“Social media is about people! Not about your business. Take care of people and people will take care of you.” - Matt Goulart

Giving to talk about: Social Media Marketing

Results from a study published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal show that patients base their purchasing decisions more on Google reviews and social media presence than on a surgeon's credentials.

Having a strong presence on social media is what brings patients to your clinic or spa.

It is well-known that referrals from colleagues, patients, or staff can have up to an 80% conversion rate (8 out of 10 will purchase a treatment). Social media is the new way to generate word-of-mouth referrals from friend to friend.

Digital marketing has replaced most traditional methods, and posting valuable content consistently and running contests on social media achieve the best costs per referral.

Through social media, you connect with your current and potential customers. However, it is necessary to engage and nurture them with valuable content to translate into sales.

The best way to achieve engagement is through contests and prizes on social media. Your followers will want to share your content and contests with their friends, which will grow your social media following.

Aligned with your marketing plan, you should create monthly contests on Facebook, alternating between various types of contests and prizes. For example, you can offer a surprise prize or ask your followers to decide between two options.

Contests should be aligned with the treatments you want to grow in your clinic, and prizes should be treatments or products that are already popular.

When used correctly, social media has the lowest cost to attract new customers or generate repeat purchases from existing customers.

If you attract five new customers per month, and each one purchases $10,000 in treatments over the year, we are talking about $600,000 in additional revenue. Just for one year and without counting possible referrals from these new customers!

Studies show that around 2% to 3% of a clinic or spa's followers purchase a treatment. If you manage to grow your audience to 2,000 followers and take the average purchase rate of 2.5%, that translates to 50 new customers per year for your clinic or spa.

But to achieve this, you must give your current and potential customers reasons to follow your social media posts: you must create valuable content, run contests, and offer prizes to turn them into your true fans.

If you are convinced to do digital marketing on social media, you should start by planning your content, aligned with your clinic's sales goals, by answering the following questions:

Which treatments do you want to sell? Which treatments are more profitable? Which treatments do you enjoy doing? Armed with this information, you should create an editorial calendar indicating the month's promotions and contests. This will be the basis for creating your valuable content.

How to share and not sell?

A common mistake on social media is trying to sell in every post. This actually discourages your followers. Nobody goes on Facebook to see an ad. What they want is to be entertained or read something that interests them.

That's why you should share a variety of content that expresses the personality of your brand and nurtures the relationship with your followers. Share the benefits and emotional satisfaction obtained by your customers thanks to your treatments.

Post at least 3 times a week and try to include your contest, your promotion, something funny or inspiring, news from your clinic or spa, and something that showcases your facilities and your staff.

These are some topics that you can recycle so that you never run out of valuable content:

• Benefits and results of treatments

• Questions for your followers

• Problems and treatments that solve them

• Highlight your staff, their birthdays, achievements, and pets.

• Testimonials from other patients (these are invaluable).

• Before and after photos. Invite followers to guess the procedure to increase engagement.

• Contests and prizes

• Motivational or inspirational quotes

Aside from consistently posting content, it's crucial to respond as quickly as possible to comments and questions from your followers. Assign this task to someone and set a goal to respond within a reasonable time limit.