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2
CHOOSE YOUR DATE WISELY. DECIDE ON VENDORS.
Make sure it is a time when all doctors are available for
exams, all staff are in the office and not on holidays,
maybe additional locum staff are also available per hour
and you are not conflicting with any statutory or religious
holidays or community events that may take away buying
customers from attending. Approach your sales representatives of these companies
including frame and lens reps to negotiate onsite assis-
tance and product selection as well as discounts offered
over a two to three-day period. Ask them for a volume
bonus if you hit a certain target amount of
their products.
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4
WORK ON YOUR OFFER? PLAN YOUR MARKETING.
Decide on what your offer is going to be so you can work
on your marketing campaign. Is it 40 per cent frame
and lenses, is it 50 per cent sunglasses? Understand that
consumers in today’s competitive market are not swayed
by small percentage-off discounts, 10 per cent or 20 per
cent is not a big enough incentive for someone to come in
and buy, so make it worth your while by putting together
a great offer. Your trunk show won’t be successful if no one knows about
it, so planning your marketing strategy will be the dif-
ference between a good or a great trunk show. Once you
have your offer, contact your graphic designer and get the
following made:
• Social media timeline covers and posts;
• Create an “event” on your business Facebook page and
sponsor it;
• Do Google AdWords & Facebook ad campaigns for the
week of and day of the event;
• Newspaper or community newsletter ad;
• Banner for your website;
• Banner for your email newsletter or better, the entire
email newsletter ad;
• Small flyers you can give to customers who look but don’t
buy in your optical the month prior to the sale or drop off
to other businesses;
• In-office posters and tent cards;
• Recall postcards.
5
PLAN THE DAY.
Think ahead of time of what else you will need to plan
from staff schedules to food and decor. Lay it all out in
a spreadsheet and assign tasks to staff and associates so
everyone feels invested in the event.
• Invite other vendors like makeup artists, hair stylists or
complementary businesses that might like to partner in
some way at the show,
• Plan food and beverages on site for customers,
• Plan food and beverages on site for staff as they likely
won’t have time to go for lunch or coffee breaks,
• Have a staff meeting the week or day before to discuss
how the day will be executed, what to do when it gets
super busy and how to juggle multiple customers at once
to ensure everyone is looked after,
• Don’t forget about décor…it should look like an event.
Posters, tent cards, balloons, cake, the makings of any
good party.
Last note: Have fun! If you make it fun, your staff won’t
see it as added workload but a fun event they are involved
in. Make a theme like “Sun Days” and all dress in tropical
wear. Want more ideas to enhance your Eyewear Trunk
Show? Check out this Pinterest page full of ideas: https://
www.pinterest.com/4ecps/eyewear-trunk-show-ideas/.
Trudi Charest is the co-Founder of 4ECPs, a business re-
source company for eyecare professionals. 4ECPs has six
divisions: marketing, training, eyecare jobs, social me-
dia, payments and events. Contact Trudi at trudi@4ecps.
com or www.4ecps.com.
Optical Prism | July 2017 33