Yikes!

A few nights ago at my gym I happened to notice a local medical spa marketing their services off in a darkened corner of the workout area with a few anemic signs taped to a counter. Two attractive young ladies, one slumped in a stool, the other leaning on the counter, looked bored and disinterested. Meanwhile, affluent women came and went from their Body Spin and Body Pump classes. About 45 minutes into my workout I approached the bored women. I asked basic questions to which I received adequate answers and was handed a tri-fold brochure. Umm, thanks, I guess.

Obviously, this “event” was a non-event and a total waste of time and resources for everyone involved. So, I thought I’d offer some helpful, pithy suggestions so you don’t repeat the same mistakes I witnessed.

In the First Place
I believe there are far more effective ways to promote your medical spa other than events such as the one at my gym. Reference the posting by EC dated 05.25.2009 on this site under “What is the best advertising for your medical spa?” Whoever EC is, he or she nailed it.

However, if you do decide to hold an out-of-office event, be sure to pre-market the event. If your budget will not accommodate spending your own money on marketing, ask your marketing partner, in this case the gym, if they’ll allow you to post 8 ½ x 11 signs a week before the event. In addition, ask them if you can post the event on their website, especially the calendar. Being listed next to their Pilates classes will help get you noticed.

Location, location, location
Everyone wants prime real estate. In this case it’s possible that the gym did not allow the medical spa to be in the primo spot – next to the sign-in desk and relegated them to the darkest bowels of the gym. So where should they have been if the front desk was not an option? Outside of the ladies’ locker room! Every woman who came to the gym used the locker room so that’s where they should have set up camp.

What’s Your Name Again?
Signage is the oldest, most rudimentary form of advertising. Invest in a professional logo banner that can be rolled up and transported to multiple locations.

And while we are on the subject, Staples, OfficeMax and Office Depot all sell inexpensive Plexiglass holders that will make your standard color printouts look more professional. Banish the Scotch tape.

Light Therapy
You can’t always control the lighting when you are in borrowed space but Wal-Mart and Ikea sell good looking lights for under ten bucks that can be clamped into place to give your temporary booth a little light therapy of its own.

A Little Pizzazz; Activity = Interest
There’s a reason every time you walk through the cosmetics department there are countless chic women giving makeovers to women perched on stools. They do it to generate interest and to encourage trial. It would have been far better for these two medical spa employees to have pulled their lone stool out in front of the counter and put out signs announcing free mini-facials. Alternatively, they could have offered mini-consultations with their Profect camera – anything that would have attracted the eye of the women zipping past them.

So Tell Me About Yourself
The main reason for holding any out-of-office event is to get new customers. Period.
Make them an offer that will entice them to give up their precious contact information and then politely request they fill out a pre-printed card. Better yet, demonstrate your superior customer service and type their info into your system for them. Now, that’s service.

And what to offer them? I don’t believe in offering a free consultation. Everyone knows that “free consultation” is code for “sales pitch”. Give them something of real value. $50 ($100?) off of their first series. Giving away the store? It’s called profit margin. Figure out how much you can give away and still make a profit. If your margins are so tight you can’t give away $50 on a series then you have bigger problems.

Book ‘Em
No offer was made to me to set an appointment. Was it because I was a guy? Where they clever enough to know that I’ve already spent thousands on dermal fillers and they thought I didn’t need any more? Who knows. The point is, don’t make your customers work to make an appointment. Set an appointment for them on the spot. If your scheduling system doesn’t allow remote access, then do it the old fashioned way and schedule them in the system as soon as you’re back in the office.

Get On It
Assuming you’ve not made the mistakes we discussed here, you should have collected a tidy number of prospective new customers’ information. A recent study from Kellogg Business School has shown that the most effective follow up for this type of sale is to a.) call the prospective customer within less than 24 hours, followed by b.) email the prospective customer relevant information based on your telephone conversation. An alternative approach is to call her, and, assuming she has access to a computer and is not driving down the road, direct her to the areas of your website that are of interest to her.

Most of you probably already know this information but sometimes a little refresher can come in handy. Happy marketing.

Marekting Guy-I too am absolutely amazed at the shear number of business people who just "don't get it". This is actually a good thing for those of us who "do get it".

Nice post. Appreciate that.