PracticalDermatology

Lead generation is a vital component for fueling patient acquisition, business growth, and revenue for most aesthetic practices. It’s the act of generating consumer interest in the products or services offered by a business. To attract the interest of new patients some aesthetic practice marketing teams devote countless hours and substantial financial investments into building a digital marketing ecosystem. They and their agency partners painstakingly plan and launch campaigns across multiple digital marketing channels, including organic search, paid search, and paid social media, with the following singular goal in mind: Driving interest to the practice’s medical aesthetics services and inspiring users to take some form of action.

But what should practices do once they reach out to leads (prospective new patients) and a response isn’t generated right away?

The answer: They should engage in lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is the process of engaging with and providing content to generated leads. It often involves a cadence of email or short message service (SMS) text messages, helping move leads down the sales funnel and convert them from browsers to buyers, which in turn, allows practices to maximize their marketing return on investment.

Educating Leads is Key

Despite the potential benefits of lead nurturing, practices often make little effort to engage with leads beyond the first phone call, text message, or email. Be sure to go beyond that point and nurture the leads your practice generates. The best lead nurturing programs center on educating potential customers. Let’s look at why that is.

Some leads aren’t ready to commit—yet. A common misstep many practices make is assuming a new lead is immediately ready to schedule a consultation or purchase a treatment. The fact is today’s medical aesthetic customers lead busy lives with many time constraints. What was top-of-mind when they originally took action (performing a Google search and clicking on your website or clicking on your Facebook or Instagram ad) in response to your marketing efforts may soon be eclipsed. Lead nurturing that focuses on educating leads and differentiating the practice helps your practice stay in the forefront of potential customers’ minds until they are ready to take that next step.

Educate to convert. It’s important to remember that a portion of leads will be naïve considerers of medical aesthetics. While the subject matter is second nature to us in the medical aesthetics space, it is often brand new for some of your leads. Therefore, they need to be educated on your practice and services (e.g., technology, pricing, safety, expected results). Lead nurturing with robust content that educates and answers questions from the perspective of potential patients helps overcome objections during the consideration process. It can also remove friction from the sales process.

Abundance of choice exists. In many markets the medical aesthetics space has become extremely competitive. Consumers have unprecedented choice, and oftentimes many practices are vying for the attention of the same population of potential customers. In such markets it is common for leads to reach out to multiple practices showing interest in the same product or service. Providing robust and meaningful content that educates potential customers can be the difference of them choosing your practice over a competitor. Determine your practice’s unique value proposition (what makes it special) and communicate that message to your leads in order to have the best opportunity to convert them to customers.

Getting Started

Now that you understand a content-based lead nurturing plan is the way to go, let’s look at how to carry out a lead nurturing effort. Below are several practical steps to take when launching a lead nurturing campaign.

Build a robust customer database.

It is impossible to nurture your leads if you don’t maintain a centralized database from which to house customer data and deliver content. A customer relationship management (CRM) system should be considered, since most CRM software allows the set up of automated lead nurturing workflows for every lead that is generated from marketing efforts.

When setting up a new CRM system (or optimizing your current one), be sure to include detailed profiles on each lead. Consider the following when building such profiles:

• What marketing channel or campaign brought the lead to the practice?
• What communication has the lead received from the practice?
• What practice communication has the lead engaged with and how often?

Know and understand your target customer.

Effective lead nurturing starts with having thorough knowledge of your ideal customer. Knowing your target customer well allows you to pinpoint the best ways to connect. Key questions to ask to identify and reach your target customer include:

• What is your target customer’s demographic profile, including age, gender, and geography?
• What is your target customer’s topics of interest?
• How does your target customer prefer to communicate? Is it through email, text, or a phone call?

After uncovering your target customer’s wants and needs, you will be much better equipped to guide those customers through the purchase funnel by using relevant lead nurturing content.

Develop and deploy highly targeted content.

Providing relevant content at the right time can result in lead nurturing success. The content developed and communicated to leads should be highly focused. For example, if a lead inquires about a body contouring treatment, the corresponding content should be tailored to that service. Tailored messaging can include:

• Practice and provider profiles. Credential the practice and its providers in relation to the service of interest and communicate why the practice is the best choice.
• Service technology. Explain the science behind the treatment.
• Patient journeys. Share a patient’s personal treatment story/journey.
• Before-and-after photos. Show treatment results achieved for your patients.

Providing content that is highly relevant and personalized to your leads will continue to educate them and begin to position you as their provider of choice.

Planting the Seeds of Growth

Care and attention should be given to nurturing leads by designing and implementing a well-thought-out plan. This will help you cultivate inbound leads into patients. You’ll not only be rewarded with additional revenue but also the confidence in knowing you are consistently planting seeds that will help grow your practice.

Disclaimer: This resource is intended to highlight relevant considerations in a summary manner and should not be construed as individual legal advice. You should consult with legal counsel before acting on information contained in this resource. Neither Allergan Aesthetics, a division of AbbVie, nor any of its employees, officers, directors, subsidiaries, or affiliates (collectively, the “Allergan Aesthetics Parties”) warrant or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or current relevance of such content and none of the Allergan Aesthetics Parties are responsible or liable for such content. The information contained in this resource does not constitute legal or other professional advice, and anyone viewing this resource is encouraged to obtain such advice on issues applicable to their practice or facility.