The Vision Therapy Center 

The Vision Therapy Center is a small business with a big story to tell.  I should know.  I’ve experienced their magic first-hand.  I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, you need to know a little bit about the Vision Therapy Center.

Vision therapy is a non-invasive procedure that helps children and adults overcome vision disorders that can affect reading and learning.  Often described as “physical therapy for the eyes,” vision therapy helps correct visual-motor and/or perceptual-cognitive deficiencies.  The Vision Therapy Clinic has been operating in Brookfield since 1995 and has helped over 600 patients from the greater Madison area.

Now the personal story:  When my daughter Anna was in first grade, she hated to read, and constantly reversed letters when she wrote.  We thought she was dyslexic, but my wife Sharon learned via the Internet that Anna might be suffering from a vision-related problem.  We discovered the Vision Therapy Center, and took her for a comprehensive vision test. 

It turned out Anna had a convergence insufficiency in her eyes, which meant her eyes weren’t working together. After six months of vision therapy, her ability to read and her overall demeanor completely improved.  Today she is a voracious reader at the top of her class, and scores extremely high in reading and language arts on standardized tests – all because of vision therapy.

The story of the Vision Therapy Center is fantastic, and most definitely buzzworthy.  To help spread the word, we’ve launched a campaign that adheres to one of the top buzz principles:  Tell a remarkable story.

By pitching the story to newspapers, and highlighting the buzzworthy attributes of the tale, we’ve generated publicity for the Vision Therapy Center.  We received a page one story in the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison’s main newspaper.  Based on the success of that story, we’ve begun a campaign on a local level.  We’re now pitching the story to local newspapers in communities in which we’ve helped patients.  Anna’s story, for example, appeared in the McFarland Thistle, her hometown paper.  While the story ran, Dr. Kellye Knueppel made a presentation to the local community, and Kim Jelinske of the Vision Therapy Center spoke to a group of teachers. 

 The combination of publicity and hands-on, face-to-face contact has generated tremendous awareness in McFarland.  We’ve begun building an “influencer” group in McFarland, both among parents and teachers, who will serve as a solid referral base. 

We plan on using the “local buzz” model to continue generating awareness and helping children and adults with vision issues.