[Marketing] Digital, Traditional, and Best Practices for Marketing in Optometry

Kate Virzi is the Director of Sales & Client Success at Marketing4ECPs, a digital marketing agency that helps eye care professionals grow their practices. With over 15 years of experience in sales, advertising, and client strategy, Kate has extensive expertise in helping businesses grow. She leads initiatives focused on driving patient acquisition, strengthening brands, and increasing revenue across North America. Dedicated to building long-term, value-driven relationships, she works closely with clients to create strategies that deliver measurable results.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[02:26] Why email marketing is Kate Virzi’s favorite channel, and how it builds personal connections with patients
[05:45] What online strategies work best for promoting dry eye and other medical specialties
[09:29] The key elements every optometry website needs to convert visitors into patients
[17:07] How optometry practices can decide where to spend their marketing budget for the best ROI
[23:18] What sets Marketing4ECPs apart from other agencies, and how their specialized approach drives results

In this episode…

Marketing in optometry is evolving faster than ever, from traditional ads to digital platforms that meet patients where they are. With so many channels available, how can eye care practices know where to focus their time and budget for the best results?

According to Kate Virzi, a seasoned marketing leader with over 15 years of experience, the key is understanding that marketing is both a science and a story. She highlights the importance of creating authentic connections through digital tools like email and video while maintaining a consistent, trust-building online presence. Kate also stresses that success comes from patience, data-driven decisions, and aligning marketing with long-term business goals.

In this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast, Kevin Wilhelm and Kim Carson sit down with Kate Virzi, Director of Sales & Client Success at Marketing4ECPs, to discuss digital, traditional, and best practices for marketing in optometry. They explore how to optimize websites for conversion, where to invest marketing budgets, and why consistency between in-person and online experiences builds trust. Kate also shares how content, SEO, and social media can work together to attract and retain patients.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“I think every business should be on an email marketing program. It is your direct line of communication to your audience.”
“A bad video is not going to hurt the practice, but avoiding making any sort of video content could potentially lose out on patients.”
“It’s really about making a connection rather than an impression.”
“The biggest thing in this industry is trust, and having a consistent patient experience is what’s going to build trust.”
“Marketing is such a funnel of everything. It’s how you build your patients. It’s how you talk about who you are.”

Action Steps:

Build dedicated service pages on your website: Creating pages for each specialty, like dry eye or myopia control, improves SEO and helps patients find relevant information easily.
Use email marketing consistently: Regular emails keep your practice top of mind, strengthen patient relationships, and increase retention between appointments.
Create authentic video content: Sharing educational videos builds trust, humanizes your practice, and helps potential patients connect with your team before visiting.
Maintain consistency across digital platforms: Aligning your website and social media branding fosters credibility and ensures a seamless patient experience online and in person.
Track performance data to refine strategies: Analyzing marketing results allows you to adjust campaigns effectively, maximize ROI, and sustain long-term practice growth.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Marketing4ECPs!

Working with them is like hiring a full-time marketing professional who knows the industry and understands your goals. Except, instead of one experienced marketer, you get a whole team in your corner.

Whether you’re an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or optician, they can help you grow your business with a plan that’s completely customized for you. Learn more, here.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:07

Welcome to the Cleinman Connect Podcast, where we discuss marketing, ownership, growth strategies, and everything else surrounding the business of optometry. Cleinman is Optometry’s trusted business partner for over 35 years. Hello, I’m Kim Carson with Co-host Kevin Wilhelm, and we are joined by Kate Virzi, the Director of Sales and Client Success at Marketing4ECPs. On this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast. Past guests of this show include the amazing Amanda Van Voris, senior consultant here at Cleinman, and Dennis Evans Jr., the director of professional relations with DryEye Rescue. Those episodes are available at cleinman.com.

And how convenient this episode is actually brought to you by Marketing4ECPs. Working with them is like hiring a full time marketing professional who knows the industry and understands your goals. Except instead of one experienced marketer, you get a whole team in your corner. Whether you’re an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or optician, they can help you grow your business with a plan that’s completely customized for you. Learn more at marketing then the number 4 Marketing4ECPs.com. And Kate Virzi, our guest today is a passionate marketer with over 15 years of experience in sales and advertising.

In her current role as Director of Sales and Client Sales and Client Services, she leads the team to focus on strategic solutions to drive revenue for eyecare practices across North America. With a passion for human connection and strategic relationship building, Kate has built her career helping clients grow their business through value driven tactics and authentic engagement. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kate Virzi: 01:48

Thank you for having me. What a nice introduction.

Kevin Wilhelm: 01:51

Yeah, that was so much better than mine. Mine was just. Here’s the co-host. Yeah. We need we need to pre do these again so that you can say nice things about me Kim.

Kim Carson: 02:01

Oh yeah. I’ll, I’ll type that up for the next one.

Kevin Wilhelm: 02:04

Thank you.

Kim Carson: 02:06

So Kate, thank you so much for joining us today. You truly are kind of a marketing expert in in everything. I wanted to to first start with asking, do you have a favorite platform or service or area of marketing that you like that you particularly love doing?

Kate Virzi: 02:26

Yeah. Good question. I mean, there’s so many different areas in marketing that I love, but my number one favorite is email marketing. I think every business should be on an email marketing program. It is your direct line of communication to your audience, and there’s something about it when it comes to your inbox.

Even though you’re sending it to thousands of people, it feels personable.

Kevin Wilhelm: 02:46

Let’s start at the beginning a little bit. In terms of your story as a marketer, I would love just to hear how you got into marketing, how you got into it, because everybody has a little bit of a different story as to how they came into this industry. What’s yours?

Kate Virzi: 03:03

Yeah, so I did marketing at university. I also did an undergrad in psychology, and I loved the intersection between marketing and human psychology and buyer behavior and what elicits emotions from people. And so I actually started my career in marketing, working in traditional advertising. So working for television, radio, and then got more so into digital in the last, you know, 5 to 6 years. And I care has been one of the best industries I’ve ever worked in.

In my previous career, I was trying to be a marketing expert in a bunch of different industries, which has its challenges. And so what I love about what I get to do now is I get to focus on one industry, and so I can really see what kind of marketing tactics are effective for one practice, and then apply that learning and knowledge to practices all over North America.

Kevin Wilhelm: 03:52

So that’s really interesting. How many eye care practices would you say you’ve worked with in your career so far?

Kate Virzi: 03:59

Well over 100 for sure. I mean, at Marketing4ECPs, we’ve worked with over 1000 practices, but I’ve had the pleasure of working with definitely around 100 of those. I started my role working directly with the practices as their account manager, so really understanding their marketing goals, what they wanted to achieve over the next, you know, three months, six months, one year, and then building a plan and a roadmap to help them get there.

Kevin Wilhelm: 04:22

And what have you seen has been the biggest evolution or change when it comes to eye care practices and how they marketed a few years ago to what they need to be doing now?

Kate Virzi: 04:34

Yeah, I think the industry as a whole is evolving. Like one of the biggest evolutions that I’ve seen is probably in marketing medical specializations. And so, you know, a lot of the marketing would focus around back in the day around general eye exams. And, and now we’re getting more into like specific things like dry eye treatment and myopia control and vision therapy. And so practices are getting a lot more creative and more strategic about who they’re actually looking to target and how they’re building those campaigns and those messages.

Kevin Wilhelm: 05:01

Okay. And so of the specialties, is there any that you’re seeing really stand out or easier to market than others?

Kate Virzi: 05:08

Yeah, I would say dry eye has been a really big one right now, just because of the intersection with medical aesthetics and optometry, and that these devices and technology are able to do multiple things and not just treat dry eye, but they’re also able to treat things like rosacea and skin conditions. So definitely people are leaning more into that. And you can get very specific about who they’re looking to target.

Kevin Wilhelm: 05:29

So if I’m listening and I’m a doctor, I’m saying, okay, I have to market dry eye, but I want to know how. So do you have like 2 or 3 go to’s that you use or that you recommend to your clients that actually generate results for them to actually launch a dry eye practice?

Kate Virzi: 05:45

Yeah, I think the number one thing is the website. So your website is the foundation for all of your marketing. And so ensuring that you have specific pages on the site that talk about the dry treatments that you offer. So everything that you offer educating your audience on what dry eye actually is so that they can have a reference point to learn about the treatments. This also helps with like Google searches when potential patients are searching, you know, dry eye treatment or why are my eyes itchy?

If you have a specific service page on the website, that practice is more likely to show up for those searches. The second thing I would say is leaning into video content. So I think when you have medical specializations like Dry Eye, it’s really about educating your audience around what it actually is and what treatments options are available. And I think video is a really great way of doing that. A lot of people are spending time on YouTube.

It’s the second largest search engine next to Google, and so creating video content is an easy way to be able to elicit emotion from people also and create that personal connection.

Kevin Wilhelm: 06:42

So the idea of creating video. I mean, we’re doing it right now, but for a lot of people, that might be the scariest thing that you could say. So when you have a client says, okay. Video content. Hey, how do I get started?

What do I do? I don’t like the way my hair looks today. What are all of those? You know, we’re going to have those voices in our head. How do we overcome those and actually get started?

Kate Virzi: 07:07

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is like releasing the perfectionism of it all. Like, even people can record on iPhones because the video capabilities are high definition. The videos look really good. If you want to make it a bit more professional, it’s easy to buy a tripod and I think it would be as easy as just recording yourself, doing an interview with a patient and educating them. I mean, that’s something that the odds are doing every day in their practice.

They’re educating their patients on what dry eye is. And so just set up a tripod and record that conversation. And that’s just a really great way to start that. Also on the release perfectionism. There’s so much video content out there.

We’re inundated with so much information, A bad video is not going to hurt the practice, but avoiding making any sort of video content could could potentially lose out on patients.

Kevin Wilhelm: 07:56

Interesting. Do you have any for anybody that is going to take that first step? What’s really important when you think about it? Video quality audio, being on YouTube, putting on Instagram what are just some really quick highlights as to if you’re going to do this, make sure you do this well.

Kate Virzi: 08:12

I think the first is content because at the end of the day, like the message that you’re actually saying is what is the most important thing that’s in your video? I think the second thing is thinking about the channels of where you want to advertise that, because you can make a really beautiful, stylized video, but if it’s not living anywhere that people are actually going to see it, then you’re missing out on potential patients actually watching the content. And I think the third one, yeah, is just going back again to that release, the perfectionism of it, just have a conversation. You know, it’s all about. Someone once told me that when you’re in front of an audience.

It’s really about make a connection rather than an impression. So I think if you can go into the video content, really focusing on the message that you’re trying to deliver, it’s going to be received. Well.

Kim Carson: 08:55

I kind of want to go back a bit. Kate, you were mentioning websites and how important they are. And, you know, we’ve we’ve just talked about video content and some, some high level stuff that people could do to start getting video content out there and doing it in a way that, you know, matters and will make a difference. What would you say when it comes to websites like what should people be looking for? Like, what are some important things on a website that optometrists or any owner of, of any business could make now to improve their website and keep people longer, maybe book appointments or just want to see more of their content.

Kate Virzi: 09:29

Yeah, for sure. It’s a great question. I think as I mentioned, the website is the digital House. It is the foundation for all the marketing. And so one of the most important things is is it easy to navigate.

And so making sure that patients can easily come on the website and book an appointment with you. If you just have one call to action, one book appointment button on the home page, you’re missing out on the opportunity for them to book appointments with you as they navigate through your website. Maybe they go to your About Us page and they want to learn who you actually are. Making sure you have those calls to action on all your pages is really important. The other thing is, we’re finding that traffic to websites coming from all different areas.

So it’s coming when people are at work on their desktop. It’s coming when people are on a tablet, when they’re on a mobile device. And so ensuring that your website is optimized across all different devices is so important, because if your website looks terrible on a mobile device, you’re potentially going to lose patients. So I’d say those are probably the two most important things. And then really what I mentioned before, if there’s specialty services that you are actively offering through the practice, like dry eye or myopia control, making sure that you have specific service pages for those special medical or those medical specialties.

Kim Carson: 10:39

And would you say that that kind of thing would help with organic SEO or someone’s local SEO.

Kate Virzi: 10:46

Yeah, absolutely. So website is again the digital house, the foundation. But one of the best things is building that website with SEO best practices. And typically it takes working with someone that understands SEO to do that. But an important thing is to make sure that your website is localized.

So you’re mentioning the city that you’re located in, making sure, again, that you have specific pages for each of the services you offer. Because if I’m a potential patient that’s searching for dry eye treatment, you’re more likely to show up if your website has a specific dry eye page on the website.

Kevin Wilhelm: 11:18

Let me just go back a step. SEO what does it stand for? What is it? Can you give me the high level as if you know, if I was using ChatGPT ChatGPT, I would say talk to me as if I was a six year old. So what is SEO if I was a six year old?

Kate Virzi: 11:33

Yes. So SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. And really, it’s how people appear on Google. And so if I’m a potential patient and, you know, like I mentioned, say, I have itchy eyes and I’m trying to figure out a solution for it, I might be going on Google and googling things like, why are my eyes itchy? SEO is what allows practices to show up in the organic results on Google.

So there’s also Google Ads, which is showing up on the paid sponsor sponsored results of Google. But SEO is really ensuring that your practice is set up with best practices so that you show up high in the organic results. We know that most potential patients don’t actually go past the first page of Google, and so SEO is really that important marketing tool to ensure that the practice is showing up on that first page.

Kevin Wilhelm: 12:21

Okay. And what role, if any. Right now I use the word ChatGPT plays into today’s search world. Are we supposed to now also be paying attention to how we optimize for AI?

Kate Virzi: 12:33

Yeah, it’s interesting because we’re starting to see that people are using things like ChatGPT as a search engine, but I would say that now more than ever, it’s really important to lean into content marketing. So similar on the SEO side, and having specific pages on your website that talk about your treatment options, that will also help you rank in a search engine like ChatGPT, because they’ll be able to identify that your practice specializes in these treatments that the potential patient is searching for.

Kim Carson: 12:59

Do you happen to know you know, the website is is the house? It’s kind of the foundation. What about someone’s social media page? Does that contribute at all to to what these web crawlers or these search engines are factoring in when people are googling things?

Kate Virzi: 13:17

Yeah, it does now. So actually, earlier this year, it was announced that social media is now indexed for SEO. So now more than ever, it’s more important to be on social media. And we always kind of look at social media as a second website. And so when people are kind of doing their research to decide who to do business with, social media is kind of part of that research piece.

So you want to ensure that there’s a seamless transition between your website and your social media grid. Do they look like they’re the same practice? Do they look like they’re related? This is really where it comes down to things like branding and content.

Kevin Wilhelm: 13:49

Can we dive into that for a second? Because there have been practices where I see their website, it looks honestly like everyone else. And then I walk in the front door and I’m like, wow, this is like nobody else. It’s a completely. They must have spent $800,000 million building out, you know, their optical and yet their website looks like, you know, it’s it looks the exact same as for other on the street.

And then the inverse has happened where I see this incredible website and I walk in and it looks like they haven’t put a dollar into the optical in ten years or 20 years. You know, what advice do you have for owners that, you know, kind of have an inconsistent online presence to the in person experience?

Kate Virzi: 14:30

Well, I think the biggest thing in this industry is trust. And like having a consistent patient experience is what’s going to build trust. If a patient walks into your practice and all the bells and whistles that you promised on your website don’t live up to what it actually is, that erodes trust, and they’re unlikely that they’re going to come back and book with you again. And on the flip side of that, if you have a website that doesn’t highlight all the things that you offer, you’re potentially missing out on patients. I always talk to my clients about looking at their website as if it’s, you’re a patient and you’re I should have the same feeling going to your website as I would feel coming into your practice.

I should understand the colors, the warmth, the energy. I should be able to feel that in the digital space and in the practice.

Kevin Wilhelm: 15:14

How important is the like the About Us page? I you know, it’s obviously a page that we talk about. You know, the doctors talk about themselves, the staff, how much importance or time or energy should practitioners be putting into developing their About Us page?

Kate Virzi: 15:30

Well, it’s actually more important than you think. So The research shows us that the home page is the number one visited page on the website, which makes sense, but the number two most visited page is the About Us page. Potential patients want to learn who you are before they decide to do business with you.

Kevin Wilhelm: 15:47

So you mentioned earlier that people need to come to your website and be able to book an online appointment. Not every practice has an online scheduler on their website. In your expertise, how important is it that people invest in making sure that their patients can book online?

Kate Virzi: 16:05

Yeah, I think it’s so important to be able to allow your patients to book online, especially in this world of convenience. You want to make it as simple as possible. And then by also investing in some sort of patient management software, you can really track that patient journey. And so you can see all the marketing in the world can send the practice to your website, but the patient management system will also allow you to see how that turns into an actual appointment. You know, it’ll help you figure out which what patients are booking and be able to make more informed decisions when it comes to your marketing.

Kim Carson: 16:36

I’m you know, we’re talking a lot about there’s websites, there’s social media. You come from traditional advertising. Now we’re in digital advertising. What are some marketing avenues or routes that you have found work best in the eye care space? Like if I’m a if I’m an optometrist, I’m an owner and I have enough marketing budget to pursue one avenue or two avenues, what do you recommend I put that money into?

Kate Virzi: 17:07

Yeah, it really depends on what the goals are. So if you’re a practice that is looking to drive new patients, a really effective strategy can be Google ads, because that’s lead generation. You know, at any given time, only about 4% of the market is actually ready to book an appointment today. And so you want to do everything you can to capture that audience. And so Google Ads ensures that when someone is typing in, you know, eye doctor near me or dry eye therapy close to me.

Your practice is showing up, and so that can really help get results a little bit faster because we know with marketing it takes time. But if the practice is, you know, really busy and they’re looking more to nurture their existing patients, email marketing is a really great option. It’s a way for them to maybe on a monthly basis or a quarterly basis, keep in touch with their patients, let them know what’s going on within the practice, maintain that personal connection, and just ensure that that practice stays top of mind.

Kevin Wilhelm: 17:59

So Kim, that was an excellent segue from marketing budget. And so, Kate, in your expert opinion, what do you tell your clients when they ask you how much they should be spending or investing in their marketing?

Kate Virzi: 18:14

Yeah. So typically it depends on what they’re looking to achieve with their goals, but anywhere between 3 to 5%, the average practice typically spends anywhere from about 1000 to 2500 with us each month, depending on what they’re looking to do. So on the higher end, it would be if they’re more aggressive growth targets and they’re looking to really expand their business, or maybe a little bit less when they’re just looking to focus on maintenance.

Kim Carson: 18:38

I would like to ask if we’re, you know, talking current marketing for clients. I am wondering what do they decide to market like how how do those conversations go? Are they marketing their specialties? Are they marketing, you know, their location to sale coming up? Like what are they running?

Kate Virzi: 19:00

Yeah, it really depends on what their goals are and who they’re looking to target. So what we do is we typically have what we call account managers. And so they’ll meet with the practice and really understand what are they looking to achieve in the next, you know, 6 to 12 months, the next three years even. And they’ll develop a roadmap that leads to that. So if they are a practice that, hey, I’m really trying to expand the dry eye side of my business, then we’ll put together a plan that really helps them focus on marketing dry eye.

If they’re focusing on, hey, I have a lot of people coming into my practice. I’m really busy. I want to focus on nurturing my existing patients. Then we might lean towards a strategy that’s more, you know, focusing on social media and email marketing and keeping that engagement with their patients.

Kevin Wilhelm: 19:41

Who’s your ideal client? Like who is the type of person or practice that when they call you or you start working together, you’re like, yeah, we can make magic happen together. Like, who is what’s that? What’s that? Client profile.

Kate Virzi: 19:53

That’s a great question. I feel like it’s definitely someone that wants to grow the business, because that’s where we have the most fun is like, we have done this before. We can help you design a roadmap to get there. And I think it’s someone that understands that a marketing is a need to have, not a nice to have. Marketing is such a funnel of everything.

It’s how you build your patients. It’s how you talk about who you are. I love marketing because it’s storytelling, and so one of the most amazing things about the eye care industry is that there’s a lot of really beautiful stories in this industry. And so marketing is that medium that allows you to tell your story in those crazy, amazing, patient experiences that you’ve been able to offer.

Kevin Wilhelm: 20:32

And then when does it not work? Like if you’re listening to this, who’s the type of person that should never call you? Like you just know it’s not going to be a good.

Kate Virzi: 20:40

Oh, I want everyone to call me. I think it’s someone again that thinks that marketing is a nice to have, and it doesn’t really see the value in it, because the end of the day, like you want the people that understand that it takes time as well, or potentially the person that wants to see results tomorrow. Marketing. I’ve always kind of looked at it like a freight train. It takes a bit of time to like, build up a plan and a strategy and get it going, but once it gets going and you start to see those results, it’s pretty incredible.

But it isn’t just a short term thing. Sometimes it can take, you know, three months, six months, nine months to a year to really start to gain that momentum.

Kim Carson: 21:17

Are there any areas that you would say to someone who knows absolutely nothing about marketing. Are there certain areas that they should be going after, or do more results come from one space than another?

Kate Virzi: 21:32

Yeah, I mentioned this before, but you know, I meet a lot of practices that don’t want to email their patients because they’re afraid of bothering them. But email marketing is your direct line of communication with your patients. Even the most compliant patients, sometimes you only see them once every year, maybe once every two years. And so email is such a great way to just keep your practice top of mind. Create that personal connection.

Let them know what’s going on within the practice, even if it’s something as simple as like wishing them a happy holiday or a Happy New Year. It just creates that personal connection and again, keeps your practice top of mind.

Kevin Wilhelm: 22:07

As a sponsor of Cleinman. Tell me what you see as the opportunity. Like who is Marketing4ECPs? Who are you serving? How are you changing the industry?

What do you want the Cleinman network and audience know about you and Marketing4ECPs.

Kate Virzi: 22:23

Yeah, I think Cleinman is so incredible because, you know, you can do all the marketing in the world, but if you are leading practice or patients into a practice that has operational efficiencies or is, you know, hiring and staffing challenges, the marketing might not be as effective. And what I love about the Cleinman members is that they’re currently working with their consultants. They’re understanding how to get the most out of their business. Their businesses are run really well. And so marketing is just that complement that’s now going to help drive patients to a practice that’s already operating and functioning really, really well.

Kevin Wilhelm: 22:58

Cool. And just to kind of wrap us up, what is the unique selling proposition? What does Marketing4ECPs do do differently than maybe a local advertising company or, you know, one of our one of the industry, you know, incumbents that have been around a long time. Where does marketing stand alone?

Kate Virzi: 23:18

Yeah, I would say it’s two things. What sets Marketing4ECPs apart is first, that we specialize in the eye care industry. So we understand the industry. We understand how to market medical specializations. We’ve seen things that have worked well for a practice on, you know, the East Coast in New York and can apply those learnings to a practice, you know, in Los Angeles, on the West Coast that maybe has similar goals or things they want to achieve.

The other thing that sets us apart, I think, would be our account managers. And so we have account managers that work directly with the practice, and they become their sort of captain of their marketing ship. They are working with them to understand all of their goals, and they’re that person that’s really helping them achieve their goals and understand the ins and outs of their business so that their marketing is strategic and working for them. And we really try to make those informed decisions with the practices to marketing is evolving and it’s changing. And sometimes we try things and they don’t work.

But the cool thing is, is that we have data that we can look at, and you have an account manager that can help you make those strategic decisions of like, okay, this didn’t work. Now let’s work together to figure out a new path forward.

Kevin Wilhelm: 24:21

Fantastic. And if people listening want to get ahold of you, where? What’s their next step?

Kate Virzi: 24:26

Yeah. So you can visit our website at marketing4ecps.com. You can follow us on social media or you can reach out to me directly. My email is kate.virzi@4ecps.com.

Kim Carson: 24:39

Okay. Well thank you so much Kate for your insight and your time today. That is our show. If you want to hear more of the podcast, you can at cleinman.com and wherever you like to listen. Thank you for joining us today.

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