Which Marketing Channels Should You Focus On For Your Aesthetic Practice? 

The aesthetics industry is always changing, and it can be challenging to keep up with the ever changing, dynamic landscape. This is especially true when it comes to marketing. With a new year, it’s a good time to evaluate your options and establish a successful multi-channel aesthetic’s marketing plan for your practice. Here are the top five marketing channels you should leverage. 

EMAILS AND NEWSLETTERS

Email marketing is a cost-effective channel that encourages engagement with existing and potential clients. It’s a vital avenue to ensure continued loyalty through communication like newsletters and discounted treatment offers. Email is also easily customized and targeted (clients love a little birthday gift in their inbox!), so you can establish a more personalized conversation with your most engaged audience. And thanks to numerous email marketing templates and tools, you can easily schedule and launch campaigns that won’t take too much time out of your busy day. 

The biggest plus with email is that you own your audience. If Facebook goes down, no problem, you can still reach out to those who know and love you. It can be as simple as sending a weekly email or as complicated as a/b testing and welcome sequences. Start with easy emails to build your audience and as you find success, then you can incorporate more advance techniques.

The downside: Unlike some marketing channels, there can be some monetary costs associated with email. You also may experience delivery difficulties, opt-outs from subscribers, or even spam labelling. Also, it can be challenging to build a list of subscribers at first. However, incentivizing clients to sign-up with a small discount will help launch your email subscriber list with minimal effort. If you don’t want to offer a discount, you can offer an informational PDF around subjects like your favorite skin care products or questions to ask your practitioner.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

This one’s a no-brainer. For aesthetic practices, social media is a mandatory marketing channel. Because this is a visually-oriented industry, it’s important to market via visual-oriented media, like TikTok and Instagram. These apps allow medspas, dermatology clinics, and other businesses in the aesthetics industry to show off their space and results with engaging and informative videos. Many entrepreneurs and practitioners will upload longer, more detailed videos to YouTube and then edit those videos for Instagram and TikTok. That strategy provides a diversified selection of marketing channels without demanding too much additional effort. 

Although Facebook may not show your business page to people, it is still a worthwhile place for marketing. The most powerful use outside of paying for advertising is groups. Join different groups both locally and nationally to contribute and be a part of the conversation. Tapping into community is important and who knows, maybe you’ll find your esti bestie in one of the groups.

Outside of interaction, social media platforms also have powerful analytic tools to help you tailor your content to what people are looking for.

The downside: Results don’t manifest overnight. It can take some time to build an audience, and your active participation is typically required to ensure those followers stay engaged with your business. Additionally, and unfortunately, social media can also be a negative space, so you may occasionally interact with trolls or negative comments. If you find a certain platform has become draining, take a break and focus on building an audience on a different channel.

Ultimately, social media marketing empowers you to offer potential clients a glimpse of your business and your brand in a way that no other marketing channel can, so make it a goal to boost your social media activity for success. Start with your most favorite platform and when you have a good rhythm.

PAID ADVERTISING

While online paid advertising can be a sizable investment, it’s also a remarkably effective marketing channel. Two primary paid advertising options to consider are search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Both methods can boost your local visibility, meaning you’re more likely to reach potential clients in your geographic area. 

With SEM, you’ll be zeroing in on your target audience with the help of specific keywords that draw your ideal customer to your practice via search engine results. For aesthetic professionals, it’s a great way to highlight specific treatment packages. Meanwhile, PPC advertising is an industry favorite thanks to fast, measurable results, customizable targeting and segmentation, and straightforward implementation. 

The downside: Naturally, paid advertising means…spending money! It’s tricky to manage search engine marketing on top of your other entrepreneurial responsibilities, so many businesses outsource their efforts to external services. In addition to those costs, pay per click means each prospective client’s click comes out of your pocket. It’s not much, but it can add up — and because they’re only prospective clients, the ROI isn’t guaranteed. 

In marketing it always comes down to time or money. Which are you willing to part with? While paid advertising does mean more money, it also takes less time than other marketing channels like social media.

LOCAL AESTHETIC ADVERTISING

In addition to the digital methods described above, aesthetics practices can target local audiences outside of the online world. Event sponsorship, for example, enables businesses to get involved directly with their community — both prospective and existing customers. From 5k races to health fairs to trade shows, event marketing through sponsorship is a chance to spotlight more than your business. You can introduce your brand as a valuable asset to the community.

Similarly, local business collaborations offer an opportunity to leverage partnerships as a way of promoting your medspa or dermatology practice. There are numerous industries that can be suitable cross-promotion partners for those in the aesthetics industry. Bridal boutiques, hair stylists, and gyms are just a few examples. 

The downside: It’s possible for these methods to be time-consuming for businesses. There can be a substantial amount of marketing collateral to produce, such as invitations or additional event-specific digital content. Furthermore, you may find it difficult to measure the success of such marketing efforts.

Despite the possible obstacles, these marketing channels are opportunities to build lasting relationships directly with members of your community, and they provide a unique way to boost your business. 

REPUTATION MARKETING 

This is an emerging marketing channel, but is certainly poised to become more valuable to aesthetics professionals. Reputation marketing leverages positive experiences to draw new clients. In addition to services like Yelp and Google My Business, some of the previously mentioned channels can be used for reputation marketing content. Highlight your best reviews and testimonials via Facebook. Share stories of satisfied clients on Instagram. Use positive local partnerships to gain referrals. And whenever possible, make an effort to turn around negative feedback through engagement and incentives to return. Reputation marketing bolsters your credibility, but may require a little humility in the process.

The downside: As mentioned above, reputation marketing may necessitate ongoing interactions that can pull your attention from other tasks. Time versus money.

Still, data overwhelmingly shows that consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services based on favorable testimonials or reviews. It’s the know, like, trust factor. While time consuming, it is an important aspect of any marketing plan.

Whether you operate a medspa, dermatology clinic, aesthetic school, or any other business in the industry, these are the top marketing channels for you to explore. With a comprehensive approach to social media, email, paid advertising, local marketing, and reputation marketing, you’ll be primed to spread the word and grow your business.

And remember, there are plenty of resources to help you find success. Here at Medicreations, we’ve partnered with MyAdvice. They’ve got everything a practitioner needs for frustration-free digital marketing. If you’d like to learn more about their innovative tools, click here.