Dermatology Marketing Ideas to Attract Patients and Increase Revenue
By: Angela Myers | July 17th, 2024
The dermatology market is valued at $8.9 billion. Thanks to insurance covering more procedures than ever before and the rise of teledermatology, skin care is only becoming more accessible. Throw in a greater demand for dermatology as the U.S. population ages, and many practices are poised to increase their revenue and impact.
But with opportunity comes competition. Many dermatology practices today struggle to advertise their services and showcase what makes their practice unique. To differentiate yourself from other practices and attract patients, your practice needs a robust dermatology marketing plan.
That plan should hit on multiple dermatology marketing ideas, including ways to:
- Improve your dermatology practice’s website
- Implement local SEO practices
- Optimize your Google My Business listing
- Launch paid aids
- Grow a social media presence
- Work with local influencers
- Develop an email marketing strategy
- Deliver an excellent patient experience
- Create a referral program
- Ask for reviews
- Make it easy to be a repeat customer
- Forge connections at local events
- Send direct mailers
- Advertise on television
- Host giveaways
- Collaborate with other practices and businesses
- Conduct regular market research
Marketing Challenges Dermatologists Face
It’s no secret dermatology is competitive. A dermatology residency is one of the hardest for med students to match with because the number of trained dermatologists is greater than the demand.
Like in any competitive industry, marketing is crucial for dermatology practices, but there are a few common obstacles.
For one, dermatologists aren’t marketers, and you shouldn’t be expected to market your services alone. Fortunately, there are free and paid resources out there to make marketing easier. Plus, a solid tech stack allows your administrative staff to automate marketing efforts. It also enables fast, efficient patient experiences.
Another marketing challenge for dermatology practices is the crowded digital space. On top of competing with other dermatologists, many skin care and makeup influencers show up for key search terms on social media and Google. Typing “how to prevent wrinkles” into TikTok, for example, populates results from unqualified creators as well as dermatologists.
To show up in searches, you should be intentional with who you’re targeting and what you want them to do. You should also make it easy to book an appointment and focus as much attention on the patient experience.
Defining Your Audience
Before diving into a marketing plan, you need to understand who is walking into your practice and what services they are interested in. To determine this, jot down information about your patients and the most popular services
This information could include patient demographic information, such as their age, gender or profession. Age in particular can be especially important when choosing how to market, because different generations prefer different marketing and communication styles:
- The Silent Generation (1928-1945): As the oldest generation, they respond well to traditional marketing, such as TV ads or direct mailers.
- Boomers (1946-1964): While boomers respond well to traditional marketing, they are also active on Facebook and use Google to find healthcare practices.
- Gen X (1965-1980): Gen X prefers a mix of digital and physical marketing, such as direct mailers.
- Millennials (1981-1995): As digital natives, millennials prefer social media and email marketing. They also commonly Google a dermatology practice before making an appointment.
- Gen Z (1996-2012): Also known as the TikTok generation, Gen Z appreciates fast, intuitive marketing across multiple channels.
As you consider the marketing ideas below, reflect on your ideal patient’s marketing and communication preferences. You most likely won’t need to implement all 17 — at least, not to start with. Instead, choose those that will resonate with your target audience.
Online Marketing Strategies
Whether it’s Google or social media, your dermatology practice should be showing up online. Continue reading for seven effective ways to put your best foot forward on digital channels.
1. Improve your dermatology practice’s website
There’s nothing more frustrating than a hard-to-use website. Your patients expect to be able to make appointments and find relevant information quickly. To meet these expectations, you should ensure your website is user-friendly.
A few ways to test this include:
- Have a friend or family member navigate around your website for five minutes. See what’s easy and hard for them to access and ask for honest feedback on the layout.
- Ensure key information (i.e., your practice's services and where you are located) is easy to find on the homepage.
- Check that website visitors can make an appointment easily.
To accomplish the last suggestion, successful practices invest in an easy-to-use patient portal. This portal should be integrated into your website, letting visitors schedule from there. When reflecting on his practice’s patient portal, Joel Schlessinger, MD, FAAD at LovelySkin said,“Nextech’s user-friendliness makes it possible for even the most technology-averse patients to succeed in having virtual visits with very little help.”
2. Implement local SEO practices
While it’s important to have a user-friendly website, people have to find it first — and hopefully those people live in your area. To show up in the right searches, invest in local SEO.
If you run a dermatology practice in Charlotte, N.C., for example, you may not get many appointments from showing up in Google searches for “what is a dermatologist?” Showing up in searches for “dermatologists in Charlotte, NC” will probably lead to appointments.
When optimizing for local SEO, start with these three tips:
- Conduct keyword research with your area in mind
- Add location-specific alt-text to all photos on your website
- Include your location and contact information on all website pages
3. Optimize your Google My Business listing
When people search on Google or look for dermatology practices on Google Maps, businesses with Google My Business listings come up. For your practice to show up in these location-specific queries, you should create a business listing for your practice.
If you already have a listing but it’s not performing as well as you’d like, consider optimizing your profile to increase the chance of showing up in Google’s local 3-pack.
Google’s 3-pack are the first three results that show up for location-specific queries and often get the majority of clicks. To increase the chances of being in the local 3-pack, fill out every section of your Google My Business listing and ask for reviews.
While Google My Business reigns supreme, you may want to list your business elsewhere too, such as on Yelp or NextDoor. Apple Maps, for example, often populates location-specific results based on what businesses are listed on Yelp.
4. Launch paid aids
Organically showing up on Google or social media takes time. To expedite the process, your practice can purchase digital ads with either pay-per-click (PPC) on Google or Facebook/Instagram advertising.
Instagram/Facebook advertising is great for brand awareness and can help your practice reach younger patients. Google Ads, on the other hand, has a higher patient conversion rate, but may not build an engaged community around your practice.
5. Grow a social media presence
Social media is another popular place to search for dermatology practices. Showing up in local searches on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), or Facebook can get more patients in the door.
But showing up on six platforms is overwhelming. Instead, create one or two social media profiles on platforms where your audience hangs out. These should link back to your website so followers can make appointments easily. For example, before-and-after comparison videos of patient transformations can be a great source of engagement on TikTok. Other content to consider includes a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at your practice, explainer videos about particular products or treatments, and debunking common skincare myths.
6. Work with local influencers
Beauty and skin care is the number one influencer niche. Instead of competing with influencers to rank for search terms or show up on the TikTok FYP (the For You Page with recommended content), work with them.
Reaching out to local influencers can bring more patients to your office. These influencers create content to post on their channels, as well as videos and images you can use in your own marketing.
7. Develop an email marketing strategy
According to a 2022 study from the Journal of Interactive Marketing, emails can be used to increase the number of patients walking into your office, educate subscribers on new offerings, and build a community around your practice. However, the most effective emails educate first, sell subtly, and are personalized to the end-user.
To personalize emails at scale, your practice can invest in PM software that auto-fills names, procedures, and more into emails and sends them without burdening your administrative staff. Nextech’s PM software, for example, automatically personalizes emails and boosts conversions by 30% – and that’s without increasing marketing spend.
Patient Marketing Strategies
When a patient has an excellent experience, they are more likely to return and refer your practice to friends. Below are four ways to enhance your dermatology practice’s patient experience.
8. Deliver an excellent patient experience
The best marketing strategy is timeless: a happy patient. A 2021 study identified five ways practices can improve the patient experience:
- Better communication
- Make it easier to schedule appointments
- Efficient care delivery
- Quality provider/patient interactions
- Excellent care and high-quality services
Fortunately, small changes can lead to all five of these outcomes. The Dermatology and Laser Centre, for example, always provided great care for their patients. But once they switched EHR and PM providers, they also were able to reduce their wait times, speed up their administrative flow, and focus more attention on their patients than their paperwork.
9. Create a referral program
When patients are happy, they will naturally refer friends, but those referrals trickle in slowly. To speed them up, create a referral program with incentives for other businesses, current patients, or local partners to refer others to your practice.
Incentives may include a free add-on to an elective treatment for current patients or a cut of the first appointment’s revenue for a referring partner. You can also create a mutually beneficial referral system with a local business, like a med spa, where you both refer business to one another.
10. Ask for reviews
Reviews offer a firsthand account, and prospective patients often read them on Google, Facebook, and your website. Reviews can also be used in blogs, case studies, social media, mailers, and emails. Plus, reviews on Google can help boost the visibility of your Google My Business rating.
Yet, few patients write reviews on their own and need to be prompted. With the right PM/EHR, you can set up an automated email sequence, asking patients to write a review on Google. From there, you can repurpose those reviews on your website and in other marketing materials.
11. Make it easy to be a repeat customer
It’s easier to convince a current patient to return than to recruit a new one. To experience the benefits of repeat patients, make it easy for customers to book follow-up appointments. A robust patient portal is often the first step toward this, though email reminders about follow-up appointments and other services help as well.
Depending on your EHR/PM provider, you may also be able to set up memberships or payment plans, upping the incentive to return.
Traditional Marketing Strategies
It’s easy to focus on flashy digital marketing strategies. However, traditional ones like in-person events, mailers, and TV ads still have a place in dermatology marketing. In fact, they may help your practice stand out since many practices ignore traditional methods.
12. Forge connections at local events
Patients and potential business partners are ready to connect in real life after years of minimal in-person events. In fact, 89% of business leaders say events are key to growing revenue in 2024.
To take advantage of in-person events, consider different local fairs, events, and festivals you could sponsor or purchase a booth at. You could also visit organizations who may be especially interested in skin care or sponsor spa days and skin care events at your practice or another local business.
13. Send direct mailers
Snail mail may appear archaic, but it’s still effective for many healthcare practices. Eighty-two percent of marketers are increasing spend on direct mailers in 2024 due to significant ROI on mailers in the past.
To speed up the process of sending them, track patient addresses in your EHR/PM software. These technologies should also sync up easily with your marketing platform so you can conveniently send direct mailers.
14. Advertise on television
While shrinking, the TV advertising industry is still worth $337.50 billion in 2024 and can drum up new business for your practice. Television ads are purchased through local channels, and advertising packages often include playing a 15- to 30-second ad about your practice a set number of times. Writing a script for a short TV spot can be relatively simple: choose a clear, attention-getting opening line; clearly highlight the value your patients receive from your services and common problems you help solve; think of ways to add a personal touch or to share your personality; and finish with a strong call to action, such as “visit us for a free consultation.”
For more bang for your buck, you can also repurpose TV ads for digital channels like Instagram and YouTube.
Other Strategies
The strategies above create a robust marketing machine, but there are other marketing ideas to differentiate your practice. The three below are especially effective.
15. Host giveaways
Giveaways provide the opportunity to market your services, thank patients for engaging with your practice, and increase brand awareness. A giveaway may look like providing a free elective treatment to one lucky email subscriber or one person who attends a local event.
For maximum impact, ensure any giveaways are well advertised (such as with flyers in your office or posts on social media). Also make sure your EHR and PM software can collect relevant information about those who enter, such as their names and email addresses.
16. Collaborate with other practices and businesses
Collaboration is a great way to grow your dermatology practice and connect with local businesses. The best partners are those in similar niches to you, but who offer different services, such as med spas or plastic surgery practices.
There are many ways partnerships can take shape. Some ideas include:
- Posters to advertise your services at each other's offices or storefronts
- A small blurb about your services that you share with each other's email lists
- A collaborative social media post
- A co-hosted local event, such as spa day
17. Conduct regular market research
Trends in dermatology change; stay on top of them by conducting regular marketing research. To integrate market research with your practice’s regular operations, consider implementing a quarterly market research routine.
This routine may include:
- Accessing patient data from your EHR/PM. This can help you understand what marketing strategies are resonating, what services are popular, and other relevant insights.
- Researching other dermatology practices in the area and reflecting on what is and isn’t working for their marketing efforts.
- Asking patients what they like about your practice and what could be improved. Alternatively, you could also look at Google Reviews for patient insights.
With this information in hand, you can tweak your marketing strategy as needed and set new goals for the next three months. Learn how Nextech’s comprehensive dermatology EHR and PM solution can accelerate your marketing efforts with integrated lead management, marketing automations, powerful data insights, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the target market for skin clinics?
Skin care impacts patients of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, meaning there are many target markets for skin clinics — and many opportunities for your practice. So, focus on what you know about your community and your patient base. When deciding who to market your dermatology practice to, reflect on the demographics of patients in your office.
How big is the dermatology market?
In 2024, the dermatology market is valued at $8.9 billion. Thanks to insurance companies covering more dermatology services, heightened interest in skin care (including huge popularity among social media influencers), and an aging population, this industry is expected to grow.
Why is dermatology so competitive?
Dermatology is a competitive medical specialty because there are more qualified dermatologists than required. In fact, one 2018 study suggested that dermatology is the toughest residency to get into as a med student.
What marketing challenges do dermatologists face?
Dermatology marketing can open up new revenue streams for your practice and help you impact more patients, but it’s not without its challenges. Key marketing challenges for dermatologists include an inefficient tech stack, an inability to automate marketing, and competition from other dermatology practices and skin care influencers.
Angela Myers is a health and health tech writer with bylines in Forbes and AARP, among others.
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