Smart Marketing for Hearing Aid Practitioners

When it comes to marketing, follow the money.

 Virtually all ad revenues for print media – newspapers, periodicals, telephone books, directories – are expected to decline in 2009. You want empirical evidence? Is your morning newspaper as thick as it used to be? Mine isn’t – especially on Mondays.

Prospects want information not a sales pitch and the best way to give it to them?

An interactive website.

Build It And They Will Come

I’ve mentioned the importance of a website in previous blog posts so I’ll keep it short.

A website is the most valuable tool a small hearing aid business has – even if the service area is only 50 square miles! Local search and personalized search – now in common use by most search engine users – drives web traffic to your locally-optimized website. In turn, the website drives visitors to your retail outlet.

That’s why the world wide web (W3) is expected to see an increase in ad revenues estimated at 15% for the current fiscal year.

Go where the money is going.

A Website Is NOT Your Marketing Strategy

It’s the centerpiece, most certainly. Your website is the place to detail services and stress your professional credentials. It’s also easy to show a map of your retail outlet(s) and provide a printable set of directions to get them there.

Add a picture of the store’s exterior to make it easier for Walk-Ins to walk in. “Hey, there it is!” The website is the bull’s eye of your marketing campaign but it is not the end of your marketing efforts.

Use Your Web Site to Capture Local E-Mail Addresses

Visitors aren’t going to give you an e-mail address unless you offer something in return – an e-book buyer’s guide for hearing aids, for example. Write it yourself or hire a writer on a website like Elance.com.

Use the e-book to capture e-mail addresses. Those who “opt-in” for the free download can be contacted by e-mail through a series of auto-responders – automated e-mails sent out periodically to your expanding opt-in list. And remember, these are local prospects looking for your hearing aid services. Hot leads.

Use Auto-Responders to Obtain Mailing Addresses

Don’t backsell the poor prospect to the grave but periodically send an auto-responder (maybe once a month) providing good, practical informational content and not a lot of sell. Let the quality content sell the professionalism of your services.

One tactic is to offer free testing, free demonstrations and free product brochures and good, informational content on hearing health by e-mail and by snail mail. This enables you to capture a prospect’s name and address.

Deliver quality content to your opt-ins. These men and women are thinking about a hearing aid purchase and the more helpful information you provide to further the buying process, the better product fit for the customer and the more customers walking in to your store.

Keep your business’ name in front of prospects via e-mail and regular mail.

Use Direct Mail In Conjunction With E-Mail

Once you’ve captured a name and address, follow up quickly – immediately – with a direct mail letter and/or post card. A coupon also drives store traffic. Depending on the number of product lines your store carries, there’s usually one or two manufacturers with preferential pricing.

Pass these savings on to buyers and let them know by direct mail. Also, post sale information and new product or service offerings by e-mail and by regular mail. Why?

The purchase of a hearing aid is a psychological/emotional decision as well as a financial decision. These means it may take an individual with hearing loss several months or longer of regular reminders that solutions to that hearing loss are available through your store.

In difficult economic times, those who would benefit from a pair of hearing aids are putting off the purchase and turning up the TV instead. It’s a difficult sale when prospects are worried about losing their jobs.

Integrate All Marketing

For greatest impact, make sure all information sent by direct mail also appears on the website or on a separate blog. And don’t forget to include your website URL – your web address – on all printed marketing from direct mail to newspaper adverts to ads in local periodicals.

Also, add that URL to business cards, take-away promotions from the store and other printed promotions like brochures and letters. Your URL is the center of your marketing campaign.

Use it or lose it. (The sale, that is.)

John M. Adams III

jma3@hearingtutor.com