Author Archive
3 Steps to Smart Aesthetic Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsStep #1: Smart aesthetic marketing focuses your message on the patients you most want to visit your practice. You do not want to be everything to everybody because that’s too general and won’t appeal to anyone. Decide now who your “preferred” patient is in terms of:
- Ethnicity
- Age
- Income
- Zip Code
- Lifestyle: single or married
- Professional or stay-at-home mom
- Procedures they want
- Concerns they have
Step #2: Understand what that particular target group is most interested in and how your services provide the best solution. You can brainstorm with your staff or, better yet, ask your patients directly.
For example, the younger Hispanic female may be most interested in hair removal or liposuction at the best price possible whereas the mature professional Caucasian woman may be interested in paying top dollar for a natural-looking face lift. Your headlines reaching out to these different groups would be completely different:
Sick of Unwanted Hair? Get Rid of It Painlessly.
Afraid of An “Overdone” Face Lift Look? Read This….
Step #3: Be where they are, so they see and act on your message.
- Attend/speak at events they attend
- Buy banner ads on websites they frequent
- Mail them educational materials with an offer to call now
Although this may feel counterintuitive to you to condense your focus, it will actually give you more results because you are working with quality rather than quantity.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Consistency Breeds Trust
Posted by: | CommentsNothing is more important to your success than your patients and prospective patients trusting you.
Trust is born from consistency and it’s a disconnect when a patient asks you and your staff questions and get conflicting answers. It’s your responsibility to ensure each staff person answers questions from would-be patients just as well as you would. How do you do that?
- Record yourself during a patient consultation where you are explaining a procedure to a patient. Have your staff listen to it and discuss it at your next staff meeting.
- Do a mock patient consultation for each staff meeting, have someone transcribe it and turn it into that procedure’s FAQ and start a binder to be referred to regularly.
- Keep FAQ’s near the telephone so anyone answering can easily answer a simple question and book an appointment.
Now, no matter who the prospective aesthetic patient asks and how many different people in your office they ask, they will get a straight answer and it will be consistent. That will give them the peace of mind they need to move forward.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Summer’s Here!
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Another changing season means a shift in mindset for your patients. They have weathered another dreadful Winter, dealt with the rainy season and are now anticipating the sunny months of Summer. They want to shed all the big clothes and pull out their Summer fun stuff and that will get them thinking about you and how you can help them look great this fun time of year.
Now is the perfect time to remind them you can help them look great during vacation at the beach in a bathing suit, in shorts at the family reunion picnic and all dressed up at Summer weddings they’ll be attended.
There are so many occasions and happenings going on during the Summer months your patients want to look their best for so get your word out about easy, fast ways to help them to sizzle this Summer.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Is the Economy Improving?
Posted by: | CommentsIn Bob Brinker’s MarketTimer newsletter for May, he talks about the state of the economy. This month indicates continued economic expansion even with a weak housing market and high energy prices. The jobless rate declined in 34 states but the unemployment rate remains high at 8.l8% and the underemployment rate is very high at 15.7%.
So, what does that have to do with aesthetic medicine? Everything. You want to be strategic about who you target for your aesthetic practice. There’s a good chance the economy is not going to bounce back anytime soon, so just prepare. Market to your higher-end, more mature patients versus the young girls who don’t have as much need for your aesthetic services. Your mature patients are least likely to be affected by changes in the economy and last affected by changes in the economy.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Back to the Fundamentals
Posted by: | CommentsThe most successful multi-million dollar aesthetic practices become just that by focusing on and getting very good at the following fundamentals:
- Attracting high-value cosmetic patients
- Qualifying them to ensure they are a good fit
- Converting them when they call and when they come in for a consult
- Retaining them for a lifetime
- Encouraging their referrals
Be sure to set up processes that address each step so you get the most out of each patient interaction.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
ASAPS Annual Meeting in Boston
Posted by: | CommentsI sat in on a packed room for Hot Topics and I learned a few things of interest:
From 2009-2010, there was a 9% increase in cosmetic surgical procedures with over 1.6 million procedures performed.
The discussion between stem cells/fat cells better than just fat cells is still up for debate.
Some of the skin tightening results are less than stellar and not enough to warrant patient satisfaction on some patients.
More and more physicians of non-core specialties with less training are jumping into aesthetic rejuvenation and making this industry even more competitive.
Topical Botox has merit and is showing results.
Medial tourism is picking up in popularity.
And, Boston was lovely this time of year. The weather was moderate and it’s a beautiful City.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Good News/Bad News About Aesthetic Internet Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsFirst the Good News: Roughly 3/4ths of wealthy Americans use search engines when shopping for luxury goods and services (so I’m not talking specifically to searching for aesthetic enhancement but the point still applies). Google dominated the searches with 77%.
Now for the bad news: it led to comparison shopping, even to affluent Americans who did not typically shop by price and comparison.
That means the ease of on-line search and research is re-training consumers who didn’t used to buy by price to now consider it. That’s why your staff often says “they are all price shoppers” about the callers because they are if they’re sitting in front of their computer researching different practices on a particular procedure. The next logical step is for them to call and ask about price because you didn’t give them anything else to consider.
That’s reality and you need to deal with it. Go to your website home page right now and be sure the following are covered:
- - you gotta be different than everyone else
- - have better bragging rights than your competitors
- - be more niched so the visitor says “that’s me”!
- - your copy must be patient-focused on their emotional wants and NOT your ego needs. Tell your patients why they would be making the best choice when they pick you
- - you gotta position yourself as something in the prospective patient’s mind: the cheapest (bad), the most # procedures performed in the area, the only practice with this technology within a 60-mile radius or reassuringly expensive with the ultimate “take care of you” package includes private recovery suite with private nurse, etc.
Source: www.luxuryinstitute.com
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Amsterdam and Plastic Surgery
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Here is a silly picture of me in wooden shoes from my recent trip to Amsterdam. I have to say, it’s a beautiful country full of tulips this time of year and the weather was perfect (everyone told us so every day).
Because I’m always on the look-out for everything “aesthetic” no matter where I am, I looked and looked but came up blank in this country.
I saw one bad boob job on a tourist – that’s it! No face lifts, no overdone face fillers, no big lips, nothing! Even people in the Red Light District were natural. I scanned every publication I came across, but never saw the words “Botox” or “plastic surgery” anywhere.
Maybe it’s the “Coffee Houses” with the sweet smell of funny cigarettes that keep these people from aesthetic rejuvenation, but, whatever it is, they certainly could use it. I’ve never seen so many people smoke so many cigarettes in my life.
I love smoke-free California…
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
Take Advantage of Mother’s Day
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a really big emotional event coming up… Mother’s Day! This is the one time of year your patients feel like they can splurge and do something nice just for themselves.
Some of your patients feel guilty spending family money on vanity, or they feel they don’t deserve it. But, Mother’s Day can change all of that. It’s a special time and the majority of your aesthetic patients are sensitive to it. It’s a time when they would most likely respond to contact from you, if given the chance.
Reach out to your patients and give them permission to do something special for themselves – since they do special things for others all year long. They will appreciate the encouragement.
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For a free download of Catherine’s book, Visit www.YourAestheticPracticeBook.com or call Catherine at (877) 339-8833. Her firm specializes in creative patient attraction – conversion – retention strategies to drive aesthetic profits.
