A Tailored Approach to Acquiring New Patients PDF Free Download
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18
PRACTICAL DERMATOLOGY APRIL 2021
>>BUSINESS ADVISOR
>>In the 20-plus years I have spent working with
cosmetic health care practitioners, most have
answered with a resounding “Yes!” when asked if they
would like new patients in their practices. But to be truly
successful in pursuing new patients, practices need to have
a clearly defined identity (i.e., vision, mission statement,
values, and goals). It’s these fundamental components that
can guide practices in effectively targeting and acquiring
new patients.
IT STARTS WITH IDENTITY
These days your identity should be stronger than ever.
COVID-19 has enabled health care practices to take a brief
pause and assess who they are and what they hope to
become. By clearly knowing your identity, you should be
able to decipher how to strategically brand and broadcast
the practice in the greater aesthetic arena—an integral
component in your patient acquisition journey.
ATTRACTING NEW PATIENTS
To start actively pursuing new patients, you must also
define the following: Who to target, how much to spend,
and how to go about it. How you answer these questions
will be unique to you because they will be based on your
identity. Below we explore and analyze each of those
questions, so you can build a personalized plan to effectively
pursue new patients.
Who Are You Targeting? In your new patient acquisition
pursuit, first ask and answer the following question: “Who
are you attracting?” Consider your identity, brand, and how
you are portrayed in the marketplace. Shed light on your
image by asking the following questions: How are we defined
by our top 10 patients (e.g., those who spend the most
money with us, those who consistently refer other patients
to us, etc.)? What adjectives do they use to describe the
practice? Once you fully understand your unique position
and your current audience, you are ready to successfully
tackle the following steps.
1Determine your target audience.
A target audience is the group on which you will focus
your marketing efforts. Hint: This group will share the same
traits of your best customers. For general aesthetic patients, a
sample target audience may look something like this:
• Gender: Female
• Age: 28-58
• Marriage status: Married
• Annual household income: $75,000+
• Interests: Shopping, health, beauty, travel, and family
• Geography: Dependent (this will be local to your
business, but perhaps upper-scale cities/neighbor-
hoods)
• Most common online channels: Instagram,
Facebook, and email
2Build out customer personas.
A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation
of your ideal customer. You can have multiple
customer personas per product and will most certainly
have completely different customer personas for various
products. An example customer persona for aesthetic
injections might be this:
Jessica Smith is a 41-year-old married mother of
two who works in real estate. Since she has a daily
balancing act of family and career, she values
convenience and health above other priorities. In her
minimal spare time, Jessica rides her Peloton daily and
has a monthly at-home “girls’ night” with some of her
closest friends. She has top brand loyalty to Nordstrom
and Starbucks, and she and her husband’s annual
household income is $220,000.
A Tailored Approach to
Acquiring New Patients
How to successfully build your patient base for your practice.
BY KEVIN ALEXANDER, MBA
20
PRACTICAL DERMATOLOGY APRIL 2021
>>BUSINESS ADVISOR
While target audiences and customer personas are not the
same, both can be used to inform one another and enhance
understanding of your ideal customer. It’s this understand-
ing that will allow you to market more effectively and
acquire your ideal practice clients.
WHAT DOES IT COST TO ACQUIRE A NEW PATIENT?
In my experience, a rough consensus for the cost of a
new patient ranges greatly, but typically runs from $350-
500. However, there are a few factors to consider when
calculating the specific cost to your practice.
1Marketing spend.
The crude cost for patient acquisition may be found
by dividing the prior year’s total marketing spend by
the number of new patients. For example, if your practice
spent $150,000 in marketing last year and acquired 300 new
patients during that time, the cost to acquire a single new
patient was $500. With COVID-19, your practice along with
many others are likely being forced to be even more strate-
gic and efficient with marketing dollars in the quest for new
patients. This may impact how much and where you invest
your marketing funds this year and in 2021.
2Marketing channel.
Patient acquisition cost also depends on which mar-
keting channels you use. Digital marketing campaigns
are particularly appropriate these days, and some may yield
more cost-effective options. For instance, paid search is one
of the biggest drivers of propelling consultations for new
patients, and its cost to acquire a new patient is generally
less than the $350-500 range, as illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Please note Figure 1 does not include other marketing
efforts (e.g., TV ads, billboards, or radio), which can bring the
cost-per-acquisition to the $350-500 range.
3Search engine optimization (SEO).
Search engines are the principal drivers of website
traffic, and their top results are usually paid search
ads. Google is doing an incredible job of toning down the
ad-like feel on its results page by making paid ads feel more
organic. Therefore, when potential patients are conducting
searches, they are more likely to take action by clicking on
your ad and visiting your landing page. What impression
does your landing page give, and does it compel site visi-
tors to schedule a consultation? Only those who attend
their consultation whether it is virtual or in-person are
considered new patients.
Ultimately, the cost to your practice to acquire a new
patient will depend on the channels and modalities you
choose to reach potentially new patients. The modalities
you choose will be influenced by several branding factors,
e.g., the type of patient you are “speaking” to and eventually
attract, all of which reflects your identity.
HOW TO ACQUIRE A NEW PATIENT
Various acquisition campaigns can yield drastically dif-
ferent results (e.g., generating more online patient reviews
or inciting action by prospective new patients); however,
what works for one practice may fall completely short for
another. I have heard practices declare: “We must have an
event!” (e.g., a virtual open house or a virtual VIP party).
When I press them further about why they must have the
event, they respond: “Because the practice across town had
a successful one!” That should be one of the last reasons to
carry out a certain campaign. Rather than focus on what the
competition is doing, consider the following when crafting
your campaign:
1Begin with the end in mind.
Focus on your desired end result and use that as a
launching off point. For example, if you decide to run a
campaign, first decide on the ultimate goal. Is it to:
• Bring in 100 new patients,
• Generate $50,000 in one day, or
• Showcase new technology/equipment to 30 existing
patients?
2Work backwards to reach your goal.
Once you determine your goal, work backwards to
achieve it. For example, if you want to generate $50,000
in a single day, then hosting a virtual event may be the most
“ A target audience is the group on which you will focus your marketing efforts. Hint: This group will share the same traits of
your best customers.”
22
PRACTICAL DERMATOLOGY APRIL 2021
>>BUSINESS ADVISOR
logical. Assuming the average ticket is around $450, you
would need to have 110 patients attending and purchasing
at the event. To achieve that, you need to:
• Target 1,000 interested patients/considerers;
• Spark genuine interest in 500 of them, while having
250 of them be available during the event;
• Earn 135 RSVPs; and
• Conclude with 110 actual paying attendees.
These two steps will guide you in crafting a campaign
that is tailored to your practice’s overarching vision and
goals, and in turn, help you get closer to what you want to
become.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
You, like most of your peers, are clamoring for new
patients to keep your patient schedule robust. Before you
set off on any campaign — if you have not already done
so during the pandemic’s shutdown—take the necessary
time to truly define yourself, who you’re targeting, your
budget, and your end goal. Once those are known, there
are multiple channels and modalities to effectively market
and ultimately attract new patients. With a properly con-
figured digital marketing strategy, your practice can enjoy
seeing new patient faces and drive more return on invest-
ment. n
Jordan Mason, an Allergan Digital Marketing Consultant,
contributed this article.
Kevin Alexander is a Management Consultant with the
Allergan Practice Consulting Group of Allergan Aesthetics,
an Abbvie Company. Mr. Alexander consults with medical
aesthetic practices in the areas of financial analysis,
practice valuations, practice management issues, internal
and external marketing, leadership training and team
building, sales training, compensation methodology, and
aesthetic practice development. He has more than 15 years
of successful sales, marketing, training, and negotiation
experience. He is especially skilled at strategic business
development, personal branding, team building and culture
creation, sales training, dispute resolution, and group
presentations.
Jordan Mason is a Digital Marketing Consultant with the
Allergan Digital Consulting Group of Allergan Aesthetics,
an Abbvie Company. Mr. Mason consults with medical
aesthetic practices and medical spas on a wide variety of
digital marketing competencies, including paid advertising,
website optimization and experimentation, SEO, email
marketing, analytics, and content marketing. He has more
than 15 years of experience in digital marketing, business
and communications strategy, and content development.
Much has been written (in medical aesthetics as well as
in the general business world) about the cost of acquiring
a new patient/customer; typically, it costs a multiple versus
keeping an existing one. While new patients are important to
a cosmetic practice, you shouldn’t become so hyper-focused
on new patient acquisition that you lose sight of your cur-
rent clientele, as there is value in keeping your patients con-
sistently doing business with your practice.
Fred Reichheld, the founder of Bain & Company’s Loyalty
Practice (which helps businesses reach results through
customer and employee loyalty), explains that growing client
retention by five percent increases revenues by 25 to 95 per-
cent. Therefore, especially now, take the time to mine your
practice management database and regularly engage your
existing patients.
In your outreach efforts (e.g., email, social media, and
blogs), you can highlight your COVID-19 protocols to rein-
force safety, announce what procedures you are doing, and
promote your latest campaigns and contests. The effort to
continually engage existing clients alongside trying to attract
new patients is a worthwhile pursuit.
Don’t Lose Sight of Your
Existing Patients
“ While target audiences and customer personas are not the same, both can be used to inform one another and enhance
understanding of your ideal customer. It’s this understanding that will allow you to market more effectively and acquire
your ideal practice clients.”
