Revisiting What Works on Your Web Site

Each month, CLICK reports how ECPs and optical retailers are using new approaches to build their presence online and grow connections with their patients. The latest in a series of popular e-newsletters from Vision Monday, CLICK is a monthly briefing designed specifically to provide practice insights and ideas about the latest Web site features, tools and Web-based applications.

Catch up on CLICK! Learn from dozens of stories, tips and interesting ideas in the easy-to-access archives of CLICK at www.visionmonday.com. Tried something new on your Web site or have you launched a special social media campaign? Tell us about it and we'll consider it for an upcoming feature in CLICK.
—The Editors

Bard Optical Updates Its Web Site to Connect With Patients

PEORIA, Ill.—With 18 locations in Central and Southern Illinois, Bard Optical is one of the largest optical retailers in the country. Founded over 65 years ago by Dr. A. Arthur Bard, the company is thinking “modern,” and has just launched a major Web site update.

It’s likely, acknowledges Bard’s president, Diana J. Hall, “that this will continue to be a work in progress, as we adjust our ways of thinking to the constant changes we see on the Web and to our patients’ priorities.”

She added, “We grew up in an environment of print and network TV advertising but the world has changed. We had a Web site that was ‘static’ and, when viewed in today’s terms, we may as well have had just a catalog up there—we had ‘pages under construction’ and it truly wasn’t engaging. We have to embrace the Web. We want to create a positive energy and want to see the Web site as a live, breathing organism, reflecting what's new at Bard, in vision care, in new ways which will intereact with what our patients are involved with.“

With the arrival of Jane Scott, the company's new director of marketing, Bard embarked on a rebranding effort, taking the core of that and “wrapping it around the Web presence,” Hall explained. “Vision for Life” remains the business' tagline, but Scott has updated the company's logo and put in place a color palette throughout all new marketing materials which will also be reflected throughout Bard's offices and signage. “Consistency is key in terms of what we present to the public,” Hall said.

Scott has been working with a local Web developer to facilitate the site's development, including a content management system that enables easier control of content changes, to reflect promotions, coupons, photos, special events. Bard is exploring search engine optimization and has established a Facebook page, a LinkedIn presence and a Twitter page. Important new features of the site include a contact lens reordering process and a new eye exam appointment scheduler.

The company has been gathering emails from patients for some time. Hall added, “The rest of that dance is to be sure we can effectively use them, we want to start to interact with our patients in new ways, the possibilities are many.”

Stated Hall, “We are trying to grasp all the things that are interconnected with the site. We know that it impacts budgets and people management, too, so we are evaluating what we do next and how to do it well.”

New MBA Survey Reveals Findings About Practices' Web Site Features

NEW YORK—The Management & Business Academy (MBA), a practice management initiative for leading practices, sponsored by CIBA Vision and Essilor, with endorsement by the American Optometric Association (AOA), has put together its findings from a survey of MBA graduates about their Web sites and participation in social media, Web site functions and services.

The findings enable practitioners to compare their offices' practices against others within the MBA community. Based on an April 2010 survey of MBA practices:

• 91 percent of practice have Web sites of which 55 percent engage an outside service to update and manage.
• 51percent of MBA practice Web sites have a contact lens reordering function.
• 39 percent of graduates are an active member of social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

The information demands of the Web seem to prove daunting to many practices. The survey reveals that 48 percent of optometric practices of all sizes are updating content on their Web sites quarterly or more frequently in 2010 compared to 53 percent who said so in 2009. Only 15 percent of practices are updating their practice Web site info once a month, while 5 percent update it two to three times per month and only 1 percent update info on their sites once a week or more.

In 2010, 60 percent of MBA practices said their sites featured pages to respond to patient queries, 67 percent featured an ocular disease information/archive, 34 percent offered appointment scheduling.

These and other related findings from the survey are detailed in Practice Web Site Survey, now available on mba-ce.com.