How to put brand building, the web, social media, and email to work for your medspa business

The medspa industry is growing. Fast. A recent analysis placed the industry’s global value at just over $16.5 billion by the end of 2022 and projected it to more than triple to nearly $50 billion by 2030. For medspa owners and managers, it’s proof that you’re part of something that’s in-demand for people around the world — but it’s also a wake-up call to start investing in your medspa advertising.

With existing medspa businesses growing fast, and new businesses springing up each month, to not invest in your growth is to be left behind. But you don’t have to learn an entire new discipline or contract with an expensive agency to start putting medspa advertising to work for your business. You just need to know the fundamentals, what to look for, and a few advertising avenues that tend to punch far above their weight in terms of payoff.

What is medspa advertising?

Medspa advertising is the process of sharing your medspa’s message with a wider audience in the hopes of bringing in new clients, or convincing clients who may have dropped off from your business to give you another shot.

The term “medspa advertising” may call to mind images of luxe commercials or massive billboards on the side of busy freeways, and those certainly can be effective methods of spreading the word about your business. However, many other advertising avenues can be just as effective and much more accessible for a small-to-mid-sized medspa business.

Some types of ads can even let clients jump straight into scheduling a session online, leaving no time for their hard-won attention to drift elsewhere before they become a client.

Build your brand and target your audience

Brand building and audience targeting may sound like two different steps, but they’re inseparable for two simple reasons: Your brand determines who wants to come to your medspa, and your business’ advertisements must target the kind of people you want to walk through your doors.

Everything from the value statements you share to the typefaces you use in signage helps determine who is more likely to be interested in trying your business. Your ads need to be ready to catch those people in particular. Don’t worry — if your business is new and you need some help crafting a brand, or you want a little guidance on how to refine your existing message, our brand-building guide will help.

Of course, there is at least one important difference: Branding can be aesthetically driven and aspirational, but targeting for your medspa advertising must be based on fact. Here are some of these facts you should consider when deciding who to pursue for your advertisements:

• What age range of clients are you targeting?

• What gender or genders do your services appeal to most?

• Do your ideal clients share any particular interests, such as fitness, nutrition, or natural medicine?

• Does your medspa mostly serve customers in the local area, or is it worth investing in state or even national-level advertising?

When configured properly, tools such as Google Analytics (for your website) and Facebook Audience Insights (for your social media presence) can be invaluable in answering these questions.

Optimize your web presence

One of the most reliable forms of medspa advertising available to your business is your website; you aren’t competing against thousands of other posts in an algorithmically derived timeline, you can fully customize your site to fit your brand, and prospective clients can access it from any device they choose. So how do you make sure your website is pulling its advertising weight?

SEO. Short for search engine optimization, it’s the art and science of making your website more likely to show up when people search for things related to your business. Think about how you found this article: You probably had a question in mind and went searching for the answer, and now you’re here. SEO is what makes your answer — your business — more likely to be the one prospective clients pick. If you want to give traffic to your website a short-term boost, you can also pay for a sponsored slot in search results related to your medspa.

Whatever avenue you choose to bring in more online visitors, the most important part is how effective your website is at turning them into actual clients. And for that, there’s no replacement for an easy-to-use self-booking experience that feels at home with the rest of your site. If clients can sign up straight from your Google results, your SEO work will translate even more directly into revenue for your business.

Stand out on social media

Social media has brought the general concept of self-care, as well as specific trends for everything from hair treatments to injectables, to the masses. It only makes sense that you’d want your business to be part of this conversation. But if you’ve made an Instagram account and watched it struggle to rack up more than a handful of followers, you already know how challenging it can be to grab attention on social media.

Don’t try to make content that will appeal to everybody. Instead, go back to your brand and your target audience. Create photos, videos, and more that will appeal to your ideal clients, and don’t just try to sell them on services with every piece of content you publish. Instead, make a habit of sharing valuable content (whether it’s aesthetically pleasing, educational, funny, or a mix of all three) so your followers look forward to your next post and want to share it with their friends.

Much like with your website’s search presence, most social media platforms let you take a shortcut to broader reach by paying for promoted posts. This will ensure your posts land in the feeds of clients that match your desired audience characteristics, and not just to people who already follow you.

Remember that your social media presence should ultimately be a means to an end for building your business, rather than something to pump up for its own sake. One great way to ensure your social media always feeds back into your bottom line is by allowing folks to book an appointment right from their timeline.

Nurture your client relationships

Once your medspa advertising brings new clients in, the work isn’t finished — now it’s time to turn them into regulars. Your ads may catch their attention again, but now’s the time to bring in something even more potent: email marketing. Yep, that inbox you’ve probably checked 15 times today without even thinking about it can also be the best way to nurture your relationship with clients between sessions.

Good news: A 2021 survey found that the typical return on investment for email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent. Even better news: You don’t need to bring in a spendy marketing firm to manage your email campaigns for the best possible result. You just need to use a platform that makes beautiful, on-brand emails easy to create and that automatically sends emails when they’re most likely to make an impact — whether as part of drip campaigns, to rescue lost clients, or to fill slow days.

Let’s be real: You probably didn’t get into the medspa business with visions of Google search results, #sponsored posts, and automated email marketing dancing through your head. But giving your medspa advertising a little more TLC can make a big difference in how many clients’ lives you can improve. And that sounds like a worthwhile investment to us.