Your Medical Spa & Laser Clinic Advertising Sucks

I hate to tell you this, but your advertising sucks.

That's alright. Your competitors advertising sucks too.

In the last ten years that I've been around medical spas, laser clincs, dermatologist practices and plastic surgery centers, I've seen a lot of sucky advertising.

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It's more than just a little appropriate if you apply it to the marketing and advertisng of cosmetic practices. After all, the're generally small businesses in which the owner is in there working all day making the payments. It's no wonder that with; no training, no resources, no access, and no working knowlegde of how to really market and advertise... the typical medspa or plastic surgeon relies mostly on the 'vendors' to try to get some littel bit of name recognition.

And the vendors love to help you (if you're producing for them) by giving you a hundred brochures or postcards that tout 'their' product.

And docs are tripping all over themselves to try to get this stuff.

So, we're going to be doing something about that. We're going to to offer some actual advertising and marketing umph that a few of the smarter docs on the site will be able to take advantage of.

We're going to be launching a marketing and advertising portal for plastic surgeons, dermatologists, medical spa and laser clinics.

We've been working on it for the last six months already.

It's still about a month away but I've been pretty excited about it and thought it about time to show a little leg.

This new portal will be designed specifically around providing the highest quality marketing and advertising for cosmetic medical practices. The idea will be to provide entire, integrated campaigns that will give you the ability to have the same look and feel across your entire presence; business cards, postcards, brochures, flyers, posters, emails... all of it.

Sure, there might be another clinic somewhere that's using the same theme, but what will you care? You'll be paying pennies on the dollar for what you'd pay to have this work done exclusively for you and you'll be able to look a lot bigger than you are.

I may be jumping the gun just a little in this but, damn, I've seen the stuff and it rocks!

Oh, and by the way, this stuff wasn't put together by some teenagers or housewives with photoshop. We've scored some fantastic talent, from art directors to writers who have worked on huge accounts.

So, there are a few things left to do, but it's all coming together. Stay tuned.

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The (Generally) Lame State Of Medical Center Press Releases

I use a number of pages that I've customized to receive information about cosmetic medical centers, technologies and companies.

There's always one or two totally lame press releases that come up from clinics who don't really have anything to say and are trying to use the PR listing services to bump up thier search engine rankings.

Here are a couple of examples just today:

• AcuMedSpa Holdings, Inc. Appoints New Board Member
• AcuMedSpa Holdings, Inc. Announces Corporate Updates
• Lake Forest Plastic Surgery in Chicago Launches Redesigned Web Site

Now I don't mean to pick on AcuMedSpa or Lake Forest Plastic Surgery. They're just trying to increase their rankings and that's something that every medical center should be looking to do. But there are better ways than creating drivel that can never be consumed and were never designed to be read.

Press releases are a relic of the 80's and very nearly useless compared to what can now be done with content. Most businesses still release them but the benefit is negligible and is generally only read by the person that the release is about. Who the hell cares. It's a waste of time and money that could be better spent on actually getting in front of potential patients. The opportunity cost for this stuff far outweighs the benefit and is usually promoted by those who don't have any ideas of their own. Everybody else does it so we should too.

Ah, I rant. It's not all bad of course. There are some minor benefits but it's not the best way to get the rankings you actually want. (The very first thing that I'd suggest that you do is run a free report on your web site to see where you currently are.)

If you're sending out drivel and calling it newsworthy, please stop. It's killing me.

The Worst Plastic Surgery Billboard Ever.

Wow. This may well be the worst plastic surgery billboard I've ever seen. In fact, it may be the worst plastic surgery ad too.

This is what happens when someone in the clinic thinks they know marketing and advertising.

I've actually seen this billboard. It's along I-15 in Utah and I've driven past it a few times. Each time shaking my head in utter disbelief that anyone describing themselves as an 'aesthetic specialist' could be attached to such bad taste. (And the actual design is worse. Quite obviously the work of a $6 an hour kid that's still in high school.) How could anyone think that this would move a woman to get plastic surgery?

The Gateway Aesthetic Institue & Laser Center is the cosmetic dermatology practice of Dr. Mark Taylor but there's usually a plastic surgeon to be found. I guess now it's 'Dr. Heidi'. According to the Gateway Aesthetic Institue's web site, Dr. Heidi is actually:

Heidi Regenass, M.D., a board certified plastic surgeon who comes to Gateway Aesthetic from Phoenix, Arizona, where she owned her own successful practice.

Dr. Regenass brings an international flair to cosmetic plastic surgery. Dr. Regenass specializes in plastic surgery procedures that rejuvenate the face and body, enhancing one’s natural beauty.

It may well be that this as was designed by Gateway Asesthic Institue and Dr. Regenass didn't have anything to do with it. In that case I feel sorry for her. It's got to be embarrassing to have your name attached to something this crass and trite.

What the Bad Billboard Project says about Dr. Heidi's boob job billboard:

My business used to be housed in an office a few feet from this billboard. Only it was a different billboard back then. I was driving by, saw this, and felt like I couldn’t pass it up. It is poorly designed, to be sure, but I’m not sure that matters so much, at least as far as getting your attention. Whether it would actually result in increased sales, I’m not sure. Probably, since many people don’t appreciate good design, either consciously or subconsiously. As for me, I’m thoroughly offended and would certainly never let Dr. Heidi get her dirty paws on me.