Getting great results from your digital marketing efforts isn’t easy. Nobody is pretending that it is. How many times have you screamed at your partner because nobody is liking and commenting on your new lip filler offer even though you’ve dropped the price 3 times?! How much time did you spend liking local people’s posts, in the hope of getting new followers, only to find that with every new follower you get, 2 have stopped following you? We’re here to help.
Our company, Cosmetic Digital has been at the forefront of digital marketing campaigns for aesthetic companies for over 10 years. We’re a market leader and when it comes to making marketing mistakes, we’ve seen them all. Today we’re going to tell you about some of the most common aesthetic marketing mistakes we see, to help you avoid them and reap the rewards!
Driving more traffic to your website is an essential aspect of online business growth and visibility. For it to work, you’ll need two things:
- A well-designed, easy-to-navigate, and content-rich website that is capable of attracting and retaining potential and existing customers.
- A marketing campaign that is engaging and provides valuable content for your target demographic.
So first of all let’s check you have a really good handle on who your target market is and which products you should be marketing to them.
Questions to ask yourself about the people who buy your aesthetic treatments, as well as the treatments themselves:
- What sets your product apart from the competition? Is it your brand, your expertise, your exceptional customer care, your top-up treatment reminder alert system, or your prices? What can your clients get from you, that they can’t get elsewhere? Knowing your USP can help you highlight it in your campaign, making it more attractive and relatable to your target audience.
- What are the demographic characteristics of your ideal clients? What are their preferences, needs and pain points? Having a clear picture of who your customers are will enable you to tailor your campaign messages to resonate with them. Plus you’ll know where to find them too!
By asking yourself these questions, you can design a more effective and targeted campaign that should drive a more significant amount of traffic to your website. Now it’s time to look at some of the most common digital marketing mistakes we see:
Paid social media marketing campaign mistakes
Social media ad campaigns are an indispensable tool for aesthetic businesses to reach their target audience, but one of the biggest mistakes is having no clear objective. Without a defined goal, it is impossible to measure the success or failure of your campaign. Are you guilty of creating an ad using an image of a model with a flawless complexion, but no call to action? It might have got you a few likes or website visits, but the information you’ve provided is too general to expect a result.
Make it clear what you’d like the ad viewer to do, whether it’s buy your anti-wrinkle injection offer before it runs out, or come and have a look at your new range of Obagi products. Giving your ad a clear objective will help you measure the results of your campaign better too!
Or perhaps your ads always have a goal, but you’re showing them to the wrong people? Not everyone within 20 miles of your practice will be interested in your services. It’s better to narrow down the demographic, so your ad is seen more times by the people who are more likely to buy from you, rather than adopt a scattergun approach.
Finally, how much time do you spend analysing each marketing campaign? When a campaign goes well, it’s important you know why, so you can deliver another one successfully. Similarly, if a campaign goes badly, it’s important to know where you went wrong, so you tweak your campaign for next time. Ignoring your ad analytics is a sure-fire way to leave your campaign success to potluck!
Common mistakes made when attempting to engage potential clients via social media or email
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is ignoring potential customers’ comments and messages. Yeah, you might be busy delivering treatments, but in the potential client’s mind – if you’re not responding that’s a reflection of your customer service. Would you buy from someone who ignored your query?
Existing clients in particular expect prompt and personalised responses to messages they send you on social media. Ignoring these interactions can lead to feelings of neglect, damaging the customer’s perception of the brand. Ignoring messages can lose you a lot of trade.
The tone you use when you do eventually respond is important too. It should be consistent on all of your platforms. Help potential clients feel they have an understanding of you and your business ethos, rather than confuse them with disparate angles.
Deal with complaints carefully to avoid damaging your reputation. Being defensive or argumentative when faced with criticism can be a huge error. Instead, address issues like this professionally and constructively.
Another mistake is being overly promotional. While social media is a platform to market your products or services, constantly pushing sales can be off-putting for clients. The key is to strike a balance between providing valuable content and promoting your brand.
The biggest mistakes you can make with your content marketing posts
Your posts should be high quality and unique. They should offer valuable information, and not look the same as every other cosmetic business post. If you can stand out from the crowd, your post won’t get lost in a sea of aesthetic sameness. How many times have you seen that photo of a face showing where fillers can be injected to create a rejuvenated look? We’ve all seen it! We’ve all got information from it! But how can you present it slightly differently, and better? That’s the key to a successful post.
You should also make sure that your posts are designed to appeal to your target audience. It might well be pancake day, but how does a pretty image of that pancake you cooked communicate to your viewer that there are only 5 days left of your two-for-one offer? (Unless of course, you’ve written that in the text along the bottom of your image – in which case you can be forgiven!)
Better, however, is to post about things you know will appeal to potential clients. A huge percentage of women in their 50s who might consider facial aesthetic treatment, are probably trying to avoid pancakes. They might well be thinking of going on a cruise though, and they might want to look their very best before they get to the boat too! Getting to know your audience, their likes and dislikes, can make or break your content following.
The biggest mistakes you can make with your SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy. However, several common mistakes can severely harm your SEO efforts. One of the biggest mistakes is neglecting the importance of relevant content. No amount of keyword stuffing or link building can compensate for poor content. Google’s algorithm is increasingly sophisticated and prioritises websites that provide valuable content to users. But we’ve dealt with content in the previous section – so instead let’s look at how your website viewers see what you post.
Is your website optimised to be viewed on a mobile phone? It’s essential that it is, because so many people use their phone over their computer as a way to access the internet.
Finally, expecting fast results and giving up on your SEO strategy is the biggest mistake you can make. Appearing at the top of the Google search listings for a particular treatment gives your business more authority in the eyes of the consumer. Potential clients are more likely to trust a business that appears as an organic top link over an ad in a similar position. You’ll look more established as a business. Built SEO takes time. Be patient and keep going! If you’re doing it right, your efforts should pay off eventually.
Don’t ignore the experts – they can help you!
Anyone who ignores experts in their field is most likely setting themselves up for failure. Look at those who are doing well to see how they’re doing it. But also – if all this sounds like a lot of hard work, and you’d like to get much better results from your marketing, without having to spend so much time responding to messages or creating posts and ads, why not outsource?
We have been the market leader in aesthetic digital marketing campaigns for many years. We won’t just save you a bunch of time and hassle, we should be able to save you a decent amount of money too. We know which ads and strategies get results, so we don’t have to waste precious ad budgets trying different things in the hope of getting better results. Want to chat about how we can potentially help you drive more traffic to your website and grow your company faster? Give us a call.