Seasonal MedSpa Marketing Campaigns:
Whether you are a pure medical spa, an essential part of a cosmetic surgery practice or a day spa with an affiliated medical team; you really must try to take advantage of each season. While most aesthetic, massage, hair loss / hair replacement, medical and spa treatments are valuable all year long, there really are preferred ‘seasons’ for marketing some specialty services like hair removal, cellulite treatments, breast augmentation and spray tanning.
Create an annual marketing calendar! Whether you want to have new promotions every month, every two months, quarterly or seasonally, you will need to design a strategic calendar plan. Every service and product should be promoted at least twice per year. This calendar will need to become a way for you to create at least one to two promotions for each of your strongest and weakest medical spa service categories per year. If you have any signature facial treatments, fillers, microcurrent, microdermabrasion, massage therapies or any other special service that is critically important to you, then plan to promote it at least three times per year. Your annual marketing calendar will require you to include your assigned marketing budgets for each promotion as well as to note if you will be doing any special advertisements, special events, printed materials and point-of-purchase merchandising.
Promotional Strategies:
Remember that having a special promotion does NOT mean that you need to offer a discount. You can always promote your medical spa services, professional products and special beautycare therapies at full price. You can certainly offer special incentives, membership programs, discounts and series service treatment packages to your clients and patients.
Gift Certificate Marketing:
Medical spas can promote gift cards just like any regular salon, spa or day spa! Gift cards / certificates should be creatively promoted with an exciting new twist every season. Medical spa gift card and certificate sales should become one of your most important marketing calendar strategies since a strong percentage of recipients will benewly referred first-time clients, fromyour loyal regulars. Use holidays likeValentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’sDay and the year-end holidays to promoteyour medical spa gift cards.
Seasonal Advertising &Marketing Media Strategies:
Set aside this projected advertisingbudget, so you can creatively ‘invest’in building your brand and while promotingeach targeted service categorythrough regional magazines, directmail, email blasts, Internet / social mediaand TV advertising. Some of yourseasonal spa marketing campaigns canbe promoted with direct mail postcards,cooperative / marriage mail services,regional magazines, telephonecalls, email blasts, social media, mediarelations campaigns or special eventmarketing.
Contact each of your targeted localmedia resources. Ask them for theirannual editorial and promotional calendars,to see how you can integrateyour annual marketing plans with theirs.Create a special budget for each seasonalmarketing and promotions period.While monthly email blasts donot really cost much, you may want topurchase a few full-color regional magazineadvertisements with at least fourdirect mail magazine campaigns peryear. If your local and regional magazineshave a ‘Best Of’ section for doctors,spas, medical spas, then you reallyshould consider advertising in theseissues! Whether or not your medicalspa is editorially honored, it will alsobe great afterwards to create advertisingreprints to share that your medicalspa was featured in that ‘Best Of’ issue.
Email & Direct Mail:
Create promotional opportunities tocollect email addresses from each newclient right away from their first visitto your medspa. Plan to create a seriesof medical spa newsletters andpromotional email blasts to promoteeverything on your annual marketingcalendar. Just try not to overdo it. Wesuggest no more than 1 to 2 emailblasts per month. Today, it is importantto consider going back to colorful snailmail with visually exciting presentationsnow and then. You should plan to share makeovers, special events and seasonal promotions with solo and cooperative direct mail. Keep your website updates with each of your special services and promotions.
MedSpa Events:
Open House eventsspecific treatment therapies
Community & Charity Involvement:
It is a great idea to get out of your medspa into the community to network with women’s groups, the chamber of commerce, business groups and Health & Wellness Fairs. Plan at least one charity event per year to help support a special cause like Parkinson’s Disease, Breast Cancer, Leukemia or something more localized.
Seasonal Media & PR Campaigns:
Make sure that you carefully review your local media’s annual editorial calendars. Plan your seasonal medical spa service treatment promotions to match what they will feature in the local newspapers and regional magazines. Plan to create press releases with professional high resolution service and makeover photographs as well as cover pitch letters. Work to professionally inspire the local media to work with you each season, as you promote your newest medspa services, therapies, skincare trends, gifts of beauty, new laser hair removal alternatives, cosmetic fillers or anything else that you want to promote. Just remember that you must present your seasonal PR campaigns in a non-commercial manner while attempting to educate the local community on medical spa services and products. You must also do so at least 3 to 4 months in advance, as most major media works that far in advance.
MedSpa Marketing Budgets:
Set up an annual marketing, advertising and PR ‘Budget’. This should be at least 5 to 8% of your projected total annual sales volume for an average marketing program. If you are a new medical spa or plan to take an aggressive strategy, set aside about 8% to 10%. In other words; set aside at least $5000 to $8000 in your advertising, marketing and PR fund for every $100,000 you plan to create in total sales. If you have the ability to be more aggressive, set aside at least $8000 to $10,000 for every $100,000 you plan to attain. Set challenging, yet realistic goals.
Use External Marketing & PR Resources:
Hire local graphic designers, publicists and social media gurus and/or hire nationally respected resources that understand the various medical spa service therapies and protocols. With competitive full-service salons and day spas in most every nearby shopping center today, you must aggressively team up with the nest resources available to set your medspa ahead of the local competition with a comprehensive marketing strategy.
