How to win at the medspa advertising game
Medical spa advertising is tricky. Your business exists at the intersection of health and beauty, which means you need to be able to cater to both sides of a client’s needs — to assist them with procedures, but also make sure they’re cared for and supported. You need to balance the delicateness and privacy requirements of one side of the equation with the luxe and pampering needs of the other. So how do you set up a medspa advertising campaign to pull in people who want your services, and make them feel reassured that their needs are being met?
How do you run a medical spa advertising campaign?
As with any advertising campaign, a huge proportion of your success will come from who sees your advertising and where. Many of the best medical spa ad examples use the advanced targeting tools that most digital ad platforms afford to make sure that you’re going for the right demographics. For example, that means running ad campaigns of “anti-age treatments that can stop signs of aging before they even appear” at a younger crowd, and direct ones for “fighting wrinkles that are already there” towards an older audience.
Be mindful when doing this, because it can be easy to fall into tropes and exclusionary language without meaning to. Consider if you’re targeting a specific demographic, then why? Are you aiming your hair regrowth therapy at just men? Women can suffer hair loss, too. Do you know how your skin treatments affect a variety of skintones? In talking about treatments related to weight loss, are you doing so in a way that’s not offensive? Inclusive and non-judgemental language can make sure that a wider audience feels embraced by your ad campaign — and hopefully that means they’ll become customers.
Be clear about what services you offer. In a world with multiple competing options for just about every medical spa treatment under the sun, are your advertising and website clear about which ones you actually do, and how they’re better than the competition? Which fillers do you use? Which laser hair removal technology? Can you explain in an ad why it’s the best around?
Show real people, not just stock photography models. Customers can spot a stock photo a mile away, and an advertising campaign full of professionally beautiful people smiling at the camera is great for a quick glance, but for anyone seriously considering going in for their first treatment, it rings hollow. If you can show normal people who have received care from you, and the journey they’ve gone on, potential customers will connect that much more closely.
Emphasize the professionalism of your employees, and the pleasantness of your facilities. People will be coming to you (for example) to receive injections into their face. As with any medical procedure, they want to be sure that the people undertaking the task have received appropriate training — so you can get ahead of that worry by making sure customers know how skilled your team is. And to counteract anything coming across as too clinical and cold, also emphasize the pleasures of your space. Just because clients will be visiting you for a medical treatment doesn’t mean they don’t want sumptuous surroundings and extra touches.
Medspa advertising mistakes to avoid
Be extremely careful with the privacy of your clients, both in your advertising campaigns and in person. You can use actual patients in your ads, but maintain their privacy while doing so. There are ways to make sure those examples are either anonymized or provided with full knowledge and approval of the subjects. Since some medspa treatments are still stigmatized, patients may not be too keen to broadcast to the world that they’ve had filler and botox, for fear of “pillowface” comments.
Be wary of deals websites. There was a time when sites like Groupon could be relied on to drive huge numbers of customers to a medspa — but the ubiquity of the laser hair removal deals and their ilk have formed a race to the bottom. Now you’ll see ads for 90% off some services, an absurd discount that cuts into your bottom line. The hope is that these will then become full price returning customers, but it might just be a loss leader that never picks up, costing you money in the long term. And customers may be reluctant to tip based on the full price of the service, rather than the discounted one. Instead, consider offering deals for new customers, newsletter signups, and more — that way you control the exact details of the process.
How do you keep your clients coming back for more?
Few medical spa treatments are truly permanent — and even laser hair removal requires multiple applications to see a long term change. So medspas tend to have a built in ability to bring clientele back again for reapplications and touchups. But in a saturated market, it could be just as easy for them to go somewhere else, and grab a first timer’s discount there instead. The key to having your clients return is to make them feel seen in their concerns, taken care of during the procedure, and pampered in their surroundings. If they’re happy and looked after, chances are they’ll come back when it’s time for a touchup.
For more medspa operations best practices, check out our guide: The Ultimate Guide to Medical Spa Management Software.
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