Have you thought of yourself as the “Top Doc” to the stars? Or the best anti-aging physician of all time? Or even the best cosmetic dermatologist in your hometown? Is that how your patients see you as well? If not, you need to build a more cohesive aesthetic image using branding. Branding is the art of attracting your preferred aesthetic patients using very specific messaging that will get their attention.
What is Branding?
Branding iseverythingyou do to attract and maintain quality aesthetic patients. Branding is not sales. Branding is emotionally attracting the type of aesthetic patient you want in your practice who chooses you over your competition. Your personal brand is who you are, what you do, and your leading attribute in the eyes of your preferred target market.
Branding is Not Marketing or Sales
Branding is more critical than marketing or sales because:
- While sales may be convincing, and marketing can be generating;
- Branding is influencing and changing the way people think
Branding appeals to desire and touches emotions. The goal is to emotionally predispose aesthetic patients into entering into a relationship with you because they believe you are the best choice – for them.
With more information at their finger tips, today’s aesthetic consumers are too sophisticated and skeptical to be sold. They want to arrive at their own decision on their own terms. Branding is helping them get there. Branding “pre-sells” your expertise, or you, before they even meet you.
So, how do you become your preferred patient’s first choice in aesthetic physicians even before they need a doctor? First, you attract and then you maintain quality aesthetic patients.
Attracting and maintaining quality aesthetic patients happens by promising to give your aesthetic patients the results they want. Then, they return to you again and again, and they brag about you to their friends, creating invaluable word-of-mouth buzz. When you are in a competitive environment like this one, you need to attract aesthetic patients and this is best done by creating visibility for you and your practice. Frankly, your visibility brings more prospective patients to you, but your ability will keep them. So, your name, as well as your face, needs to be circulating in the community in a tasteful, professional way that your preferred patient base will see.
Branding is all about perception. And, visibility builds credibility in the eyes of your prospective aesthetic patients. If they see something in the media a few times, it sounds familiar to them and they get the impression it must be good. When prospective aesthetic patients recognize you and say to themselves, “gosh, he looks familiar”, you are well on your way. All things being equal… the more visible competitor will win. Aesthetic patients want to feel comfortable with their choices and familiarity breeds that comfort.
Your patients’ and prospective patients’ perception is your reality, and they define their decision to go to you versus all the others due in large part to your branding. They have made this decision, not based on real evidence, but on their decision that you are the best choice for them. They did not get to that choice using logic – they made the decision emotionally and then justified their decision with logic. Perhaps they saw you on the news or they saw your photo in the social column at a fundraiser or their friend passed along the informative newsletter you distributed to your patients.
Today it is too competitive to rest on your laurels. Your name needs to stay in front of your preferred patient base, so they visit you when they have a present need now or in six months or next year. You cannot assume they will stay loyal to you if you do not keep your relationship current with them. If you do not stay in touch – your competitors will.
Tips to Create Your Aesthetic Brand:
- Be sure your patients know why you are unique
- Tell your patients what you offer that most of your competitors don’t
- Do things differently to stand out
- Clearly convey your personality in your marketing tools
- Specialize and be selective
- Be where your prospective patients are
- Build rapport and trust with every patient
- Stay in contact with your patients throughout the year
- Refine your patient relations processes
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For those physicians who take branding seriously, the payoff could be huge. The difference between a good practice and a great practice is in the details. Pay attention to every aspect of you, your staff and your practice to ensure it is consistent with your personality and the image you are trying to portray.
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