Open HouseLocal Marketing Guide

Open HouseAn open house is an industry standard to help increase hearing aid sales. With its interactive and informational nature, the goal is to help hearing aid candidates advance their buying decision or help current hearing aid users upgrade their products. By offering a hearing screening or hearing aid demonstration during a 2-3 day period, potential customers can test drive your services and explore the latest technology available to them.

Although an open house is an easy event to hold, it does require some advanced preparation. Following a few basic steps will ensure your success.

Step 1: Plan

Step 2: Advertise

Step 3: Track

Step 4: Follow up

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þ Step 1Plan Your Open House

Schedule Dates

Choose the dates (usually two to three days) for your open house.

How you advertise your event will determine when to begin planning the details of your event:

• Direct mail – 6 weeks prior to event. • Newspaper ads – 4 weeks prior to event. • Newspaper inserts – 6 weeks prior to event.

Set Your Budget

As you begin planning your open house, it’s important to define a budget as this will determine the type of event you have. If you have Unitron Professional Development Funds (PDF), they can be used to support your marketing event. Keep in mind the basic costs for an open house include advertising, materials, giveaways, food and/or beverages.

Determine Your Promotion

What is your purpose for holding an open house? Ideas include:

• New practice or location • New products or technology • Hearing health • New staff members • Office anniversary

Ask yourself what will bring people in the door. Options include:

• Manufacturing expert • Free hearing screenings • Free hearing aid check/cleaning/repair • Discounts or coupons • Free batteries • Trade-in discount

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Determine the patient experience by asking the following questions:

• How will you make your office clean and inviting? • How long and what kind of appointments will you offer? • What kind of food and beverages will you offer?

Identify Who You’re Targeting

Most practices use two options when determining the invitation list:

1. Patient Database – Is often used to promote an upgrade to new technology. Target customers with analog hearing aids and those with hearing aids older than 3 years.

2. Rented Mail List – You can target zip codes, age, income and other demographic data to customize your invitation list. It is industry standard for the list purchased to contain 8-10% undeliverable names. Unitron can provide you with a mailing list, or you can obtain your own.

þ Step 2 Advertise Your Open House Now that you’ve set the details, it’s time to advertise. There are countless options to spread the word about your open house. Following are a few examples.

• Direct mail – letters, postcards • Newspaper inserts – in local papers • Newspaper ads – city or local papers • Online – Web site and Facebook • Community bulletin boards – libraries, senior centers, coffee shops • In your office – posters, word of mouth, fliers

If you need assistance with advertising your open house, the Unitron Marketing department has a wide range of turnkey marketing materials to assist you. All materials can be customized with your practice information. Call for a preview and cost estimate.

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þ Step 3 Track Results You’ve planned, you’ve advertised, it may seem like you’re done until your event date. However, this is an important time in your open house campaign. It’s a time to start tracking your success.

What to Track

To measure the success of your open house, you should keep track of the following information:

• Number of phone calls received as a result of the open house • Number of appointments scheduled • Number of appointments kept • Number of hearing aids sold • Revenue of hearing aid sales

The Unitron Event Tracking Form is an easy way to help keep track of the above details.

Prepare Your Staff

Provide the necessary information and tools so your staff is fully equipped to track and maintain your campaign. Share the event dates, purpose, offers and a copy of the advertising with your with them so they know what’s happening.

MarketTrak research shows that 77% of consumers rate professional staff as very important when choosing a hearing professional. Therefore, it’s important your staff has great contact with your patients, can adequately answer questions and schedule appointments and knows the information they should be tracking.

Screening calls and making appointmentsThe information your staff gains from phone calls can help with appointments and future marketing events. Key questions to ask callers include:

1. How did you hear about us? 2. Do you believe you have a hearing loss? – If yes, ask the caller to bring a spouse or someone close to them whose voice

they’re familiar with. – If no, ask if they’re getting information for someone else, are interested in a

hearing screening, etc.

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3. Do you currently wear hearing aids? – If yes, how old are the hearing aids? Ask the caller to bring them to the

appointment. – If no, ask the caller to bring a spouse or someone close to them whose voice

they are familiar with.

If a caller doesn’t make an appointment, offer to send out an informational packet.

Confirm AppointmentsConfirm all appointments by calling one day prior to the appointment. If a customer cancels their appointment, try to reschedule for another time, even if it’s after the open house dates.

þ Step 4Follow UpNo matter where the customer is in the sales cycle, it’s imperative that you follow up with them. Each type of customer should fall into one of the following types of classification:

• Called > no appointment made • Called > appointment made > show up • Called > appointment made > don’t show up • Called > appointment made > purchase • Called > appointment made > no purchase • Walk in > purchase • Walk in > no purchase

For each of these, you should determine how follow up with more information.

Visit myMarketing or contact your Unitron representative to view all available product and general consumer materials. Please order these 1-2 weeks prior to your event to ensure timely delivery.

800.888.8882unitron.com/us

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At Unitron, we care deeply about people with hearing loss. We work closely with hearing healthcare professionals to provide hearing solutions that improve lives in meaningful ways. Because hearing matters.