Double Dose: SkinMedica Targets Doctors and Patients

How do you communicate with a customer who isn’t really a customer?

Ask SkinMedica. The company sells its skin-care products through doctors, but it must persuade consumers to buy them. And that requires a two-step process in which each group gets its own e-mail newsletter.

The more visible of the two, the monthly consumer update, has drawn around 15,000 subscribers since its start last year. Most are women in the 35-plus age bracket who heard about SkinMedica’s products on Oprah or through other media outlets.

“Every time we get a plug on TV, we get a jump in subscriptions,” says Reid Carr, president of Red Door Interactive Inc., of San Diego, CA.

Interested consumers are directed to the company Web site (www.SkinMedica.com). Once online, they can locate an approved physician in their area using the site’s Physician Finder, or subscribe to the newsletter.

And what do they get when they sign up?

Each issue of the clearly written e-zine contains several items on how to use the regimen. But the company tries to keep advice and sales messages "decently separate," says Carr.

“It’s product oriented, but we’re not selling the product,” he says. “The only call to action is to consult your physician.”

Many consumers do. The open rate hovers around 50%, and 20% of all recipients clicked through to the Physician Finder in response to an update on the firm’s TNS Regeneration System. (As well they should: The products are non-prescription, but they should be used in consultation with a doctor, Carr notes).

Conversions are hard to track since the products cannot be purchased online. But company sales have risen, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the newsletters are doing their job, adds Carr.

At first, SkinMedica viewed the updates as routine e-mail communications, but they soon started “taking shape as newsletters,” Carr continues.

As befits the audience, the doctor’s version is more technical. It includes articles not only on the cosmetseutical offerings, but on SkinMedica's prescription products like Vaniqa (which fights unwanted facial hair), and EpiQuin Micro (which treats a skin condition called melasma).

Another difference is that the contents appear entirely in the e-mail, resulting in few clickthroughs. But there are good reasons for this departure from standard practice.

For one thing, doctors tend to order by phone or during sales visits—they are “not using the Web as much as a tool,” says Carr. For another, the e-zine is not always read online—often, it is printed out by a secretary, and placed on the doctor’s desk. This edition goes to slightly more names than the consumer version and draws a slightly lower open rate, but Carr declines to give numbers because doctors are the actual customers. They subscribe during sales visits, or in the physician-only area of the Web site, he continues.

Is the content coordinated between the two newsletters? Yes. For example, when Bo Derek was signed on as a celebrity endorser, doctors were informed first.

“Everything we send out to consumers has already been pushed out to doctors,” says Carr.

Red Door Interactive handles production for both versions, from writing to delivery. All the content is vetted from the regulatory perspective.

What’s next? The firm plans to segment its list to provide more customized content. One variable might be geography. “People in the South might be more interested in sun-oriented products, whereas in the north it might be products for dry skin,” says Carr. Then there’s age. Older consumers could choose an anti-aging product, younger people in a healthy skin regimen, Carr adds.

In addition, SkinMedica is testing day parts and specific days to determine the optimal time for broadcasting. What has it found? “The weekend is still viable for consumers, but not for doctors,” Carr says. “Many doctors are checking the stuff at night, so we can infer that they’re reading it at home, not at the office.”

Whatever the day, SkinMedica is committed to newsletters as a marketing tool. And so, obviously, is Carr.

“You can’t expect people to continually come back to your Web site,” he says. “You have to bring the site to them.”