A few years back I sat on a conference call with the marketing team of a large, branded skincare company who had a number of aesthetic offerings in their portfolio. My takeaway from the call was this - the company was looking to continue promoting their medical grade skincare formulations to skincare partners but more importantly they were looking to capitalize on the direct-to-consumer market as well. Their goal was to expand their reach and increase their profitability at the expense of the skincare partners.
Okay, you are probably thinking, "how does this impact me and my business?" Well, it does in so many ways. If you carry some of the large corporate skincare brands that offer reward points to your clients, they are continually flooding your clients' email inboxes with promotions and reward point information. These companies do want your patients coming to your office and purchasing their promoted aesthetic services and skincare - BUT if your patient wants to go somewhere else and purchase these same services and skincare from another provider, the company does not care. 'Big Corporate' is still profiting and retaining your patients' business. The person who loses out is you the provider who signed these same patients up for the "perks" or "reward" program that benefitted the patient and the provider only if you retained the patient! There is no way to ensure patient retention with these services (even though the corporate reward program tries to make you believe it is not self-serving) or separate your practice from all the other skincare practices who provide the same services and skincare.
Let's take it a step further. During the pandemic, these same large corporate skincare companies came up with a brilliant idea. They decided to create a "DermStore" on your website which enables you to have the patients purchase skincare from you while having it drop shipped directly to your client. Why is this a little concerning? Well for starters, your clients are inputting all their information: name, address, cell phone number, emails, etc. These companies now have direct control of your patients' information and can promote directly to them. If your patient stops purchasing from your site, what is stopping these corporations from pursuing the business? Once again, there is no way to ensure patient retention.
In a very competitive landscape, patient retention is key. In fact, studies have shown that it costs 8x more to attract a new patient than to keep an existing one! Many practices will lose over 1/3 of their first time patients for a variety of reasons. As the aesthetic landscape continues to grow and more providers enter this space, it is vitally important that providers separate themselves from their competitors.
Here are some excellent ways to separate yourself from the competition:
Provide services. Botox, fillers, lasers, micro-needling and skincare but brand the services with your unique name.
Offer your own reward program. Stop allowing the big corporate conglomerates to benefit from your patients. Patients love rewards but they deserve the rewards from you!
Brand your own skincare line! So many med spas, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and skincare providers have learned the importance of branding everything in their practice, especially skincare. Branding your own products prevents patients from buying these big skincare companies' products online for less than you offer and helps create an affinity between you and your client. You have taken the time to formulate your own skincare line to address the skincare concerns of your clients. Now brand your own skincare allowing you to control patient outcomes and direct marketing - at the same time connecting you to your patient on a deeper level.
Take time to send out emails, text messages, and marketing campaigns. Remind patients of the specials you are promoting, services (new services) you provide, as well as anti-aging tips and tricks.
Engage and connect with clients over social media. Having a strong social media engagement with your clients helps create a stronger relationship with your brand. Social media engagement builds brand loyalty, increases word-of-mouth referrals and increases sales. Your clients love to see you, your personality, the procedures and skincare products being used on yourself.
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