Choose the right promotion for you
There are a number of options when
it comes to running a promotion in
optical. Product discount, brand aware-
ness, brand education, BOGO, benefits
claiming, customer appreciations,
practice anniversary, the launch of a
new service, a medical specialty/niche
and seasonal campaigns are all op-
tions and have a proven history of
success. Whatever the promotion you
choose to run, first begin by looking
at an annual calendar and writing in
ideas with dates.
One plan for success could be to roll out
a promotion to battle seasonal low
revenue, or you can capitalize on a
seasonally high demand for a product
(sunglasses in spring, for example). Look
at holidays as gift-giving opportunities
and speak to the consumers looking
to buy a unique gift for a loved one.
Choose an appropriate length to
run your promotion
After you’ve chosen your promotion,
now you have to decide how long to
run the promotion for. Avoid extended
promotions (longer than a month) as
well as one-day sales. With short-term
promotions, a lot of effort and adver-
tising must go into a single day, which
presents more risk than they can be
worth. The ideal length of time for a
successful promotion is between 10
to 14 days.
In order for your promotion to be truly
successful, you’ll want to make sure
that the revenue generated is still prof-
itable. All too often, optical stores will
run a promotion and they end up giving
away discounts to customers who
were already willing to pay full price.
This destroys your margins and all
the effort you’ve put in has resulted in
a net-negative effect. The point of a
promotion is to get people who wouldn’t
otherwise come in to do so and there-
fore increasing overall revenue.
Samples
of online
promotions.
Five tips on maintaining profitability
during your promotion
Follow these five tips and you’ll be
assured that your promotion makes
you profit and not just revenue.
- Work with your suppliers and
negotiate discounts to support any
price reductions;
- Focus on unsold inventory or “hard
to sell” inventory;
- Create promotions that will BRING
people in (10% off doesn’t cut it);
- Advertise effectively – don’t just
promote to patients already there;
- Track your results and calculate
your ROI.
- Advertising your promotion
effectively
Some quick tips on how to bring people
in during your promotion can include
but are not limited to: Outdoor signage,
social media posts, digital display ads,
create a video and post it on YouTube
and Facebook, send direct mail to
communities where a high percentage
of your patients live, newspaper ads,
e-mail your database and run a short-
term radio campaign.
In terms of evaluating results, you’ll
want to know what marketing initiative
made your customer aware of your
promotion as well as the overall sales
during the promotion. Now, go and
plan your next big promotion!
You have all the tools to make it
truly effective.
Kevin Wilhelm is a co-Founder of
Marketing4ECPs, a digital market-
ing agency specializing in the eye
care industry. To learn more, visit
www.marketing4ecps.com
Optical Prism | January 2018 33