Category: Optometry Marketing Tips

Healthcare is an essential commodity, but consumers have many choices when it comes to receiving this care. In order to attract patients, providers engage in marketing. One of the most important components of any marketing plan is the logo, which is an image consumers will associate with your practice. Although these logos differ from one provider to the next, they are often blue in color.

How Popular Is the Color Blue?

Even outside the field of medicine, blue is a popular color choice for logos. In fact, according to 99Designs, 53 percent of all brands use blue when creating their logos. 99Designs also reports that more than 80 percent of industry leading healthcare companies have logos that feature the color blue. Some of the most well-known brands with blue logos include McKesson, United Health Group and Amerisource Bergen.

Why Are Medical Logos Blue?

Every color in the rainbow inspires different feelings and communicates different qualities to the consumer. The color blue is typically associated with credibility, trust, knowledge, power, professionalism, cleanliness, calm and focus. Because all of these qualities are valued in the medical community, blue is the ideal choice for medical logos. In addition, because blue is already used so often by healthcare providers and other related organizations, consumers already associate it with the field of medicine.

What Other Colors Can Be Used?

When designing a logo for a medical practice or another type of healthcare organization, you can use any color you choose. In some cases, you may decide to stay with blue because it is a traditional, time-tested choice. However, in other cases, you may decide to use a different color to set yourself apart from competitors and inspire different feelings among consumers. Alternatively, you may decide to use another color in addition to blue to create a more unique logo for your business that captures the consumer’s eye. When choosing colors for a logo, it is important to select colors that complement each other well and communicate the qualities you want consumers to associate with your business. Some of the other colors commonly chosen for medical logos include:

• Yellow – Communicates happiness, friendliness and cheer.
• Green – Communicates growth, balance and freshness.
• Black – Communicates secrecy, luxury and formality.
• Gray – Communicates maturity, composure and impartiality.
• Red – Communicates vigor, speed and passion.
• Pink – Communicates warmth, nurture and softness.

Some of these colors may be more appropriate for providers in specific niches. For example, providers of women’s healthcare may be more likely to select the color pink to communicate warmth and femininity. Providers who treat children may select playful colors, such as green, red or yellow.

Making the Right Choice for Your Business

The design of your logo is one of the most important decisions you will make as a medical provider. The right logo design will draw consumers in, communicate your desired message, be easy to recognize and be memorable. Don’t be afraid to experiment with several designs before you make your final decision. If you want to make sure your logo is sending the right message, consider consulting a professional that can help you create a unique, effective design.

Whether you’re an established practitioner or part of a growing office, client testimonials may be one of your best available resources. By tapping into your current customer base, garnering reviews and nurturing healthy discussion, you can both gain new fans while prioritizing the old ones. Harness the power of happy patients, and spread the love to new visitors. If you can solicit customer reviews and testimonials effectively, you’ll grow as a preferred provider. According to MarketingProfs, 67 percent of consumers read less than six reviews before trusting a business. As a practitioner, these reviews count even more. Let’s discuss how to garner them.

Solicit To Real Patients

Sadly, a lot of practitioners “review stuff.” They ask friends, family and even other staff members to bolster their reviews. You’ll need to ask real patients for real accounts, including a rundown of events, appointments, and the overall experience. A Maritz Research study suggests that 75 percent of online survey respondents consider reviews to be fair. This study was adapted to veterinary practices, prioritizing real reviews over fake reviews. Don’t worry about quantity. Shoot for quality. Your respondents will follow your lead.

Be Visible

You’ll have more success if you’re accessible. Before asking patients to leave any reviews, make sure you’re accessible across multiple review sites. Online reviews are crucially important, as 72 percent of consumers trust them as much as personal recommendations. If you want high-quality, timely reviews, you’ll need to make the process as simple as possible for customers. Meet them where they are. Specifically, meet them online. Use Yelp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Reviews.

Prioritize Their Happiness

Happy patients rarely share positive feedback if they’re not prompted. That said, negative experiences tend to result in immediate—and negative—reviews. The average customer won’t search for ways to leave a review, experts say. To get good feedback, get ahead of them. Make on-the-spot reviews, and gather testimonials as soon as services are completed. A good way to do this is to have an accessible iPad available at your front desk. Make sure it has direct links to your review profiles, and share links to your regular newsletters, too.

Make It Fun

Testimonial writing can be lengthy, boring and monotonous—but it doesn’t have to be. Give your patients incentives, and make gift-giving a clinic setting standard. Don’t violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, however. Establish a clinic gift-giving policy which follows Office of Inspector General rules. So, spend under $10 per gift and no more than $50 over the course of a calendar year. Check out this post for in-depth coverage on gift-giving as it relates to healthcare practices.

When it comes to website information, potential patients won’t stick around if information is lacking. A lot of modern optometrists, dentists, veterinarians and other healthcare providers accept a variety of insurance options. Unfortunately, too few provide such information on their website. Prospective patients browse the web quickly, and they’re likely to turn down providers who aren’t economically feasible. Even if you do offer Medicare or Medicaid—or even programs like CareCredit—your patients might not know you do. Your website needs a strong insurance information presence in order to effectively attract and convert new clients.

Increasing Website Traffic

When it comes down to it, clients use Google to find new care providers. Often, they conduct Google searches like: “Dentists near me who accept Humana”, or “Cigna dental providers.”

It’s all too easy to incorporate much-needed keywords into your site’s payment options page. It’s also easy to skip the nuts and bolts of a solid SEO strategy. To maximize prospective patient views, capitalize on low-competition searches. It isn’t enough to have an insurance information page. You’ll need to include the most competitive keywords around. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to strategize your keyword plan, and incorporate the most popular terms in your area into your search marketing campaign.

Influencing Conversions

Potential clients will turn to a provider offering up-front information. They’ll also schedule an appointment with you if you’re offering superior services—or pricing options—to your competitors. To reach the right people at the right time, you’ll need to provide the most relevant information first. Locate your competitors’ websites, and check out their payment options page. What information is hard to find? What information is unclear? By making your coverage options well-known, you’ll immediately bring in an audience which would otherwise turn away from ambiguous information.

Linking to Other Content

Your payment options page might be useful, but it isn’t your sole source of information. A lot of healthcare practices offer information about CareCredit and similar programs—via website blogs. These blogs, of course, link back to the provider’s payment options page. While conversions will be increased by a website’s clarity, they’ll also be increased by a solid information network. Review your practice information as it is listed on the insurance directories to make sure that the phone number, address, affiliated doctors, and website address is correct.

Being Relevant

A medical provider which offers relevant information will seem industry-savvy, reliable and effective. Remember: your potential clients are already searching. They know what to look for, and they’ll bypass any providers which don’t display a knack for industry knowhow. By presenting the most-used insurance options, you’ll present a deep understanding for how patients purchase medical services.

Having a solid insurance coverage page can deepen your client connection before services are ever purchased. Prospective patients want reliable providers, and they want providers which can connect with them on a financial level. Often, dental, veterinary and other services are expensive. It pays off to present pricing options up front. A clean, easily navigable website will enthuse your customers. It’ll also turn one-time customers into return visitors.

To engage your audience, cast a wider service net and cater to those in need, you’ll need to make sure your payment options are instantly accessible.