Since the Covid shutdowns, many practices have avoided their previously-held in-office events. Patients enjoy them, and it’s an excellent way to showcase your facility, staff, products, and services. Your vendors from Allergan Aesthetics/ AbbVie and other companies will gladly come to support your event as well. Here are two October event ideas for your consideration.
Event Partners
If either of the events that we’ll share in this post will be held at your practice facility, you should call all your vendor reps who receive orders from your practice to enlist their support for your event. Not only can they attend (and should be delighted to do so) but some can bring a door prize and/or food or beverages to the event to keep your costs down. You’ll need to find a place for each vendor, in a treatment room, reception area or the like. If the rooms are big enough, you can put two non-competing vendors in the same room.
A big hit with attendees are the vendors that don’t usually participate in your practice offerings, such as a nail salon to do nail polish changes, a massage therapist to do chair massage, and the like. Trust us, women love them, and the nail tech and massage therapist will have an opportunity to show their skills to attendees and increase their own client base. Don’t forget to ask a hair stylist to attend to offer hairstyle ideas to attendees as well.
Have Door Prizes & Special Pricing For Attendees
Obviously, door prizes can be taken from your own supply of skincare products, as well as gift certificates for skincare, i.e., facials and the like. You can also offer “attendee only” special pricing for procedures on that night.
Always Offer Food But Think Twice About ETOH
Simple trays with finger sandwiches or a charcuterie board are easily purchased from a local store or outlets like Sam’s Club and Costco. Although wine seems like a normal party option, if someone drinks too much and either behaves badly at the event or is involved in an accident on the way home, it would be bad for your image, so consider before purchasing alcoholic beverages.
Halloween Event
This is a basic, fun event hosted at your office. Apply the ideas above, be sure to let your database know about it, and enjoy! It creates a sense of community among your past, current, and prospective patient attendees, and gives you a chance to show off your staff, facility, and offerings. Be sure to plan a 10-minute presentation with lots of visuals (people like to watch more than they like to listen).
Breast Event
An October breast event is an option whether or not you perform breast reconstruction procedures since it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s a way to pair up with an intimate apparel store that can potentially partner with you and refer their customers to you after the event.
Which Lingerie Store?
Choose a well-known, upscale lingerie store, privately owned, if possible, as getting permission is easier from a local business than a chain. Ask if they’d like to do a joint event for mutual benefit. Be sure they know they must share the word with their clientele via social media and signage in the store, as well as email invitations to their customer base, and that you will do the same.
Ask the store to offer bra fittings during the event, with special offers for attendees, and to do a presentation about the various types and brands of bras. You should include a presentation about breast self-examination. The local cancer society can give you free marketing collateral to hand out. Be sure to put labels with your practice information on the backs of the swag. You should present information about the various cosmetic breast procedures that you perform and consider sharing photos. Offer discounts on breast procedures for attendees for a pre-determined time limit, i.e., 6 months or a year.
You may wish to create an ongoing relationship with the intimate apparel shop if they are willing to share your brochure with customers who express an interest in a cosmetic breast procedure. Tell them in exchange for referring you, you will pay for a bra to be given to each of your breast patients, which they can choose during a visit to the store. This is motivation for the store owner, as she or he knows a woman with “new” breasts will buy more than the one bra that you’re giving her after recovery from her procedure. You might create a long-lasting relationship with this store that can bring you many patients over the years.
The Bottom Line
Events, whether at your location or at a local store, can lead to more referrals, great word of mouth in the community and, ultimately, more business for you!