As an eyecare professional, finding ways to have your practice stand out in the sea of big box retailers and chain stores can be a bit overwhelming. One of the best ways to do so is by focusing on a cause for your marketing efforts. So what is cause marketing and how can it benefit your optical shop?
Cause marketing is when your business uses its time and resources to give back to underserved patients in your own community. There are a number of ways you can do this yourself or by partnering with local or national/international nonprofits to help bolster your marketing efforts. Getting involved with a charitable cause in your community can help ensure and promote your business to those around you who are most likely to become your patients.
Host An Annual Event
One great way to kickstart awareness of your services is hosting an annual event. You'll want to start planning your event a few months before the event itself. This will give you time to coordinate with local news
outlets that can get the word out to the community about your event. This will also help promote your business.
You can partner with an organization, like OneSight, that can provide your patients with free lenses and frames if you provide the eye exam. Promoting an event every year that helps give the gift of sight to those in your community who may not otherwise be able to afford it is truly a gift they will appreciate.
Scholarship Programs
Partnering with local schools or organizations that provide optical education or certification is another great way to be an active part of your community while also helping the next generation of ECPs. Whether you volunteer or mentor or take part in national organizations like the Better Vision Institute, you can always find institutions that are in need of your unique talents!
You can even start your own scholarship fund and promote it to local high schools. There are various funds of all sizes that can help towards the education of a future eyecare professional. This process is a bit more involved, but you also know exactly who and how you're helping by going this route. As your scholarship fund grows, you can look to corporate funders to help expand it too.
Monthly Causes
It seems like every day in each month is a national "something" day, right? Well good news for you, this applies to the optical industry as well! You can find causes to partner with promoting various issues within optical health concerns to help bring awareness to your patients (and potential patients). The more you get involved, the more chances patients have to get familiar with your services.
You can also become a member of The Vision Council which provides a monthly calendar for social media posts and more. It really helps making posting regular fact-filled content a breeze. Having relevant content for your channels makes posting consistently easier than ever before.
I hope you can use these 3 tips as a springboard to kick off your optical cause marketing. Promoting something you believe in while also helping others can be some of the most rewarding adventures you can experience as an eyecare professional.
There is an almost infinite way that you can use cause marketing to help promote your services. These are just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure you'll find that the more you invest in giving back to your community, you'll get back more than you could ever know.
