People of all ages and genders are on the hunt to look and feel their best—one could call it a modern quest for the Fountain of Youth. Research shows this commitment to regular self-care, indicating that medical spa sales will increase more than 40% this year.
Your medical spa could benefit from this increase in demand, but you’ll need a med spa marketing plan to reach patients and earn their loyalty. Traditional marketing isn’t going to cut it; instead, you’ll need revolutionary on-premise digital marketing technology. It’s time to maximize your marketing outreach—just what the doctor ordered!
The basics of medical spa marketing
Marketing for medical spas involves reaching new clients and retaining existing ones for their future treatments. For either of these to be a reality, you’ll need to understand the basics of on-premise marketing practices. Let’s cover a few foundational marketing principles before getting into the specifics of med spa marketing.
Understanding basic marketing principles
Marketing principles are the fundamental building blocks behind every successful med spa. Knowing how to reach your target customer—and earn their loyalty—begins with an in-depth grasp of their needs, yet that’s only one factor in the equation. You must understand the unique value you bring to the table and the most effective ways to communicate that.
Let’s allow the following marketing principles to inform the early phases of our med spa marketing strategy.
Products & services
- Determine demand according to specific customer demographics
- Focus on demographic-relevant features to highlight in marketing
- Consider how your products and services rival your competitors
Target customers
- Identify all customer demographics and their purchasing behavior
- Assess how customers learn about your med spa (referrals, website, etc.)
Physical evidence, customer interaction & brand awareness
- Use consistent branding across website and social media channels
- Engage customers at every touch point in your med spa facility
Purchasing process & the customer experience
- Provide access to educational materials to make informed decisions
- Make your purchase process user-friendly and accessible
Digital promotion & marketing outreach
- Identify your current strategies for promoting your brand
- Take advantage of on-premise digital promotion of your services
How does marketing fit into the med spa industry?
Simply running your med spa and relying on word-of-mouth referrals won’t bring new clients through the door. Similarly, not engaging your customers while in your facility won’t inspire them to return for future treatment. You need to know how to market your med spa on and offsite for better customer acquisition and retention rates.
When it comes to on-premise marketing, cutting-edge digital signage technology could be the best solution. Using your screens, you can engage your waiting room, educate customers about treatment options and expose them to other products and procedures they could benefit from. The best way to market to med spa patients is while they’re already through the door.
As for off-premise marketing, you’ll want a great website and at least a few social media channels. Using these, you can keep the public updated on the latest news and any new services you’re offering.
Whether on or off-premise, displaying client testimonials and before-and-after shots (with their consent) is a fantastic method of fortifying brand ethos. In a sense, you’re saying, “Here’s what we can do, and our clients say we do it well.”
How do HIPAA and ethics affect med spa marketing?
Unlike leisure spas or beauty salons, med spas must take care to protect patient privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII) and health records may seem straightforward, but some digital marketing practices introduce a few gray areas.
It’s easier than you think to violate HIPAA through your marketing channels, and the consequences are clear. You could be left with hefty fines and even sanctions per violation at the federal and sometimes state level. Avoid the following practices on your blog, social media channels and online reviews:
- Avoid responding publicly to comments from your patients
- Refrain from addressing negative business reviews across the internet
- Never tag or otherwise publicly acknowledge a patient
Of course, you can link your customers to patient feedback surveys via a confidential med spa patient portal—some digital signage solutions allow you to present QR codes through on-premise screens. Gathering reviews while the iron is hot—and in the privacy of your facility—provides immediate, honest feedback while their experience is still fresh in their mind.
Is marketing important for med spas?
The benefits of med spa marketing include reinforced patient loyalty, fortified ethos and more. Let’s explore why med spa marketing is important.
Increase patient acquisition
With the rapid post-pandemic growth of the global med spa market, it’s likely to surpass more than a $47 billion valuation by 2030. More and more patients want to partner with a med spa that will give them desired results.
Digital marketing is the best way to connect with these potential patients and show them they’ll be in capable hands.
Patient acquisition becomes difficult when there are multiple med spas competing for local customers. There are particular marketing strategies best suited for this, especially local SEO. For instance, ensuring your website’s content is engaging, accurate, up-to-date and populated with geo-targeted keywords is a simple and affordable way to connect with potential leads in your backyard. Also, make sure you’ve created a Google Business Profile to appear in local searches.
Build your medical spa’s credibility
Consider the factors that make a patient comfortable enough to seek your services. To assess your authenticity and efficacy, they’ll probably scour your website, blog, social media accounts, patient testimonials, before-and-after images of patient treatments and more to determine if you’re capable of giving them the look and feel they want.
The credibility of your med spa hinges on more than the backgrounds and years of experience your team brings to the table. Potential patients want to see results, and they want assurance that you’re the best.
Here are ways you can build credibility with marketing:
- Using professional branding that’s recognizable and consistent across your on-premise and off-premise marketing channels
- Offering medical insights, product recommendations and weighing in on industry trends
- Scheduling live Q&A sessions about in-demand treatments and products to promote transparency and awareness
- Opening your doors to virtual walk-throughs and “meet-the-team” events to promote transparency
Improve patient awareness of procedures
When new patients enter your medical spa, they may have little-to-no knowledge about the treatment process or risks involved. The extent of their knowledge may be a few images they found on Google or an influencer’s flawless results. However, they probably don’t know much about the treatment process or the healing phases it takes to achieve the final results.
Fostering patient education, especially in your on-premise med spa marketing, will benefit everyone. Patient education can improve their health literacy and outcomes, empowering them to follow the proper protocols in their pre and post-treatment care. These resources could be made available online, too, to dispel misinformation floating around and boost your own credibility.
Also, by giving your patients access to engaging resources about what their procedure will entail, you can help reduce any procedure-related anxiety.
Reduce reliance on staff for upselling
Upselling in med spas is a tricky subject. As much as you want to maximize your revenue, it can erode the credibility of your spa quickly. No doubt your staff dreads having to upsell to their patients, too.
By taking advantage of on-premise marketing, though, you can reduce the need for direct upselling. Promoting your retail products, offering exclusive in-store treatment packages and more takes the pressure off your busy staff. Since patients are already on-site, they’ll be more willing to opt for a treatment upgrade or an extra product they didn’t know would give them the results they’re seeking.
Wondering how this might work on a practical level? Digital signage technology is the easiest and most affordable way to present information to patients in an effective manner. Here are a few ways to upsell with digital signage:
- Display an in-store discount code available for new customers only
- Announce buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deals on products
- Offer a free post-treatment recovery product with any procedure
- Display a link to your digital storefront for your full range of products
How to build a marketing plan for your med spa
Piecing together a medical spa marketing plan will take some work. To set you off on the right foot, we’ve broken down each step you’ll want to take.
Step 1: Determine your business goals
Are you hoping to boost customer retention by 25% next year? You may wish to ease the pressure and workload of your staff by getting the most out of an on-premise medical spa digital technology. Articulating what you hope to achieve in concrete terms should tailor your marketing plan so your efforts are in sync with your goals. The more specific you are, the better.
Step 2: Identify your patient personas
Med spa marketing is all about establishing connections with patients and ensuring those connections last. Consider the diversity of patients who seek treatment from your medical spa. What are they looking for when they walk in the door? What solutions do you have for them?
Identifying your patient personas helps direct your marketing content so it connects with these patients in your community. The right content can inspire them to seek treatments and products from your med spa rather than your competitors.
Step 3: Outline your marketing needs
Beauty and wellness trends are ever-evolving. With the rise in demand for anti-aging solutions and non-invasive beauty procedures, you’ll need to hold up a magnifying glass to local demand. In particular, determine the marketing needs of your patient personas. What “problems” are existing patients reporting? Likewise, how can your med spa provide them with a solution?
Step 4: Define your marketing budget
As the saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. As you begin outlining your marketing strategies, set budget estimates as you go along with an upper threshold you can’t go over. If you’re just starting out or your budget is on the lower end, you’ll want to prioritize the most effective marketing strategies and pursue those that will yield the highest ROI for your business.
Use the following budget-saving tips on your marketing journey:
- Invest in customer retention more than lead generation efforts
- Choose digital signage software with on-premise marketing solutions
- Use free aspects of social media marketing rather than PPC ads
- Offer a patient referral program with rewards to promote word-of-mouth
Step 5: Understand how you’ll track marketing success
With your med spa marketing plan in place, you’ll need to nail down key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine which marketing efforts are working and those you’ll need to reevaluate.
Some of the metrics you’ll want to track and measure along your marketing journey include:
- New patient acquisition rate
- Patient retention rate
- Duration of each treatment and procedure
- Average revenue per patient
- Staff productivity rate
- Consultation-to-treatment rate
- Return on investment from marketing
Med spa marketing strategies that really work
How you connect with the patients in your medical spa can make or break whether they’ll return for their next treatment. The most effective way to earn their loyalty, while also engaging them and improving their health literacy, is through the power of a digital signage solution.
UPshow Health is a top-tier on-premise marketing cloud designed to power your med spa’s digital screens into engaging digital experiences for your patients.
Customize content toward health aspirations of your patients
Your med spa undoubtedly offers a wide range of services: microneedling, dermal fillers, body contouring, Botox, chemical peels and more. However, how much do your patients really know about what each procedure entails or what they should do for post-procedural care?
Use your digital screens to showcase treatment-related content, wellness materials and more. UPshow’s Canva integration makes content creation easy, giving you access to health and wellness-themed templates and royalty-free graphics that will engage your patients.
You can also schedule marketing content via Playlists that will play on screens of your choice—any location, any time. Organize your Playlists however you like, too. One playlist could compile a list of FAQs and common misconceptions about aesthetic procedures. Another playlist could gear up for warm weather by promoting procedures like laser hair removal.
Use on-premise marketing to upsell instead of staff
How many patients have come in for one procedure and left without partaking in others that would give them the results they want? Fortunately, by presenting other treatments and products through on-premise marketing, this could occur less frequently.
One of the best med spa marketing strategies is to upsell using digital signage rather than staff—as we mentioned earlier. With UPshow’s QR code technology, you can even connect patients to your product inventory and provide relevant information on associated procedures. Making this information as available as you can increases the chance of maximizing revenue per patient.
Use a referral program to increase patient acquisition
Your med spa patients are your best brand ambassadors. Instead of simply hoping they’ll leave a positive review or testimonial, incentivize them to bring new patients into your facility via a patient referral program. QR codes can be implemented yet again to distribute sign-up forms.
You can advertise your referral program on any (or all) of your digital screens at the same time you display other engagement content with UPshow’s fixed panel and multi-panel displays. With this feature, you can display important announcements without the risk of some patients missing them.
This is one of the several ways to transform a medical spa waiting room into a marketing epicenter that benefits both your business and your patients.
Monitor patient engagement and satisfaction wherever possible
To know if your on-premise marketing efforts are appealing to new and existing patients (and reaping your med spa a positive ROI), you’ll need to monitor patient engagement. In addition to real-time insights and analytics, UPshow also allows you to engage with and gather feedback from your patients by:
- Displaying scannable links them to patient experience surveys
- Track patient engagement with the content on your displays
- Quickly adjust your on-screen content based on customer preferences
Medical spa marketing frequently asked questions
Building a medical spa marketing strategy is a trial-and-error process, so you’re bound to have questions along the way. Here are some questions other medical spa proprietors have had on their marketing journey.
I’m opening a med spa. How should I handle marketing?
If you’re just starting out, check out our checklist for opening a medical spa.
To handle med spa marketing in the beginning, you’ll want to create a marketing strategy that covers your business goals, sets a budget and more. Also, don’t overcomplicate the process with a ton of different tools. By choosing a digital signage software solution like UPshow, you’ll simplify your med spa marketing journey at every turn.
How do I build a strong brand identity for my med spa?
Your brand identity can’t be built with gimmicks if you really want to stand out in a crowded med spa market. Instead, take an organic approach by building your identity and ethos with the best services and results possible. Encourage happy patients to leave testimonials that you can highlight on your screens and online channels.
How do I ensure my med spa advertising is ethical?
HIPAA and other regulations hold medical professionals and facilities to a high standard when it comes to protecting patient privacy. There are some gray areas with med spa advertising, so always err on the side of caution.
Ethical med spa advertising is a complex subject, but some quick tips include:
- Share patient success stories without naming the individual
- Don’t address patients directly in marketing and online channels
- Always frame marketing in terms of body positivity (never body shame)
- Don’t promote prescription-only medicines (POM) online
- Never distribute misinformation in ads (or any content really)
Should I promote my med spa on social media?
Today’s med spa patients are turning to social media to learn about what your business offers, hear from past patients and see what health influencers have to say about your treatments. Social proof is a powerful marketing tool, so promoting your business on social media is an effective way to cultivate patient acquisition/retention and spread the word about your med spa.
What’s the best med spa marketing software?
UPshow Health is the best med spa software on the market because despite offering digital signage, which you’ll need anyway, there are many patient engagement solutions to aid your marketing efforts. Retain more patients, engage them on-site and create the ideal med spa experience.
UPshow: your on-premise med spa marketing solution
With our comprehensive guide to med spa marketing at your fingertips, you can reach new patients like never before and give each an engaging on-site experience. Let UPshow’s cutting-edge, on-premise digital marketing platform fuel your way toward a well-informed and loyal patient population.
Schedule a custom demo with UPshow today and execute your on-premise marketing plan with laser-like precision.
