December 30, 2008
Building our Business with a Plan
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How we are creating and implementing a marketing plan for our online contact lens business during these challenging and uncertain times?
These are indeed crazy times but businesses are growing while others are dying. How can your business be one that is moving in the right direction?
Let me answer a question with another question and go from there…. are you actively trying to grow your business right now? If not, your business is dying!
In an earlier blog post we talked about growing a business through education. Marketing by using educational seminars is not right for every business. A business we are actively trying to grow is http://clecontactlenses.com. As you probably know, this is an online retailer of contact lenses, accessories and supplies. We are a well respected site that was founded more than ten years ago and run by two prominent NYC eye doctors. With tens of thousands of customers, we pride ourselves on outstanding customer service and great prices for brand name contact lenses, solutions and supplies.
So what are we doing to grow a niche business like http://clecontactlenses.com?
A) We started with a plan. We’ve put together a marketing plan. This plan is born from a basic analysis and discussion about the industry http://clecontactlenses.com is in and where our customers come from. The plan includes not only who our clients are but an out of the box discussion about where new clients might come from
B) We identify different marketing strategies:
a. Space advertising
b. Direct mail
c. Telemarketing
d. Seminars
e. Web marketing
i. SEO
ii. Adwords
iii. Viral marketing
iv. Outbound email marketing
v. Affiliate marketing
f. Video marketing
C) We allocate a budget to each item that make sense and if a particular strategy does not make sense for a particular business (i.e.: trade shows for an online contact lens company) we assign zero dollars to that line item in the budget.
D) We test, test and test some more. We quantify what our expected results are vs. what our actual results are before during and after various stages of a marketing campaign. This is easy to do when it comes to direct mail and web advertising as you can set up special landing pages or phone numbers that let you know that a client or prospect is responding to a particular campaign. It’s not as easy to measure results for intangible marketing strategies like seminars.
E) We tweak & adjust. We will fund elements of the marketing plan that work well and cut back on areas that don’t.
F) We keep it up. Many businesses are committing a cardinal sin right now. They are freezing up their marketing spend because of uncertain times. When others are pulling back successful businesses are pushing forward.
While there is really no secret recipe for success that can be generally applied across the board to every business, what can be said is this: a business that continues to promote, adapt and change in the face of adversity is a business that will be stronger because of it.
Tags: Contact Lenses
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Hey I like how these blog posts are mixing it up a bit. We get a bit of a scientific perspective, a legal, a medical, and now a marketing and business perspective. Thanks
I thought this is a blog about contact lenses. Although I and thinking about expanding my business in the new year when most folks are scaling back.
THank you. very insiteful….nice to hear how others are handling these difficult financial times.
Thank you! For once we have a “can do” spin on the economy! I’m getting tired of all the doomsayers. As far as I can tell, the world is still turning.
There are two ways to look at things, we can look at things with a glass half empty or a glass half full approach. I too choose half full as did this blog poster.
Many businesses are struggling and one’s that market when others don’t always stand to take from the one’s who hide in a hole.
I like the approach of the post. Test, test test and tweak, tweak, tweak. You can not stand still in business.
It is a wonderful time of the year. Relaxing and with a fresh start around the corner (09) I definitely try and build an intermediate plan. With the craziness of this past year I won’t be forecasting much past the first quarter and then quarter by quarter from there on.
This blog on building our online contact lens business is helping to get me motivated to build my buisness.
I will stick to the 80/20 rule in 2009!!
I just bought my contact lenses online for the first two months of 2009. Happy New Year !
I am going to take advatage of the affiliate!
My new years resolution is to get contact lenses. Im thinking focus dailies.
I just saw a funny commercial for contact lenses with ozzy ozbourne in it.
One of my new years resolutions will be to make more money from home by using affiliate marketing programs. I found one here at http://clecontactlenses.com. For a direct link to the program check out http://cleaffiliate.com
My advice is put your contact lenses in, put your head down and get to work on building your business.
I like poster 15’s comment. I will do that after I buy them online and get free shipping to my door. No time wasted going to store and no gas wasted either.
Happy New Year to all. New contact lenses, new lens solutions, new shoes, 3 new sweaters and some new socks - whats better than that !
I have a few technical questions to ask about contact lenses. Can I do that on your “ask the doctor” service here on this site ?
can you tell me exactly how to become a clecontactlenses.com affiliate?
I could use the extra money and I have a email list to prospect with
I want to give you the secret of success in business…. buying something and sell it for more….that’s IT.
And besides I want to buy CLEcontactlenses.com because they seem to able to buy contacts and sell them for less AND THEY STILL STAY IN BUSINESS. How they do I don’t know but tha’t shte only place to buy contact lenses.. the prices are SOOO cheap!
In this tough economy we must do what we must do to stay afloat. So we must learn to comparison price on everything we use regularly. We don’t stop using contact lenses, we buy contact lenses from places like clecontactlenses.com where they only offer the lowest prices and guarantee that they are the lowest. That’s how they got so successful in business. Good job!
Wow, I can’t believe how many comments were made about this blog post, especially on the same day! You must have millions of readers!
I am wearing contact lenses since 7 years, but I still have glasses, because I am sometimes just to lazy to put my lenses in.
People all over the world receive the loans from different banks, just because it is simple.