At Kendrick PR, we believe that your reputation as a practitioner is the backbone of your success within the aesthetics industry. Reputation can take years to build and only seconds to tarnish, which is why it is so important to implement a strong marketing strategy to maintain and develop your reputation. One of the most effective marketing tools that you can use are patient testimonials.
Straight From The Horses Mouth
You can spend all of the time in the world promoting yourself, whether that would be online, via social media, through your marketing material, but the impact is never going to be as strong without independent backup to your claims.
Its all about showing, not just telling. Thats why things like before and after galleries, surveys and testimonials are so effective. They add to your credibility as they speak to your audience on more of a personal level; thats why the power of third-party endorsement should never be underestimated.
Testimonials can build a valuable connection between an independent third party (i.e. your patient) and your target audience, unlike other marketing strategies that rely on more direct messaging from you to your desired audiences. No one can speak as openly and honestly about their experience at your practice than your existing patients, coming straight from the “horse’s mouth’, as it were.
The Best Ways To Gather Patient Testimonials
In an ideal scenario, testimonials will occur organically. Satisfied patients often tend to show their appreciation by way of an email, phone call or handwritten note, for example. This is great, but you can’t rely on the probability of this occurring, and then only utilising this information when it does. You need to initiate the feedback process, but it’s so important that you pick the right time.
When a patient thanks you or speaks positively of the care you provide, this is a great chance to ask if they’d be happy to put it in writing. In most cases, patients are more than willing to help, but you need to make this an easy process for them, because we cant always bank on them making contact. Surveys can be a great tool to prompt patients for their comments – they are easy to put together and can be either printed or digital, such as a post-treatment email (these days, this is definitely most effective as you can monitor data through email reports).
You can tailor the survey with questions regarding certain treatments if you want to promote specific procedures at your clinic.
Take Advantage of Testimonials
If you arent already taking advantage of the benefits of patient testimonials, you are missing a trick. Your patients are the ones that can talk of your care better than anyone else, gaining you vital credibility and a boost to your reputation and trust.
If you have a marketing budget, it is definitely worth thinking about doing some video testimonials too, as these can relay a lot of information in a short space of time – not to mention being much more engaging than just the written word. Patients may understandably be less willing to talk on camera than to give a video testimonial, but many are happy to do so if you can say thank you by discounting a future treatment!
For more information, please dont hesitate to give Julia Kendrick a call or get in contact via the contact page. And why not take a look at some of our testimonials, too?