FEMTO FACTOR

Finding your FLACS audience

We discover that existing patients are our best marketers.

By Scott LaBorwit, MD

In my May column, I discussed how to extend your commitment to femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) onto your staff. With your whole practice now dedicated to bringing patients cutting-edge care, this month we’ll focus on how to find and target your audience.

WHAT IMAGE ARE YOU CONVEYING?

After I bought a femtosecond laser, I budgeted an additional 5% of the cost of the laser for marketing. Our first step was to hire a consultant to help us find our voice; his first step was to completely redo our website. He claimed our existing practice website looked more like that of an accounting firm than that of a doctor’s office — ouch! To change that, we created video filmed in the office and surgical center explaining the benefits of femtosecond for cataract surgery and why our practice chose this technology. The content was unscripted but based on an outline — and many retakes.

On this new and improved website, we added news releases relevant to FLACS along with patient testimonies. Another critical step was to choose keywords that we thought patients also would use when they surfed the Internet looking for cataract surgeons. These keywords would place us close to the top of a Google search; like real estate, a website, and its chances of getting viewed, is all about its location. Although I underestimated how many of my older patients went online to search our site, I was even more surprised at how often patients’ family members “looked up” where mom or dad would receive medical care before the initial visit or surgery.

MARKET SHOPPING

Now that we had created our message, the next step was to decide where to deliver it. But before this, we had to settle on a medium and audience that was comfortable and fit our marketing goals. In initial meetings, it was hard to even decide how to find our audience. Our consultant recommended we avoid print advertising and steer toward focused Internet marketing. He also wanted to try some television marketing to create branding for our practice. We agreed with the plan but made the television segment a short trial period. After all, only a small population of patients actually needs cataract surgery at any given time, and what were the chances they would see our commercial?

We created a 30-second commercial and decided to run it for two weeks on local network stations. It was comprised of video content from our website, mostly patient testimony. The goal of this marketing was to brand our practice as one that is committed to integrating technology to provide the most advanced surgical care for our patients. Alas, it seemed to have only a modest impact.

An additional problem with it was that this seemed aggressive for our area, where there was no ophthalmic television advertising. The television commercial was simply not consistent with our practice’s image. We see our practice as a small boutique-like practice; using television concerned us that we would become more commercial. We have no regrets in trying this marketing technique, though, as it helped us better define where and how we wanted to deliver our message.

We then tried some print marketing pieces in newspapers and magazines, again with lackluster results. These modes are expensive and require a commitment over time to have a true impact.

YOUR AUDIENCE WAS THERE ALL ALONG

We decided to redirect efforts and focused on two key audiences: our referring doctors and our existing postop patients. In the past these two human marketing avenues have proved successful in growing our practice, so we decided to intensify our message to these physicians and patients.

Our referring doctors needed to understand why our practice chose to offer femtosecond laser surgery. We hosted educational programs, inviting them to observe in the OR, and we created marketing packets for them to share with patients when they returned to their offices.

Additionally, we realized that our own postoperative FLACS patients armed with the proper information and tools could transform into strong ambassadors for the practice. We decided to educate these patients even more during the postoperative period about their laser surgery so they could better explain to their friends and family what had been done.

If the patient was interested, we recorded just the femtosecond laser portion of the surgery and at the one-week postoperative visit for the second eye, we had a technician show the patient the laser procedure. We would use this as an opportunity to educate patients extensively about FLACS, including how the OCT images are used to guide the laser and manage astigmatism of the cornea.

WATCHING REACTIONS, GETTING RESULTS

Watching patients’ reactions as they see the laser precisely creating incisions and breaking up the lens has been nothing short of amazing. At the end of the educational visit, we give each patient a brochure highlighting key points about laser cataract surgery along with a copy of their surgical video on a jump drive. Many tell us they enjoy sharing the video with friends and family, and even post it on social media.

Recruiting existing patients to become advocates for the practice has made a tremendous impact on increasing patient referrals. In fact, about one in four of our new cataract evaluations now are patients who state they were told they needed cataract surgery and their friend or family urged them to come to our practice.

The cost for these efforts was 80% lower then television marketing and gave us a reason to nurture our relationship with both our patients and doctors.

YOU CAN’T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER

It is natural for a physician to research and incorporate new surgical procedures. Figuring out a way to market this new technology, however, is not natural and requires a conscious effort. Refining your message to reflect why you embraced the FLACS technology allows a surgeon to become more at ease with the marketing process.

In turn, choosing which marketing tools and media best fits the personality of the surgeon and the practice will lead to an effective campaign. OM

	Scott LaBorwit, MD, is a principal at Select Eye Care, with locations in Towson and Elkridge, Md., and is an assistant professor, part-time faculty, at Wilmer Eye Clinic of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. His e-mail is Sel104@me.com.
	Disclosures: Dr. LaBorwit is a consultant to and speaker for Alcon.