effective,” Dr. Bazan said. “You can modify your campaigns on the fly, you can pull a campaign down at any time, you can control your spend, and you’ll get better with practice. If only 1 patient makes an appointment from seeing your Facebook ad, you’ll recoup your spend.”