marketing training Archives

Have you ever Googled yourself?

Who owns your-name.co.uk? If no one does…should you?

If you have never considered these questions, now is the time to start.

Search engines already know a lot about you. Google in particular is by far the largest, used for over 70% of searches in the UK. If your picture has appeared electronically on any hospital website, it is likely that Google will have seen it. Enter your name into a Google search and select ‘images’ from the left column. You may see yourself: at the very least, it is always interesting to see what people with the same name as you look like and do for a living!

Google has recently created Google profiles. You can search for this by typing ‘profiles’ into the Google search bar. Here you may find information about yourself which you may not have been aware is there. You can claim your profile and fill out the relevant details including photos and CV. This way you can make sure that Google has the correct information on you for viewing around the globe.

What Can Your Patients Learn About You Online?

Increasingly, patients and relatives of patients are using search engines to research you. Would you want the family of a patient you are caring for to see you letting your hair down on your Facebook profile? Do you want them knowing personal information about you such as your relationship status?

As a medical professional should you even be on Facebook? You can change the settings on Facebook to make your details more private. The default setting for Facebook is not particularly private and your information can be widely viewed. If you have got a Facebook page, therefore, we would strongly suggest that you look at the security settings.

We would also recommend (if you have not already done so) that you research what Google and the other search engines already know about you. Change and correct anything that is incorrect and try and limit access to accurate information that you would like to be kept more private.

Never Underestimate the Power of Google

The position in which you appear on a Google search is of crucial importance.

Over 80% of people click on the first 3 results in Google
The majority only ever click the first result
This leaves only approximately 20% of your potential online business looking at the results lower down the page
Some people are not even aware of more than 1 page of results on Google!

If you are trying to get people to your site rather than a competitors’, your position on Google is therefore vital; if you can be in first rather than second position you can expect twice the about of traffic, enquiries and hopefully business.

Your business should aim to appear on page 1 of Google, preferably as near to the top of the page as possible. If you do not appear here or your position drops unexpectedly, this can have very negative effects on your business.

In our next Marketing Your Business Online Blog…Claiming your Territory Online! If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected]

So I’ve done my Botox Training…now what?

Gaining thorough, high-quality training in medical aesthetic treatments like Botox, Dermal Fillers, Dermaroller Therapy and Skin Peels is only the beginning. Once you have these skills and are confident that your techniques are sufficiently advanced to be competent providing treatments to the public, what now?

Time to start Marketing your Business

Whether you already have an established practice and are adding medical aesthetic treatments to your repertoire, or are starting your business from scratch, your skills and expertise will never translate into profit without a fantastic reputation – or brilliant marketing! Both of these factors are interlinked: as your client base grows, they will start to spread the word amongst themselves and so your reputation will grow, too. But first you need to attract the initial streams of patients.

Marketing can be a daunting prospect if you don’t know where to begin. There are many business sharks out there, eager to profiteer from the common knowledge that medical aestheticians are not necessarily marketing and technology savvy.

Marketing and Technology savvy?

Yes. These days, the two are well and truly interlinked.

Whilst some forms of offline marketing – adverts and features in local magazines and newspapers, fliers or posters – may serve you well, the wider market is lurking online. You have the potential to reach much greater numbers, further afield and at a lower cost. If you get it right.

Where to start?

There are a few bog-standard basics that Cosmetic Courses recommend for delegates looking to market their medical aesthetic business:
1. Create a brand, not just a business
Spend time choosing a catchy name and slogan, design an eyecatching logo and be consistent with colour-schemes from stationary to sites. The objective is to establish branding instantly recognisable and so compelling that prospective patients choose you over your competition.
2. Get socialising:
Social media is a very powerful tool for networking, creating your brand image and engaging prospective patients. First you need to identify where the majority of your patients ‘hang out’ – is it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube or Google+? Very few small business owners have time to juggle all these accounts so maybe just focus on one or two for best results. Each has strengths and weaknesses unique to the medical aesthetic industry – look out for more on this in a future Cosmetic Courses blog!
3. Don’t just say it, Blog it!
A blog is a great way to create a more personal voice for your company, let patients know what is happening, what offers you are doing and what you are thinking.
4. SEOk
SEO (or search engine optimisation) is vital to making sure your website works to pull in patients. Combined with social media and creating lots of new content through your blog and on your website pages themselves, SEO involves researching keywords to see which are most popular with your patients when they search online. You then need to make sure all your pages frequently mention these words: in a natural-sounding way! There’s quite a knack to this and there are many hints’n’tips tutorials online…or you can get Cosmetic Courses to give you some training!
5. Make Links
Inbound link-building can boost the visibility of your site on search engines and help you network with other sites. There are lots of ways of getting links to your site…but you need to be aiming for high quality, relevant links, not tons of cheap ones from sales sites that are nothing to do with yours!

These 5 business marketing pointers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using digital for your medical aesthetic business. There are also many factors specific to the cosmetic industry which need to be borne in mind.

If you would like some training in business marketial traning for your medical aesthetic business, why not consider a business marketing training course with Cosmetic Courses? With expert guest speakers, hints and tips a-plenty and lots of ongoing support after the initial training, it could be just what you need to get your business off the ground! Contact us on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected] for more details about upcoming dates and availability.