Employed Corporate OD Survey

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OCT Angiography in the Optometric Practice

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In this webinar Dr. Rodman explains how OCT Angiography is playing an increasingly significant role in optometry.

  • What you get with OCTA
  • Understanding the patho-physiology of Outer Retina Disease
  • Visualizing retinal vasculature without referring patients out of the practice
  • Managing more pathology to keep patients in the practice longer

Presenter: 
Julie Rodman, OD, MS, FAAO,
Associate Professor of Optometry
Nova Southeastern University

OCT Angiography in the Optometric Practice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Normal Vasculature”                                                 “Severe Diabetic Retinopathy”

OCT Angiography in Diabetes Mellitus & Diabetic Retinopathy

Dr. Nate Lighthizer explains how OCT Angiography provides valuable information in the management of diabetic patients.

  • Identifying early stages of diabetic retinopathy before other technologies can
  • What’s normal and what’s not in OCTA
  • Comparison of OCTA and FA
  • Case examples – what can OCTA reveal to help with patient management?

Presenter: 
Nate Lighthizer, OD, FAAO
Associate Professor, Oklahoma College of Optometry
Assistant Dean of Clinical Care Services
Director of Continuing Education
Chief of Specialty Care Clinics

How to use Content to bring your Brand Strategy to Life

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You may have been led to believe that your brand and content strategy is the same thing, though they are not. They are two separate entities who may need each other to make sense.

The cycle basically goes:

Your brand strategy lets the content strategy know what is happening and what needs to be done, and then the content strategy helps bring the brand strategy to life. In the end, they both work towards the same goal and that is to strengthen and grow the brand.

However since many people still get confused between the two, let us have a look at what each of them is:

Brand strategy:

The brand strategy of a company is the blueprint that lays out how it will build the brand. It will outline who you are as the brand, what is your purpose, and how would you communicate that to your customers. These are the fundamentals of your business.

Content strategy:

The content strategy is the way the brand strategy of a business gets executed. It is a tool with which you communicate your brand to your customers.

However, the issue is that in a lot of businesses there is no link between the content strategy and the business strategy. In fact, some businesses do not develop a content strategy at all.

How to align your content and brand strategy

To construct a robust brand it is important that you work with the intention to do so. A well-constructed content strategy is important to prevent your brand from getting damaged.

This is why you need to employ some ways to make sure that your content strategy is rooted in your brand strategy.

Brand stories

Your brand strategy will include the message that you want to convey to your customers about your brand. It will help formulate the brand identity in the eyes of the customers. It all comes down to how you talk about your product or service, your employees and all the other people involved with the brands, and the history of your business. The brand stories can be further altered according to the different channels you wish to reach out through and the different target personas they wish to get to.

Link ideas with the personas you have made

Your brand strategy should have already devised and set personas and the ideas should be linked to them accordingly. When you come up with an idea as yourself:

* Will this help this certain persona solve their problem?

* Are there problems that only this persona struggles with?

* Would this persona find this idea useful?

Other than the standard personas that you have created, make sure to create additional personas to develop your content for. This will be especially helpful when you are coming up with different initiatives.

Align content with core values

Every company has certain values that they have kept at their core and that act as guidelines for the firm. The company needs to use these core values to garner customers. Customers are more likely to identify with or respect a company that is based and run on certain core values, and thus the content strategy will help communicate those to them.

Marketing is an Investment not an Expense in Your Practice.

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Any successful corporate optometry business has a marketing plan.  You will not just become a sudden overnight success it can take 3-5 years to build a business, but a unique marketing plan can help you get there. Now, not only do you need great clinical skills to be a successful, but you also need to be aware of certain concepts such as marketing and entrepreneurship.You will need to develop a concrete objective and set realistic goals to be able to achieve that objective. This will have to go in sync with providing your patients with top quality service.

In the times where technology and marketing have become the backbone of pretty much everything, optometry businesses that keep on coming up with innovative ways to market to their potential patients and referrals are the ones who stay relevant and succeed. Think about marketing an a different way. Do you ever wonder why well known companies like Coca Cola continue to advertise? It is an investment to differentiate itself from Pepsi and in turn creates a brand experience. Branding has been discussed in great detail in this blog. Understanding how successful companies marketing themselves can help you create a brand experience so your office can compete in the eye care industry.

 

Look at marketing as an investment

If you wish to make money then you will certainly have to spend money. This is especially true when it comes to business. It may be a bit difficult to take some money out of your pocket to pay for all the marketing expenses, but it can bring returns that will make sure your practice flourishes in the long term. The professional marketers will help you figure out the best way to accomplish your goals and keep track of how much you are receiving as returns. Basically, you need to view investment in marketing as an investment in the long-term prosperity of your business.

Do something different if you want different results

Some optometrists may refuse to acknowledge the growing field of technology and would rather stick to the older ways of advertising or following the crowd. Think of creative ways to get your message across in your community. Guerrilla marketing techniques are creative cost effective ways to market yourself. Digital Marketing has grown and will continue to grow, but think beyond the traditional Facebook ad or google ad. There is fierce competition to win the battle of the rankings on google.  Google is very important, but don’t forget about the 2nd largest search engine YouTube!

New Age of Referrals

Another method of increasing your marketing fluency is through referrals. Work on establishing a good working relationship with your patients and subtly urge them to refer you to anyone near them who may be in need of an optometrist. People often tend to trust the word of their family and friends who may have tried the service previously. The New age of referrals is via social media reviews.   It is almost necessary for business owners to be alert about how they are being reviewed on social media, sites, and forums. This is important because this also plays into the entire referral concept. If the people close to the potential patient have not tried an optometrist then they will resort to looking online for suggestions, or if they do hear a name such as your office they will make sure to have a look at your reviews before making their visit.

You can encourage your customers to give you positive reviews online, some optometrists have software that will email or text  the patients as they depart from the office. In order to be successful in this day and age, you will have to get rid of the older methods that have no value anymore and try something new. Strategically think of marketing as an long term investment for massive growth. You don’t just want to throw the fish net and see what you can catch but be able to attract the fish that you are looking for!