Opportunities abound for your practice. McKinsey & Company reports the global injectables market alone is growing at 12% to 14% each year. These findings are obviously welcome; however, as investors see those opportunities, new clinics or chains are opening to truly seize upon them. In fact, aesthetic clinics/care centres are the fastest-growing segment of the industry, having raised more than $300 billion from investors in a 5-year period. As the competitive landscape within your community or market becomes increasingly crowded, distinguish your talent from the “rest of the pack.” In a digitally-driven society, this is accomplished via a consistently strong and unwavering commitment to your online presence.
Optimise your website for conversions.
Think of your website as the front door for your practice in the online world. Many important metrics associated with your website or online practice “home” must be identified, tracked, and managed. Conversion rate is among the most important measurements. It refers to how well visitors are responding to calls to action posted within articles, blog posts, and other sections. It is largely measured as a ratio, which tracks those who act on the call per 100 visitors. Actions range from encouraging readers to call your office for more information to getting them to sign up for your newsletters or subscribe to your email list. Just as there are numerous components of your website, there are equally numerous opportunities to enhance your website for more favourable conversions.
These include:
- Being confident in your “ask” – Understand exactly what you need or want your patients to do next.
- Being clear in your “ask” – Content should make it as easy and hassle-free for visitors to act. For instance, a phone number should be at the ready to reach a real person to schedule a complimentary skincare analysis.
- Inventorying your website for outdated, even questionable information that may have been written by a third party – Also, assess for the quality of the content and for how meaningful it is to your target demographics.
- Assessing for web performance – Nothing turns off a loyal patient in the making more than a website that takes forever to load or a site that is not properly optimised for mobile. What good is great and relevant content if it does not get read due to visitors becoming frustrated and leaving your site for a competitor’s optimised website?
Get discovered – leverage “local SEO”
HubSpot reports nearly half of all Google searches are “local” in nature. It makes sense. Searchers are looking for info related to specific and convenient solutions or services. So, it is not sufficient to optimise search engine visibility in the most general sense.
Your Search Engine Optimization strategies must account for how you rank or are found within a targeted geography. This geography should align with your current aspirational patient base.
Once you have that “net” properly identified and know how wide or narrow it should be, then you can work to tailor content and initiatives to “show up” when members of your community or neighbourhood are looking for local aesthetic services and solutions to specific skin problems or conditions.
A few pointers:
- Make the most of Google My Business.
- Ensure all information associated with your business page is up-to-date and accurate.
- Use the post feature to promote everything from new services to special offers and events.
- Solicit genuine reviews from patients.
- Provide equally genuine and heartfelt responses to reviews. Responses must be timely. Do not respond to negative reviews only. Further, endear your biggest “fans” by thanking them (by name) for their positive review.
- Cross-promote your page on social media. By sharing posts across platforms, you make the best possible use of your time and are not “reinventing the wheel. Content is maximised, and your practice is well-positioned to secure great ROI.
- Perform due diligence when identifying the best keywords for your practice within your target market. Research provides helpful insights into the best words or phrases to incorporate into content on your website and other channels or platforms. This helps you to “get found” online.
- In addition to incorporating local keywords, develop local content. For instance, craft posts, articles, newsletters, and announcements that feature your team’s charitable work in the community with causes relevant to aesthetics or events and affiliations (such as speaking engagements or partnerships with local health systems).
Engage your audience on social media.
The local events, community involvement, and affiliations mentioned above may also be ripe opportunities for the picking to highlight on Facebook, Instagram, and other social channels. These highly dynamic examples lend well to multimedia content. So, whenever you are out in the community, get plenty of “action shots” of your team as well as video and audio as appropriate.
Many of today’s most popular social platforms also lend themselves well to aesthetics because they value and reward great multimedia content. Think in terms of images, video, and audio always to excite the other senses. And, with so many exceptional examples of your “best work” on your patients’ faces, why settle for canned, generic photos when you can boost your authenticity with genuine images of your patients’ results?
The value of paid advertising
You have to spend money to make money. And there is most certainly a place for smart paid advertising strategies to increase awareness, drive more visitors to your content, and effectively boost your online presence. Options include Facebook Ads and Google Ads. The best option for your practice at any given time should account for budgetary constraints and the duration of your online campaign. For example, you may want to run a week-long campaign to coincide with a new laser system or energy-based device.
Also, account for the current health of your presence on social platforms like Facebook and your current rankings on Google for relevant search terms/keywords. With this big-picture understanding of your needs and goals, you can get the most bang for that buck!
