Marketing for ECPs (Part 1)
If you’re an eye doctor or an optician, you probably did a lot of studying about eyes, optometry, chemistry, biology, anatomy and biochemistry. However, if you’re like most eye care professionals (and other doctors, chiropractors, pharmacists, lawyers, etc.), you may have only had one or two marketing classes.
So, you’re an expert at taking care of people’s vision. But, how do you get patients in the door? Where do you get marketing ideas for eye doctors, opticians and optical stores? Where do you learn about marketing for eye doctors?
This series of articles contains excerpts from our e-book entitled, "Marketing Boot Camp for Eye Care Professionals." For more information, click here.
This article series offers some basic marketing for opticians and some specific ideas you, the eye care professional, can use right away in your practice to help attract and build your patient base. This is by no means an exhaustive guide to marketing for optical stores, but it will help generate some ideas you can use immediately, especially if you’re new to marketing.
You'll learn:
- Basic Marketing Concepts
- Ideas to Market to Today’s Educated, Online-Savvy Audience
- Tips on Utilizing Social Media
- Basic Website Upgrades
- Much More
Basic Marketing Concepts
What is Marketing?
I have found that many people confuse marketing with sales and promotion. Yes, selling and promotion are a piece of the marketing puzzle, but they are not the most important part. Philip Kotler, in his book Principles of Marketing, says, “If the marketer does a good job identifying consumer needs, developing appropriate products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these goods will sell very easily.”
So, how then do we define marketing? I like to think of marketing as any activity aimed at satisfying the wants and needs to facilitate an exchange between buyer and seller. The ultimate goal of marketing should be to make selling nonessential. We can start to do that by understanding the consumer so well that the product/service sells itself.
For example, ask questions like:
- Where do my customers do business? What local papers do they read? Make sure your signage is visible and attractive. Check out advertising in local papers, or coupon booklets, etc.
- Are they online shoppers? How do I show up where my customers (go/read/shop/surf)? Consider getting some help on your website to make sure searchers can find you on the first page of the search results (more on this in in future articles).
- What do my customers see when they walk into my business? How does this compare to their experience at my competitor? Think about signs in your store or looping videos that tell about promotions or add-on products your patients might not know about.
- What impact does the season have on my patients’ buying habits? Is there a tax-refund or HSA money they need to use before the end of the year? Is the sun bright this time of year? Will back-to-school mean new glasses for their children? Capitalize on seasonal promotions with signs, emails and bag-stuffers to stimulate additional sales.
- Would my patients respond to email messages? Do I collect email addresses from them? There are simple and inexpensive (free?) ways to send a monthly email newsletter, birthday coupon emails, promotional emails, etc. Check out Mail Chimp or Constant Contact to get started.
The 4 P’s
Any discussion about marketing will surely lead to a discussion of the 4 P’s of Marketing:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
Another term for the “4 P’s of Marketing” is “Marketing Mix.” This is a phrase used to describe the different areas businesses can focus on in order to bring a product or service to market.
How do you use “the 4 P’s?” First, you want to ask yourself more questions to help define each “P” for your business. For example:
Product/Service - What is the patient looking for? What features are needed to satisfy this need? How and where will the patient use the products/service? How is it branded? How does it differ from my competitors?
Place - Where do buyers look for this product/service? What are my competitors doing and how can I learn from/differentiate?
Price - What is the value of the product/service to patients? Are there established price points in my area? Is the patient price-sensitive? Will a small decrease gain any market share? Is there room for a small increase? What discounts need to be offered to gain market share? How are competitive products/services priced?
Promotion - Where/when can you best get your message to your patients? Are there some creative ways I can get my message to potential patients?
Once you’ve defined your product with these types of questions, it’s time to test your marketing mix:
- Does it meet my patients’ needs?
- Will they find it (or find out about it) where they shop?
- Will they consider it priced fairly?
- Will the marketing communications (promotion) reach my patients?
Keep asking these questions and tweaking your marketing mix until you feel you’ve optimized it. Review frequently and adapt. Elements will change over time as you grow your market share, and as competitors adapt as well.
The Other “P”
There is another equally important P that often gets overlooked: Positioning.
This is where you place your product, not in the marketplace, but in the minds of your consumers. When contemplating your position, consider such things as “who are my customers?”, “who is my competition?” and “what do my customers want?” You can spend a lot of time and resources on consumer research, and it will help you gain valuable insight. However, spending even a little time and resources here will benefit your cause. Always keeping your customer’s needs as you go forward could dramatically influence your success.
Next Steps
Hopefully, this has provided some marketing ideas for eye care professionals. Now, spend some time thinking about your patients’ needs. Think about your competitors. Ask your staff to do the same. You might be surprised at the insight you can gain from your own employees. Then, ask your friendly patients what their needs are, and ideas on how you might better meet them. Then, put together your marketing mix to implement in the short-term and long-term. Plan to revisit frequently to make any necessary changes to the strategy.
Part 2 will focus on Marketing in a Modern World. How can you take advantage of the Internet-savvy generation of online shoppers and researchers? This article will give some great marketing ideas for opticians and eye care professionals considering a bigger (or better) online presence.
Download the e-Book!
Everything you've read here is an excerpt from our e-Book entitled, "Marketing Boot Camp for ECPs." Read the rest by downloading the entire e-Book.
http://info.icarelabs.com/marketing-boot-camp-for-ecps
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