Case study: VSON Laser Eye Specialists
VSON is a solo-surgeon, relatively new, independent laser eye surgery clinic founded by Dr Matt Russell in Brisbane, Australia, in September 2019. Brisbane is Australia’s 3rd largest city and has a population of 2.5 million. In 2019, there were 6 established competitors in the market, including 2 national chains and 4 independent clinics.
Client results: Becoming a major player in Brisbane
Before the 2020 Covid-19 global pandemic began, VSON doubled its sales in the 2nd month of its engagement with us. Then, they doubled again in their 3rd month. 8 months later, they again doubled their sales. Compared to 2019, the clinic’s average monthly sales grew by 162.5% year on year (YoY) in 2020. In 2021, they’d grown by 342%. 2022 is even better, and when you compare their first month working with us to their most recently recorded month, VSON has grown by 648%. In absolute numbers, that’s like having 100 patients and then having 648 patients.
Average monthly sales YoY grew by 648%
CLIENT PROBLEM
“We had non-industry people involved in our marketing”
“We had the daunting task of setting up a new refractive practice. So, we went through a process of both investigating advisors and doing this ourselves. We had non-industry people involved in trying to set up a website, our social media marketing and setting up the whole patient journey.”
– Dr Matt Russell, VSON
Matt didn’t feel that his marketing assets represented the calibre of service he wanted to deliver, so he reached out to LiveseySolar to see if we could help.
What we did together
After completing our marketing execution plan, we have initiated:
- a new website
- over 100 videos
- a self-test
- a pricing guide
- a Vision Correction guide
- search engine optimisation
- paid traffic campaign management
- social media marketing
- ongoing strategic marketing consulting
- influencer marketing
- internal marketing, including training and collateral
- Hattie CRM
BEFORE LAUNCH
“They completely transformed the way we were approaching this.”
“After extensive research we found LiveseySolar – who was absolutely fantastic. They completely transformed the way we were approaching this. We benefited from their seasoned professionalism. They are a very skilled team that has the right industry-specific expertise.”
– Dr Matt Russell, VSON
First, as we do with all of our clients, we conducted a Marketing Execution Plan. A plan like this involves:
- understanding the features, advantages, motives and benefits of the specific treatments VSON offers
- designing patient avatars canvases (personas) that we would target, including their before states, after states and demographics
- analysed the competition to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and advising VSON on competitive pricing
- crafting a patient avatar journey to define what we’d aim to get avatars to do from the awareness to the referral (promotion) stages
- identified a list of priority marketing tactics that would help us generate awareness and engagement
Matt wanted to open by September 2019. In August, Matt decided to leave his current ask us to build his website we built VSON’s website based on designs created by branding and website design companies.
AFTER LIVESEYSOLAR
“From a dream… to actually having a practice up and running!”
“Well it’s extremely pleasing and we feel quite fortunate and even lucky that we connected with LiveseySolar! And now, we’ve gone from having a dream of having a practice to actually having a practice up and running…”
– Dr Matt Russell, VSON
“With patients making inquiries, looking for procedures, and leaving our practice after having had a very good experience with outcomes and also their interaction with the clinic and our brand. So how does that feel? Well, it’s extremely pleasing and we feel quite fortunate and even lucky that we connected with LiveseySolar. We don’t feel like we’re standing in the dark about the moves we’re making at the moment. We’re making really considered moves. They’re positively impacting how the practice is running and how it’s performing.”
LiveseySolar has acted as VSON’s fractional CMO and digital marketing agency since July 2019. We couldn’t be happier with the relationship, and now we’re marketing Matt Russell’s sister cataract surgery clinic, OKKO.
Find out what’s possible for your practice with an informal compatibility chat
The best way to answer that nagging question about practice growth/marketing/patient volume in the back of your mind is to book a free 15-minute compatibility call. Get some options and go away with a clear idea of what’s possible.
Meet our Co-Founders
Rod Solar
Founder & Scalable Business Advisor
For over 20 years, I’ve helped ophthalmology entrepreneurs scale their private practices. I specialise in doubling revenue within three years by offering a proven framework, hands-on experience, and a team of experts who implement what works. We take the guesswork out of growth and scale, so you can focus on delivering exceptional patient care while maximising the value of your business.
LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.
— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO
Laura Livesey
Founder & CEO
I’m the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. I’ve developed powerful eye surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.
Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.
— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK