Optometry Practice Marketing
Have you heard how others are growing their practice with Instagram? Do you want to be certain that it works for you?
When you’re about to post, it’s fun to hit the ‘Share…’ button and see the likes and comments come in?
With these likes and comments, don’t forget…
They come from Real People, not computers! And these people need to make an appointment with you!
On your practice Instagram Page, lets say that you’ve created several valuable Instagram posts.
Maybe six great posts. Then on the next one, you ask your followers for something in return. (See Gary Vaynerchuk’s book for more.)
Say that you ask your followers to ‘make an appointment’. Where do you send them next?
If you said, ‘my website’, you’re spot on!
On Instagram, you might say ‘tap the link in bio’.
When prospective patients do this, they can easily tap your practice phone number to call you. They don’t have to write your number down or try to remember it. On your website, prospective patients can also schedule an appointment online.
Then all that’s left is for patients to decide which frames between $500-$1000 they want to pick. [In case you missed it, see this article for more reasons to use Instagram.]
Does Instagram work?
You ask, ‘how many of my patients are coming from Instagram?’ Better yet, ‘how many actually make it to my consultation room?’
For now, lets assume that 98% of Instagram patients click through to your website. (i.e. tap the link in your bio.)
We’ll leave the other 2% that find your details through other sites. Or like to look you up in the phone book. (You heard me right…the phone book. Do you remember where your copy at home is?)
Where does this website traffic show up?
It shows up in your website analytics software.
Most likely, you use Google Analytics.
It’s free. And often gets configured with a new website.
Google Analytics tells you where people come from (i.e. Google searches, other social media, referrals from other sites).
If you’re like thousands of other healthcare businesses on Instagram, you won’t see how many patients come from Instagram and make appointments.
All you’ll see is traffic under the category named ‘Direct’. This is better known as Miscellaneous.
In other words, the patient could have come from anywhere. All you have is a gut feeling that your Instagram efforts are working.
For example, you might make an expensive ad in a newspaper for one month for your practice.
At the end of the month, you might look back at your monthly income. Have things moved in the right direction? Did the ad actually work?
Want to know if Instagram works for your practice?
You need to do three things:
- Tell Google Analytics that patients clicking your ‘bio’ came from Instagram
- Use a unique website address in your Instagram Bio
- Tell Google Analytics to note which website visitors tapped on your phone number, or made an appointment online
1) How do I tell Google Analytics that traffic is coming from Instagram?
All you have to do is add the following to your website address:
?utm_source=Instagram&utm_medium=Organic&utm_campaign=Social
This is called a UTM Code. (If you’d like to know more, check out this previous post.)
If you have a website such as www.eye-clarity.com, the full link (with UTM code) would look like:
www.eye-clarity.com/blog/?utm_source=Instagram&utm_medium=Organic&utm_campaign=Social
This link looks a bit too geeky, right?
So, lets make it shorter.
You may have seen bit.ly. All you do is copy the long link above, and paste it into bit.ly. Then you get a link like this one: http://bit.ly/1KMA1Gl. This link is much shorter.
But as a visitor, it’s a step into the unknown. It’s as if you’ve said ‘yes’ to someone taking you somewhere without knowing where you’re going.
Instead of ‘clicking into the unknown’, I like to use a more friendly link. Like: www.eye-clarity.com/appointment
If you use WordPress for your practice website, there’s a free plugin which does it all for you. In WordPress search under Plugins -> Add New -> Search Plugins, and type “Pretty Link”, then Install.
Similar to before, you take the long link:
www.eye-clarity.com/blog/?utm_source=Instagram&utm_medium=Organic&utm_campaign=Social
and paste it into the Plugin, giving
www.eye-clarity.com/appointment
Much better, right?
Next, copy this link and paste it into your Instagram Bio. Such as:
Now when patients click your link, Google Analytics knows that they came from Instagram.
Tell Google Analytics that you need these Goals
You need to tell Google Analytics what counts as a success on your website. They’re called Goals. (If you want to know more, here’s a detailed article.)
While there are many possible Goals to choose from, some useful goals are:
- Record all taps on your practice phone number (e.g. 305–814–2299) as a ‘conversion’
- Count visitors who successfully make an online booking (using a thank-you page at the end of Zocdoc or Everseat)
- Record people who spend a certain amount of time on your blog, or tap on at least two articles
(Goals on Google Analytics are beyond the scope of this article. If you need a hand setting this up, email me at leigh at optomly dot com dot au)
Conclusion
If you have these things in place, you’re ready to look at Instagram in a whole new light.
You have certainty.
You don’t have to guess how many patients are coming to you from Instagram. You know.
And you can easily compare Instagram to your other social networks, and see which is growing your practice the most. And more reward for your effort!
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