These tips will prove to useful for those clinic owners looking to dip their toes into digital waters
As part of an industry that relies on face-to-face contact to operate, it is easy to see why some aesthetic clinics may have been slower to react as the digital revolution has swept across the business world. However, in 2021, it is simply not enough to have a website and a Facebook page. Making full use of the technology available at one's fingertips is the best way of reaching the widest possible audience—far wider than could be hoped to reach simply through traditional sales and marketing methods. If digital outputs are well planned and well executed, then it will make a real difference to the number of potential patients that are attracted.
Having spent a lot of time and money on learning all there is to know about running a successful business, I strongly believe that every aesthetic clinic owner should be using all of the online tools that they can to progress their business from survival into thrive mode.
In this article, some of the best research and practice tips have been compiled into seven top handy tips for those who are just dipping their toes into the digital waters. They are guaranteed to build confidence and competence in relation to the best ways to use technology and the digital world to benefit businesses.
1.
Link in to LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a personal favourite tool to use for my own businesses and that of my clients, because I know it works—and it is not just me. There are currently around 55 million companies on LinkedIn (Newberry, 2021), and that number is growing every day.
Traditionally, LinkedIn was a way for individuals to show off their CV and search for job opportunities on the global stage, but it has become much more than this. Now, one of its primary uses is effectively a worldwide networking meeting. Log in to your LinkedIn profile, and you are metaphorically walking into a room with representatives from every single one of those 55 million businesses.
Making sure that company pages are regularly updated and core employees are producing fantastic content that inspires people to engage with them is a game changer when it comes to reaching out to a wider audience. Not only are you likely to catch the eye of skilled aesthetics professionals looking to make a change in their career and potentially join your team, you are also putting yourself in front of huge numbers of professionals who may be in the market to find a new clinic for aesthetic services—or may simply be impressed by your expertise and begin advocating for you within their own content.
2.
The next big thing
The popularity of online platforms ebbs and flows, and while giants such as Facebook have been around for years, their continued success is never guaranteed. In the 2010s, Twitter experienced a huge decline, dropping from 350 million active users to 250 million in 6 years (Leetaru, 2019). However, its reputation for being one of the key platforms on which to discuss politics and events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the US election, has helped Twitter begin to turn round its fortunes by attracting more users, even if it is not yet increasing its revenue (Hutchinson, 2020).
Multiple new platforms are launched each year, and while many of them fade into obscurity fairly quickly, one or two will make their mark—at least for the meantime. TikTok—a video-sharing social media platform—became a sensation in 2020, and it has more than 800 million active users across the globe. However, it actually launched back in 2016 (Mohsin, 2020). Businesses that saw TikTok's success beginning to explode in 2020 and began producing content on the platform early on have reaped the rewards, and many have achieved widespread popularity and news coverage as a result.
In the UK, more than one-quarter of TikTok users are aged between 18 and 24 years (Social Films, 2020), so it may be that their target demographic is totally different to many aesthetic practitioners' client bases. However, it may be that the next ‘big thing’ does have an average user that aligns with one's own target customer demographic. Keeping up to date with new online platforms that are making their way into popular culture is a fantastic way of ensuring you can become an early business adopter and ride along on a huge wave of social media success.
» Share aesthetics industry news and give your own take on it, comment on videos that are watched and posts that are read, encourage people to comment on your posts by asking questions, launch polls and send out fantastic content «
3.
Video content
Video content has been on the rise for many years now, and the pandemic has only sped up the rate of growth. Around 86% of businesses are now including video content in their marketing strategies, with 87% of them reporting a positive return on investment (ROI) (Hayes, 2021).
Each day, people watch over 1 billion hours of video on YouTube alone (YouTube Official Blog, 2021), and 90% of customers report that video helps them make buying decisions, with 93% of businesses gaining extra customers thanks to the power of video (Collins and Conley, 2020).
Clinics have a wealth of opportunities when it comes to creating video content, whether it is documenting specialist treatments and procedures, showcasing before and after transformations, showing behind the scenes of the clinic or enabling customers to get to know aesthetic practitioners and their teams better. There is also the opportunity to share expertise through videos, where tips about choosing a clinic, choosing the right treatments, explaining how particular procedures work and skincare tips, etc, can be shared.
As well as ensuring that the content of videos is going to interest potential patients, there are two big rules when it comes to videos: keep it short (optimal video lengths vary across platforms, so do your research before posting, but generally a 1-minute video is going to do better than a 10-minute video) and caption it (in addition to helping to reach viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, the video will also reach the majority who consume media with their device's sound off—this is 80% of users on LinkedIn alone (Bunting, 2018). Closed captioning is also proven to increase the number of people watching the video, and how long they continue watching for (Facebook for Business, 2016).
4.
Engagement
It is not enough to simply post content on a variety of platforms and then log off until the next time. Increasing your clinic's reach online is going to involve generating engagement (likes, comments and shares) on your own content, and reaching out to engage with the content that others are posting.
If the right people are being followed (industry experts, influencers, thought leaders and media outlets), this provides an opportunity to attract the attention of the other people following them (i.e. potential new customers).
Know your audience and make use of the social media platforms most used by your patient demographic
You can share aesthetics industry news and give your own take on it, comment on videos that are watched and posts that are read, encourage people to comment on your posts by asking questions, launch polls and send out fantastic content. These are just some of the ways in which you can increase your reach.
To revisit the networking analogy, the more that the internet is used as a huge networking meeting, the more opportunities can be generated. Talk to the people who matter, engage them in interesting conversations, share with them what makes you such a fantastic clinic owner and persuade them to become either a patient or an advocate of yours.
5.
What can be digital?
While the pandemic has caused untold problems for the aesthetics industry, it also represents an opportunity to see what changes can be made to streamline the day-to-day workings of clinics. Video calls have now become a standard replacement for traditional face-to-face meetings, and, while this clearly does not work for appointments themselves, switching to conducting initial consultations on Zoom or Microsoft Teams could be a way to reduce travel time for potential customers and ensure that it is easier to limit the number of patients coming in and out of clinics while COVID-19 restrictions, such as social distancing and enhanced cleaning regimes, remain in place.
Even if this is not feasible for everyone, it can be considered whether online events can be planned for existing or new customers, perhaps a monthly webinar where some exclusive tips are shared, and everyone who signs up gets a 10% discount off their next treatment. Embracing the digital is something that most businesses will be doing as a standard going forward, so it is definitely time to think outside the box and decide what can be transferred online.
6.
Find your voice
One of the tactics of most of the world's successful businesses is to establish a ‘brand voice’. This will hopefully be something that most clinic owners have already done throughout their website and any written literature, ensuring that it is consistent with target customer demographics, clinic décor, pricing structure and all other aspects of clinical offerings.
This voice needs to carry through into digital content too—naturally, many people tend to become more informal when writing online, but target audiences absolutely need to be kept in mind with every word that is written. It is no use making rap videos on TikTok if your ideal customer is on LinkedIn discussing the latest industry news.
The ideal place to start is by composing a brand voice document to be shared with any team members who will be interacting with potential patients online. The document should include information about tone, formality and any words that should not be used and any that are key to include in relevant posts. By referring back to the document every time that written or video content is produced, it can be ensured that brand voice stays consistent and that the right audience is being appealed to.
7.
Use a professional
While many may be fairly digitally adept and have the time and motivation to really use those tools and tips that have already been covered, some may feel that technology is not their area of expertise.
In which case, this is when the benefits of outsourcing to a professional should be considered. This could be a social media manager, a digital marketing team, a communications agency, a business coach or a mix of some or all of these services.
If the right person or company is selected to work with, then what is outlaid in monetary terms is proven to be returned many times over by expanding your patient base.
Summary
Aesthetics is a face-to-face industry, but sales and marketing are an inherent part of businesses, and the digital wave that has overtaken the world can no longer be ignored or sidelined. If digital tactics are not part of your business growth strategy, then it needs overhauling. If digital tactics only form a small portion of your business growth strategy, then you need to re-think.
Finding the places online where your target clients are spending their time— and engaging with them in a meaningful, consistent and interesting manner—can and will make the difference in pushing your clinic to the next level of success.
Step into the digital spotlight and make these online opportunities work for you.