Issue link: https://www.ascpskindeepdigital.com/i/291744
Create your free business website! www.ascpskincare.com 17 reat marketing ideas for your practice don't always need to come from within the skin care profession. Sometimes we need inspiration from outside our boxes to bring something fresh to the business side of our operations. Be inspired by other industries by Lynn Parentini Large companies often have entire departments to help them come up with great promotions. This is out of the question for all but a few spas, let alone an independent esthetician. The good news is you can grow your own campaign, one promotion at a time, by being attentive to what other industries are doing and revamping their ideas for your own needs. Consider the seven ideas below. . Reward Client Input In 2011, the ice cream company Baskin-Robbins ran an online campaign for people to vote for their favorite classic flavor so the company could bring it back for a limited time. Everyone who voted received a "buy-one-cone, get-one-free" coupon. The campaign was wildly popular, and Baskin-Robbins benefited from the extra publicity as "Shares" and "Likes" made their way around social media sites. Also, the company was able to get firsthand data about what flavors customers wanted and saw an increase in sales when the winning flavor—pistachio ice cream with fudge-covered almonds and a chocolate ripple— was put back in stores. Depending on your practice, you may or may not have menu or retail items from the past to "bring back" (if you do, make sure it's something you can bring back). If you can't copy the Baskin-Robbins campaign that closely, you could instead ask for votes on clients' favorite treatment or retail product that you currently sell. Launch the voting on your social media sites and offer a coupon for the voter's next product or service purchase. Make a little fanfare when you bring the top-voted item back, and drive more excitement by making it available only for a limited time or in limited quantities. If clients are voting on an existing item, give a limited-time discount on that product or service. People love to be asked for their input. When you reward them for it, too, they will keep coming back and will tell others. . Deliver the Goods When a UNC Healthcare hospital in North Carolina decided to offer its patients room service from local restaurants, it created a triple-win situation: 1) the hospital reduced its costs and its workload, while increasing patient satisfaction; 2) the restaurants gained business and publicity; and 3) the patients enjoyed restaurant-quality food they could choose for themselves. Of course, the hospital had first selected which items to offer from each restaurant, so that the new room service menus only contained meals that were appropriate for the patients. There are two ways you can look at this idea. You can consider offering some of your selected services to a local hospital for in-room treatments, or you can take this idea out of the medical setting and approach hotels that do not already have spas. Either way, you're looking to create an advantage for every party involved. Carefully consider the services you want to offer for room service. Even the simplest services will be welcome to a patient on a long-term hospital stay: basic daily grooming, such as nail clipping, leg shaving, brow tidying, and hairstyling go by the wayside when nursing staff must focus on medical care and basic hygiene needs for a bedridden patient. G