Angie Blakely is the Marketing Director for the Denver-based ophthalmology practice comprised of both Specialty Eye Care and Insight Lasik. Specialty Eye Care has 6 doctors, including optometrists, medical optometrists, and ophthalmologists specializing in the cornea, glaucoma, and cataracts. The Lasik portion of the practice has two doctors. Additionally, the practice has a research department that has helped several new medications and procedures be approved by the FDA. Angie oversees the marketing for all of the segments of this practice. She was kind enough to spend some time answering a few of my questions, which you will find below.
So, just to start, can you give me a background and kind of how you ended up in marketing?
Ok, so, I started in ophthalmology in 1988. And, I was in…I, kind of when I started I thought, I’d heard a radio ad for Spivack Vision Center and he was doing RK, and I thought “When I’m assisting him in RK I will feel like I’ve made it to the top, that’s the best of the best”. And, by ’96 I was assisting him in RK. But then as technology got better, I wanted to be doing more surgery. And I got a phone call from Clarity Laser Center, which they have like 35-40 surgeons that just come through it, it’s just an ambulatory surgery center, but people come through it for their Lasik. But, they called me and said “Would you like to come be in Lasik instead of RK?”, because that was kind of when Lasik was taking off. And, so, I did, and then when we were slow at Clarity, I would go out to all of the ophthalmology offices and train all of their staff as to what Lasik is, and what the patient looks like, what the patient experiences, how to talk to patients about Lasik. So, I’d done kind of just a lot of training. Mainly, I was just filling my time, because at Clarity we might have like a 7:00 surgery and then a 4:00 surgery and nothing to do in between, so it was just a way to fill my time and I like to teach. So, after Clarity, I went back to Spivack and his laser center for a while. But then when I came to work for Dr. Johnson, I was his lead tech for a couple of years, and then I was in a car accident and I couldn’t really physically do what he needed me to do. At that exact same time, our marketing person was leaving, and he said, “You know, you’re the one with the background in refractive surgery, you know a lot of these doctors because you’ve been doing this for so long; would you take the marketing position?” So, that’s how I ended up in marketing. It wasn’t…I don’t have a degree in marketing. I love to teach, I’m very knowledgeable about the eye. And, it was really kind of a perfect fit for me because there’s some desk work, which is good for me physically, but it still keeps my mind really active, and I really enjoy that relationship with the doctors and their staffs and going out and doing a bunch of teaching.
So, marketing for you is more building a relationship with doctors than anything?
It is, since Insight Lasik is almost 100% referral based, out of there that; really my customer is the referring doctor and their staff, and making sure that they have the materials they need so that they can take a patient that comes in for glasses or contacts and see if they have a good refractive surgery candidate. At the same time, I do all of the marketing for Specialty Eye Care, which is a whole ‘nother animal, because it’s pathology, and it’s, you know, these patients are older, and sicker, and so, really, for them, all I’ve really done is made—I taught myself Publisher, which I love, I love Publisher, but I can make different flyers of things that they can use in their office to kind of promote the cornea/glaucoma/cataract side of things.
How would you describe your typical day at work?
My typical day is—there’s really not a typical day. In a given week, I will probably do at least one, maybe two staff trainings out in the field. I will work on a newsletter, both for internal marketing for our staff so that they’re educated, and then I do an external newsletter for the co-managing doctors. And that goes out to about 200 doctors. And so it’s really kind of trying to get articles that are up to date, that are recent, and then I have our doctors create—they write something for that, so it’s a lot of nagging them. I do the continuing education for the doctors, so I set up all of those usually 4 or 5 times a year there’s a big event where there’s maybe 40 doctors that attend, so there’s a lot that goes into that. Last night we did one for research, and that took me until 10:30 last night, so it kind of depends on what’s going on that week. Not next week, but the week after is the Colorado Vision Summit. So, once a year in the summer they do a big event for the ODs and there’s usually 450 that attend, so we do; we have an exhibitor booth, we do a [continuing education], and usually some kind of a dinner. So, right now, I’m kind of in the midst of trying to plan all of those events.
Yeah, so that’s taking up most of your time right now. So, you’re building relationships with doctors, you’re doing the continuing education, do you do a lot of—like to start with new doctors, do you do a lot of that?
I do a little bit of that. Ketty Lee does most of that. She’s the one with all of the relationships. She used to work at Omni, so she knows a lot of the doctors that are referring to them; so she’ll go out to them and see if they have an interest in starting to refer to us. I mainly take care of the guys that are already referring, and then if she needs me to go out and help build new relationships and do that together.
Makes sense. So, what has been the most useful tool you’ve found in all of that; to help you with it?
You mean like a computer program?
Yeah, or a technique; in this social media is probably not so big, or if phone calls are really your best bet…
I see, yeah, I would say dropping in on doctors and having the face to face; dinners, lunches, breakfasts; there’s usually 1 or 2 of those a week. And I’ll usually have either Dr. Jackson or Dr. Johnson with me and we’ll take a doctor out for a meal. So, a lot of just getting in front of them is definitely been the most useful in kind of reminding them that we’re there and we have whatever they need. I would say another useful tool is just the years of experience of having the knowledge about the eye. I’m certified and I keep that certification up even though I’m not in the clinic, because I think it’s important for me to know what I’m talking about when they bring up a certain aspect that might deter them from thinking about refractive surgery, and I can talk to them in an educated manner about “that’s not a problem anymore”, like, say astigmatism, because of the amount of astigmatism that our laser can correct, which is so much more than any other laser out there. So, the technology that I have to back me up that we use at Insight is also huge, because it’s by far the best in the industry.
Good. How do you; you’re keeping up your certification, and that’s your main way with keeping up with the changing horizon…
Yes. Absolutely. Doing the trainings, I make PowerPoint presentations, and so I have to constantly make sure that that data is—I mean, like, they just found that new layer in the cornea. So, I’ve got some slides to change.
So, what’s been the biggest challenge for you in marketing the practice?
The biggest challenge by far would be: I’m kind of an introvert at heart. I would very, very much like to be an introvert, but the job doesn’t allow me to do that. So, I really do have to go out of my way to talk to people, and want to go in and not be afraid.
Right. I understand. And how do you find success in your position?
I would say by the number of Lasik surgeries we do that month. It’s pretty easy to be able to tell how I’m doing out in the field. If Lasik surgeries are going down; if the numbers are going down, I need to hit the pavement harder.
What’s most rewarding for you?
Definitely the relationships.
Yeah; with the doctors and everything?
Yeah, the doctors and their staff. I absolutely love going in and seeing people that I’ve trained and that know me. I miss—I definitely miss the patient interaction from being a technician; and, you know when you’re in that position of caring for somebody how much they trust you and that relationship that you build. So, I do miss that, but having the relationships with the doctors and their staff kind of fills that void.
If you could have known one thing going into this position, what would it have been?
Social media. Oh my gosh, I am awful at Facebook, Twitter, Yelp; I have no clue how to do any of that, and that has definitely been my biggest hurdle because it is—our website stinks, and I have no idea how to fix it, so I need to get somebody to come in and just rewrite us—design it. I can provide content, but how to change anything on it… So, social media definitely is my weakest.
