August provides a much-needed rest for us all to recover from a busy spring/early summer and we can utilize this quiet period to strategically plan for a successful and prosperous finish to the year. This rare down time allows each practice to evaluate their business successes and capitalize on opportunities to leverage under-utilized, forgotten or untapped areas of the practice. As the aesthetic medical space becomes increasingly more competitive, three key business areas demand strategic planning:
1. Develop a Promotional Strategy
In an industry known for innovation and transformation, patients are always gravitating towards trying the latest in aesthetic rejuvenation. Coupled with a sense of needing to receive a perceived value, it is critical that you develop a promotional strategy to re-engage patients. A promotional strategy does not necessarily mean discounting your services – you can leverage other business tools to provide your patients with a meaningful value. In strategically planning your promotions, it is important that your offers reflect three critical criteria – it highlights the newest innovations, the treatments are seasonally relevant to your patients’ needs and the value is significant enough that it motivates your patients to purchase.
2. Create Practice Marketing Collateral
The assumption is that your patients know all the services you do. The reality is that few patients realize the depth and vastness of your work. Yes, they may know about different available procedures, but most likely they may not know that you do them! The goal of practice marketing collateral is educating your patients on your full spectrum of services so that you can develop them beyond their current treatment plan. Investing in key collateral like menus, in-office displays and eblasts ensure that your patients stay current with your practice and are enticed to begin the conversation on learning more.
3. Evaluate Your Digital Marketing Performance
Do you remember when having a business card was the key tool you needed in marketing your practice? These days, to be relevant and attractive to potential new patients, your practice demands a strong digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing goes far beyond just having a pretty website. It involves strategic planning for an all-encompassing ecosystem that reflects your social media engagement, SEO and broader digital opportunities like PR, a RealSelf profile, and so on. When used together, these digital efforts should be generating new patients and re-engaging current ones.
