If your contact lens company has yet to embrace digital marketing, you are leaving yourself at a major disadvantage. Digital marketing is without a doubt the best means of reaching your audience and building your client base. While more traditional forms of marketing still work and do have their place, they are more limited in scope when compared to digital.
Companies large and small have turned to digital marketing to find new customers, grow their business, and increase their profits. In fact, smaller businesses often find that it is an effective way of competing with much larger companies as it allows them to level the playing field.
Why Should You Choose Digital Marketing for Your Contact Lens Company?
The best way to find someone is to look where you know they spend a good chunk of their time, and today, more than 35 million Canadians are hanging out online. Most of them (89%) are using it on a daily basis.
While some users are simply paying bills and sending an email, the average user is online for three to four hours daily. They may be watching videos, using social media, or shopping, but whatever their activities, the amount of time spent online presents a perfect opportunity for your business to connect with new customers.
Search Engine Optimization for Contact Lens Companies
Digital marketing refers to a variety of online methods used in conjunction to raise the profile of your business. On its own, each method is likely to produce results and bring increased traffic to your company website, but by combining them, you become much more visible online, and as a contact lens company, you understand the importance of visibility. The chart below from Google Trends shows how consistent the interest is from customers looking to buy contact lenses online.
Much of your efforts will focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is the process of optimizing your website to attract more organic, unpaid traffic from the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It is an ongoing process that makes changes to your website, both in terms of content and to make it more attractive to Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
This process often seems complex, given the number of factors that affect your ranking, but at the core of it all lies the desire to provide users with the best possible experience. To do this, search engines will crawl (scan) websites to get a better understanding of what they are about. This helps them to provide users with sites that are relevant to their searches.
Relevance is not the only thing that matters; search engines want to know that your site is easy to read and easily navigable. Sites that meet these criteria are rewarded with a better ranking, while sites that appear less user friendly will suffer. Sites with slow load times are also less appealing to search engines because users tend to bounce – or click away – when a site is not fast enough, especially when it comes to mobile users. A site that takes three seconds or longer is considered slow, with each additional second of load time increasing the likelihood of users leaving in search of something faster.
Of course, even once the technical aspects are optimized, there is still the matter of content; sites with poorly written or unappealing content are just as likely to drive users away as any slow-loading site. The regular addition of high-quality content is another important aspect of Search Engine Optimization and is one reason why maintaining a blog is a smart idea.
A properly optimized and maintained site is rewarded with a better ranking in SERP, resulting in much greater visibility, and an increased likelihood of receiving clicks. Sites that are listed in the top three positions receive the majority of clicks, as the typical user will choose from these positions.
With 135,000 searches for the phrase “contact lenses” taking place each month, you will want to be sure to be in a position that receives clicks.
Social Media for Contact Lens Companies
Search Engine Optimization is the cornerstone of your digital marketing efforts, but it is far from the only means of reaching your audience. Companies are realizing the vast potential of social media for connecting with followers and potential clients.
Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have evolved far past simply communicating with friends and family. Even small companies have managed to use their social media presence in ways that rival much larger competitors.
Much like your website blog, maintaining a social media presence can grant you a great deal of visibility and can help create a relationship with customers long before they ever make a purchase. Trust is a major factor for many consumers, and it only becomes more important when the safety of one’s eyes are involved.
Your company’s social media accounts can be used for a variety of purposes, from announcing new products to sharing new advances in eye care. Well-written and informative posts can be shared by your followers, helping you reach an even wider audience and establish your brand’s authority in the field of vision and eye care. Additionally, posts can bring readers back to your website where they can learn more.
Why is Digital Marketing So Effective?
There are a host of reasons why digital marketing is effective, not the least of which is the fact that it is extremely cost-effective. It is affordable and gives a great return on your investment. It allows you to precisely target those who are most likely to be interested in your brand.
Digital marketing is also very flexible, allowing you to make changes quickly and easily if you find that you are not receiving the results you want. More traditional methods are not as easy to adjust mid-campaign and doing so tends to be expensive.
Another excellent advantage is that the internet is available 24/7. Your website is like a marketing representative that never has to eat or sleep, helping visitors learn about your business at any time, day or night.
These are just a few of the reasons why digital marketing is the number one way to reach your audience and grow your business. Contact us today for more information and we will be happy to show you what digital marketing can do for you!