Every Medical Spa Professional Needs to Have a Marketing System

Everyone has a system...professional gamblers have a system...anyone directly in sales has a system that they must follow. However, most medical spa professionals do not have an organized, structured system. I have developed what has been working exceptionally well for me. I designate 1-2 hours each day on SEO and networking. I refer to this as "BLETWORKING" because it involves my blogs. Many people advocate doing this first thing in the morning. MY sustem is that I do this late at night because this is peaceful time. The phone is not ringing; the TV is not blarring; I put on my favorite music and away I go. I will state at this point that I do the blogging myself. Many delegate this to a trusted employee but I feel that it must come from me. I do delgate posting the blogs to other websites and social neworking sites to staff members. Here is the system: 1. First, I write a blog and upload it to Blogger. I then copy and paste the blog onto my Google + account and also my wordpress blog. This enhances my exposure and takes little time. 2. Then I share the blog on LinkedIn, my FaceBook business page, Twitter and Google + and my Wordpress account 3. Next, I upload the blogs into multiple Twitter accounts that are specific to certain areas of the medical spa industry - Twitter accounts designated for medical spa lawyer (@medispalawyer), med spa attorney(@medspaattorey) , health lawyer (@healthcareEsq) and (@healthlawyer2) and medical spa consultant (@medicalspaconsu) 4. Then I add them to Tweet Adder and allow the automated system to tweet the blog throughout the day from all three sites (Google +, Blogger and Wordpress). This entire process takes 1-2 hours only and I can do these things at my convenience. This process has become my #1 method for obtaining new clients in all of the categoties listed above!!

Paddy Deighan, J.D. Ph.D http://www.medicalandspaconsulting.com

An Emerging and Disturbing Trend in Medical Spas....

For those that follow the medical spa industry, there is always a new product or service that is being touted as the latest and greatest in the industry. Many are little more than marketing hype.

One emerging trend is the hCG diet. Supporters argue that it has allowed many to lose weight. Others maintain that there is no scientific evidence that indicates that it is effective. They further opine that any weight loss is a result of near starvation diet levels of calorie intake (less than 500 calories per day).

hCG is human chorionic gonadotrophin and it is a pregnancy hormone. It is non existent in the male anatomy except for a brief period after birth. It only exists on women during pregnancy. It use is linked to near starvation diets in the weight loss use.

It is important to note that its use is not FDA cleared. By itself, this is not a concern because physicians routinely utilize medical and prescriptive materials "off label" if they believe that it is warranted in a given situation.

However, it is appearing in many non-physician owned medical spas. The HCG dispensed in such settings cannot be medical grade hCG and popular belief is that the non medical grade hCG is non efficacious for weight loss. In fact, in January of 2011, the FDA determined that homeopathic hCG is "fraudulent and illegal" when sold for weight loss. Even in a medical setting, with physicians utilizing medical grade hCG, the product must carry a warning which indicates that there's no proof they accelerate weight loss, redistribute fat, or numb the hunger and discomfort typical of a low-calorie diet.

The bottom line is that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that hCG works.

The disturbing thing is that I have noticed many medical spas that are touting outrageous results from the use of hCG. It appears that many spas are promoting hCG without differentiating between homeopathic grade and medical grade.

In any event, the use of such a product must be carefully watched. Practitioners need to exercise extreme care in providing this service. Extreme caution must be made in marketing the service. From what I have observed, there are a lot of fraudulent claims that may result in severe damage to patients and client...

Another Reason that the Medical Spa Business is SOOO Difficult

One of the challenges that I have routinely encountered is that there is another attorney involved in a medical spa matter and he or she does not know the legal nuances of the industry. Recently, I had an attorney that was resisting a critical course of action for a medical spa.

The attorney was not well versed in these areas and kept requesting support for my position on HIPAA. She wanted me to show her where it is necessary to include a Business Associate Agreement in a medical spa setting. This is a basic thing for a medical spa and it is not written anywhere that "medical spa, you must do this". The law does not work that way in this country. It is subject to interpretation. however, this was a basic tenet of medical spa law.

It is difficult to sometimes say why something is "necessary" in this area of law. In this instance it was prudent to complete a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). My argument then became, "there is NO harm in completing a BAA, and potentially tremendous harm in NOT executing one, so why not complete one"?? More resistance.

There are two basic lessons here...first, realize that when an attorney, in any area of law, is unfamiliar with a particular issue, they will reject it and say no because they are not comfortable in agreeing with the position on the issue.

Second, always entrust your counsel and guidance to an attorney that is well versed in the issues you face. All too frequently, I get referred to someone's "attorney" in a complicated business matter and it turns out that the attorney handled a personal injury claim for them!!