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Part three of a three-part look
at optometric advertising
We've come miles since we began this series of articles on
professional advertising. Now we're ready to "polish
it off" with a look at the ABCs of implementing an effective
professional advertising program.
But first, a feel for where
we are. In the first two articles, we learned advertising
is but a portion of external marketing. We defined what advertising is and why professionals do it.
We learned advertising cannot be stereotyped regarding ethics
or effectiveness and, if conducted properly, can be an integral,
ethical part of your total marketing mix.
In addition, we
learned a significant portion of the total eyecare market
consists of non-referred consumers having
no source of referral and consequently being influenced by
eyecare advertising. Independent optometrists have had limited
communication with these people, resulting in the huge market
share loss discussed in article one. We uncovered a need
for professional advertising in the form of consumer education
to tell these potential patients an untold side of the vision
care story. And we learned when properly implemented, consumer
education regarding differences in eyecare and eyewear can
have a strong impact amidst the bargain and speed appeals
currently dominating eyecare advertising.
So far, so good.
(If you haven't read the first two articles in this series,
please
go back and do so. This will give
you a more clear understanding of this article.) Now let's
assume we're going to do some consumer education. The next
step is a course of action.
As with any area of business (or
life for that matter), we must begin with a plan. Yes, this
must be a written plan.
It should be based on goals you have set for the practice.
Complete with its own objectives, this external marketing
plan should be a portion of your overall business
plan. Also
in that business plan should be all other areas under the
realms of practice management in article two. For now, however,
on with professional advertising.
Begin your plan with clear-cut
advertising objectives. These should be written and considered
in all external planning
and decision-making. In creating objectives, consider fundamental
reasons you want or need to advertise. Consider how non-referred
consumers will benefit, as well as how you will benefit.
Remember your practice mission statement (if you don't have
one, create one!) and what must be done externally to fulfill
it to the highest possible level. Include basic objectives, as well as specific strategies and tactics necessary to reach
them.
Here's a simple example:
Objective:
Increase new contact
lens fits by three per week.
Strategy:
Concentrate educational appeals, as well as appropriate
incentives, on non-referred consumers causing increased contact
lens inquiries by telephone
and walk-in.
Tactics:
Increase effectiveness and productivity of contact
lens yellow page advertising.
Incorporate regularly budgeted
educational contact lens newspaper advertising.
Incorporate
regularly budgeted direct mail contact lens advertising to
current patients and non-referred consumers.
Introduce and
promote a no-risk complimentary contact lens "try on" for
all contact lenses.
There is no magic to creating your plan. Simply set objectives,
analyze what it will take to reach them, and write down how
you will do it. There are no
right or wrongs.
So we have a plan. Now for some research. Find out the demographic
characteristics of your immediate geographic market. Learn
age break-downs, household incomes,
employment characteristics, population turnover, educational levels, etc. In
other words, get a "pulse" of your community. Find out who is out
there and consequently what will turn them on. This is key to success in external
marketing.
You must promote what your market will likely respond to.
For example, if research
tells you 65% of households in your market have two or more workers, convenience
will be a marketable commodity. Therefore, you
would promote evening and weekend hours, good parking facilities, emergency
service,
multiple locations, etc. (You may be relieved to know hours are the most
important of these conveniences, and extended hours require
far less investment than
a new lab for one-hour service!)
If you practice in a community of 30,000
or less, do your demographic research based on the community
as a whole. Compare your findings to those of the
county, state and nation for a relative feel of your immediate market. If
you are in
a larger community, learn relevant demographics of a two mile radius around
your practice as well as city, county, state and nation. Your Chamber of
Commerce is likely to have some of this information.
The next step is defining
your target market, or whom you wish to communicate with.
Consider what kind of person is most productive to communicate
with
regarding your services and products. Then specifically (but not too specifically)
define
that person. An example target market would be women 25 - 54 years of age.
Let's
summarize where we are now. We've written our external marketing
objectives, strategies and tactics; we understand demographic
characteristics of our
immediate market; and we have defined the target market for our consumer
education. Now
we're ready for the next step: Creation of an effective trade name (provided,
of course, your state allows), slogan and logo.
Why a trade name? Remember
our discussion in article two – non-referred
consumers are not attracted to who we are, but what we do. If they are not
familiar with you, why would your name appeal to them more
than anyone else's?
And the word "optometrist?" That
word is on everyone's door (even those places you don't like
much). This is the exact reason we failed with the AOA's
NCCP program (when we all chipped in for those nice ads promoting the friendly
neighborhood optometrist). Rather than strengthening professional optometry,
we actually financed a campaign for all three O's. And we found out promoting
a profession, which is not understood by consumers, does little or nothing
for our individual practices.
Instead, name your practice. Make
that name, in itself, provide a definite indication of what
you do. It doesn't have to
be flashy. Simply make your
trade name communicate
the exact nature of your services. Then you externally (not internally) market
the practice, not the doctor or a profession, and that is the key to the
non-referred consumer. Just look at the hospitals. They have it down pat.
The
following chart summarizes how this works. Review it closely,
and you will have a good understanding of how the referred
patient differs from the
non-referred.
VISION CARE MARKET
Referred
Potential Patient
Stimulate Through
Internal Prospecting
Utilize Present Patients
Respond to Doctor's Name
Consult White Pages
Receptionist Converts
to Patient Base
|
Non-referred
Potential Patient
Stimulate Through
Internal Prospecting
Utilize External Forces
Respond to Trade Name
Consult Yellow Pages
Receptionist Converts
to Patient Base
|
Here's the good news. Once you convert a non-referred consumer to a patient,
that new patient forgets all about your trade name. At that point, it doesn't
matter if you call yourself The Foot Clinic, that patient will remember
you by your name -- Dr. Jones. And likewise with his referrals -- to Dr.
Jones.
So you
see, the trade name is a temporary servant through which you attract non-referred
consumers and convert them to patients. When this is accomplished, the
name no longer serves a significant purpose for that patient.
The same
applies to present patients. Many doctors fear changing to a trade
name because they've been practicing under their name for
years. No problem!
Current
patients will still think of you, call you and refer to you by your name.
If they even notice you're practicing under a trade name, it will have
no bearing.
In creating your trade name, the first step is to consider
your position relative to others providing similar services
and products. How do your
patients perceive
you? How do you want to be perceived by potential patients? Answer these
questions, and build the answers into your trade name. Elaborate with
a slogan, and provide
a visual complement with a logo.
If you practice in a rural community
that is relatively higher in age and lower in income and
education, a stable name with a trusting "feel" is
appropriate. If you are in a progressive urban setting with young singles
and high income
and education, a more state-of-the-art name with a progressive feel is
appropriate. There is no formula for trade name selection. Just consider
demographics, the
image you want to portray and your specialties.
One more thing. Don't
be generic. Something like "The Vision Clinic" is
easily coat-tailed. Make your name, and your position belong to you and
you alone. Promote your practice, not everyone else's!
Now for the advertising
part (you see, successful advertising requires some leg work!).
The next step is your advertising budget. More good
news. You
don't need
LensCrafters' promotional budget to be effective in educating consumers.
You do, however, need to spend your budget strategically.
Your external
marketing budget should include expenditures on yellow pages,
newspaper, radio, direct mail (yes, that includes newsletters)
and any
other media you plan
to utilize in the coming year. Do not include signage, coffee with the
owner of the radio station, etc. Allocate a percentage of gross sales
to this budget,
taking the following guidelines into consideration:
- 2 % - Conservative
- 3-6 % - Progressive
- 7-12 % - Aggressive
Consider what you've spent on external marketing in
the past, your current goal for gross income and your external marketing objectives.
Then
decide how much
you will need to spend this year. Allocate that budget appropriately
to months you will be advertising, and you have your budget. Now you must
decide where
to spend it.
In doing so, don't select media vehicles (particular
telephone directories, newspapers, television stations,
direct mail and outdoor companies,
etc.) based on the best
salesperson or the fact a patient owns a local radio station. Take
time for some simple research. You'll be glad you did.
Explore
all media vehicles at your disposal. Consider your target
market (which you defined earlier) and the target market of each
vehicle.
Obviously, your
promotion will be most efficient when target markets are similar.
Request information on
circulation and listenership figures and find out cost per spot,
per column inch, etc. Then make comparisons.
Select vehicles that
afford the most optimum combinations of target market (who
they appeal to), reach (how many people are
exposed),
cost (per
unit cost of
advertising) and frequency (how many times you can run the
piece in a given period of time within budget). When you
have completed
this
media
analysis,
select your
media mix (combination of media and specific vehicles you will
use) for the year. Work with representatives from those vehicles
to spend
your
budget as effectively
as possible. Tell them exactly how much you have to spend each
month (they will try to get you to spend more), and instruct
them to spend
it as productively
as possible. And yes, advertising rates are often negotiable.
Remember
not to spread yourself too thin. Although reach is important,
frequency is equally important. If 20,000 people
are exposed
to your message only once,
there will be little or no result. However, if 5,000 people
are exposed four times, results will improve.
At last...time
to create your external marketing materials. This is the
most important part. Once your external marketing
starts,
an image
or
position will be created among non-referred consumers (remember,
you already have
an image
with current patients -- that won't change). When that
external image is established, it is difficult and expensive
to change.
Therefore,
be sure
your ads say what
you want to say and exactly how you want to say it. Remember,
consumer education
means getting non-referred consumers (most of which want
quality care over price) to know what makes you different.
Price, speed,
etc., are
not issues.
Design ads around what advertising people call
your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. What do you do
better in your
practice,
and as a professional,
than any other competitor? Maybe it's specialty contact
lens expertise and successful
contact lens fitting. Perhaps it's vision therapy, spending
more time with each
patient or diagnosing and treating eye diseases. Define
this USP, and make it your guide in creating educational
external
marketing
materials.
Also, incorporate those marketable commodities -- aspects of the practice you know are attractive to non-referred
consumers in your
market. These
may be
unique warranties, free screenings or consultations,
extended hours, etc.
Above all, be sure your ads educate.
Tell the same story you tell when someone asks what makes
you different.
Don't get
caught in
price and
speed wars.
Instead, educate. That way, non-referred consumers
who
might have based their decision
on price (because they thought all else was equal)
have real factors to consider. Refer to article two
for more
regarding
effective
educational content.
As with anything you do internally,
the last step is researching effectiveness of what you're
doing.
Survey
new patients.
Find out exactly where they
first heard about your office. Also, track
the number of inquiries coming in (including
phone calls and walk-ins). Then make adjustments
in advertising content and vehicles as needed.
We call
this advertising
quality control,
and it is crucial
for determining
future strategies and expenditures
SUMMARY:
A difficult issue to say the least. But that's
nothing new for our profession. We've always
solved difficult
issues by getting
them
in the open and
discussing them. As you recall from article
one, this was the intent of this series.
So we've considered
a complete overview of the why's, where's and how's of
communication with
non-referred
consumers.
Perhaps most
importantly,
however,
we've opened
our minds. You may not need to advertise, or
perhaps you simply choose not to. But be slow
to criticize
someone who does, provided
it's
being done right,
because
some day, for whatever reason, your position
may change.
 
If
you're planning on attending this year's Heart
of America Contact Lens Society Conference in Kansas
City, Feb. 10-12 or SECO
International in Atlanta, Feb. 22-26, stop by and visit
our booth. We're always happy to answer any questions you
may have regarding our services.
Don't Forget... We'll return
to Atlanta in May for a rare, on-location executive training.
It's going to be a long while
before we return to the South, so if you practice in the area,
you'll want to take advantage of this opportunity to improve
your practice right in your own backyard. As usual, space is
filling up quickly. Call today, register your practice and get
ready to achieve a level of success you never thought possible! |
