Whether it’s getting appointments for lip fillers, fat freezing or anti-wrinkle treatments, marketing can be tough for beauty businesses. To make things a little easier, this article will share some valuable tools and beauty marketing ideas at your fingertips.
In an increasingly competitive beauty environment, can you seriously afford not to be carrying out at least some of your marketing efforts online? Here are five ways in which you can use digital marketing for your aesthetic clinic or beauty salon and increase your client base.
1. Optimise your local SEO
Promoting your beauty brand in the local area is key to creating awareness and generating appointments. Implementing a solid local SEO strategy will help you do just that.
One of the most effective tools you can use to boost your local presence and bolster your rankings is Google My Business. The service is free to use and is vital if you’re serious about improving your local awareness. A listing allows you to share important information relating to your business such as name, address and phone number (NAP), as well as opening hours, services you offer, reviews and much more.
However, that’s not where the benefits end. By having a Google My Business listing, you qualify for a more enhanced appearance in the search results in the form of a local pack. This is where potential clients who type in ‘hairdressers near me’, for example, may find you. Therefore it is crucial for you to display as much information as possible. You can discover more about optimising your Google My Business listing in our guide.
In addition to Google My Business, you will also want to ensure that your local citations are consistent across a plethora of online directories. A local citation is a mention of your business in terms of NAP. You don’t want potential clients being confused as a result of inconsistent information being displayed across multiple websites. Therefore, it is recommended to use online tools such as BrightLocal, which helps identify any NAP issues so that you can go about correcting them. A cheaper alternative is to search for your business on Google and see the results for yourself. You can then utilise a spreadsheet to spot NAP inconsistencies and contact the listings that are displaying incorrect information.
2. Give your website a makeover
In the ever-evolving technological world, regardless of which industry you operate in, it’s important to have a website that matches the luxury of the services you offer. More importantly, it must be responsive – working well on both mobile and desktop.
In fact, the overwhelming 94% of people will not trust a website that is outdated or looks unappealing. For potential clients, your website is often the first impression. If there are other beauty brands in a local area with a better-looking website, they will be the ones generating more appointments.
Your website is also where you can truly brag about the services that you offer. Consider having client testimonials, and a portfolio of your work that you can showcase. This will put potential clients at ease and encourage more to book an appointment.
3. Implement an online booking system
It wouldn’t be outlandish to say that booking appointments manually may soon be a thing of the past. After all, they are more time-consuming for both the client and business. The time taken in booking appointments over the phone or in-person is time that could be better spent in carrying out beauty treatments.
Also by having an online booking system, you are indirectly saying that you are up to date with the latest technology. Having an online booking system gives you a better opportunity to collect your clients’ email addresses and sign more up to a mailing list. This is a great step towards running any potential email marketing campaign you may run in the future as well as keeping in touch with your client base to ensure repeat business. It’s definitely an idea to keep in mind for your beauty brand.
4. Run a pay-per-click campaign
A well-targeting pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is a very effective way of not only increasing awareness, but also generating appointments. The clue is in the name, but this is a form of advertising where you only pay a sum of money every time a user clicks through to a website via an ad.
There are a number of good PPC campaigns that you can run;
- Google display ads that are shown in online articles, videos, or websites that your potential customers will browse. These users may not be actively searching for what you’re offering but the ad still introduces your business to your specific target audience – which is great for brand awareness.
- Google search ads that appear in the search results. These are text-based ads that are triggered by keywords – if your ad matches the user’s search query, then it could appear in the results with the ‘Ad’ tag next to the URL (as shown in the image below).
- Social media ads can be run across a host of platforms; Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, or perhaps the most suitable for beauty brands, Instagram. The benefit of running campaigns on social media is that you can target an audience based on its behaviour, activities, interests, and demographics.
5. Utilise social media
Social media has to be a part of your beauty marketing ideas. It is the most cost-effective way to showcase your portfolio to people who may otherwise be unaware of your brand. Beauty brands tend to post at least 10 times a week on Instagram, so you’re missing a trick if you’re not joining in.
The nature of beauty brands make it quite easy to gather content for social media. ‘Before and after’ images have proven quite popular, and it’s not uncommon to ask clients if you can take a picture for social media.
Make sure you keep your content consistent, especially aesthetically. You’ll want to maintain a consistent theme throughout your feed. Especially on Instagram, it’s important to add a hashtag to your posts – without them, how do you expect to reach people?
Giveaways are effective in improving your social media following. You may have seen them yourself – ‘like, follow, comment and share’ in order to win. If you can spare a free treatment while gaining hundreds of followers, and potential clients, then surely it’s worthwhile.
You may have contacts or influencers within the industry. You could see if it’s possible to reach out to them and ask if they can share your brand with their followers to get a wider reach.
Summary
By now you should know the importance of having an online presence. These are just some marketing ideas for your beauty salon or aesthetic clinic. You may choose to focus most of your effort into one way, like social media or local SEO. However, for the biggest impact, it may be worth going for a combination of a few.
Remember we at Tillison Consulting are experts in beauty marketing and would love to be a part of your success. So if you’re looking to maximise the success of your marketing efforts, drive appointments through your doors and fill your order books, get in touch with us today!
