Whenever anyone talks about marketing or advertising, the term target audience will usually pop up. What is a target audience? How do you find out who “they” are? And why should an aesthetic surgery practice even care?
The target audience for your practice is the group of patients or potential patients most likely to be interested in and able to afford the type of services you offer. They should be the patients you want to attract with your marketing communications, not just the type who already respond to your messages.
You should be able to identify these patients by looking at their lifestyle, including occupation, income, where they live, their ages, their ethnic background, and even how they spend their free time, energy, and money! You need to try to get inside their heads to understand what motivates them to seek your services. Are they wanting to gain self-confidence or looking for the competitive edge in a job interview? Do they want their pre-Mommy body back?
You and your office staff should have a pretty good feel for the answers to these questions gathered from their daily interaction with patients. You can also get up-to-date information on plastic surgery patient demographics from websites such as ASAPS (www.surgery.org) and ASPS (www.plasticsurgery.org) and other online resources. You can also ask patients for the info in online polls offered in your e-newsletter. Keep it fun and patients will respond.
Just remember, in order to effectively market to your target audience, don’t simply identify who they are. You need to make sure you are sending them the message that they want to hear and can understand quickly.
Wishing you aesthetic beauty in all you do!
Candace Crowe
