Success in online marketing

Clinics, product companies and individuals within the medical aesthetics sector that have previously ‘sat in the dark’ when it comes to their digital impetus are now embarking on new digital marketing journeys. While it is
great for us marketers to see that people are valuing and understanding the true potential of digital marketing, it is so important that we stress how failing to create and implement a feasible, realistic strategy is all too common. To avoid making this mistake, I would advise that you take note of some imperative, key drivers that are essential when forming and implementing a successful marketing campaign.

Goals and objectives

First and foremost, you must have goals. There is no point embarking on a beautiful marketing journey if you have no idea what you want to get out of it. There are a number of different ways you can construct goals and aims, but it is important to make sure they are relevant to your aesthetics business and your capabilities. Without purpose or direction, how are you supposed to formulate any kind of strategy and, moreover, how can you analyse and monitor its success?

The ‘SMART’ acronym is regularly used to help create goals and aims at the initial planning stages of marketing projects. This means you should take time to consider the following factors when creating your goals:

S – Specific: Your goals should be clear and specific so that you constantly know what you’re setting out to achieve. For example, how many more patients do you want to get from your marketing campaign?

M – Measurable: Can you measure your goals? How? There’s no point in setting goals if you can’t measure your progress throughout the project.

A – Achievable: Are your objectives achievable? You shouldn’t set goals that are achievable by a multinational clinic chain if you’re an independent practitioner just starting out on your journey. You must be realistic with your budget and targets.

R – Relevant: Are these goals relevant to you? Do these objectives align with other goals and aims within your business?

T – Time-based: All targets need a time- bound requirement. There’s no point in setting goals if you never have a deadline for achieving any of them. A simple marketing calendar can help with time management of your strategy.

Market sensing

Before delving into the specificities of your plan of action, it’s important to understand the environment around you. Your competitors, customers, and even your own employees will shape your strategy. The whole purpose of a digital marketing campaign is to communicate with your potential and current client base, which is why it’s so important that you take the time to understand them, how they think, and what it is that they want. You can do more to understand your clients and patients by running surveys and questionnaires, listening to them individually, and acting on their feedback.

Limits and capabilities

You must know how far your capabilities stretch before you make any moves in the digital world. If you’re planning on using Google Ads or Facebook Ads to generate more enquiries online, then you should understand your monetary limits. When you start out, you are not going to have huge budgets for the marketing of your aesthetics business, but you still need to put enough into the pot in the right way to see results, and it’s important to remember you won’t always see great results in the first few months of a campaign.

It’s also important to gauge the knowledge and attitude of your employees or marketing team, as they will be the individuals who help
to implement your strategy. Do you know how capable your employees are with following a marketing plan? You shouldn’t implement a highly complicated plan with a team that isn’t knowledgeable or confident enough to execute it effectively. Understanding your limits is key to a successful strategy. If you have limited experience and knowledge in- house, the best thing you can do is outsource your marketing to a specialist (but, of course, I would say that).

Tactics

After understanding your market and capabilities, you should brainstorm the different ways in which you can create your digital footprint. There are hundreds of different ways that businesses can now choose to communicate with their customers online, but it’s important to pick the methods that are right for you. As you will have already researched your demographic and taken the time to understand your limits, you’ll know exactly how and where you should communicate with your customers.

Creating your digital tactics is also a good time to get creative by telling compelling stories using current trends and making them applicable to your business, too. Just some of the tactics that are generally used by businesses are: SEO management, social media management, social media advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing and Google Ads.

Implementation

Once you’ve outlined your plan and got everything in order, it’s time to implement your strategy. No plan is hitch free, so you must be prepared to change your strategy according to the variables that you could encounter. Your customers may latch onto another product, your competitors might spring a surprise, or your employees might not like the new way of doing things. This requires you to be alert during the implementation phases and spot any problem areas before they fester and render your campaign useless. The implementation of a marketing strategy is usually the most difficult aspect, but if you prepare as well as you can, using the previous steps, you’ll have a good chance of getting it right.

Monitor and review

While you execute your strategy, it’s important to constantly monitor and review your progress. If you’re not getting the results that you hoped for, then you’re probably doing something wrong – or your aims were unrealistic. You need to constantly review your marketing plan, actively identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

If you find some of your tactics aren’t working, change things up. For example, you may be getting great results through optimising treatment pages on your website for SEO, but you are seeing minimal interactions on your social media platforms. In this case, it’s time to focus on creating fresh, unique and engaging content for your social media
channels.

Clinics, product companies and individuals within the medical aesthetics sector that have previously ‘sat in the dark’ when it comes to their digital impetus are now embarking on new digital marketing journeys. While it is
great for us marketers to see that people are valuing and understanding the true potential of digital marketing, it is so important that we stress how failing to create and implement a feasible, realistic strategy is all too common. To avoid making this mistake, I would advise that you take note of some imperative, key drivers that are essential when forming and implementing a successful marketing campaign.

Goals and objectives

First and foremost, you must have goals. There is no point embarking on a beautiful marketing journey if you have no idea what you want to get out of it. There are a number of different ways you can construct goals and aims, but it is important to make sure they are relevant to your aesthetics business and your capabilities. Without purpose or direction, how are you supposed to formulate any kind of strategy and, moreover, how can you analyse and monitor its success?

The ‘SMART’ acronym is regularly used to help create goals and aims at the initial planning stages of marketing projects. This means you should take time to consider the following factors when creating your goals:

S – Specific: Your goals should be clear and specific so that you constantly know what you’re setting out to achieve. For example, how many more patients do you want to get from your marketing campaign?

M – Measurable: Can you measure your goals? How? There’s no point in setting goals if you can’t measure your progress throughout the project.

A – Achievable: Are your objectives achievable? You shouldn’t set goals that are achievable by a multinational clinic chain if you’re an independent practitioner just starting out on your journey. You must be realistic with your budget and targets.

R – Relevant: Are these goals relevant to you? Do these objectives align with other goals and aims within your business?

T – Time-based: All targets need a time- bound requirement. There’s no point in setting goals if you never have a deadline for achieving any of them. A simple marketing calendar can help with time management of your strategy.

Market sensing

Before delving into the specificities of your plan of action, it’s important to understand the environment around you. Your competitors, customers, and even your own employees will shape your strategy. The whole purpose of a digital marketing campaign is to communicate with your potential and current client base, which is why it’s so important that you take the time to understand them, how they think, and what it is that they want. You can do more to understand your clients and patients by running surveys and questionnaires, listening to them individually, and acting on their feedback.

Limits and capabilities

You must know how far your capabilities stretch before you make any moves in the digital world. If you’re planning on using Google Ads or Facebook Ads to generate more enquiries online, then you should understand your monetary limits. When you start out, you are not going to have huge budgets for the marketing of your aesthetics business, but you still need to put enough into the pot in the right way to see results, and it’s important to remember you won’t always see great results in the first few months of a campaign.

It’s also important to gauge the knowledge and attitude of your employees or marketing team, as they will be the individuals who help
to implement your strategy. Do you know how capable your employees are with following a marketing plan? You shouldn’t implement a highly complicated plan with a team that isn’t knowledgeable or confident enough to execute it effectively. Understanding your limits is key to a successful strategy. If you have limited experience and knowledge in- house, the best thing you can do is outsource your marketing to a specialist (but, of course, I would say that).

Tactics

After understanding your market and capabilities, you should brainstorm the different ways in which you can create your digital footprint. There are hundreds of different ways that businesses can now choose to communicate with their customers online, but it’s important to pick the methods that are right for you. As you will have already researched your demographic and taken the time to understand your limits, you’ll know exactly how and where you should communicate with your customers.

Creating your digital tactics is also a good time to get creative by telling compelling stories using current trends and making them applicable to your business, too. Just some of the tactics that are generally used by businesses are: SEO management, social media management, social media advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing and Google Ads.

Implementation

Once you’ve outlined your plan and got everything in order, it’s time to implement your strategy. No plan is hitch free, so you must be prepared to change your strategy according to the variables that you could encounter. Your customers may latch onto another product, your competitors might spring a surprise, or your employees might not like the new way of doing things. This requires you to be alert during the implementation phases and spot any problem areas before they fester and render your campaign useless. The implementation of a marketing strategy is usually the most difficult aspect, but if you prepare as well as you can, using the previous steps, you’ll have a good chance of getting it right.

Monitor and review

While you execute your strategy, it’s important to constantly monitor and review your progress. If you’re not getting the results that you hoped for, then you’re probably doing something wrong – or your aims were unrealistic. You need to constantly review your marketing plan, actively identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

If you find some of your tactics aren’t working, change things up. For example, you may be getting great results through optimising treatment pages on your website for SEO, but you are seeing minimal interactions on your social media platforms. In this case, it’s time to focus on creating fresh, unique and engaging content for your social media
channels.