Who's Really Using Deal Coupons?
And How Can Video Work For You?
The daily deal online coupon phenomenon has gained traction with large numbers of consumers for everything from spa/travel trips to restaurants. But is it working for eyewear retailers and eyecare professionals? Learn more in our feature this month based on an interesting new study.
Seeing is believing, right? Videos by and about your practice, communicating expertise and information about eye care and generating excitement about eyewear, is a huge opportunity—and social media only amplifies the message. See what CLICK contributor Alan Glazier, OD, has learned, advises and is sharing about his own practice's use of video in this month's edition of CLICK.
Who's in your Social Circle? We're excited about the big turnout for tomorrow's The 2nd Annual CLICK Conference, a special program, sponsored by The Hoya Free-Form Company, just prior to the opening of this week's International Vision Expo West. Leading web experts and colleagues from the ECP community will share their insights about trends and what's working for them. Watch this space in the next edition of CLICK to see and hear what they had to say!
Keep up with the latest digital and social media trends via the CLICK Archive, located under the CLICK button at
www.visionmonday.com. Have you tried something new on your website or launched a special social media campaign? Tell us about it and we'll consider it for an upcoming feature in CLICK.
—The Editors
Daily Deals: Are Consumers Using Them To Buy Eyewear? ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A new first-of-its-kind report provides a current portrait of the digital phenomenon of "daily deal" websites and their impact and effectiveness in eyewear sales. Based on a survey of more than 9,000 consumers, conducted in July 2011, connected to The Vision Council's VisionWatch survey, the findings of the 2011 Daily Deal Eyewear Report represent a way for eyewear retailers and eye care professionals to gauge which types of deals are attracting awareness and usage.
The results? For the six-month period ending June 2011, just under one percent of Rx eyewear buyers, or 300,000 adults, and 1.7 percent of plano sunglass buyers, or 1.4 million adults, said they used a daily deal sight to purchase. Two percent of all recent contact lens buyers —550,000 adults—said they used a daily deal site to help them purchase contact lenses.
There are over 500 "daily deal" websites in the U.S. that offer subscribers and consumers coupons on all different sorts of products and services. Each week one or two new sites are started, offering consumers even more discounts. It is estimated that over 88 million adults currently subscribe to at least one daily deal site and that number is expected to grow to 97 million by 2013.
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As of July 2011, there were 150 million American adults (63.4 percent of the adult population) who were aware of, or familiar with, some type of daily deal discount website (usually Groupon or Living Social). Moreover, there were approximately 47.4 million American adults who used a "daily deal" site to purchase some type of retail good or service at least once during the first six months of 2011. Women, Americans between the ages of 18 to 44 and Americans from higher income households ($60K+ per year) were more likely than other Americans to both be aware of daily deal sites and to have made a purchase using a daily deal site within the past six months.
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While Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites are used extensively to help purchase general retail goods and services (i.e. food, clothing, electronics, spa services, etc), only 3.3 percent of the American adult population (7.9 million people) have used a daily deal site to help purchase a health-related good or service (such as dental care, eye care or cosmetic procedures) within the past six months. Even fewer Americans (0.8 percent or 1.9 million adults) used a daily deal site to help purchase some type of eyewear or eye care during the first six months of 2011. Currently it seems as if consumers are most comfortable purchasing plano (non-Rx) sunglasses with the assistance of a daily deal website.
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When it comes to buying eyewear, most consumers were only using discounts from a few of the larger-name websites (likely because these are the only sites offering deals on eyewear and eyecare). Almost half of the recent eyewear buyers (46 percent) using a daily deal site to help buy eyewear used Groupon to assist with that eyewear purchase. About one-fifth of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site went to Living Social to assist with their recent eyewear purchase. Slightly smaller numbers of recent eyewear buyers (almost all of them plano sunglass buyers) went to Buy With Me, Gilt, Hautelook, IDEELI or Rue La La and used a daily deal promotion when recently buying sunglasses. It should also be noted that a fair number of recent daily deal eyewear buyers (close to 20 percent) couldn't recall the exact website used to assist
in their eyewear purchase.
Despite all the different daily deal sites and different offers available as it relates to eyewear, most of the consumers who used a daily deal site to help purchase a new pair of eyewear claimed that the discount from the site simply lowered the overall "out-of-pocket" price they paid for their eyewear. For almost 30 percent of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site, the promotion used lowered the cost of their eyewear purchase by more than 50 percent.
Purchase satisfaction levels among the 1.6 million American adults who recently used a daily deal site to buy eyewear were generally high. Close to 40 percent rated their experience as "excellent", an additional 40 percent rated their recent eyewear daily deal purchase experience as either "good" or "very good". Only a handful of recent buyers rated their experience as just "fair" and about 10 percent were not sure how to rate their recent eyewear daily deal purchase experience yet. No one reported that their recent eyewear daily deal purchase experience was poor.
Much more data, on geographic and income differences, and attitudes towards future usage of daily deal sites from those who haven't tried them yet is in the 2011 Daily Deal Eyewear Report which available from The Vision Council.
Moving Vertical With Content:
Using YouTube and Video To Drive Business
ROCKVILLE, Md.—There are many other channels where content can be placed besides websites and blogs, some more effective at driving business. Video is one of many different types of non-traditional, or vertical content. Many people prefer video for information and inspiration. YouTube has become a major search engine. It is important to have your business represented online within this vital and growing medium.
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The barrier to creating video is low; requiring a video recording device, download cable and a free subscription to a video hosting website. I have enabled my optical staff with a Flipcam, and they are encouraged to create short "films" of happy patients at dispensing. Files are uploaded to a shared folder on our network and with two clicks of a mouse the file is on our YouTube channel. To set up your business YouTube channel apply here. When we have treated a patient with a eye condition successfully we ask to interview them on video. When consulting on OrthoK, we show testimonials of successful OrthoK patients. We show someone who has successfully beat post-Lasik dry eye with our help. Broadcasting testimonials via our Facebook and Twitter has come in helpful in driving business and in helping our practice achieve better search engine optimization.
For more involved efforts PC's and Macs have easy-to-use video editing programs. Here's an example of a video I created on "foods that are good for your eyes". At the grocery store, I snapped photos of foods in that category, and created this informational video in 10 minutes. I proliferated the content on Twitter, my EyeInfo Facebook page and via other social media channels.
Don't forget, the Holy Grail of creating video content is the one that goes viral. Come up with a cute idea, create it simply; a big production has nowhere near the appeal of a video with a home-grown feel. Post it and promote it via social media. If it's entertaining enough it could draw thousands of eyeballs, launching to the top of search results. This simple video my optician created of a woman discussing her pleasure with her new Zeiss lenses has received over 800 visits in five months! Remember, once you own the hardware, the rest of video marketing efforts are free. Be sure to embed your videos on your website or blog—the content will help you rank higher in searches for services and products in your area if you fill out an appropriate "description" of your video on YouTube.
And, here's a link to another great source of web information, Ramon Ray on Using YouTube for Small Business.
Next week I am launching a major video effort with a very creative bent that I hope will go viral. Check our blog and our YouTube channel over the next few weeks and let me know what you think!
Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO is the founder/CEO of Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care in Rockville, Md. A search and social optimization consultant,
he is now a regular contributor to CLICK and also writes a regular blog for
SightNation.com. Glazier is at
aglazier@youreyesite.com and his regular
posts can be found via his Twitter handle: @EyeInfo, his blog:
eyeinfo.wordpress.com and his website:
YourEyeSite.com.
Author: Searchial Marketing: How Social Media Drives Search Optimization in Web 3.0.
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