Aesthetic Profits Blog

Marketing Strategies for Shaky Times

2009-02-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

How to Market to Aesthetic Patients Now

While our economy corrects itself, there is much you can do to help keep your own aesthetic profits consistent.

For starters, this is not the perfect time to fish for new aesthetic patients. It will take much more time, money and effort to bring a total stranger on board right now because they are watching their disposable income more carefully and not as open to spending it on unproven concepts.

Rather, this is the perfect time for you to go inward and concentrate on your low-hanging fruit. The patients who already know, like and trust you are much more likely to respond to your marketing efforts so put together a plan to communicate with them throughout the year.

Marketing to Your Current Aesthetic Patients

Always start with your more mature, affluent patients. They have the most need and wherewithal to actually want and pay for your services. So, invite them to your in-house seminar to discuss new solutions to crepy skin, send them fun, themed postcards to try services they haven't yet experienced and inform them of anything new in your office they should check out such as new technology or new staff.

Offer your aesthetic patients different levels of services so they can take advantage of your higher-priced procedures or your lower-priced procedures, depending on their situation.

You want to do whatever you can to keep these patients in your fold now so they stay with you when the economy grows again.

Do You Have a Plan Man?

2009-01-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's early January. It's cold outside. The Holidays are over. NOW is the perfect time for you to plan the rest of your year so it doesn't get away from you.

Aesthetic Marketing Plan

My advice is to keep it simple. You probably don't have the time, money, know-how or interest is putting together some elaborate marketing plan so don't. Here's some solid advice...

Look through your records and note:

- What types of patients are attracted to you (age, ethnicity, zip, etc.)?
- Which procedures do they prefer?
- Which of your procedures are most profitable given the time, staff and costs it takes to perform them
- Who are your top-buying patients?
- Which marketing projects brought you the best return?

Review/Repeat Your Marketing Results

Now, do more of whatever worked best. Now is not the time to start a new, unproven idea just because. You want to know that you will get a good result. Every dollar counts this year so be strategic and thoughtful. For example, you know whenever you have an in-house seminar for 20 women, at least 4 book procedures, then continue to do those seminars until they don't work anymore.

The best indicator of future performance is past performance so learn who and what brings you the best income and repeat it.

Map Out Your Marketing Plan

Sit down with your staff and decide, right now, what you will do each month to market your aesthetic practice. It could or should look something like this:

Monthly emails
Quarterly patient newsletters
Monthly postcards
Quarterly in-house seminars
Semi-Quarterly patient events

The secret is to consistently and persistantly keep your name in front of your patients so they come back again and again and bring their friends with them.

New Year - New You

2009-01-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

How Were Your 2008 Numbers?

Before you jump right into the new year, take a minute to reflect on 2008. Did you reach your goals? Did you even have goals to reach? What did you accomplish? What did you never get to?

Write Out Your Goals

Be specific. Rather than "make more money" as a goal, be super specific such as, "My aesthetic practice will bring in $1,000,000 by December 31, 2009". Something happens in your head when you are that specific. It searches to find out ways to make that happen.

Questions to Kick Start Goal Setting

To help you get started, complete the following sentences:

I will go...
I want to...
I will stop...
I will have...
I will learn...
I want to earn...
I will play more...
My practice will...
I wish I could...
Would it be great if...

That should help and I wish you a very prosperous year!

Market to the Aesthetic Patients Who Already Know You

2008-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

You always want to target your messages to your own database first. They are your low-hanging fruit since they already know you, they like you and, hopefully, they trust you. They are also more apt to respond to your marketing efforts since they are familiar with you and your practice. Incorporate these following efforts into your yearly marketing plan:

In-House Signage
Be sure every single patient who walks through your door knows every single procedure, treatment and product you offer. Have you ever heard, “If I had known you did that, I wouldn’t have gone somewhere else”? Display a menu of your services and products, beautifully designed and framed, in each exam room as well as the reception area.

In-House Seminars
Market your practice through education. Today’s aesthetic consumer is flooded with information on the latest and greatest cosmetic procedures available. It’s not necessarily the best but it is new and news so helping your patient decipher what’s hot and what’s not helps to build your credibility.

Newsletter
Again, give your patients what they want – information and a reason to call you. Explain what’s new in your practice. Introduce a new staff member, a new procedure, whatever. Then attach a time-limited special offer so they call now rather than wait.

Email Marketing
Email marketing is the cheapest form of advertising today and it’s fast. Be sure you are collecting email messages from your patients and getting their permission to receive email messages from your practice. And, be sure the message is short, newsy and contains a very special Web offer. You also want to include a “Send to a Friend” link to help spread your word-of-mouth referrals.

Open House
Work with your vendors to help you promote their products and services, as well as offset your costs of having an Open House. Let the vendors talk directly with your patients, serve refreshments, invite the neighborhood salons and spas and make it an event of fun and education.

Refer-a-Friend Program
Developing a program for your patients to refer their friends and family is always a good idea. If they like you and get a good result, they will tell people. Give them their before and after photos to show their friends, send a thank you note when they refer someone, give them a personal call and invite them in for complimentary services when they refer often. They are your advocates and should be shown appreciation and encouragement for continuing to refer to you.

VIP Cards
It is very competitive in the world of cosmetic enhancement. So, even though your patient may love you, they may be enticed to try another office that is offering an attractive discounted price on the minimally invasive procedures they regularly get from your office. You can avoid much of the “straying” if your patient feels like they are getting a “break” for staying loyal to you. Talk to your vendors since they can help you with VIP cards and offers.

Special Mailings
There are specific times of the year when we want to look especially good. Those are birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, the Holidays, Summer, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc. Timing is important. Develop an eye-catching, colorful postcard with a limited-time, special offer that goes to your patients throughout the year.

Conclusion

If you consistently communicate with your patients, and treat them well, they will feel like family and continue to see you for all of their cosmetic enhancement needs. I assure you, if you don’t keep your patients informed and happy, your competitors will. Once you have the patient in your office - keep them. It’s so much cheaper than constantly pooling for new ones.

Need Help with the creative part? Click here: http://www.cosmeticimagemarketing.com/attract_aesthetic-patients.php

How To Differentiate from Other Aesthetic Physicians

2008-12-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

How do you set yourself apart from every other health care practitioner who provides aesthetic services? There are many ways - read on....

Tell Your Aesthetic Patients Who You Are

The more personality you build into your messaging, the more aesthetic patients will gravitate towards you because they feel as if they know you. Isn't that true in your own life? What emotions go through when you get a simple letter vs. a letter with someone's photograph vs. a video of them speaking and a report they wrote, etc.? Isn't it true the more senses they stimulate, the more comfortable you are feeling as if you understand them and what they value?

Now more than ever, you need to do whatever you can to connect with prospective patients and stay connected with current patients to reaffirm why you are the best choice for them. That means you need to build personality into your materials. Here are some ideas:

- Add your photograph to your materials and be sure it's updated and you are smiling warmly;

- Produce a simple video of you being interviewed and talking about your values and interests in serving your patients;

- Include staff photos as well as your office on your website so prospective patients feel as if they know you before you even meet;

- Show presentations with you speaking and hand out the presentation slides so patients know you are the authority.

So much of effective marketing is perception. And, your patients' perception of you is your reality so be sure your image portrays who you really are.

Many more concrete ideas are laid out in the How To: Series Inner Circle Club at www.AestheticProfits.com.

What Your Personal Brand Says About You

2008-11-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

What Your Personal Brand Says About You

Have you thought of yourself as the “Top Doc” to the stars? Or the best anti-aging physician of all time? Or even the best cosmetic dermatologist in your hometown? Is that how your patients see you as well? If not, you need to build a more cohesive aesthetic image using branding. Branding is the art of attracting your preferred aesthetic patients using very specific messaging that will get their attention.

By the way, the patients I interviewed for my aesthetic book told me it was imperative they got the experience they expected to get or they wouldn't return.

What is Aesthetic Marketing Branding?

Branding is everything you do to attract and maintain quality aesthetic patients. Branding is not sales. Branding is emotionally attracting the type of aesthetic patient you want in your practice who chooses you over your competition. Your personal brand is who you are, what you do, and your leading attribute in the eyes of your preferred target market.

Aesthetic Branding is Not Marketing or Sales

Branding is more critical than marketing or sales because:

- While sales may be convincing, and marketing can be generating;
- Branding is influencing and changing the way people think

Branding appeals to desire and touches emotions. The goal is to emotionally predispose aesthetic patients into entering into a relationship with you because they believe you are the best choice – for them.

With more information at their finger tips, today’s aesthetic consumers are too sophisticated and skeptical to be sold. They want to arrive at their own decision on their own terms. Branding is helping them get there. Branding “pre-sells” your expertise, or you, before they even meet you.

So, how do you become your preferred patient’s first choice in aesthetic physicians even before they need a doctor? First, you attract and then you maintain quality aesthetic patients.

Attracting and maintaining quality aesthetic patients happens by promising to give your aesthetic patients the results they want. Then, they return to you again and again, and they brag about you to their friends, creating invaluable word-of-mouth buzz. When you are in a competitive environment like this one, you need to attract aesthetic patients and this is best done by creating visibility for you and your practice. Frankly, your visibility brings more prospective patients to you, but your ability will keep them. So, your name, as well as your face, needs to be circulating in the community in a tasteful, professional way that your preferred patient base will see.

Aesthetic Branding is Perception

Branding is all about perception. And, visibility builds credibility in the eyes of your prospective aesthetic patients. If they see something in the media a few times, it sounds familiar to them and they get the impression it must be good. When prospective aesthetic patients recognize you and say to themselves, “gosh, he looks familiar”, you are well on your way. All things being equal… the more visible competitor will win. Aesthetic patients want to feel comfortable with their choices and familiarity breeds that comfort.

Your patients’ and prospective patients’ perception is your reality, and they define their decision to go to you versus all the others due in large part to your branding. They have made this decision, not based on real evidence, but on their decision that you are the best choice for them. They did not get to that choice using logic – they made the decision emotionally and then justified their decision with logic. Perhaps they saw you on the news or they saw your photo in the social column at a fundraiser or their friend passed along the informative newsletter you distributed to your patients.

Today it is too competitive to rest on your laurels. Your name needs to stay in front of your preferred patient base, so they visit you when they have a present need now or in six months or next year. You cannot assume they will stay loyal to you if you do not keep your relationship current with them. If you do not stay in touch – your competitors will.

How to Create Your Aesthetic Brand

Here are simple strategies to ensure your branding works:

- Be sure your patients know why you are unique
- Tell your patients what you offer that most of your competitors don’t
- Do things differently to stand out
- Clearly convey your personality in your marketing tools
- Specialize and be selective
- Be where your prospective patients are
- Build rapport and trust with every patient
- Stay in contact with your patients throughout the year
- Refine your patient relations processes

For those physicians who take branding seriously, the payoff could be huge. The difference between a good practice and a great practice is in the details. Pay attention to every aspect of you, your staff and your practice to ensure it is consistent with your personality and the image you are trying to portray.

Welcome to Aesthetic Profits Blog

2008-11-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

If you are serious about growing your aesthetic practice, this is the place to be!

I've been consulting with plastic surgeons, cosmetic dermatologists and medi-spas for years now and it's been great. 76 million Baby Boomers need help looking their best and I'm one of them so this topic of aesthetics is near and dear to my heart.

Let's learn and grow together. You work with a fickle group of consumers and I can help take the guesswork out of what the aesthetic patients want and don't want, why they choose you over all the others and what aesthetic physicians can do to be the most competitive.

You will get all the information, tips and strategies you need with our new How To: Series modules . Each module covers one important topic so you will want to collect them all.

I look forward to guiding you to aesthetic profits.