As an established digital marketing agency with over 10 years of experience in the aesthetic industry, we have created over 100,000 leads for both surgical and non-surgical procedures. Unfortunately, many of those leads will never convert into a consultation or paying client without a sound follow-up system in place that every team member understands and uses each and every day. Within each practice should be the desire to continuously improve both the organization and the patient follow-up experience.The practice should have several different follow-up strategies in place that help maximize the opportunity for a conversion. A successful way to improve your practices’ overall conversion and retention rate is to have a plan, then follow-up, follow-up, and follow-up again.
Imagine a scenario where you receive a referral from a long-term patient. This long-term patient is ecstatic about her surgical results and has been showing them off to her friend for months. Her friend is now ready to schedule a consultation and have her questions answered, so she emails your practice through your website. However, when it comes to calling the client back, she does not answer and your team member must leave a voicemail and send a follow-up email. One rule for follow-up success is to ALWAYS send multiple forms of communication. We highly recommend all phone calls are followed-up with an email, either saying “We just left you a voicemail and…” or “Thank you for speaking with me today about…” Also, considering using text messages, as these will be the future of follow-up, as many new service become available to facilitate HIPAA compliment text messages.
So, what do you do after this first touch-point? Cross your fingers and hope the client calls back? If you are like most practices in the aesthetics industry, you chalk it up as a loss and move on to the next patient. But the truth is not every prospect is ready to move forward. Most marketing statistics say it takes 8-16 touches to convert a new lead.
Here are Some Statistics on Follow-Up
– It takes an average of eight cold call attempts to reach a prospect.
– 30-50% of sales go to the practice that responds first.
– Retaining current customers is six to seven times less costly than acquiring new ones.
– 80% of sales require five follow-ups after the initial contact, but 44% of salespeople give up after one.
So how does this impact maximizing your opportunities and increasing conversion rate at your aesthetic practice?
It means that creating, monitoring, and adjusting both new and old patient follow-up protocols is crucial to having an effective process to move leads down the funnel and increase retention of existing patients for additional sales. Consistent follow-up is a critical aspect of how repeat business and patient referrals are generated in the top practices in the country.
Here are some examples of follow-up opportunities
– Three, six and/or nine-month Botox follow-up emails and calls
Clients need to be reminded they are due for treatment. Just like your dental cleaning, creating a system to reach out to clients is essential to having a strong retention rate. The cost to acquire a new client is expensive, so your team should be contacting people who have been into your practice already and have had positive experiences, everyday.
– Brilliant Distinctions Points Expiring Emails and Calls
Our industry partners offer a lot of opportunities for following-up. Another idea is to send an email and call all your clients that have BD points expiring. Login to https://www.allerganadvantage.com/s/ – Go to the Brilliant Distinctions tab. There you will be able to download a list of all clients that have BD points expiring in the next 30, 60 or 90 days. Once you have the list, you can upload it into your email marketing program and send a mass email to everyone, letting them know their points are about the expire.
– Have a Very Specific Post-Consultation Follow-Up Plan
We see our practices book more than 60% of their consultations on the same day, but regardless of whether or not they convert, their needs to be a specific follow-up system for a patient who doesn’t book and one for a patient that does book. Here is an example of what that post follow-up should look like:
Send a hand-written thank you note one day after the consultation
Call the client two days after their consultation and always send a follow-up email
Call the client five days after their consultation and always send a follow-up email
Call the client two weeks after their consultation and always send a follow-up email
Call the client five weeks after their consultation and always send a follow-up email
Each patients’ situation is unique, so make sure to vary your email message communication – by including links to relevant blogs, videos, financing options, or perhaps take the opportunity to just check and see if they are ready to move forward.
Following-up is a balance of being persistent and deliberate but DOES NOT mean being annoying or creating negative patient experiences. If you focus on educating, empathy and custom patient communication, your practice will be able to create unique opportunities to move clients down the funnel and cross sell them on other treatments you offer. Finding the balance between quality and quantity is a process, but a team member should be able to contact between 25 -75 patients per day.
MD Internet Marketing generates thousands of new leads for our doctors each month and the practices that “work the leads” through the funnel and have processes in place for reaching out to those leads are seeing increases in market share and decreases in cost per patient. Many industry professionals are seeing the power of follow-up, as many practices were closed due to COVID-19, which put a huge emphasis on reactivating old clients. We recommend spending as much as 10% of your annual marketing budget of recurring revenue and increasing retention rates. Continuing to reach out to people who already know who you are or with whom you have established some relationship has proven to be more effective than advertising to brand new clients. We highly recommend you take the time to put a concrete, and consistent follow-up plan in place, and then monitor what is actually being completed. Contact MD Internet Marketing at (954) 993-5154 to learn more about how we can help your practice maximize the opportunities that are currently available and increase your online presence to create even more opportunities.