Marketing

Many aesthetic practices and medspas have already embraced video as an effective marketing tool. Videos posted on your YouTube channel and website allow you to introduce prospective patients to your staff, services and facility. They are also valuable patient-education tools. But you can take video one step further and offer virtual events that allow you to both educate and create a personal connection with attendees. Virtual events, such as live-streaming videos and webinars, combine the power of video and open house events.

In the past decade, marketing and advertising efforts have moved online to capture consumers where they shop, get informed and spend most of their time. “Things have evolved over the past 10 to 15 years from traditional face-to-face marketing, sending cards and making phone calls to almost exclusively digital marketing,” says Timothy Katzen, MD, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California.“We still send out the occasional card, but the majority of our communication is digital.”

Excellent customer service is the cornerstone of small business success. In the medical aesthetics industry, this extends beyond delivering the results or products that were promised and deftly handling complaints. Cosmetic patients also expect a positive and memorable experience with your practice.
Here are six ways that you and your team can deliver an experience that meets or exceeds expectations.

American men are more aware of their appearance than ever—and also more open to the idea of cosmetic enhancement. A recent survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) found that nearly one-third (31%) of men are extremely likely to consider aesthetic treatment. Yet they account for only 9.3% of surgery patients and 8.9% of those seeking minimally invasive procedures, according to 2016 statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Networking—a process by which one develops contacts and exchanges information with other people solely for the purposes of developing one’s business—is effective because it creates personal bonds based on trust and admiration. Conferences and professional associations provide valuable networking opportunities for physicians because they allow you to develop relationships that increase referrals, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Your local community also offers a plethora of networking opportunities through which you can grow your practice.

Are you struggling with the challenges of employee management? Wondering how to track and improve the patient experience? Perhaps you are eyeing retirement and looking for ways to maximize the value of your practice. If so, a new organization called the Dermatology Business Accelerator (DBA) may be of help.

It’s a competitive world out there. If you wish to be a successful medical aesthetic practice or medspa owner, differentiating your practice from those of your competitors is critical. In order to distinguish your business in the minds of consumers, you must understand your competition, be able to identify your unique strengths or selling points, and develop your brand.

Aesthetic medicine has long been on the forefront of patient engagement—a concept now being embraced by the wider healthcare community. For years, medspas and cosmetic practices have used monthly newsletters, appointment reminders, follow-up thank you notes and social media to engage both existing and prospective patients—and software developers have taken note. Electronic health record (EHR) and practice management (PM) systems now include a variety of tools to help you track patient engagement and automate your communications.

Results from a survey published online September 20, 2016, in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal revealed that prospective patients valued testimonials and before and after photos over a surgeon’s years of practice. The study’s objectives were to determine the most important provider attributes to breast augmentation, combined breast/abdominal surgery, and facelift patients using conjoint analysis; and to test the conjoint using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an internet crowdsourcing service.

“Becoming a doctor was expected of me as an Asian-American kid growing up with a physician as a father,” says Anthony Youn, MD, founder of Youn Plastic Surgery in Metro Detroit, Michigan, and author of In Stitches and The Age Fix: A Leading Plastic Surgeon Reveals How To Really Look Ten Years Younger. “I grew up with traditional Korean parents, and I had this vague notion that I wanted to help people, so being a doctor sounded like a reasonable path.”