Post #27: Time for a Real-Live Marketing Plan! (Part 1)

It’s an interesting consumptive world in the eye care business today. The more deeply we’re entrenched in third-party provider panels, internet distribution, optometrist-on-site big box and chain set-ups and all the rest in the (not-so-new) new normal, the greater the tendency by consumers to assume the care and products are pretty much the same. 

And let’s think about it from the consumer’s perspective. With so much traditional AND ever-increasing forms and amount of digital marketing (did you notice they didn’t stop their radio and TV siege when they started the digital versions?) by eyecare and product providers, it stands to consumer reason that it’s all the same. Right? There’s this “panel” of so-called “providers” that services my “plan,” as well as all the other plans, and I (and my friends and neighbors) can go to any of the providers on the panel to get what they all provide. Since they’re all on the panel, providing what the third parties insinuate as the same services and products, and I have the same coverage toward any of them, the “all the same” consumer assumption is perfectly logical. So choosing my provider comes down to things like where are you located? Or when can I get in? Or can I park? Or can I shop you on-line? 

Not that such things aren’t important and marketable, but can you imagine a world where these are the deciding factors in who will provide my healthcare? And yet that’s the world we’re living in, right friends? …A world created by managed care, commoditization of eye care and vision products, internet and big box distribution and other market forces. 

Of course, we the providers know what we know … that it’s EVERYTHING BUT the same. The marketing challenge of our day, however (and really of all days), is consumers don’t know what we know. And taking the positive perspective here, the more things look the same to them, the greater the opportunities for the outstanding, and the creative, to look different! 

All that said, let’s make a really important realization: Just because consumers perceive providers as the same, doesn’t mean they don’t value differences. They may not perceive differences, which is exactly how third parties and commoditizers want it, but when we can teach them the differences (in quality of care and products, thoroughness, relationship, stand-behind programs, etc., they full-on jump at them! 

Thus, the point of this two-part post. Let’s stop with the management by hope – hoping they’ll give us a try and learn the differences or hoping someone else will teach them for us (our patient by raving or a competitor by falling short), and let’s take it upon ourselves to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Let’s put in place a real live marketing plan, the execution of which makes it impossible for consumers not to know (and respond to) the differences. And as we get set to do so, let’s take quick inventory of a few things we have going for us. 

1. People require you. Much of the population (I included) has to have your services and products to function in life. It’s mandatory consumption, not optional consumption, and that means steady demand. 

2. People want you. Most people still want the BEST vision they can possibly have.  

3. People prioritize you. The top health concern people have when surveyed is going blind, and they hire you (even in times of perfect wellness) to make sure that doesn’t happen. 

4. People prefer you. The vast majority of consumers will opt for the higher quality of care and product over what they perceive as lesser care and product IF they perceive the differences. 

5. People trust you and follow your lead. You’re the doctor, and what you say goes. 

6. Healthcare includes you. We fought hard for that, and most of the population has medical insurance that covers much of what you provide. 

7. Consumers will pay you, without a third party. Half of the adult population (myself and my family included, and my wife is a public-school teacher!) does not have a vision plan, and you can charge as you choose in servicing us. 

8. People refer to you. They like what you do for them and they refer family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. That puts way less pressure on promotional marketing for your new patients (not the case with chains and big boxes). 

We talk often about The Tale of Two Practices – how two practices a block apart or even two doctors within the same practice see radically differing results. Practice Growth Rate, Appointment Percentage Booked, Revenue-per-Patient, New Patient Percentage and Product Capture Rate are examples of production metrics that when compared between practices or individual doctors within practices tell the tale. One practice, or one doctor, is simply CHOOSING a higher level of outcome than another. 

So the million dollar question, quite literally, is how do we do that ? …How do we go about choosing the higher level of outcome for our practices and teams, rather than surrendering our outcomes to market forces we can’t control? One answer: Your Marketing Plan! 

The vast majority of practice owners do not have a written plan for marketing. This is like not having a playbook for the football team, and anyone who’s ever played or coached some ball knows that will never do. A written marketing plan causes us to be deliberate regarding growth concerns about which we would otherwise not be deliberate, rather than scratching it out with a finger in the dirt as we go. 

So for those that didn’t go to marketing school, that begs a question, right? How exactly do we write a marketing plan? Let’s get all over that in the remainder of Part 1 here, and again in Part 2 next month, highlighting the major sections of a marketing plan along with a few specifics for each. 

SECTION 1: STATED PRACTICE VISION 

As we’ve specifically discussed in the Bowen’s Blogs and Summit Talk Podlectures, VISION answers the question, What are We Striving to Be and Become? 

Although most colleagues have some idea of for what they’re striving, vision can and will do a lot more heavy lifting for teams and the practices they power when it’s clearly stated. Is our vision to thrive as an independent practice? State that. To provide the most comprehensive care? State that. 3 

Provide (and be known for) highest quality of products? State that. Most comprehensive patient relationship? State that. Multiple specialties? State that. Multiple locations covering a given region? Be “the leading provider?” State that. 

What’s our motivation in growing this practice, and let’s get it clearly stated to be a working foundation for our initiatives and our true north for growth. 

SECTION 2: MARKETING OBJECTIVES 

As we’ve also specifically discussed, OBJECT answers the question, What are we Striving to Accomplish? Remembering the purpose of a marketing plan is to provide a roadmap for practice growth, the more specific we can be with our objectives for growth, the more likely we are to take the right initiatives in the days ahead. 

If our objective is to double our contact lens revenues, for example, that dictates a very different set of initiatives (which we call Strategies and Tactics) in the marketing plan than if we want to double our vision therapy revenues. It’s the Objectives designated in the marketing plan that dictate the Strategies and Tactics that will be our specific initiatives accordingly. In other words, what we want dictates what we do (which is why I always begin a client discussion of marketing strategies with the question what are our objectives for the period in focus?). 

Given the progressive nature of objects like these examples, we would need and take some significant steps, likely even including rebranding the practice to more strategically designate these specialties. As a matter of fact, we’re rebranding…or better said, sub-branding…the vision therapy practice for a four-generation practice as we speak and are super excited about how the new branding strategy for this “practice within the practice” will impact growth of their vision therapy practice and increase market penetration accordingly. 

SECTION 3: MARKETING STRATEGIES 

Marketing Strategies is where we shift in the marketing plan from what we WANT to what we’ll DO. It’s here we outline for each stated objective the strategic thinking and initiatives we’ll implement that will cause our objective to become our reality. 

Here’s an example, then, of a marketing plan Objective and corresponding Strategies accordingly: 

Objective: Double our Vision Therapy Revenues in the next calendar year. 

Strategies: 

1. Sub-Brand our Vision Therapy Practice to be its own entity within the practice. 

2. Form and offer our LOOK and SEE no-obligation Vision Therapy commencement program to candidates. 

3. Plan and Produce a Vision Therapy Radio Education Program targeted to likely candidates and family “gate keepers.” 

4. Create and send our LOOK and SEE Vision Therapy Education Program to area professionals in health gate-keeping roles. 

SECTION 4: MARKETING TACTICS 

Next, then, come the Marketing Tactics, which as subcategories of Marketing Strategies are the specific work horses of initiative to make it happen. Let’s pick it up there next time, Colleagues, and talk with you then!