Kentucky-based plastic surgeon Dr M Bradley Calobrace outlines some foolproof ways to position your clinic as the number-one cosmetic enhancement destination.
Position your clinic as the number-one destination for consumers considering cosmetic enhancement. By combining external and internal marketing strategies, alongside a commanding value proposition and an unequivocal philosophy of expertise and experience, you can create an enduring, powerful brand to support a successful practice.
Successful marketing should involve the following key steps:
- Establish yourself as a professional
- Consolidate your goals and principles to create a unique value proposition
- Build your brand – using internal and external marketing – to reflect this value proposition.
Remember, this branding should be reinforced at every level of consumer interaction.
Establishing yourself
Never delegate leadership! It is important to establish yourself as a leader in the field. You can do this by working with universities, involving yourself in local, regional or national educational forums and participating in advisory boards or specific publications. As well as this, make yourself available as an “expert opinion” for various media outlets, this helps reinforce your expertise and experience in the eyes of consumers.
Our service statement… what’s yours?
We at Calobrace & Mizuguchi Plastic Surgery Center seek to provide the highest quality clinical results in a totally safe environment. We never put cost ahead of safety!
We strive to educate our clients and the public on the advantages of care from a board certified surgeon and offer the latest advances in aesthetic and reconstructive surgery.
We dedicate ourselves to providing the ultimate in customer service, focusing as a team of professionals with the power to make a real difference in the lives of our patients.
We offer a warm, relaxed environment that caters to the wants and needs of our clients, with special attention to patient confidentiality.
External marketing
External marketing is the pathway to creating your brand. It encompasses all those elements that contribute to the first impression of your brand or your clinic. It includes your website, social media, signage and clinic atmosphere.
Don’t be scared off by forums like Real Self, or websites for patient ratings and reviews. In the current age of digital interaction and consumer empowerment, these platforms can provide you valuable kudos in the eyes of discerning consumers.
Internal marketing
Interacting with patients is key in reinforcing you brand values at a personal level. Using apps such as Touch MD, you can educate, inform, share and, ultimately sell, to patients in your database. Email blasts or regular newsletters can be used to promote events and specials, share before and after photographs and educate patients on new procedures or possibilities in aesthetic rejuvenation.
Some key channels for internal marketing
- Email blasts
- Home mailers
- Practice tools such as a menu of services
- Monthly pamphlets – can also be featured in office, through social medial platforms, websites and various media.
Education is key
An educational approach is vital to gaining consumer trust and building brand credibility. It is not only important to educate patients thoroughly, but also educate your staff and insist upon excellence in the day- to-day practice of the clinic. Invest in continuing medical education for your physicians and nurses and attend/host educational programs for cosmetologists yourself.
Use clinic brochures and digital signage in clinic to educate your patients during their time in the waiting room. Help them feel prepared for their consultation or treatment, and secure in their knowledge of the procedure, the possible side effects and realistic results.
Education doesn’t stop in-clinic. External marketing is the pathway to creating your brand and the most powerful external campaigns are those that are educational. Create your external marketing campaigns to educate the community on various possibilities available in aesthetic enhancement.
Combining simple marketing strategies can create powerful and compelling statements – opening the door to new patients and keeping your existing patients coming back for more. AMP
