Marketing in today’s economy often faces two major roadblocks: a tight budget and high expectations for return on investment (ROI). At ASOA in Los Angeles earlier this year, I presented strategies to keep marketing efforts strong even when resources are limited. Not every practice has an Elon Musk–sized budget, which means we must be even more intentional with every marketing dollar we spend, ensuring that it not only works but proves its value.
Rethinking Traditional Media
When evaluating how to get patients through the door, many practices fall back on familiar tools: radio spots, TV commercials, print ads, and social media posts. But have you paused to ask what those placements are really costing you? How much are you paying for a 30-second daytime slot on local news or during Wheel of Fortune? More importantly, are you tracking who watches, who visits your website afterward, or who actually books an appointment?
After re-evaluating our annual marketing plan, I shifted from traditional TV to streaming platforms. What once bought us 15 commercial spots a month on local television now earns 200,000 streaming impressions, with retargeting capabilities. The difference was staggering.
Streaming offers a level of customization, reach, and reporting that traditional platforms can’t match. If I’m running a cataract ad, I can target a specific age group, income bracket, and zip code. If I switch to promoting dry eye services, I can shift the demographics accordingly. Not only does streaming allow us to reach the right audience, but it also gives us performance reports that track the viewer journey from seeing the ad to visiting the website to scheduling an appointment, and even to walking into the practice. That’s the kind of ROI data that makes any practice owner take notice.
Have you ever looked up a product or clicked an ad and then seen it follow you across multiple websites or social platforms? That’s exactly how your TV campaigns should work. Through smart targeting and retargeting strategies, you can extend your visibility and stretch your budget much further than with traditional broadcast.
To take it to the next level, not only should you be targeting households with your desired demographics, you also shouldn’t be wasting impressions on a 10-year-old child playing on an iPad. Target the devices used by your dry eye or cataract audience!
Smarter Social Media Strategies
The days of posting on social media just to say you have a Facebook page are behind us. Today’s social strategy must be intentional, consistent, and engaging. If you’re only posting the latest patient reviews, with little involvement from staff or physicians, you’re missing out on a free and powerful marketing tool.
Your audience wants authentic content. They want to see your team, hear your voice, and feel your culture. You only have about 3 seconds to grab attention, so use them wisely. Video clips, patient testimonials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and doctor Q&As can drive meaningful engagement. And don’t forget to review your analytics—knowing when your followers are most active can make or break the visibility of your posts.
Companies like Reflexion Digital, where I recently became chief operating officer, have empowered ophthalmology practices to hyper-target prospective patients on the platforms they use every day. These personalized campaigns help us not only capture their attention but also deliver meaningful education on the conditions they have or the procedures they’re considering—guiding them towards taking the next step into our office.
In short, the strategy is simple: stop posting just to post. Make every post purposeful, relevant, and geared toward your practice’s goals.
Retaining the Patients You’ve Paid to Acquire
Acquiring new patients is only half the battle. Once they walk through the door, your focus should shift to retention. After all, you’ve already invested in getting them in; don’t lose them to lack of follow-up.
In our practice, we implemented a simple but highly effective strategy: Dedicated staff members at each location call 5 past-due patients per day. The clinic gets busy, the phones get busy, and staff are pulled every which way, but we made it our goal to use slower days to catch up and hit weekly benchmarks. It’s a small effort that adds up to big retention gains.
To support this initiative, we use platforms like Brevium and Vital Interaction, which make it easy to identify patients who are due for a return visit. These tools take the guesswork out of follow-up, offering automated lists of who to call and why. Just as important is reinforcing to staff that even voicemail messages matter. We’ve seen a direct correlation between messages left and appointments booked later by the call center team.
Best of all, these platforms offer detailed metrics, from who made the most calls to who brought the most patients back in. Again, we’re arming ourselves with data that proves to leadership why continued marketing investment is not only justified, but necessary.
Speak the Owner’s Language
If you work in marketing or operations, you already know: practice owners live in a world of “why.” Why is the patient’s pressure high? Why didn’t they get to 20/20 vision? But also, why are we spending this money? That mindset doesn’t stop at clinical care, it absolutely applies to budget discussions.
Your job is to answer the “why” before it’s even asked. Why do we need marketing dollars? Why choose this platform over another? When you can show ROI in tangible metrics like the number of new patients, filled schedules, and follow-up successes, you make the decision easy.
Host Low-Cost Patient Events
Another powerful but budget-friendly strategy we discussed at ASOA was in-office patient events. Think about it: your patient finds out they have cataracts and now has to make a major decision about surgery. For us in the industry, this is routine, but for them, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that comes with plenty of anxiety and questions.
To help patients feel confident in their decision-making, we hosted monthly or bimonthly cataract, dry eye, and aesthetic education events in the lobby. A surgeon and patient counselor walk through a prepared slide deck, answer questions, and explain options in a clear, conversational format.
We promote the event on social media, in email newsletters, and via flyers in the office. Physicians and scribes mention it in the exam room and encourage patients to bring family members. That extra layer of education not only builds trust, it often accelerates the journey to surgery as well.
These events don’t have to be elaborate. A few light snacks and refreshments are usually sufficient. When possible, partner with local businesses to sponsor or cater the event, which creates cross-promotional opportunities and keeps costs down.
Final Thoughts
Whether it’s shifting your media strategy, improving follow-up systems, or hosting community focused events, thriving on a limited marketing budget is possible. It requires creativity, accountability, and a constant eye on what’s working and what’s not.
The most important takeaway? Marketing is no longer just about spending money; it’s about proving that spending works. If you can show your practice owners the real “why” behind the dollars, they’re much more likely to invest in your efforts. Think like an owner, track like a marketer, and deliver results like a partner. That’s how we move the needle, even when budgets are tight. OM
