“DIGITAL MARKETING HAS A LOT
OF ADVANTAGES, BUT FOR MANY
PEOPLE, THE PRINTED WORD
JUST HAS MORE IMPACT.”
W
WHEN DR. CHARLES Mok opened Allure Medical
(alluremedical.com) in 2004, it had only one office and two
treatment rooms. He didn’t even quit his “day job” working at
a nearby hospital for the first couple of years after he started the
business, waiting to ensure its viability first. Since then, the Spa has
grown into a comprehensive medical treatment facility with five
offices throughout the metropolitan Detroit area (with a sixth office
opening soon), over 150 staff, and more than a dozen doctors.
Allure provides a wide range of treatments, from the medically
necessary to the purely cosmetic. The medical treatments
include vein procedures (about half of the company’s business),
hormone replacement therapy, dermatology services, and
state-of-the-art surgical procedures. On the cosmetic side,
the professionals at Allure perform nonsurgical cosmetic
enhancement services such as CoolSculpting and Magic Lift,
Allure’s unique approach to Botox and facial fillers to reduce
the signs of aging. Women comprise most of Allure’s patient
population, but many men have also been treated, often at
the gentle coaxing of their female significant others.
Education is a big part of the marketing process at Allure because
many patients are often not aware that simple treatments exist
for their nagging trouble spots. Vein treatment, for example,
has come a long way from the days of “stripping” veins, which
involved tremendous pain and extensive recovery periods.
Allure has long recognized the value of educating prospective
clients about its services. It has used a number of different
marketing methods to cut through the promotional clutter
most consumers are barraged with day in and day out. “At
first, we only did pay-per-click advertising and television
spots,” says Allure Marketing Director, Mary Scott. “Since
then, we’ve branched out into all forms of digital marketing
including blogging and using various social media platforms.”
Still, Scott believed that the company could do better and set
out to analyze what, exactly, was missing. “We knew that we
were very good at generating leads at that point,” she says, “but
we felt that we weren’t doing enough to provide content to
existing and potential patients.” Scott decided that true brand
engagement requires more than just brief messaging. In a field
like Allure’s, it needs to be content driven to be most effective.
A chance meeting between Dr. Mok and Carle Publishing
Founder and President, Andy Buyting at a networking event
altered the course of Allure’s marketing program in a way that
Scott describes as “game changing.” Buyting sold Mok on the
concept of custom magazines focused on a single business and
Scott quickly agreed. “For us, the idea of custom publishing
seemed like a natural,” says Scott. “We wanted to take that
initial engagement with patients and drive it a step further.”
“I also loved the idea of being able to give people something
tangible that they could pass around to their mothers, sisters,
and friends,” she says. “Digital marketing has a lot of advantages,
but for many people, the printed word just has more impact.”
Since publishing their first quarterly magazine in October of 2016,
Allure has seen many patients actually bring the magazine in and
ask about specific articles and procedures that they read about. The
positive response was so immediate, in fact, that Scott ordered an
additional 20,000 copies of the initial print run to help reach as
much of Allure’s targeted population as possible. Since then, the
company’s print runs have averaged about 50,000 copies, taking
advantage of its own robust database as well as lists provided
by Carle’s mail house as part of its publishing contract. Scott
describes the list development process this way: “We provided
demographic guidance on things like desired neighborhoods,
age targets and lifestyle factors, and Carle worked with the
mail house to pull together lists that were reflective of that.”
Since last year, the Allure staff has developed a productive
working arrangement with Carle, collaborating on everything
from content development to production and distribution.
However, Carle has done most of the heavy lifting, including a
large portion of the writing, editing, proofreading and design.
“We work really well with them and they guide us through
a lot of the process,” says Scott. “It’s a big undertaking to
produce a magazine and it’s only because of their leadership
that we are able to publish as frequently as we do.”
Because of the medical nature of the magazine’s content,
Allure has its team stay more involved in content development
than, perhaps, other companies would. With the ability to dig
deep into a wide variety of topics that help elucidate Allure’s
offerings, Mok and his staff are overflowing with winning
ideas they’d like to cover. They have so much information
to share, in fact, that they plan to devote individual issues
to particular problem areas, audiences and treatments.
Eventually, Scott would like to develop some reporting tools
that will help her measure the success of the program and
home in on subject and practice areas that seem to draw
the most interest. For the time being, however, she has
more than enough on her plate to keep her busy. “Carle is a
terrific partner,” she says. “Their growth track has paralleled
ours and we’re excited to see where they’re going.”
ALLUREMEDICAL .COM
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