One of the best ways to increase a practice's sales is through effective marketing, “effective” being the operative word. In my book,1 Hour Annual Marketing Plan for Plastic Surgeons & Med Spas, I share the exact plan we have seen directly increase hundreds of practices’ revenue by 30% in 90 days nationwide.
Now more than ever, an annual marketing plan is the ever-important, overarching benchmark and goals for your practice’s marketing over the next 12 months. It reveals where you want to be 12 months from now and what that increase looks like based on your starting benchmarks.
An annual marketing plan is also a roadmap that helps you and your team identify and define your practice’s priorities. This is done by evaluating what has worked well in your practice so far, brainstorming new opportunities to test, evaluating what is working for others, and killing any marketing strategies that haven’t worked in your practice.
This roadmap will also allow you and your team to implement, track and evaluate your marketing and sales goals in real-time. In my opinion, it is one of the most effective barometers for predicting a practice’s sales success or exposing potential pitfalls.
Of the thousands of aesthetic practices we have worked with in the past decade, those who had a solid annual marketing plan in place saw increased sales, reduced impulsive marketing expenditures, more patients inquiring about new services, and a more consistent and steady bottom line.
There are four key areas in every practice's annual marketing plan that should be defined. These are the four key areas that we have seen make the most impact on our clients’ monthly and yearly revenue for the last ten years.
At minimum, every practice’s annual marketing plan should include:
About the Author
| Kelly Smith Ms. Smith has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, day spa owner, medical spa CFO, business consultant, and national speaker. She is currently the founder and CFO of Projected Growth Consulting (PGC), a team of industry professionals who understand every challenge facing medspas and plastic surgery practices. |
Monthly Cross Promotions
Cross-promotions, also known as a “gift with purchase,” are a great way to build ancillary services, promote new services, and get patients to try new services they may not have otherwise tried without discounting.
Social Media
A recent article published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, a publication by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, confirmed that patients consistently choose plastic surgeons based on online presence rather than their experience, expertise, or ability. Not only has social media become an important way to engage and connect with current and new patients, it now has an impact on how potential patients choose their new favorite aesthetic practice.
Email Marketing
I cannot overemphasize the importance of email marketing, especially for aesthetic practices. The bottom line is that email marketing still works and works well. Studies have shown (and we believe them) that emailing clients once a week yields the highest response.
Not sure what to share? I recommend you begin with newsworthy items such as events, flash sales, monthly promotions, special offers, and more.
Quarterly Sales Events
Many practices confuse the differences between a Sales Event and an Open House. What’s the main difference, you ask? In a word, revenue!
Since 2009, Projected Growth Consulting has hosted thousands of sales events. In fact, we sold over $18 Million for our clients in 2019 alone! This is the reason I think that as we continue to return to “normal,” every practice should hold quarterly sales events.
