If your goal is to enjoy a high volume practice, filled with your ideal patients whilst you earn a solid 6 or 7 figure income, then marketing is the most important skill that will take you there. If you’re like most practitioners, you likely cringe hearing this word, as it conjures up images of aggressive sales and promotional tactics that are totally misaligned with your values and personality.
Aesthetic medicine is a lucrative business that has created a fiercely competitive industry. Doctors, Nurses, Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists, Healthcare Practitioners, Dentists and large corporations all want to capitalise on the growing demand for medical aesthetic treatments. This means consumers have more choices now than ever. So what would make them come to you and stay with your practice? It begins with marketing.
Let’s be honest, you are trained to be a Healthcare Professional and not a sales and marketing expert. So if you feel completely out of your comfort zone when trying to promote yourself, you are not alone. However, the reality is, you run a business and a business – any business – needs to promote its products and services to survive and be profitable, no matter what.
Unfortunately, there are many marketers, PR agencies, advertising sales people and social media experts all very willing to exploit your situation and convince you to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds a month to “get your name out there” and build your “brand.” But quite honestly, most of it will cause you frustration and make you feel like you’re throwing your money down the drain on expensive marketing and advertising that is NOT impacting your bottom line like you need it to.
There is, however, a way to market your practice that is actually authentic, credible, enjoyable and extremely effective. The secret is to educate as many people as possible about what you do and how it can help them. This approach works even if you’re an introvert and have no sales or marketing experience in the past. It isn’t awkward or uncomfortable. In fact, implementing this approach will soon begin to feel like the beginning of the healing process for those you educate.
The goal of effective marketing is to attract your preferred patients to you, educate them so they take advantage of all you have to offer, motivate them to return again and again and encourage them to refer their family and friends. Effective marketing is also about understanding your patients and finding ways to stimulate desire and interest in treatments and services for the right patient profile. Marketing done right attracts your preferred client to you who is already pre-qualified, pre-sold and ready to say yes to you.