Archive for Aesthetic Practice
Marketing to Aesthetic Patients in Tough Times
Posted by: | CommentsThere is still much you can to help keep your own aesthetic profits consistent while our economy corrects itself.
For starters, this is not the perfect time to fish for new aesthetic patients. It will take much more time, money and effort to attract total strangers to your practice. These people don’t know you so it would take expensive repetition and effort to get them to spend their disposable income with you rather than with someone they already know. Or, not spend any money right now.
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. If you have been ignoring the very patients who could sustain your practice during this shaky time, you better start communicating with them before they drift off to your competitor.
Marketing to Your Current Aesthetic Patients
Be smart about your internal communications. Start with your more mature, affluent patients. They have the most need and wherewithal to actually want and pay for your services. They have been on the planet longer and are now showing signs of aging – wrinkles, folds, fat, droopy body parts and sagging skin. They also are more likely to have the financial means to afford your services. Perhaps they are married and a homeowner and have built up a nice nest egg for rejuvenation.
It would behoove you to invite them to your in-house seminar to discuss new solutions to crepe skin and sun damage. Send them fun, themed postcards with a special offer to try a new service 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. Bottom line – educate these more mature patients on what they can do to turn back the clock easily and quickly.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
What You Can Do Now to Ensure a Successful Year
Posted by: | CommentsThe media is scaring your cosmetic patients. All of this doom and gloom about the economy is paralyzing to a majority of your patients who are or could be affected by the dips and turns in the economy.
Don’t buy into it! There is much you can to ensure you float through these choppy waters safely and profitably.
I’ve put together a timely audio and visual presentation, with me personally narrating, entitled:
What You Can Do to Ensure a Successful Year
http://cosmeticimagemarketing.com/media/What_To_Do_For_Successful_Year.wmv
It’s full of simple strategies to keep your phones ringing, your patients buying and referrals coming to you.
The point is to first check your mindset. Are you buying into this pessimism? If you are, you are not going to be open to opportunities and possibilities so fix that first.
The next step is to do something. I know your first instinct is to lay low for now but that’s the worst strategy. Your aesthetic patients need more compelling reasons to invest in aesthetics so, now more than ever, give them those reasons.
Educate them on little things they can do right now to look fantastic. Motivate them to act now with a special offer and a tight expiration date. Encourage them to refer their friends so; they too, can look fabulous.
Those who strategically act now will conquer. Those who sit back and do nothing will perish.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
New Success Strategy #7: Create Systems to Execute the Successful Strategies and Repeat
Posted by: | CommentsThe top aesthetic practices know something that others don’t.
They realize it’s not one email.
It’s not one newsletter.
It’s not one event.
The secret is to set up systems so you are regularly attracting new patients to your practice, keeping them coming back for more and more often and taking care of them so well they refer others.
The financially successful aesthetic physicians do what needs to be done consistently to keep their name in front of their patients so they return again and again and bring their friends.
Their on-going efforts and attention to patient attraction – retention – referrals keeps their schedule filled with cash-paying patients.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
New Success Strategy #5: Reclaim Your Lost Patients
Posted by: | CommentsWant to know why your patients disappear? You thought you had a good relationship and now you realize you haven’t seen them in over a year – What happened?
The #1 reason patients leave your practice is not because of a bad result.
…….It’s because of your indifference.
They are being ignored by you so they don’t feel compelled to return.
Make your patients feel your concern for them and their welfare by keeping in touch with them and reaching out to them continually.
I promise you – they want to hear from you!
You most likely have a database full of prospective patients who came in for a consultation but didn’t book, who came in a couple of times and then wandered off and then those you haven’t seen in months or years.
I guarantee – they did not stop wanting to look good.
They just went somewhere else where they are treated better.
Where Did Your Patients Go?
- -Perhaps they were having a bad day when they visited and couldn’t connect with your staff.
- -Perhaps your staff was having a bad day and scared them off.
- -Perhaps they got sticker shock.
- -Perhaps they went to your competitor and want to return to you but are too embarrassed.
You are never going to know unless you reach out to them. Because……
There’s even a good chance they were not saying no –
They were simply saying “Not Yet” or “Not Now”.
Since it’s always faster, cheaper and easier to reconnect with patients who have visited you before than it is to attract total strangers to your practice, reconnect with these patients.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
What Can I Do To Save My Aesthetic Practice?
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a brief dose of brutal reality.
It was easy before now and you didn’t have to try very hard to fill up your office with cash-paying patients.
Consumers were spending like drunken sailors. Credit was available for everyone for whatever they wanted. TV shows like Extreme Makeover made it possible for everyday people to have a new life of love, wealth and health with cosmetic enhancement.
The demand was high, the patients were showing up for their appointments and the money was flowing.
But not anymore….The party is over.
Many of your patients have lost their jobs or are afraid they would lose their jobs soon so they stopped spending on aesthetics.
Others had their credit dry up and couldn’t afford aesthetics anymore.
Many of your patients who once considered aesthetic services a necessity now viewed them a luxury to be put off until things are better.
The media pours on doomsday stories about stocks sliding, businesses closing and the world coming to an end. Let’s face it – it makes for a good story!
There’s been a shift in wealth. The wealth is still there – it’s just in different hands now.
As a service provider, you now have to work at it to get the same results that used to come to you effortlessly.
That’s the difference and that’s why only the strategic will survive.
Remember those sayings:
There’s a silver lining in every cloud or when one door closes, another one opens?
The current state of the economy is doomsday for some and opportunity for others – so which group do you fall into?
Do not let highly publicized pessimism stop you from being excited and enthusiastic about your future in aesthetic medicine.
The good news is that with the right mind set and strategies, there is much you can do to survive and even flourish during this shaky time.
Rather than sit back and wait for things to get better, those who proactively “do something” will fare much better.
“Don’t you see – all is not over. It’s just different.”
You Are in an Enviable Position
You cater to a very hungry market – the patient who wants to look and feel better and will invest their time, money and effort to do so
These aesthetic patients want to feel better. That is not a one-time feeling. This is an ongoing, innate desire for an ever-growing, aging population.
Think about it. This patient has a built-in need now and for years to come because if they care today how they look, they are really going to care as the aging process takes an even bigger toll.
So, spending effort up front now to attract that aesthetic patient to your practice and nurturing that relationship, will prompt them to return again and again for procedures, treatments and products that help them look and feel good.
The point is, this is not a one-time transaction. The first transaction should always lead to another and another.
It can cost a small fortune to acquire a new patient – but it costs next to nothing to keep them. The financial beauty of this relationship-based practice is that your costs will dramatically decrease if you simply maintain your patient database you spent time, money and effort to get in the first place.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Please watch my free videos by filling out the form to the right, now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
Promoting Minimally-Invasive Procedures to Grow Your Aesthetic Practice – Part 1 of 4
Posted by: | CommentsWhile the economy is in a slump, aesthetic patients are opting for less. They may be scared they’ll lose their job or they may just be hanging onto their disposable cash for now until things get better. That’s the reality but so is this: Aesthetic patients didn’t stop wanting to look good. Even though they may be holding back on the bigger-ticket surgical procedures, they will find the money to do something that makes them feel better about themselves.
Give them alternatives to expensive surgery. Show and tell them how you can treat them with minimally-invasive (MI) procedures to give them a temporary WOW look they will love. Give them “Beauty on a Budget” alternatives they can live with for now.
And, by all means, you – the physician should be administering the injectables yourself. Not only is it great to stay in practice and get really good at facial rejuvenation using injectables; it’s an easy way to connect with and build relationships with your patients. The more points of contact you have with patients, the more they will remember you when they’re ready for surgery. Building solid relationships with your aesthetic patients will keep them loyal to you, returning more often and referring their friends.
Most patients don’t know all the uses for Botox, wrinkle fillers and lasers. You need to tell them and show them. Nowadays, you can really get some excellent results using MI procedures. You have probably thrilled some of your patients with your injecting techniques that have filled, plumped and stopped wrinkles in their tracks so show off your rejuvenation skills to other patients who would appreciate these quick and inexpensive solutions.
How do you promote MI procedures? Start with your telephones. Have your receptionist answer the telephone with a little verbal ad. For example, have her announce you now offer the Botox Alternative, wrinkle filler that gives you a cheek lift or skin tightening. Rotate your messages and say them in a conversational tone to prompt the caller to learn more.
Use on-hold messaging rather than music if you must place a caller on hold. I guarantee aesthetic patients want to know what’s new so tell them and then urge them to ask to learn more.
Part 2 will discuss In-House Marketing of MI procedures…
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Watch my free videos now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
Difference between Marketing and Advertising Your Aesthetic Practice
Posted by: | CommentsMost aesthetic physicians I’ve worked with have distaste for marketing. They feel they are above it. They feel they shouldn’t have to prove themselves to anyone. They also prefer to delegate the task of marketing to someone else. However, once you understand the difference between marketing and advertising, it becomes obvious that the persons truly qualified to “market” your practice are you and your staff.
There is a huge difference with marketing and advertising. Advertising is someone standing on a corner motioning to the passerby to come take a look at what they’re selling. It’s the effort you put into getting your telephone to ring.
Marketing is everything that follows after the telephone rings. Such as how the receptionist handles the call, you introducing yourself, your sincere interest in the patient, your office’s appearance, its sounds and smells, the mannerisms of staff and, of course, the quality of care.
Promoting your aesthetic practice is an essential, integral necessity that’s very much a part of aesthetic medicine today, especially with greater competition growing every day, whether it’s through TV, cable, radio, print, direct mail or internet marketing.
Advertising is most effective when combining education and then an introduction to you, your staff and your facilities. One strategy is to use video about you, your staff and your office to professionally promote you. Add it to your website, add it to other vendor portals and show it in your office. Such a strategy becomes a more efficient promotion model with elements of both advertising and marketing.
Just know advertising is the first part of your success. Marketing is everything after that that will truly build your successful aesthetic practice.
Need more tips, tactics, strategies and resources to drive patients to your practice? Watch my free videos now.
Thank You, and I encourage you to leave any comments or questions below.
Article by Catherine Maley, MBA, Author, Your Aesthetic Practice and President, Cosmetic Image Marketing
