Planning… boring, unsophisticated, nerdy, so yesterday – right? . . . Wrong! Without a plan how do you know where you’re going. Without a plan you are very likely to waste valuable time, energy and money.
It’s almost 2009 and if you don’t have a marketing and promotions plan yet – WAKE UP! Get going, because this is no time for snoozing on the job. Speaking of jobs, with the economy still in a tenuous situation, this is no time to be asleep while your competition sneaks up and whispers in your client’s ears. Work harder than you ever have – if not, there’s someone else ready to take your place; actually there are probably 2 or 3 people ready and able to take your place.
Back to the planning — if you need some guidance, then follow these steps for medical spa / aesthetic practice marketing success:
- Vision & Mission – Why, What, Who, How and Where?
- Brand – What do your stakeholders say, think and believe about your med spa or practice?
- Customer – Who Your Primary Target Audience? Age, Sex, Geography, Income, etc…
- Competition – Perform a Competitive Analysis and Secret Shop Your Top Competitors
- Trends – Uncover Service and Product Trends and Decide what to Incorporate and what to Drop.
- SWOT – Understand your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats
- USP – Unique Selling Position – What makes you better than your competition? If you only work on one thing – this would be it! You have to know why your med spa or aesthetic practice over your competitors.
- Marketing Strategy – Positioning, Pricing, Promotions and Advertising
- Marketing Budget – Determine what you need to accomplish your sales goals
This is a lot of work – but it’s worth it. It may be the difference between ringing in 2010 or not.
– Deb
P.S. If you need help – give me a shout!
Filed under: General, Marketing, Strategy | Tagged: aesthetic practice marketing or advertising, cosmetic practice advertising or marketing, esthetic practice marketing or advertising, marketing planning for medical spas and cosmetic aesthe, med spa advertising, Med Spa Marketing, medical spa marketing
You do a great job of breaking down the steps for marketing success. A medical spa is like any other business – it needs a marketing plan to ensure customers are enticed to use your services. Your level-headed approach, when followed, will lead to great rewards.
It’s always great to revisit the fundamentals. Some of the biggest problems I see with my client base (both retail medicine and other industries) go back to not following these fundamentals. Here are the two biggies:
1. Big Marketing budget but no plan – these clients spend spend spend and have great reach and frequency but could be doing it so much smarter with a better ROI
2. Big Plans but no budget – this is the worst situation and it seems that startups or small but growing businesses have a difficult time understanding how much you actually need to spend in a marketplace to really reach maximum impact.
If there’s not enough marketing cash to penetrate a market, then the company should not spend any at all.
As Sun Tzu said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”