As the largest branded group of independent optometrists in Australia, Eyecare Plus is leveraging its position to capitalise on a sophisticated marketing strategy that can be targeted all the way down to individuals in certain postcodes – and it’s scoring major runs for participating practices.
Picture yourself in this patient scenario. You turn on your smart TV to watch your favourite show on demand after putting the kids to bed. An advertisement for an independent optometrist in your community plays and – realising you haven’t been for an eye check for a while – you watch the ad. Later, before heading to bed, you check Facebook and see another ad for the same optometry brand, and it happens again while using Instagram and Google the next day.
Throughout the week, the notion of a new pair of spectacles is enticing. It’s been a few years. You Google the optometry network in question and a nearby practice is listed at the top of your search and you make an online booking for the following week. Post-appointment, you’re so satisfied with the service and eyewear, you become a patient for life and tell your family and friends.
For many individual independents, this sophisticated, multifaceted approach to patient acquisition is only attainable with a large investment. But this is a strategy that Eyecare Plus – an independent optometry group with 120 practices – has been employing with great effect for the past three years.
The decision to invest more in digital marketing marks a major shift for the network that once relied heavily on direct mail and traditional marketing techniques such as print media, yellow pages, radio and free-to-air TV. By adopting a digital strategy, Eyecare Plus advertisements can be geo-targeted into specific communities and to certain patient groups.
In 2023 alone, the network generated and tracked close to 5,000 patient appointments from this new approach.
“The way I explain it is that you’re no longer buying ad space during a show or in a publication in an attempt to reach patients. You’re purchasing ad space in front of a target audience across multiple platforms,” Eyecare Plus general manager Mr Philip Rose says.
“There’s an enormous opportunity for our group to go further down this road because it solves the problem of how we can make consistent, highly effective all-year-round advertising affordable for our independent member optometrist.”
The way Eyecare Plus structures its membership means independent practices at the local level can leverage regional and national advertising strategies like this. This is because a significant number of practices are branded or co-branded (Eyecare Plus is the largest branded group of independent optometrists in Australia) that allows them to share in marketing costs while unifying under one banner.
Another important element is its exclusive territories model. In other words, you won’t find two Eyecare Plus practices in the same community. While this means its optometrists can freely share intel with one another, it also allows Eyecare Plus to ‘turn on’ ads and promotions for certain geographies because each practice chooses the campaigns it participates in.
Beyond Eyecare Plus brand awareness, Rose says frame, lens and contact lens suppliers are also capitalising on this new way of advertising to the consumer.
For example, if there’s a promotion on an eyewear brand in-store, the frames supplier can tap into Eyecare Plus’ geo-targeted advertising know-how. If a consumer clicks on the promotion, it takes them to a page with Eyecare Plus practices participating in the promotion.
“Suppliers can present a frame or lens offer specifically to the local communities of the participating Eyecare Pus practices, in a measurable and unified manner,” he says.
“With a supplier campaign they may tell us the target audience is a male aged 30 to 50 and interested in sport, so they’re the people who then have the promotion presented to them via our digital marketing. If one of our practices doesn’t stock the product, then that’s not a problem, the ad simply won’t show in their area. The common Eyecare Plus brand allows us to send out a single message to all relevant locations in a targeted fashion, rather than relying on good luck.”
The inner workings
While Eyecare Plus can help individual practices with their marketing campaigns and collateral through its own internal experts – which it calls Marketing Plus – for the more technical digital advertising work it has engaged two external agencies.
According to Rose, the biggest barrier to entry for traditional advertising on free-to-air TV in metropolitan areas has always been the cost of campaigns because this covers large geographic areas, such as the greater Sydney or Melbourne regions. However, by using on demand TV, Eyecare Plus can reduce the cost by narrowing the target to specific postcodes and demographics.
“People are realising more and more that they can catch-up on their favourite shows when their own schedule allows, as opposed to watching live as it airs on traditional TV broadcasting,” he says.
As such, the optometry network is advertising on all the major platforms, including 7Plus, 9Now, Network 10, SBS On Demand, Kayo, Foxtel and YouTube.
“This is because we’re purchasing the audience and not the ad space on the show,” Rose says. “Hardly anyone watches free-to-air TV in Europe – it’s all on demand, and it’s now here in Australia and growing in a big way,” he says.
“Our practices right now are getting cost effective TV ads. That’s why there’s so much satisfaction among our members; the money they are spending for the qualified eyeballs on our ads in their area isn’t something they have been able to access before.”
Once the end-user engages with the Eyecare Plus advertisement via on demand TV, Rose likens it to leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. They are tracked, and additional Eyecare Plus advertisements are displayed to that person on Meta-owned social media channels Facebook and Instagram, as well as Google Ads.
In the marketing industry, this method is known as “retargeting” which allows businesses to place their advertising before people who have previously engaged with its advertising or website. Retargeting offers an opportunity to recapture potential leads or customers.
“It’s multifaceted, you have to bring together these threads to make your digital marketing strategy complete. For an individual to do this from a time and money perspective is very difficult. They have to be committed to their marketing budget,” Rose says.
Under its digital strategy, branded and co-branded Eyecare Plus practices are now affording consistent Facebook and Instagram advertising in their local communities.
“We are achieving great value for money for our members. Of course, if we had a bigger budget we could do more and hammer home even more messaging, but for our group at this point it’s sufficient and scoring runs for us,” Rose says.
“We’re often receiving patient feedback, ‘I saw your ad and I was compelled to come in’. The new patient ratio in our practices is also a key indicator and we’re also tracking interactions on our website, by phone call, and through our online appointment booking.”
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