Influencer marketing has been around since Coke first started using Santa Claus to sell its soda in the 1930s. More recently, Kylie Jenner (youngest member of the Kardashian clan) built a $900 million cosmetic business on the back of this now ubiquitous marketing tool.
Influencers are trusted voices within a niche community. What does this mean? It means that when Kylie posts a photo of herself wearing her latest lip gloss recommendation, her 26.3 million Twitter fans want it too.
Rather than simply being paid to promote a product, influencers are believed to use the product or service they are endorsing. They are a trusted voice, and can sway their audience’s opinion about brands, products or services.
Social media is a big facilitator for this type of advertising, allowing brands to capitalize on the opinions of other people, shared rampantly on social media. Brands now pay millions every year to garner a thumbs up from anyone they think will help advance their image. But influencer marketing isn’t the sole domain of celebrities like Kylie. Regular people with a few thousand–or a lot fewer–followers can also be influencers. This group is known as micro-influencers.
Brands are now using armies of micro-influencers to promote their products and services too. And this is where it matters for medspas looking to extend their marketing reach.
Medspa clients tend to do a lot of their research about treatments online, reading and posting reviews about the treatments they’ve tried and the ones they’re curious about. In doing so, they are already acting as influencers, engaging with like-minded people, building trust, and influencing purchasing decisions.
With a little effort, you too can begin to use your medspa clients as influencers for your business.
Start by doing some research on your clients. They’re likely following your medspa’s social media channels already. You may want to start following some of them too, especially any who are active on social media and those with a substantial number of followers.
Start online conversations with these customers, following up with them about treatments they’ve had with you and treatments they may be considering. Encourage them to write online reviews or post about their treatments on their social media accounts, making sure they tag your medspa.
You may wish to incentivize this group to regularly participate in online conversations about your medspa by offering them discounted treatments, but be careful not to solicit a positive review and always check with your healthcare attorney to ensure this falls in compliance with your local regulations and statutes.
For your clients who aren’t engaging with your medspa on social media, encourage them to get started by offering discounts or other promotions to anyone who starts following your social media accounts. You can encourage and grow this audience by continuing to offer them mini-promotions every time they post about your medspa.
As your clients start to engage more with your medspa online, you are accessing their followers as well. Get the conversation started and continue to nurture your influencers as they help you grow your business.
For more advice and help with your marketing strategies, contact the medspa experts at Reach Beyond Marketing or Acara Partners: 203-678-9887.
