5 in house marketing tips for aesthetic practices

You don’t need to be a marketing expert to help with your practice’s marketing efforts. After all, you didn’t go to medical school to become a marketer, which is why many aesthetic practices hire agencies – particularly those dedicated to the aesthetics industry – to help with their digital marketing. Just make sure you hire a reputable agency so you don’t get ripped off, like many practices do.

If you do sign a contract with a marketing agency it’s important to know that the relationship cannot be completely hands-off. In order to succeed there needs to be an open dialogue, strategic planning, and additional efforts taken on “in house.” Here are some of the additional tasks that your practice should be working on monthly, if not daily:

1) Take before & after photos (or assign to a staff member): It’s shocking how many practices aren’t actively seeking before & afters to post on their website. I realize that part of the reason that many practices don’t work this into the patient intake/outtake process is due to the frustration of many previous patients not agreeing to have their photos published online. However, anonymity can be kept  with these photos, and even if the patient still does not agree then you can at least inquire about a testimonial video or a review…

2) Actively ask for patient reviews: Ask and you shall receive! Even though we’ve recently launched Magic Rating, a software that helps increase your practice’s online reviews, you could argue that the most effective way to generate more reviews is to simply ask for them. Better yet, gently set the expectation that on the patient’s way out the staff will just need a minute or two of their time to get their feedback on their experience, and after that they’ll get an email linking to a few review sites. Kindly ask the patient to keep an eye out for that email and please leave a review. There’s not much more you can do, other than consider sending your patients a hand-written thank you card for their business and politely ask for a review in your note.

3) Get active on Real Self: Answering questions on this platform is a great way to get your name out, and with a Pro account you can even link back to your website, helping to build indexable content on this highly reputable review and patient forum website. Once you get to a solid 20 reviews and 100 questions answered you might consider running spotlights to help you with additional exposure, but growing reviews and answering questions on its own is valuable, and it’s also free!

4) Stay involved with the practice marketing calendar: There needs to be someone on your staff actively involved in the monthly promotions, whether that’s the marketing coordinator or practice manager. However, you as the practice owner also need to be involved. Just like you’re likely involved in reviewing blogs, press releases or other copy produced on your practice’s behalf, you should also be in the know about the marketing calendar.

5) Connect with prospective partners:  ABC, Always Be Connecting! Seriously though, partnerships can help take any practice to the next level. There are other local businesses in your community with very similar target markets and connecting with these establishments can help you gain additional exposure. You can run joint email blasts and events to help bring in new patients and boost revenue!


These are just five simple, yet highly effective, tips for maximizing your aesthetic practice’s “in house” marketing efforts, especially if you have an agency helping with all your other efforts. It doesn’t matter if you run a med spa, cosmetic dermatology practice, or a plastic surgery center, all of the aforementioned tactics are relevant.

To learn more about different digital marketing ideas check out our collection of articles here or our 2017 digital marketing predictions here. If you suffer from fragmented digital marketing or you simply would like to inquire about how we can help grow you aesthetic practice then leave us a note here or call 877-673-7096 x2.

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