If you are a physician or a business person who has decided to get into the growing field of medical aesthetics then you need to be aware of which Internet best practices will be of benefit to your medical spa.
Physicians, you are invariably busy with your practice and are often exposed to conflicting advice. This guide should help you avoid a few mistakes before you begin online.
Website Design
Colors and Images
Your business is a medspa, not a hydrospa. Please consider that when choosing your color scheme. Blue is overdone, as are pink, and purple. You will want to create a striking first impression and build expectations for your potential clients. See my post on color and marketing for more information.
COLORS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO THE DESIGN OF YOUR WEBSITE
Demographics
Think about your clients and your projected demographic. How do they appear? Sophisticated and urban? Casual and sporty? Your targeted demographic should inform the design of your site.
Diversity
If you opt for a big outfit to create your website, know the designers will probably be young males. Please inform them that your clients are not exclusively young, super thin, white models. The demographics of the United States have changed. You should include images of women and men of various nationalities, skin tones, ages, and shapes.
Male doctors, or spa owners, please remember women prefer softer, lighter and less saturated colors than men, so choose accordingly.
Avoid dark brown and burnt orange, the two most universally hated colors.
Header
Headers are impressive and beautiful these days and contain images or video in the background. There are a few other things that you need to have at the top of the page, so that your customers can find your information immediately:
- Company name
- Address
- Contact info
- Phone number-there’s a plugin that will allow the user to press and dial.
- Logo
Written Content
Page content
Your content needs to be written in a very simple, easy to read style, preferably at the 8th grade level. Content needs to educate and inform in no less than 340 words per page and no more than 740 words per page.
Blog Posts
Your blog posts need to be longer and more in depth to rank with search engines like Google. Your blog posts need to be image rich, informative and 1000-1800 words long. You can blog about various topics, include video content, before and after photos, quizzes, and infographics to rank. Whoever is writing your content will need to optimize it for search engines. However, the best content is written to inform, educate, and build trust with the user (your potential customer). And that is the most important thing to remember moving forward, in terms of ranking as well as client satisfaction. Do include sharing buttons to social media so that your viewers and fans can share appealing posts. It will give you more exposure.
Your Images
Please include images of your staff, yourself, and your office. Use stock images judiciously. As I mentioned before, real people are in and not computer enhanced models.
Your own photo needs to be friendly and up to date to establish credibility. A video of you introducing yourself and your services would be even better in terms of connecting with your clients.
Your Pages
They should be well organized and easy to navigate:
- Welcome the user and give a brief introduction on your Home Page.
- Tell your story and connect with the user on the About Page. They need to know you, like you, and trust you.
- Have a Contact page or include a contact form in the universal footer but also include several ways and points of contact. Include a map on your contact page, as well.
- Services should have separate pages and subpages. For example, your top menu page Injectibles can be further subdivided into pages featuring the types of injectibles you offer. Include before and afters on that particular page rather than making the user go off page to search. Include any instructional videos on that page as well.
- If you use a booking service, put a button on the page so that the user can book the service. If not put a call to action button like –contact us- that connects to your contact page.
- I like to embed YouTube videos directly on the relevant page but some people prefer to have their social media linked through buttons.
Pricing List
Should you include it or not? It’s up to you. If you are getting enough queries and are a great salesperson or know how to upsell, then skip it. If you aren’t, include it. Just know that some people shop on price alone and they’ll go from website to website looking for deals. You probably don’t want those clients, anyway. To forge lasting relationships, be the best and show them you are the best with the work you do. Remember to show off that work in your before and afters and your YouTube channel.
Footer
Include your site map with your main pages – Home, Services, Contact so that the user can link to them quickly. Also include the following in the footer:
- Location
- Office Hours
- Phone number
- Social media icons that will connect the user to your social media.
Finally, pepper all your pages with client reviews and endorsements of your services. Research has shown that people won’t go to a separate testimonials page to read endorsements.
Social Media
Now that your website is completed, how will you drive traffic to your website? Here are the pros and cons of social media.
Pro: It has 2.3 billion monthly users.
Cons: Although people will use it as a search engine to vet you, you will get little organic reach with the algorithm changes that have been made in 2018. Facebook wants you to pay to play, that is, to spend on advertising. The only problem is that as of this writing they offer no exact category that corresponds to your field. Additionally, they have few keywords beyond Botox and CoolSculpting, so you will have to get creative with keywords. Marketers have found that targeting women between 25-55 years of age in a specific geographical usually works best.
You could import your client list and target similar users, however, if you are inclined to share that sort of information with Facebook. Many physicians would find that practice less than ethical. You can also use Pixel data.I will address this feature in a future post discussing Facebooks ads.
Instagram’s organic reach used to be great. Since Facebook has bought it, organic reach has dropped due to algorithm changes. Still, its still more effective than Facebook organic posts. However, all social media outlets are now desperate for video content and if you produce it , your organic reach will grow. I will address this in a future post. For now, please see
Should Health Practitioners Have a Blog?
If you can’t afford to spend the time or money on separate channels then share your Instagram post to Facebook and Twitter ( you will be guided to share it right before you post ) . Just add some more text to the Facebook posts. Millennials who make up the bulk of Instagrammers prefer images to reading. However, Boomers who dominate Facebook do- and they love informational posts.
You will need to know your clients’ pain points and educate them as to various solutions. Do mix up your posts and include seasonal topics, events, sales and discounts, products, before and afters, and videos.
You Tube
YouTube is second only to Facebook with 1.9 billion monthly users to Facebooks 2.3 billion. It’s also owned by Google and is the second largest search engine after Google). Did you ever notice how Google places YouTube videos right under the top search query results? Now you know why.
Getting in front of the camera
If you can get over the fear of being in front of the camera and want to promote your medical spa, YouTube is one of the best ways of being discovered. Create a variety of content and show procedures and results. Film clients endorsing your services. If you are afraid of asking them to commit to an online endorsement, give them a discount on services.
Film your events. Get your camera out and let people know why you stand out from the competition. You are a doctor, but you have to be a salesperson too. And you need to be the face of your medical spa.
Do concentrate on one medium at a time or hire someone to take care of it for you, otherwise you will get overwhelmed. Remember you must be consistent with creating your content. No more than twice daily, no less than once a week.
Don’t forget to share all your blog posts on social media. This is where you can make great use of LinkedIn. Share your post or article with your connections and in all your groups.
Reviews
Reviews are critical to the health of your business. Ask your satisfied clients to leave five star reviews on Google and your Facebook business page or Yelp. Remind them to do so regularly. Purchase in -office software, which will allow them to leave a review as they are checking out. Alternatively, send them a follow up email directly after their treatment thanking them. Include a link to Google reviews and ask them to post their review. Google reviews show up next to your business information on Google search are probably the most desirable type of review to have.
Your mailing list
This is the most important tool a medical spa owner can utilize. You own it, control it, and need to grow it. Use Mailchimp (or the email marketing service of your choice) to send your client list a weekly, bi monthly, or at the very least, a monthly (no less frequently) newsletter, featuring seasonal treatments and any discounts or packages you are featuring. Do integrate a sign up form to the newsletter on your website to grow you list.
Please feel free to contact us and schedule a consultation to discuss your website design or marketing strategy.
