Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Marketing Basics - New patients

Marketing is mainly about making connections with those with whom you can enjoy a valuable relationship and enriching those relationships.

You may want to move your practice in a particular direction to find new more profitable customers but do not want to alienate existing patients...

How do you do this?

Simply - specific targeting and aligning your offer to them.

Firstly:
1. Define who you want to attract.
Understand who the people you want to attract are. This will help you to know which eye wear / examination services are interesting to these people. Outline the traits that mark out these people. Over 40? High spenders? Like golf, fashion, working out? This will help you to decide what you will offer to attract these people. For example, over 40s may be attracted by more in depth examinations whilst to build a younger patient base use eyewear brands and social media to make connections.

2. Be where these people go.
Network at the local golf club, spa, restaurant. See if there are opportunities to hold an event with an up-market hairstylist, art gallery or jeweller in order to make new connections - this way you can share your good customers without losing them to the competition.

3. Offer them something they desire.
People buy for 2 reasons - because they have to and because they want to. It does not take too much thought to know that the former spend as little as they can whilst the latter spend much more. Offer products people desire - perhaps present more benefits during the dispensing, starting with the highest quality first. You may be great at attracting these people to your practice but unless you have something they desire they will leave disappointed. Eyewear collections are not just stock that can pull people in - they are a foundation on which you can build a market and position yourself.

I am often suggesting to my customers that when they consider a new collection think "How do I reach the people that will buy this?" Otherwise you are buying something that may stay on your racks or shelves.

Of course, in any of these 3 headings there are a myriad of marketing options and issues to remember to ensure success. If you have any questions for me then let me know.

Here is a great website that may give you some ideas on how to market your business:

The Optical Vision Site

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