LASIK marketing used to be very easy, but now is getting quite “complex” and very competitive as Internet evolves and expands. Having said that, have you noticed that every single media channel is moving into the WEB? Radio Stations, Cable TV, Mobile devices, Game consoles, Tablet PCs, Stores, Directories, Libraries you name it. Without question the Internet has become one of the most widely-used communication media, therefore it is where you have to focus your LASIK marketing for 2012 and the years to come.
In this article I will show why Internet marketing for LASIK procedure is a (MUST) these days for any practitioner. In addition we will share interesting data that could be very beneficial if you are considering to do it yourself. Finally we will analyze the difference between conservative LASIK marketing vs no conservative.
Lets begin with some statistics and information of the WEB
Now that we’ve some idea of the numbers of the WEB, we have to focus our attention on something very important for any successful LASIK marketing campaign (conversion rate). But in order to understand better this concept, we need to know what is our current ranking in the Search Engine, I tell you why; (Only if you rank in the first page of the major Search Engines such as; (Google, Bing or Yahoo) you have 5% chance to have a potential patient at front of your practice’s door. Obviously this percentage could increase depending upon the position of your listing in this first page. We will get there in just a moment!
Something that you should consider for an optimal Internet LASIK marketing campaign
Firstly I want to share some information about CTR (click through rate) and how users’ behave, this will give you a sense of orientation in terms of how search engine works and how you should focus your LASIK marketing strategy with search engines.
The following example shows 603,000 results based on the keywords (LASIK surgery in Delaware) with Google search engine. In the image below you can see that paid listings is located on top of the results as well as in the right sidebar with orange color, in the other hand, the organic result are highlighted with green color. Before we get into the percentages keep in mind this (The position of your business is governed by an algorithm and not by luck). Having said that, it is important to mention that algorithms are constantly changing, and perhaps if you practice search engine optimization on your website, you should consider to keep track of it once in a while if you want to be ranking well.
Jumping into the percentages!
These percentages were the results of a study that was done a few years ago when (click path technology) was introduced into computer science. Now this study revealed that 25% to 30% of the searchers are clicking on the paid listing (orange zone) and 70% to 75% click the organic results (green zone). That is why click path should be considered an important aspect of Internet marketing, because it provides details of visitor behavior. Now this technology can be well used in order to improve our website and online visibility by organizing content and layout.
Now that you have some of the facts of internet marketing, lets move on to analyze the organic area (green zone) for better understanding.
In the green zone we have very interesting information, which can give you a sense of why is so important to be in first page of search engines, no to mention that it is absolutely free. Having said that, lets take a look at the click rates along with the time that users spend with each one of them!
LASIK Marketing effort and social media
Well now that we have covered the importance of ranking well with search engine, let’s jump into something no less important which is (Social Media).
Social media is the perfect tool in order to spread the word of your business, however, this marketing channel depends purely upon other users, therefore the goal here is to capture their attention in order to make them share your information without asking. Sounds a very easy task, and to be quite honest with you (it is). But when you have a conservative LASIK marketing with lack of creativity unfortunately it does not work, period.
So how can we make Social Media work for us? It is simple; You can have full potential of this Free channel when you have something special, unique, something that many webmasters would consider as (viral information), something that you can not find anywhere else more than in your site. Now, it is important to mention that you don’t need to have incredible material in order to be “amazing” in the crowd. The most effective social media channels for LASIK Marketing are: Facebook and Twitter.
But out of the social media world we have one website that does not go unnoticed by major LASIK companies which is Yahoo Answer, where a lot of “potential patients” asking for reference of practitioners.
The bottom line of this LASIK Marketing article
Well I know for sure that many marketers have doubts about investing in advertisement these days with this economy, however, if you are one of them I can tell you right now that you are losing time and perhaps patients. If you don’t have optimal results “today” with your current LASIK marketing campaign, I feel very confident to tell you that it is because you are spending money where you are not supposed to.
Anyways, I hope this information helps practitioners to guide their LASIK marketing for 2012 and the years to come. If any of you need my advice with your LASIK marketing campaign, I would be more than happy to give you a FREE consultation via Skype.
Regards
While the demand of this particular eye surgery is still alive and expanding all over the world, there is a minority of individuals who are not quite convinced whether the procedure is safe or not. Not to mention those who turn against this procedure as a result of an unfortunate experience. But over the time I have noticed that while many sources are providing information about potential LASIK complications that could appear after the procedure, such as; night vision problems, dry eyes, infection among many others, there is nobody who documents information about LASIK complications that may occur while the procedure is being performed. Well, before I explain a little more about this concept we need to clarify something important here! LASIK complications can be manifested in different aspects, which are; clinical and technological. Having said that, when a technological malfunction appears does not necessarily mean that it will be reflected directly in the clinical outcomes, however, technological complications are not exempt from the entire procedure which has been a reality for many practitioners. Considering that most of the time these malfunctions are manifested while the surgeon is performing, obviously it can not be taken lightly, that is why all the entities that offer this service are more than likely very rigorous with proper maintenance, although, sometimes malfunctions can go “beyond that”, as we shall see in the video below.
Yes, Free LASIK consultation could be done from your home now! Let me explain; the interest about LASIK vision correction or I should say about LASIK eye surgery still alive by many potential candidates in the U.S, however, the economy circumstances that we are facing today, it may show the opposite to the eyes of practitioners, but the true is that these challenging times are adding no more than salt and pepper to the natural stage of anxiety or fear that many patients could experience previously to the surgery, although the interest still there!
LASIK New York is one of the terms that it have been raising the flag on the Internet lately, even though the economy remains with a low profile, the term has been sought for more than 22000 times in the last 30 days, which indicates that LASIK service providers seem to have a high demand these days. But we should not be surprised because after all New York is one of the most competitive state on the LASIK industry.
We all know that refractive surgery (LASIK) has become very competitive lately on the Internet, however, there are always all kind of speculations about LASIK surgery subjects, specially about medical insurance plan that covers this procedure, in fact no too long ago some of our patients start asking questions about “The Blue Cross LASIK Plan”, something that took us by surprise because until that moment we knew that there was no plan that actually covered LASIK procedures. But I guess the words run very fast on the Internet community because every time that we ask to these patients from where they are getting this information, each one of them point Internet as a reference channel of it. And so, we started our own research to find out more about this “Blue Cross LASIK plan”, specially because (we) as a LASIK services provider would like to be on top of everything, specially if there are new opportunities to expand our reference.
Aug
7th
Deal with spammers to avoid spam behavior!
Posted by: admin | Comments (4)
I have to confess; this article was made because my niche (Health care industry) has been affected by spammers as well, and so here we are! adding a little bit of contribution in order to teach others how to deal with spammers in order to avoid spam behavior and balance this endless war.
It’s been said that you should keep your friends close and your enemies even closer right? Well this principle applies to spammers as well, in fact if you pay attention closely, you could be benefited from spammers.
So lets begin defining the word SPAM. You see according to Wikipedia; Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.
Now how could this influence negatively our community? It is a question that many people ignore at this point but it does not go unnoticed by Search Engines, in fact they have already taken the initiative a while ago in order to avoid spam website in search results,however, sooner than later it has to be taken seriously by the Internet users because it is unscrupulously affecting Health Care industry as well.
The SPAM phenomenon or I should say “the cancer of the web”, most likely occurs massively when there is money involved, particularly when we see products or services with a high profit margin. Unfortunately the are no niche excluded of it, in fact in the health care industry, most diseases that require medication treatments are targeted, as long as they have a substantial profit. For instance one of the most common are; acne and obesity. Not to mention that pharmaceutical niches are full of SPAM signals all over the Internet, as we can see with; Viagra and Xanax among others. But not only diseases seem to be targeted by SPAMERS lately, in fact elective procedures or I should say high profit services are also affected by this phenomenon, including Laser eye surgery.
Unfortunately this unpleasant behavior is so annoying for Internet users that spoils the entire system, in fact when people experience or crash with one of these messages they start being conservative against the entire niche, incredulous in a way. But we all understand why, I mean every body want to avoid spam right? The problem with this particular behavior is when Internet users are very conservatives with their search they start missing important information from great resources. I remember once, that I made a very extensive comment in a health care blog, and I got an email from one of the editors of saying that (in an effort to avoid spam behavior they will not publish my domain name) but the funny part was that they actually published my entire comment. So here we have the perfect example of how people could be in order to avoid spam or spammers.
Anyways, regrettably there are none easy fixes to avoid spam behavior, in fact the subject is quite “complex” if you look at the entire picture because it purely depends upon people’s behavior (webmasters). That is way search engines don’t trust new websites immediately, because relevance is not only what matters today but also quality. Ultimately Search Engines are aware that reputation and credibility play an important role in order to gain more users and earn loyalty. Now if you think about it, you would notice that these principles apply to any kind of business, including; E-commerce.
Speaking about E-Commerce! The vast majority of E-Commerce entrepreneurs behave very spammy specially with blogs because technically speaking the blogs allow visitors to read, make comments but also to place links. Now, this part is very interesting because just like real state the words (location,location,location) is basically what makes the difference between success and failure with a online business. You see, according to many SEO entities, back links is the most important part of marketing online because in a way it would determinate what is “your popularity” and so Search Engines would consider this information in order to give your a spot in the SERPS. But like everything in life quantity is not only what matters but also quality, and this concept is the most difficult to understand or I should say the most difficult to practice when people are starving for money. You see, I am agree with the fact that Internet is the most affordable channel to start a business. But regardless of the channel, people should know that like most of the business you do not see profit right away. To give you some examples; famous websites like Technorati which claim no to long ago to start having profit after 3 years of being online, also famous blogger like Darren Rowse with ProBlogger who also said that online business could take up to 2 to 3 years to see real success.
Well now that you know part of the true story about Internet business let me ask you this. Are you one of those individuals who believe that time is money? If you are, let me ask you another question. If time is money for you and you don’t have time for your online business what do you spec in terms of money? Whether you have been touched with my questions or not, if you have not I am sorry to tell you and please don’t get this personal because I don’t want to be rude! but it is more than likely that you behave like another spammer.
Now lets talk about spammers for a moment! or I should say let’s talk about you? You see, I have personally notice that spammers are typically characterized by being; disrespectful, abusers, liars, selfish, unscrupulous, no to mention that all of them have lack of creativity. Now how can we identify spammers? It is a question quite simple to answer because basically you have to see the behavior base on the previews spam definition. Here! is something very important to consider, (remember) back link shows in a way your popularity so most of the spammers behavior are related to place a link in the blogs and most of the time without comments or with a comment that doesn’t make any sense. Ultimately they don’t care how good or bad is your blog or website, they just care about placing a link in your site. Mmm… I am wondering if a “thanks” comment would be consider spam? Anyways, like I said they have and would try so many ways to place their link in your site that sometimes we could fail detecting their main intention. But if you really want to avoid spam behavior in your blog, pay attention to the following;
How Internet users could avoid spam messages
First of all, Internet users should know that a personal e-mail address is very important! Although, we have the possibility to create new e-mail accounts at any time and as many times as we would, it doesn’t mean that it is less important that our own stress address. Now based on this concept, if we receive e-mails from resources with subjects that have never awakened our interest or we have never signed up, it could mean that we are victims of spam behavior.
How (webmaster) can identify this behavior within comments and avoid spam comments
So now that we have seen a few of these spam behaviors, I am sure that rookies webmaster would be more accurate to avoid spam comments and perhaps they would have a different perspective about it and most importantly they would be more carefully next time to approve or reject a comment. But if you are wondering if there is any way to avoid spam once for all, the answer is not, however there is some tools that you can use in order to avoid spam more easily.
Tools to consider to avoid spam comments
There are a few very effective tools that help webmasters to avoid spam comments for sure but everything depends on the platform of the website,however, here we have the most effective based on my own experience;
Now before a go, I would like apologize to my audience because is kind of out of the subject to talk about how to avoid spam when the blog is about refractive eye surgery, but I did it because Health care industry, including services as LASIK surgery are affected by this phenomenon. An so, I hope that these words inspire others in order to avoid spam and take action against this annoying behavior. My last advice for novice webmaster would be; that if you are frustrated with the results of your search engine traffic, please consider this simple message; The way that Internet works is very similar to how our society works. In other words, (the more people you know, the more influential you could be). Just keep in mind that websites would be consider relevant to search engines as long as they pass quality control. Ultimately if you want prosperity to your website, it is true that (perseverance) plays an important role in your success, however do not misunderstand this critical word because you could start practicing spam behavior without even notice. Let the quality of your work to move forward in a organic way and you would see the big difference.