We hear a lot about target marketing. Target marketing is effectively pinpoint demographic or psychographic marketing to a specific group. We all hate wasting money. Why would we want to promote reading glasses to 3rd graders, or free-form progressive lenses to people with 20/20 vision? How much of your own money would you spend promoting high-tec sport sunglasses to residents of a senior living center? For every absurd scenario I or you can come up with, there are exceptions of course. There are senior citizens who can run marathons and 3rd graders who need a +1 reader, but in general, you get the idea.
So, in targeting your practice, what benchmarks are you using to target YOUR market. Before you answer, do you really know who your market is or are you guessing? Most of us would like to say our market is anyone from 6 to 96 who need eyeglasses, sunglasses, contact lenses or regular exams. Some of us would like to say our market is upwardly mobile professionals between 35 and 55 with a good deal of disposable income to purchase from our great selection of high-end frames and lenses. To be honest, that is like me answering a dating questionnaire outlining my perfect woman as a cross between Kate Beckinsale, Mila Kunis and Scarlett Johannson. Someone would need to slap me out of my daydream to get real and by the same token, someone might need to slap you too with a dose of reality.
Take a long hard look at who walks into your practice and who purchases from your practice. While we all have a wish list of the perfect group of patients, customers, or in our case, clients, we have a reality we need to live in as well. If your patients/customers are mature retirees who purchase conservative looks and generic lenses, own that market and capitalize on it by marketing to every mature retiree within 5 or 10 miles with conservative frames and moderately priced lenses. If your market is trendy college kids looking for sporty name brands and lightweight lenses, do the same to that market. Talk to them in the medium and manner in which they will positively react.
Your location, your décor, your neighborhood, your business neighbors, your inventory selection, your staff, your history, have all combined to create an atmosphere, ambiance, and market that works for your practice. Before you can effectively and efficiently market, you need to know to whom you are most successful marketing to. I can wish all day long that Olivia Munn found me irresistible. You can wish all day long that you had __________ type of customers frequenting your practice. The chances both of us will achieve that dream are pretty darn slim. Let’s capitalize on who have been successful with, who thinks like we think, believes what we believe, and make the best of that when we step out and market ourselves each and every day.
