An Ultimate Guide to Effective Medical Spa Marketing

With more and more people opting for various cosmetic and spa treatments, there has been significant growth in the medical spa industry. According to a research report, it is expected to grow with a projected 8% annual increase in revenue through 2022. The crossover blending of luxury day spa and cutting edge techniques of cosmetic medical treatments continue to grow in popularity.

In the next five years, the US medical spa industry will nearly double, reaching approximately $6 billion by 2022. - AmSpa and Marketdata Project

The Need for Effective Medical Spa Marketing Strategies

People find a medical spa useful for improving their personal appearance, while many physicians recognize how it can add revenue to their businesses. The medical spa industry is booming, and hence, it unlocks revenue opportunities for medical spa entrepreneurs. However, stiff competition, increasing operational costs and absence of a competent medical spa marketing strategy would indicate a tough road for medical spa owners in the future.

Smart Strategy builds a Successful Marketing Plan

Today, no business can be sustained with traditional marketing techniques. The same goes for a medical spa business. For a good shot at success, you have to think tactfully while preparing your medical spa marketing strategy. Whether it is medical spa SEO, social media marketing, online reputation management, brand building or customer relationship management, a competent medical spa marketing strategy can do wonders for your spa business.

Forming an effective business marketing strategy isn’t a giant task. All it requires is a strategic approach and a well-evaluated implementation plan that nurtures success. Your strategy must revolve around staying on the top of marketing trends, trying new things and abandoning what isn’t working anymore. When you take the time to consider what is essential for your medical spa marketing, there are a plethora of elements that can benefit your medical spa business.

In this post, we’ll share 10 medical spa marketing strategies that will help you stay ahead of the competition and increase your share of new patient acquisitions.

1. The Brand Name and Reputation

The competition is fierce, and you feel it every day. That’s why building a brand name and a good reputation in the market is a must. It takes the first 10 seconds to form the first impression of any brand. Additionally, it takes another 5 to 7 brand impressions before anyone will remember the brand name. How you present your brand is important. The ability to engage and interact with the target audience and making them a part of the brand story is essential, as it has an influential power which further impacts their decisions. Every business detail – including brand logo, contact number, business address, services offered, and others must be displayed crystal clear in every marketing material. Your brand reputation must be synonymous with professionalism, perfection and, excellence.

2. Business Website for Digital Identity

With more than 4.0 billion active internet users across the globe, an online presence for your medical spa business is a must. A website is a very powerful marketing tool, which doubles as a storefront window to your prospective patients. Thanks to the era of internet mobility, people search for business and services more on their smartphones and tablets than on any other offline channel. Your prospective patients will be looking for the services you offer on online search engines. Hence, you need a mobile-friendly, responsive website design because an optimized and visible presence on mobile search results really matters for your medical spa business.

3. Business Listings and Local SEO

With over 5 billion Google searches made every day, people use the internet as a reliable platform to look for services or products available around them. According to a report published by Search Engine Land last year, 82% of smartphone users conduct ‘near me’ searches while looking for any product or service. Hence, medical spa SEO is an integral aspect of your medical spa marketing efforts.

Also, medical spa SEO is an inbound method that helps you attract the people who are already looking for your service. These people are already searching on Google or other search engines to find your med spa office. Therefore, the customers or patients you get through medical spa SEO are ultra-targeted to what you are providing. Thus, proactive work on search engine optimization, local business listings, a Google My Business page, and other online business directories will boost your medical spa business.

4. Blogging & Content Sharing

Although most of the businesses don’t believe in content marketing, it can be one of the best sources of high-quality business leads. It costs around 62% lesser than outbound marketing and is proven to generate 3x as many leads. A blog section on your business website is a capable platform for content sharing to drive traffic, boost SEO and educate your existing and prospect patients on trending topics, services or procedures. You can brand yourself as an industry expert in providing cosmetic and spa treatments. It is an effective and successful inbound marketing strategy, which will help your medical spa business.

5. Social Media: Connect with Prospects

A survey conducted by Manifest found that nearly 92% of small businesses plan to invest more time and money on social media marketing, Facebook being the prime focus. Social Media is a bridge between your medical spa business and your prospects. It is a perfect tool to increase brand awareness and promote your medical spa services. It also doubles as an effective brand building, outreach and reputation management tool.

An active presence on social media channels, connects your business to current patients, prospects, and everyone in their circle, indirectly unlocking new business opportunities. Share information, promote services, encourage user engagement, and build community; a lot is happening on social media platforms.

6. Email Marketing Campaigns

A good website, social media, and blogging don’t lessen the success of email marketing or reduce its significance. Even today, a smartly planned, well-targeted, and correctly initiated email campaign can nurture and drive business, where other marketing channels may fail. It is evolving, and hence, generic email campaigns won’t work.

Successful email campaigns are based on analytics and personalized content, which are important for medical spa marketing in 2019. It is amongst the most effective medical spa marketing tool for quality lead nurturing and conversions, which is being used by billions of other businesses across the globe.

7. Online Ad Campaigns

Other than regular medical spa SEO, an investment in ‘paid media,’ commonly known as paid advertising can help you extend your reach to new prospects looking for medical spa services. When combined with the reach of online platforms, paid advertising enables you to connect with the masses and promote your services in demographics which you may have not been targeting already. One can use analytics-based search data to ensure that their ad campaigns are visible to relevant people/users, looking for medical spa services.

Online ad campaigns fill in the gaps and extend your business reach to new prospects. Through online ad campaigns, more and more people will know about your brand and services offered. Some of the channels for online paid campaigns include pay-per-click (PPC), display ads, banner ads, social media ads, mobile ads, native advertising and more.

8. Online Reputation Management

A simple online search can let your prospects know what your current patients feel about your services. A bad online reputation will harm your brand name and business objectives in the long run, while a good one can benefit your business revenue to a vast extent. And with more and more people sharing their thoughts, feedback, and reviews regarding products or services on online platforms, online reputation management should be on your priority list when marketing your medical spa services because;

83.3% of patients trust online ratings and reviews more than personal recommendations. - NRC Health’s Research.

Therefore, collecting reviews and testimonials should be a crucial part of your medical spa marketing strategy. Having a lot of reviews about your med spa doesn’t just reinforce your business’ credibility and stability but also increases the confidence of potential patients in your services. You need to have a meaningful presence on key review sites like Google, RealSelf, Yelp, and Facebook. Also, manage both your positive and negative reviews effectively to build trust, and promote your great reviews as success stories. You can ask your happy patients to share their stories in order to present a successful real-life example along with simultaneously educating potential patients about your facility.

9. Offline Marketing

With a lot of efforts on online platforms, your medical spa marketing strategy needs offline marketing support as well. Digital marketing is must, but that doesn’t mean your medical spa business can’t benefit from offline marketing techniques. Offline marketing must be well-planned, targeted and smartly executed. On the other hand, it can help your social media and other online campaigns. Print ads, billboards, handouts, radio, television, and direct mail are some of the effective platforms for offline marketing and advertising of your medical spa.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a very powerful tool, which can either build a strong brand reputation or may even wreck it.

10. Customer Relationship & Retention Management

Last but most certainly not least on this list is customer relationship and retention management. Making sure every client has a great experience at your spa is vital as;

70% of medical spa visits come from repeat patients - American Med Spa Association.

A happy and satisfied customer is the most important and valuable asset to any business; therefore, they must be treated well. Once your prospect turns into a patient, you must ensure that they receive the best service and are happy when they leave from your spa. Because new patient acquisition can cost 3-5 times as much as current patient retention, and in the U.S., the estimated cost of customers/clients switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion. Therefore, your medical spa marketing strategy is incomplete without a customer relationship management and retention plan.

Being a medical spa center, you cater to a diverse target audience. The list of pain-points tends to vary among your clients. With these effective medical spa marketing elements in place, you'll not only be able to retain current customers but will also be able to attract new prospects from different audiences.