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Great Ways to Reach Kids
By Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC
Getting your message out to the children's market means taking a different approach than you would take for an adult market. After all, communicating your products and services to kids and their parents isn't the same as communicating to adults shopping for themselves.
Experts recommend foregoing traditional outreach methods, like newspaper advertising and a large Yellow Pages listing, that tend to be ineffective for the kids' market. Instead, take a more hands-on approach with these methods.
1 Engage in public speaking, particularly to teacher and parent groups like the PTA. Keep the message focused on how good eyesight can be achieved through exams and protected by eyewear. Also offer your vision expertise to classes of all grades and clubs like the Lions Club and Rotary International.
2 Provide free vision screening programs in conjunction with school systems, other healthcare providers, and at your practice via an annual or biannual vision screening open house.
3 Reach out to those who are visually challenged. Partner with other Os to create a refuge for kids with learning disabilities—who often have visual problems. Offer kids and parents one-stop shopping for all of their eyecare needs, including vision screenings, exams, follow-up care, vision training, eyewear, counseling, and more.
4 Go upscale, appealing to brand-conscious kids and parents. When focusing on names, make lens branding a big part of your brand-focused campaigns as well. Tout brand features and benefits in all your discussions and media.
5 Be involved in kids' sports. Coach, supply refreshments, sponsor a team, and donate protective eyewear. Hands-on exposure helps position your practice as the community's sports eyewear expert and brings in young patients and their families.
| PARTNER Up |
|---|
| You can reach more of the children's market by partnering with child-focused medical providers like pediatricians, dentists, orthodontists, and dermatologists. Offer to speak with individual practitioners and their staff to update them on the latest eyecare and eyewear needs for kids, and meet with them to develop mutually beneficial kid-centric marketing plans. Sharing advertising, such as splitting a one-page newspaper ad or event sponsorship, can help cut costs for those involved and can present a "complete care for kids" image. |
6 Create public service announcements sponsored by your practice, and get them in print and on the air with local media outlets. Send kids' vision newsletters not only to patients and prospective patients, but to local healthcare providers, too.
7 Always be ready to promote your business and services. Make sure you travel with business cards and coupons, because you never know what opportunities will come up as you mix and mingle within your community. EB
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