Author: Julia Kendrick
A great aesthetic clinic marketing and PR strategy has the power to differentiate against competitors whilst attracting and retaining clients to ensure long-term success. It’s an essential tool that all clinic owners should invest in! Without a strategic approach to marketing and PR, your clinic is at risk of going unnoticed by target audiences and getting lost amongst the abundance of aesthetics clinics in our hyper-competitive industry. It’s time to be proactive and devise a winning marketing and PR strategy for your business!
In this article, Julia Kendrick shares her Beginner’s Guide to Aesthetic Clinic Marketing and PR with pointers on brand identity, marketing basics and marketing plan delivery.
What is a marketing and PR plan?
A marketing and PR plan details how a brand or business will seek to market, or promote, its products and services to its target audiences. They are typically created in advance to ensure forward-planning through a particular period of the year and typically include:
- Marketing and PR goals linked to tangible business outputs
- Clearly defined target audiences (and where you’ll find them)
- Key messages and campaigns
- Key initiatives and tactics
- Budget (fees and costs)
- Success metrics
It is wise to review marketing plans at regular intervals to understand what is and isn’t working, so that campaigns can be optimised to deliver the best possible results.
The main goals of marketing & PR
Aesthetic clinic patients have vast choices when it comes to appointing a clinic or practitioner for their treatments, and new brands frequently appear in most regional and city locations. Your target clients have multiple options vying for their attention – so, how are you going to make your aesthetic clinic stand out?!
Savvy, successful clinic owners utilise branding, marketing and PR to carve a niche, claim their position in the competitive landscape and generate bookings. A great clinic PR and marketing plan will focus on:
- Increasing visibility and brand awareness based on YOUR USPs
- Building a good brand reputation (addressing common patient barriers such as cost, pain, fear of unnatural results)
- Driving steady revenue and/or profit rather than pushing short-term discounts or price competition
Creating a Strong Aesthetic Clinic Identity
Your clinic’s brand identity has the power to set it apart from every competitor and as a clinic owner in this hyper-competitive industry, creating a strong brand identity across all your comms channels (website, socials, in-clinic marketing etc) should be at the top of your to do list. In addition, your brand identity allows your target patients to connect with your aesthetics clinic on both a visual and emotional level therefore, it needs to resonate with them and leave a lasting, positive impression.
When creating your clinic’s brand identity, consider the following:
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Ask key questions to identify what makes your clinic different. Define 2-3 USPs and emphasise them in your brand messaging.
- Brand aesthetics: Every aspect of your brand including its logo, typography and colour palette should be carefully considered and align with the image and values you want to portray. Whether your vibe is minimal and clinical, or warm and sophisticated, ensure you create a brand that you are going to love for many years!
- Brand story: Your story and why you created your clinic is a key component of your brand identity. This narrative is a great tool for building trust and connecting with target audiences in an authentic way right from the offset.
Tip! Once you’ve created your clinic’s brand identity use it consistently across all channels and customer touchpoints to create a seamless, professional brand experience.
The Basics of Marketing & PR
As you begin to prepare your aesthetic clinic’s marketing and PR strategy take some time to consider the following key questions – your answers will form of the root of your marketing strategy:
- Who are you targeting? Define your ideal patient(s) in as much detail as possible by creating personas for each key segment. Focus your marketing and PR campaigns on communicating with 2-3 target personas.
- What are you selling? List the services and treatments you need to promote and map them to your target personas. Don’t forget to note down why they should choose you / your clinic! Plan campaigns around seasonal events (e.g. summer, Mother’s Day) and key dates (e.g. product/treatment launches) so you can build a calendar of exciting campaigns throughout the year. Set a target, could you run a campaign every month or quarter?
- When will you launch your campaigns? It’s crucial to get your timing right for every campaign. Consider when is the best time to try and engage your target audiences vs when you need to engage the media, prepare content, brief your team etc. If appropriate, try to create anticipation with the use of waitlists and priority bookings.
- Where are you going to engage your target audiences? List the various types of media or ‘channels’ your target personas consume and highlight which to prioritise for your marketing and PR efforts. Your list may include social media (own vs influencers), email, digital media, print media and magazines etc. If you have multiple clinic locations it’s possible to run local campaigns in addition to group wide activities which will influence where you run each campaign.
Tip! Always deploy a combination of tactics throughout the year so that your marketing and PR doesn’t become stale and invisible.
5 tips to deliver a successful PR and marketing plan for your clinic
When preparing your aesthetic clinic’s marketing and pr strategy, keep your key goals front of mind – this plan is designed to increase visibility, build reputation and drive sales / profit. Below are 5 tried and tested tips to help your marketing and PR efforts deliver meaningful results:
1.Planning
All good strategies exist through meticulous planning! Give yourself and your team ample time to devise and set out your clinic’s marketing and PR plan for the year. This is not a task that can be done in one session, get organised and dedicate weekly planning sessions well ahead of your next business year. Add a planning date to your calendar now!
2. Consistency
You need to regularly put effort into your clinic’s marketing and PR activity if you want to yield good results. Focus on building momentum and regularly review campaigns to optimise performance. Be proactive and consistent – above all, avoid a stop / start or reactive only approach!
3. Creativity
The secret to great marketing and PR campaigns is their ability to stand out! Ensure that you know what your competitors are saying and doing so you can avoid doing the same thing. Remember, your goal is to differentiate from the competition and carve a niche for your clinic that resonates with your target audiences.
4. Reputation
It’s crucial to tell your target audiences how good you are at what you do. This can be done directly on your marketing channels by sharing testimonials, case studies etc. from existing patients. The media and influencers are also key in helping your clinic build its reputation, invite them to review your services at a launch event or press day or a personal 1:1 session.
5. Increase the volume
If you want to get your clinic on the radar of key press and your target patients it’s time to get loud and active! For help amplifying your messages and elevating your brand’s profile, a PR expert can be a great help. Kendrick PR are a passionate and experienced aesthetics PR agency who thrive on creating tangible success for every client.
Book a PR discovery call with Kendrick PR
Since our launch in 2015, we have delivered outstanding results for some of the industry’s leading clinics, such as D Thomas Clinic, The Private Clinic, Mortar & Milk and The Cavendish Clinic. From clinic launch events to PR consultancy packages – our comprehensive range of beauty PR services are designed and delivered by our expert team to drive real success. Please do get in touch to book your complimentary discover call with our expert team.