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"Before & After" Photo Book Gets a Facelift
Medium counts as much as message when marketing an aesthetic practice. The way you package our information, products, and services affects your customers' desire for what you're selling. Yet most aesthetic practices still package their "Before & After" photos in plain, generic photo pages bound in plain, generic photo albums. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way.
Amy Cobb—the clinical nurse for Edward J. Gross, MD, in the Orlando, Florida, area—is also an accomplished scrapbooker on her off hours. Dr. Gross admired the warmth and personality of Amy's scrapbooks and asked her to spruce up the practice's "Before & After" photo book. Amy spent about $65 for materials (reimbursed by the practice) and 15 hours of her own time, mainly at the scrapbooking parties (called "crops") where she regularly practices her craft.
The end result was a colorful, personal collection of photographs that serves as not only a patient educational tool but a powerful soft promotional tool. Dr. Gross's new photo book tells the story of the practice using pictures of the move to the current office, a tour of the new office, an introduction to the staff, a short bio of Dr. Gross illustrated with photos of the University of Miami School of Medicine where he earned his Medical Doctorate. Like a good family photo album, this "story-in-pictures" gives the patient a sense of personal connection to the practice. Each page is backed with colorful paper and decorated with nursing hats or other health care-themed scrapbooking stickers. Charming and attractive, the book is placed in accessible areas, such as the coffee table in the consult room and in the waiting room. Patients pick it up casually—enticed by the warmth, the colors, the light-heartedness—and admire it (and, we suspect, admire Dr. Gross) before the consultation even begins.
"Before & After" pictures follow, of course, hand-selected by Amy, backed with colorful paper, and organized traditionally in separate sections for different procedures and different areas of the body. Staff report that, when the doctor shows patients the artfully-presented photos of the procedures they are considering, patients look longer, pay more attention than they had with the old photo book.
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Three Reasons to Improve Your Before & After Photos:
- Catch and hold the eye of your patients. The longer they look, the more likely they are to schedule the procedure.
- A more appealing presentation helps create a more pleasant overall consultation experience. This in turn will more likely lead your patient to schedule the procedure.
- A personal connection with you means patients are more likely to recommend you to their friends.
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As long as "Before & After" books have been used, each one has looked more or less like the last, over time and across practices. One outstanding effect of Amy's revamped photo book is the positive way it differentiates the practice from its competitors. Dr. Gross's patients comment on the new book's "different flair" and its "charm"; they leave the consult with a positive view of the practice. From there, you can expect more procedures and surgeries scheduled and more word-of-mouth advertising in the community—all from an improvement on an educational tool plastic surgeons have used for decades.
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