By Chad Waggoner, OD
and Kimberly Manthe, ABO
SYNOPSIS
The Transitions Online Marketing (TOM) tool can help you create customized marketing materials online that reinforce your practice brand and effectively reach patients.
ACTION POINTS
CUSTOMIZE MARKETING MATERIALS. Log onto TransitionsPRO.com and follow the TOM tool prompts to create online marketing materials specific to your practice brand.
USE FOR SPECIFIC PROMOTIONS. TOM will create postcards and counter cards to promote specific sales like back-to-school promotions.
USE TO PROMOTE SPECIFIC TRANSITIONS PRODUCTS. For example, you could have a “Here Comes the Sun” frame and lens sale with postcards promoting the Transitions Signature VII technology by customizing materials in your TOM Tool account.
Marketing works best when it is specific to your practice’s brand. But creating marketing materials specific to your practice can be challenging. The Transitions Online Marketing (TOM) Tool has given our practice a way to easily market our Transitions offerings and other promotions. This has resulted in higher optical revenues and satisfied patients. Here is how this tool works and how we’re using it.
A practice-specific coupon that Clarus Eye Centre created using the Transitions Online Marketing (TOM) Tool for a back-to-school marketing campaign.
ROI Delivered
TOM is no cost to our practice because we can use the Transitions Points that we’ve earned to create materials and promote our events. Transitions Points can be earned by being a member of the Transitions Star Partner Program. A practice must be an independent optical practice or part of a small independent group of four or less locations in the US and dispense an average 50 pairs of eyeglasses a month to be eligible for the Transitions Star Partner Program. Practices can register for free and see if they are eligible be visiting www.TransitionsStarPartners.com.
Transitions Points are earned through the Transitions Star Partner Program in a variety of ways, from dispensing photochromics to attending educational events. As the practice progresses through the Transition Star Partner Program’s five levels of product and marketing education, points are earned that can be redeemed through Transitions’ E-Store and the Transitions Online Marketing (TOM) tool.
Using the TOM Tool to reach out to our patients and community helped us generate just under $200,000 in sales during our 2013 Transitions lens and frame sale events. The events were a success due to the Transitions Online Marketing Tool.
Customize Marketing Materials
Use of the TOM tool is free and each practice gets up to 500 free postcards a month sent to their practice. To print additional materials and to mail postcards through the site, you either have to use Transitions Points or pay the costs. This online tool lets you customize your own marketing materials. To access, eyecare professionals just need to login toTransitionsPRO.com and choose the TOM Tool resource on the home page. If your practice does not have a Transitions PRO account, that is not a problem. Select the “register now” button, fill in your practice information and you are ready to get started.
TOM is so easy to use that all of our support staff members use it to help promote new sales and upcoming practice events.
A Clarus Eye Centre-branded post card for a summer sunwear marketing campaign.
Use for Specific Promotions
At Clarus we have semi-annual frame and lens sale events and back-to-school promotions. We use TOM to create postcards and counter cards to promote those events. The TOM Tool allows us to not only mail these postcards to established patients, but also new patients. You can put in a zip code and demographics to narrow down mailers going to potential new patients and use your Transitions point system to cover any expenses. We also use the postcards to explain what each promotion consists of.
For example, we give our patients 25 percent off of any lenses with Transitions and any frame in stock. A statement we add on each postcard is that the promotion cannot be combined with any other offers or insurance billing. This then promotes second-pair sales. It’s a win-win for our practice and Transitions.
The TOM Tool helps us keep it simple for measuring the success of a campaign. The patient can either bring their postcard in or show us a copy on their electronic device of our online ad for proof to receive the advertised discount. The opticians track the activity and this gives a baseline for our success.
Highlight Specific Transitions Products
We are having our annual “Here Comes the Sun” frame and lens sale event in which we will send out postcards promoting the Transitions Signature VII technology by customizing materials in our TOM Tool account.
Use TOM for Social Media
Practices can put “visit us on Facebook” in the customization portion of the postcards, e-blast or counter cards as a part of their customization. You can also use the e-mail template to introduce new technology releases and put your own Facebook and Twitter links at the bottom of the e-mail.
Promote New Products
Through TOM we are able to order POS in the form of counter cards promoting new Transitions Signature VII lenses. Offices may want to use the e-mail template option to inform patients of the latest technology, too.
On-Demand Help
If you need help marketing your practice using the TOM guide, Transitions Marketing Wiz will put you on the right track. By taking the time to answer specific questions and evaluating where you want your practice to grow, you can assess the needs of your practice, build an interactive marketing plan and learn how to retain and acquire patients and raise revenue per patient. The TOM Tool can then assist your practice in achieving your marketing goals.
Don’t be afraid to jump right in and get started. If you have any concerns about using TOM, there is a help line and tutorial to get you started. Transitions has made it very accessible. By partnering with Transitions and utilizing the resources that they provide, like the TOM Tool, your practice can grow and become more successful.
Related ROB Articles
Prescribing Transitions: Education Makes the Sale
Prescribe Spectacle Lenses by Lifestyle
Protect Patients from Eye Strain with Glare-Free Reading Eyewear
Chad Waggoner, OD, is a partner at Clarus Eye Centre, the 2013 Transitions Practice of the Year, in Lacy, Wash, and Kimberly Manthe, ABO, is the practice administrator. To contact: KimM@claruseye.com
