You’ve just opened the doors to your brand new Aesthetics Clinic, or maybe it’s been going for a while, but you need a boost of new patient enquiries.
Whatever has got you to this blog, rest assured that you’re in safe hands. With years of experience under our belts working in the healthcare industry, we know what makes your potential patients tick. And we’re ready to spill some of our secrets on Aesthetics Clinic Marketing.
Here are eight things that every clinic owner needs to know. Grab a cuppa and read on for some invaluable tips on what you need to do to get your clinic thriving.
1. Don’t just advertise; focus on aesthetics clinic marketing!
As a growth agency that uses advertising to get clinics new patient enquiries from open days and monthly campaigns, you might be surprised to hear us say that it’s not all about advertising.
The truth is, there is no advertising without marketing.
Advertising should be part of your marketing strategy, not your only strategy.
Marketing encompasses a range of activities that include market research of your target audience, branding for a flawless look, public relations and customer engagement, to name a few.
Without good branding, an engaging website, and knowledge of who your patients are, you’ll struggle to set up good advertising campaigns.
Here are some quick tips for marketing your clinic before you think about advertising:
- Set out your goals and objectives for the year
- Set up social media accounts and post regularly
- Find out who your ideal patients are for each treatment (more on this next)
2. Know your target patients
Knowing your target patients is absolutely vital to get your clinic successful. But how do you know who they are? And how does this help with your Aesthetics clinic marketing plan?
Reaching everyone is impossible, so identifying and defining your target audience is essential. It helps you compete against the bigger clinics without wasting time and money going after those who will never be interested in your treatments.
Not only that, but understanding your ideal patient will improve communication with new patients and those you already have. It will also help you create and develop engaging content that resonates with people.
To identify your target patient, follow these steps:
Ask yourself these questions:
Which are the most popular treatments?
Who is willing to spend more money on treatments?
Why do your patients visit you over other clinics?
Examine your answers
From the answers, consider your current patients’ age groups, interests and locations.
You’ll see they will start to fall into groups with patterns.
Once you have identified this and learnt who benefits most from which treatments, you can target similar groups.
Use social media
If you’ve set up your social media accounts as business accounts, you can use insights to get a better idea of who your audience is, even if they aren’t current patients
3. Focus on your brand image
You know by now that part of your marketing strategy should include branding.
Branding refers to creating a strong and positive brand image in your patient’s minds. The more you work on your brand and the more established it is, the easier it will be to retain patients.
Branding combines different elements, including logo, design, theme, and values. These should remain consistent to help build up your brand identity.
Here are some quick tips to help you focus on your brand image
- Hire a designer for your website and make sure your logo, writing style and design are consistent
- Be consistent on social media using graphics in line with your branding along with the tone of voice
- Get testimonials on your website to reinforce your values
- Ask your satisfied patients to leave Google reviews
4. Invest in professional photography
No one wants to go onto a beautifully designed website (thanks to the branding) to find pixelated or blurry images. While it’s great to use social media to post fun selfies of the team, the website should show your professionality.
Keep your distance from stock images. It’s obvious the photos aren’t of you and your clinic, which creates distrust. If you can, invest in a professional photographer.
If you aren’t ready to hire a professional photographer, follow these essential tips to get your photos up to scratch.
1. The newer the phone, the better – the latest phones take amazing pictures, so there is no need for top-of-the-range cameras
2. Use good lighting – natural light is preferred
3. Take the same shots from different angles – this broadens your scope of choice when you decide which to publish
4. Edit your pictures lightly – tone down shadows and brighten the image but don’t overedit them
5. Leverage social media platforms
At Ignite, we’ve worked with an array of clinics. Some have a team member who dedicates time to focusing on social media posts and updates. Others don’t even have a social media account.
If we’ve learnt anything over the years, it’s that social media, whether paid or unpaid, is a sure way of getting your brand name out there and reaching new patients while keeping the current ones up-to-date on new treatments and offers.
You can use social media to promote your treatments and increase brand awareness keeping your clinic top-of-mind for anyone looking at treatments in the future.
Videos are becoming more prevalent in social media marketing, so get on Instagram and TikTok. Have your staff create fun videos (insert video) and follow trends.
You can also use videos to show how treatments work and share before and after images to demonstrate the amazing results you’ve got for your patients.
Engage your followers by asking questions, holding polls and posting relevant, appealing content.
6. Engage with your patients through email marketing
While generally, the open rate for email marketing isn’t high; it is still a valued way of reaching your patients and engaging with them.
The trick to getting them to engage is simple. Provide great content of value that they will want to engage with.
While offering a promotion can appeal to many customers and is definitely a strategy you shouldn’t discard, most of your patients probably have a pretty full inbox full of offers and promotions.
That is if they can slip through the spam filter that picks up on words such as ‘’discount’’ or ‘’exclusive offer’’ in the subject line.
Rather than relying just on promotional email marketing, it’s best to try and get your patients interested through aesthetic clinic marketing emails that also offer value.
They need to be interesting; they should get the patient to engage and make them want to open the next email you send through.
Here are some quick tips:
- Create a newsletter on a platform such as Mailchimp
- Send out the newsletter at the same time every week or month and be consistent – it shows reliability, and readers will learn to expect it
- Include valuable information in the newsletter
- Make it personal and include information about the practice and the team with pictures
- Sign it from one person, such as the clinic owner
- Add a call-to-action where they can click through to your website
7. Offer referral programs
On average, leads from referrals have a 30% higher conversion rate than leads from any other source, such as paid advertising.
People tend to trust recommendations from people they know. And with a patient referral program, you can tap into the contacts of your current patients at a low cost offering something in return to both your current patient and the referred patient.
Your program can be as formal or informal as you want. You could set up a rewards scheme where patients can log on to their accounts and see their savings for every patient they refer, or you could offer a code in exchange for a successful referral.
Tell your satisfied patients about the referral program in person and then follow up with an email.
You can also set up a referral program with local businesses that ties in nicely with your clinic. A local hair salon would be a great place where you can offer a discount to their clients. In return, you can promote their services and offer your own patients a discount at their salon. As a bonus, you’ll contribute to promoting local businesses in the area.
8. Host events to attract new patients
One of our strategies at Ignite to get our clients a boost of new patient enquiries is to run ads for open days. On the open days, clinicians can showcase their treatments and explain the transformations they can offer their patients.
Sometimes it’s just a case of getting them through the door to convince them to choose your clinic.
Get the word out there about your open day or event through your patients. Use social media and emails to spread the word.
You can also run ads in the lead-up to the event. Try and get consultations booked to get an estimate of how many people will show up.
Here are some more tips to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day:
- Make sure there are enough staff to see to everyone
- Offer tea, coffee and other drinks and snacks
- If you offer consultations, don’t overbook – you don’t want people fed up in the waiting room before they decide to commit to treatment
- Get your staff trained in the financing options you offer to speed up the process and free up time for the consultant
Final tips
Aside from these eight aesthetics clinic marketing tips, remember to stay updated with the latest trends and technologies. And once your plan is in action, monitor and analyse the results. Ask yourself where improvements can be made, and keep doing what is working well!
If you’re looking to advertise your clinic, don’t hesitate to book a free call with our team where we can talk you through how we work.
