Thirty content ideas for the optical practice, divided by area of the Wheel

The problem for anyone who has to publish is not a lack of ideas: it is the lack of a criterion for choosing them. The thirty ideas that follow are not “thirty posts”: they are three pieces of content for each of the ten areas of the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel, that is, for each of the areas in which an optical practice really works. The criterion is this: you publish about an area only if something is being done in that area. Content tells the story of the work; it does not replace it.

Every idea can be made with a phone and one hour, without an agency, and fits into the monthly grid of the editorial plan. Before choosing one, the rule of that article applies: if it does not belong to one of the practice’s four strands, it is not published, however good it looks.

01. Strategic planning

1. The three priorities of the year, told to the public in simple terms: “this year we are working on these three things for you”. Whoever declares a commitment is recognised when they keep it.
2. The calendar of monthly themes of the practice, published in January: one theme a month (school, driving, sport, screens) with the promise of one in-depth piece every month.
3. The end-of-year review in three non-financial numbers: how many people you examined, how many were new, how many came back. Real numbers, from your practice, that tell the story of a year’s work.

02. Store design and visual merchandising

4. One corner of the practice explained: why that wall, why that light, what you put there and for whom. The space communicates on its own; told, it communicates more.
5. Before and after of a window display, with the reason for the change, not just the photos. The theme of the window is the theme of the month.
6. “Where you try them on”: the place where the fitting happens, the mirror, the light, told as a service. Whoever has never come in needs to know what awaits them.

03. Assortment and category management

7. A category, not a brand: “frames for people who work eight hours at a computer”, with three models and the reason for each. The customer thinks in needs, not in catalogues.
8. Why we chose this line: the story of a handmade product, the material, the technical problem it solves, as in The product is content too.
9. What we do not stock, and why: the rarest and most credible content. A practice that says no to something is a practice that has chosen.

04. Professional services

10. An eye examination told step by step: what is measured, why, how long it takes. Fear of the examination is the first barrier to coming in; information lowers it.
11. The service nobody knows exists: the frame check, the adjustment, the cleaning, the archive of measurements. Every practice has services that customers discover by chance.
12. The solved case (without a name): a person with a specific visual problem, the solution found, the result. One case a month conveys competence better than any list of qualifications.

05. Pricing policies

13. What is inside the price of a pair of glasses: the examination, the lens, the frame, the fitting, the after-sales care. A legible price is a price that feels fair, as I explain in Price in the customer’s brain.
14. Why we do not give blanket discounts, said clearly: what we give instead of the discount. It is a stance, and stances are remembered.
15. The three options explained: what changes between the essential solution, the right one and the complete one for a typical need. Whoever arrives informed chooses better and faster.

06. Communication

16. One team member and one thing they know how to do: one portrait a month, with the phone, without posing. People trust people.
17. The five questions we always ask before proposing a pair of glasses. Telling the story of the consultation method is the most honest way to stand apart from selling off the shelf.
18. The answer to a question actually received, in the practice or in messages, naming the topic and not the person. One real question is worth ten invented arguments.

07. CRM and customer service

19. “In a year we will call you”: the content that explains the recall as a promise, not a promotion, as in Why customers do not come back to the optical practice.
20. What we do with your data: the archive of measurements, the history, privacy, stated with transparency. Trust about data is the basis of every recall.
21. This month’s message to customers, shown on social media too: “to those who bought a progressive lens in 2024 we wrote this”. Whoever is not yet a customer understands how they will be treated.

08. Promotions and advertising

22. The promotion explained before launching it: who it is for, why now, until when. A promotion with a reason educates; one without a reason devalues.
23. The best product almost nobody asks for, told without a discount: the lens, the treatment or the service that solves a common problem and that this month’s promotion brings to the fore.
24. What happened with the previous promotion: how many people took it up, what they chose. Results told honestly are the advertising for the next promotion.

09. Team management

25. The course we took, and what we can do now: not the photo of the certificate, but the new capability, as in Sales training for the optical practice.
26. A day in the practice seen by the team: who opens, who examines, who delivers, who calls back. Work told from the inside is the content that chains cannot make.
27. The team’s question to the public: “what would you like us to do better?”. Answers are collected and, a month later, you publish what has changed.

10. Relational capability

28. The local area: one piece of content a month about a business, an event or a person in the area the practice works with. The relationship with the local area is the positioning no online competitor can copy.
29. The customer community: an evening, a free check for one group of people, an initiative for schools, told before and after. Not as a promotion, as belonging, as I write in Identity and belonging.
30. The end-of-year letter, signed by the owner: what this year has been, whom to thank, what to expect. It is the content that closes the wheel and opens it again.

Thirty ideas are too many for one year. You need the three that tell the story of the three things you are working on.

How to choose yours

The year plan I wrote about in The year plan for the optical practice chooses three areas of the Wheel per four-month period. The content ideas follow from that: the three of the area you are working on, plus one from areas 06 (Communication) and 10 (Relational capability), which apply all year round. Twelve pieces of content per four months, one a week: the editorial plan’s grid is already full.

The thirty ideas and the grid for using them in your own voice are part of Trade Up Online; the other articles are in the digital marketing for optics area.