Archive for Aesthetic Patients
What’s Your #1 Asset?
Posted by: | CommentsThe most valuable asset you have is a list of high-value patients and prospective patients who care about their appearance. You know they care because they have called your office, attended your events, referred their friends and paid you for aesthetic enhancement.
This patient, who already knows you, likes you, and trusts you is golden to you. They have endless needs you can help them with for years to come. I guarantee, they want to be educated about the youth-defying opportunities available to them and want that information from a credible source – YOU!
Aesthetic Patients Have Endless Needs
The beauty (pun intended) of aesthetics is this very thing: you have patients with endless needs. If an aesthetic patient wants to look good today, they also want to look good tomorrow and next week and next year and year after year.
So, if they come to you for a loss-leader such as a facial, they will stay for more, and continue up the ladder to higher-priced procedures. Conversely, if they come for a high-ticket surgical procedure, they will move down the ladder to perfect or maintain it with the lesser procedures, treatments, and products.
Your aesthetic patient who likes to look good and feel good is in relentless pursuit to keep those good feelings going. So when you improve one part of her body, she’ll most likely turn to the next part of her body. It’s almost like renovating your home. When you renovate your kitchen (and you absolutely love the results), don’t you naturally then want to renovate your bathroom?
The pearl here is to develop a relationship with your existing patients – who have endless beauty needs – so they return again and again.
——–
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.
What Are Your Patients Saying About You?
Posted by: | CommentsUnless you’ve been on a deserted island for the past year or two, you know patient reviews are part of your new reality.
Thanks to peer-to-peer forums, Yelp, and countless other review sites, you are being scrutinized by your patients. Good or bad, they are talking about you.
Here is what you can do to ensure that talk is all good:
A “WOW” Patient Experience
Make your patient feel special and cared for every single time they call or visit you. You are in the business of feelings, so do everything you can to make your patients feel cared for and cared about. That encompasses their entire experience with your office – from your receptionist answering the phone in a friendly manner, your staff greeting visiting patients with a smile, and your building rapport with those patients so they feel comfortable.
Give Them Satisfying Result
Give your patients a good result. Make sure it’s a result they are happy with; something their friends will comment on. A look they feel was worth the money. And, by all means, address any concerns a patient might have about the result they got. You cannot afford to ignore their dissatisfaction, because that’s when they turn to the internet to vent their frustration with you.
Ask for Feedback
Be proactive about what is being said about you on the internet. When your patient tells you how happy they are with their result, ask them to share their story in a testimonial either in writing or in a video. You could give them instructions on how to give you a good review on review sites, or you could mail/email them a post-op survey. Make sure to thank your patients for their feedback and for their interest in helping spread the word about you to other would-be patients.
Stay Informed
An easy way for you to monitor what is being said about you in cyberspace is to set up a Google alert using your name and your practice name. Google will email you anytime your name(s) are mentioned. That will give you the opportunity to address issues and/or maximize nice things being said about you.
——–
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.
Where Will Your New Patients Come From?
Posted by: | CommentsI just returned from my Mastermind Conference where I hang with a small group of top Marketers in the world to share what’s working and what’s not when it comes to growing a business (or practice).
The consensus was mass external marketing to complete strangers is out and strategic alliance marketing is in. The noise is too loud in today’s massive media explosion for you to be heard.
What will work is having a group of patients who sing your praises to their friend (who believe and trust them). So your job is to make it easy for your patients to brag about you. Here’s one idea that works like a champ:
FACE TIME
Use patient appreciation events and in-house seminars to get face time with your patients and their friends so they see, hear and touch you. They will remember you longer, stay loyal to you and their friends are more likely to choose you now that they’ve spent Live-Time with you.
The bottom line is this: it’s all about the quality of a patient today and NOT quantity. You need solid patients who love you, stay loyal to you, return again and again and refer their friends. Referral systems are a great way to guarantee your patients keep you on their mind even after they walk out your door. I hope you hear me on this one.
——–
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.
To Discount or Not To Discount
Posted by: | CommentsOnce you lower your prices, it’s nearly impossible to increase them again without losing patients so I don’t recommend offering temporary discounts. You are always better off adding value instead. Patients love a good deal but it doesn’t have to be a cheap price. Bundling services to add more value is a great strategy. For example, free sunscreen with every laser treatment or every laser hair removal leg package comes with a free underarm treatment. This way the patient gets a little something extra and you keep your profit margins up.
Another great strategy is to offer a special price for a very limited time for a very specific reason so the patient knows this is special. For example, if the patient can have surgery on a Wednesday during a certain month, they can save $500 on the OR room since it’s less on a Wednesday than a Friday during that month. Or, a special Birthday Gift Card your patient can use to look their best on their special day and it includes a tight expiration date. The point is for your patient to feel as if they got great value. If you discount, make it feel special rather than random or ‘cheap’.
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
Increase Aesthetic Patient Conversion Rates
Posted by: | CommentsYou increase conversion rates by getting back to the fundamentals: ensure your aesthetic patient goes step-by-step through your process so they are most likely to say yes at the end of it. This a well-oiled machine with no shortcuts and every step must happen every time to ensure the patient is comfortable, informed and compelled to move forward. The steps include:
- Efficient Phones
- Welcome Packet
- Trained, friendly Staff
- Comfortable, Clean Environment
- Educational and Compelling In-House Signage
- Initial Consultation with Staff (who are trained in effective aesthetic consultations)
- Social Proof
- Consultation with Physician
- Closing with Staff
- Thoughtful follow up
In today’s competitive climate, it’s all about the quality of the patient experience rather than just the sheer quantity. The “churn and burn” theory is no longer viable since it’s getting much too expensive to advertise that way. If a patient has called your office, taken time out to drive over to see you, meet you and ask questions, it’s your job to do everything possible to help them make a great decision.
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
Email Marketing To The Aesthetic Patient
Posted by: | CommentsEmail marketing is a fantastic way to keep in touch with your patients. It’s quick, easy and best of all – cheap. But beware! Email marketing is not as easy as it looks. You not only need really good copy to make it appealing to your audience, you also need technical coding and know-how to get it through today’s company fire walls and SPAM filters. That means you need permission from your patients to send email and you preferably want their personal email address. You then need to work with someone who specializes in html coding so they can prepare the email to be read by different email services, on different computer processors and in different resolutions.
Even when you do everything right, the average open rate of an email is only 15-20%. So while email is a great medium, it’s only one way to keep in touch. Don’t count on it as the only medium to use to communicate with your patients. You still need hard copy communications to get through to your patients.
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
Utilizing Your Database for Effective Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsYour database is the holy grail of sales leads for you. The patients who already know, like and trust you are much more apt to respond to your promotional efforts so always start with them. However, do it strategically.
To be truly effective, you need:
-The right message
-Going to the right patient
-Using the right media channel
It’s called target messaging and here’s an example. You want to promote your fractional skin rejuvenation laser, but how? First, you treat the perfect patient with it and that would be a female in her 40-50’s with skin damage and aging skin concerns. Now have her provide you with a testimonial and permission to use her before/after pictures in your promotional materials. Now, send out a patient letter that includes her testimonial and pictures to other females in their 40-50’s who also most likely have skin damage and aging skin concerns. That is a super targeted message going to the right patient using the most effective media channel. In marketing we have a saying, “The Riches are in the Niches” and it’s as true in aesthetic medicine as in any other industry. Today’s consumers want something just for them.
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
Good News/Bad News About 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 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 all about you or what you want.
- you gotta position yourself as something in the prospective patient’s mind: the cheapest (bad), the most procedure X 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 including private recovery suite with private nurse, etc.
The take-a-way here is if you do not give your patients parameters they should consider when choosing an aesthetic physician, they will fall back on the only one they know – price!
Source: www.luxuryinstitute.com
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.comand see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
My Aesthetic Patients Are Cheap!
Posted by: | CommentsThe American consumer is alive and well. As much as you believe your patients have taken a good hard look at their conditions and debt and have stopped spending and extinct when it comes to investing in aesthetic enhancement, you should know the true facts.
Fact: they recently spent $40 million on the latest scary flick Shutter Island. Did they really need to pay cash to get scared out of their wits? They also donated tens of millions to the Haiti recovery effort as well as $2,000 scalped tickets to watch curling at the Olympics (I don’t even know what curling is).
The point is there’s still plenty of money out there changing hands. The trick is to be where the money is flowing to – not where it’s leaving. And to be strategic about who you are attracting to your practice.
The practice that grows is the practice that retains patients with above par, premium prices. Do you do 10 things every month just to retain your present aesthetic patients? I’ll bet you spend all or most of your energy to lure new patients and nothing to motivate, inspire, encourage, bond with, obligate and keep the ones you’ve got.
Well guess what? While you are spending time, money and energy luring away patients from other practices, your current patients are being lured away by your competitors! That’s crazy!
Here’s the success tip: the aesthetic physician prospering in these un-prosperous times are devoting more time, thought, energy and money to retention then to new patient acquisition and have spent much less doing it while increasing revenues at the same time while their short-sighted competitors are cutting back on expenses incurred in current patient relationships.
——
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
Do You Want More Aesthetic Patients or Profits?
Posted by: | CommentsYour aesthetic patients want to go to you because they know, like and trust you. They get a consistent experience every time, a consistent result, and a relationship with you and your staff that keeps them coming back for more and bringing their friends with them.
In the New Economy, the point is not to see how big you can grow your database. It’s to cost-effectively and creatively attract your preferred patients to your practice and then nurture those relationships so you grow your practice organically from within rather than from random, expensive, external efforts.
Tip: It’s not a contest to grow your database with anybody and everybody – It’s all about quality of the patient and NOT quantity
—–
Get Your FREE Marketing Checklist on www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com and see how you compare to top aesthetic practices. Catherine’s firm specializes in attracting cash-paying patients to a medical practice using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can also be reached at (877) 339-8833.
