Local Marketing That Builds Community Trust and Fills Your Practice
Published by Luminus, which sells healthcare marketing agency services. Not an endorsement by Healthcare Growth Strategies, Paul Gruensfelder or his employer. Sample/method: Healthcare Marketing Edge podcast episode 16 (March 17, 2026), an interview between Luminus CEO Tim Bouchard and Kandy Garrett of Social Optician; no sample or study method stated, and examples are anecdotal. Figures are the vendor’s and were not independently verified. Editorial standards
Established practices lose local visibility when they stop showing up in their communities, says Kandy Garrett, an ABO-certified optician and freelance marketing manager at Social Optician, on Luminus’s Healthcare Marketing Edge podcast. Patient demographics shift, patients age out or move, and habits change, so a practice can stay unknown to neighbors for years. Garrett’s tactics include taking part in high school fairs and parades rather than just staffing a table, joining chamber and coffee-shop networking without a sales pitch, sponsoring local groups such as youth sports teams, inviting families in during events like Halloween, and treating nearby practices as referral partners. She also urges one consistent message across office, website, social and print.
Community presence is cheap compared with paid media but hard to measure, which is why many practices drop it. Garrett offers early signals to watch, such as more website traffic, calls and questions about hours or holiday closures, which suggest new people are discovering the practice. It fits single sites and local teams in multi-site groups alike.
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Why do established practices lose local visibility?
Garrett says patient demographics change, patients age out or move, and consumer habits shift, so practices that stop showing up in the community can become unknown locally.
What local marketing tactics does Garrett recommend?
Join fairs, parades and chamber events without a sales pitch, sponsor local groups, invite families in during community events, and treat nearby practices as referral partners.
How can a practice tell if community marketing is working?
Early signs include more website traffic, more phone calls and questions, and callers asking about hours or holiday closures, which suggests they did not know the practice before.