Increasing revenue in your practice will depend on two key factors:
- New patient acquisition
- Higher fees per-patient
To grow revenue over time, you need to maintain a steady flow of new patients as well as existing patients coming back for more treatments.
1 – Encourage patient referrals
Personal recommendations are a powerful advertisement. As a result, generating patient referrals is a great way to acquire new patients. Instead of waiting for your existing patients to pass on your name, encourage them to do so! Inform your patients that you are accepting new patients, in case a friend or family member is looking for a plastic surgeon. Asking satisfied patients to post an online review can also go a long way. Set up an automatic email to be sent out to patients with links to websites where they can leave a review, preferably with a script already included.
2 – Create your own niche
Patients today are drawn to doctors who specialize in certain procedures or treatments and have a reputation for being great at those things. They will often ask friends, “Who’s does great eyes?” or “Who’s the best for Botox?”. Rather than being a generalist or just okay at many things, choose a few procedures you really enjoy and can get great results with and build your brand on those. As you grow, you can expand your reputation by adding other related procedures and some new and novel treatments aesthetic patients are looking for. Rather than trying to be all things to all patients, concentrate your efforts in getting known for being an expert at (fill in the blank). Focus on an area of the body, such as facial aesthetics, body sculpting, breast surgery, hair restoration, etc. You may want to know for treating men, who are usually keen to seek out a practice that understands their needs. You probably can’t spend a lot on promoting every treatment you offer because it will be cost-prohibitive in Google ads alone, especially if you are in a dense metropolitan area. However, do divert a portion of your marketing budget to becoming a household name for a handful of specific treatments that are in demand in your market. Remember, most of your patients will be local to your practice so those are the ones you should market to first. Out of town patients will be much harder to target and often account for a smaller proportion of an aesthetic practice’s business.
3 – Expand your online presence
Your online presence is a critical success factor for practice growth. Aside from the basics, such as getting your site optimized for search engines, using keywords in your content, adding landing pages for all procedures, adding a timely blog, the quality of your content is also important. Make sure it provides high value to visitors, answers the questions that are top of mind whether via text or a chatbot and features simple navigation so they can find what they are looking for in 3 clicks or less. Ensure that the process to reach out, schedule a consultation or make an appointment for treatments, whether on your website, Facebook, or Instagram m as seamless as possible to capture every lead that comes in. Lastly, monitoring online reviews and ratings and what is being said about your brand online can flag unflattering or defamatory posts early on so you can deal with them.
Need some help with practice development? Reach out to us anne@wendylewisco.com for expert advice
