cosmeticimagemarketing.com Blog

Aesthetic Marketing Secrets

Now more than ever, your patients need compelling reasons to part with their hard-earned money. The media is scaring them and they are not sure they will have jobs so they are pulling back on their disposable purchases. Have you noticed a dip in your own revenues? Are you experiencing more no-shows? If so, that just means you need to be more strategic than every before.

If and When patients don’t come to you as freely as before, strategically put a plan in place to make it happen. They are not saying no necessarily. They could just be saying give me more logical reasons to come to you to fulfill my emotional needs of looking as good as I feel.

Target Aesthetic Patients

This is not the time to start a new advertising campaign to attract total strangers to your practice. Focus on those who already know you since they are more apt to respond to your promotional efforts. Use proven patient attraction tools to wake up your sleeping patients and get them visiting and referring this year.

I offer a free CD and Report on my website www.cosmeticimagemarketing.com called 5 Easy Ways to Promote More Aesthetic Patients to Your Practice This Year. It’s full of helpful tips and strategies to attract more patients, get them to refer and stay loyal to you.

While the information is solid, I want to make a distinction. During these shaky economic times, you need to be much more strategic about your promotional efforts. You need to target those patients who are least affected by the craziness going on in the world or, at least, last affected by it.

Which Aesthetic Patients are Recession-Proof?

While most folks will be affected somehow, some way by the stock market collapse, the credit crunch and the housing debacle, not all will feel it the same. It will hit home hard for those who live paycheck to paycheck from companies who may go under and lay them off. It will hurt those in professions such as mortgage brokers, realtors and anyone directly linked to the falling economy.

However, those least likely affected are those who are typically more mature and more prepared by dips since they have been through it before and know the drill. They have saved for this and less prone to devastation. They have reach affluence and will not be devastated by what’s happening.

So, my advice to you is to cater to your more mature patients for now rather than sink much more time, money and effort into the younger patient who has not yet established themselves.

What Can An Aesthetic Physician Do to Weather The Economic Storm?

There is much you can do to survive and even flourish no matter what. I guarantee the answer is NOT to be nothing and wait it out. Those who proactively act will fare the best. And, since your competitors are sitting out, now is the perfect time for you to increase your promotional efforts. You can attract new patients (some of them your competitors who are ignoring them) and you can reconnect with your own patients to ensure they stay loyal to you.

Now let’s talk about External Marketing strategies.

Your External image

To ensure your message is on target, review your current advertisements and other high-profile projects, such as your Web site and public relations efforts. Be sure it portrays you as the expert in your field and the No. 1 choice for them. Moreover, make sure your photo and contact information are up to date. Have your Web site URL address printed on everything—brochures and patient information packets–so people can easily find you on the Internet. All of these tools help, or hurt, the image you’re trying to portray. So be sure they’re top quality, positioning you as successful and experienced.

Public relations.

You want to establish yourself as the industry expert who knows the latest technology and procedures. However, keep in mind that public relations can be time-consuming and costly if you go through a PR agency. It can take months to get any coverage, but it can pay off. Not only can good PR bring you new patients, but it also can reinforce your patients’ decision to choose you and stay with you.

Community Outreach.

Getting involved in your community can give you tremendous exposure. Every community has its “movers and shakers,” so get to know them by attending their events and offering to speak. Get involved in local charities and fundraising events by offering gift baskets and other support. You can get some great PR out of it and be seen as caring and committed to your community.

Speaking Opportunities

Offer to speak in your community, as well as at your industry medical meetings and your local media on topics you know well. This will help brand you as “the go-to” physician in your specialty. Prepare an informational media packet that includes any articles you’ve written, past PR you’ve received, your credentials, your photo and anything else that sets you apart from your competition.

Search Engine Optimization

Internet marketing and pay-per-click search engines are another way to become visible to new patients. To get the Internet exposure you want, use professionals who understand the intrinsic world of meta tags and page positioning. This is the opposite of what you would normally do in marketing, which is to determine your target market and then communicate with them.
With Internet marketing, you’re displaying your practice and then learning who’s interested and what they’re interested in.

Because this large net is being thrown out about your practice, you may need to sift through those just surfing the Internet vs. those who are truly serious about considering your services. You want to review your Website performance monthly reports to see how many hits you are getting and you also want to review the email messages you get directly from your Website from your “Contact Us” link. If you are getting too many “tire-kickers” and not enough qualified leads, you may want to set up an automatic response to answer general questions about you and your practice and then have the prospective patient call your office to schedule a consultation.

Mass Media

You cannot enter this marketing arena lightly, whether it’s print, television, radio or cable TV. It takes substantial time, resources and patience to see this marketing channel work for you. A typical American sees more than 3,000 messages a day. Therefore, your message must talk to that perfect patient who’s ready to listen. That takes creativity, repetition and persistence. If you want the telephone to ring, you must offer an irresistible special patients can’t refuse. If your goal is to build your brand awareness, you need a tastefully crafted message that explains why you’re the best.

I’ll discuss short-term strategies next.