Let’s Get Millennial: How to Reach More Millennial Patients

With Millennials now accounting for the largest adult demographic in the U.S., it’s time to ensure your clinic is getting the attention of this consumer sector to secure your aesthetic clinic’s continued success. But appealing to the Millennial market can be a new frontier for those clinics less familiar with digital marketing strategies. To appeal to the Millennial market, your medical aesthetics clinic must focus on a strong social media and digital marketing strategy, prove its authenticity, work to strengthen patient referrals, and show that you see the uniqueness and value of each individual patient. Mass discounts may appeal to customers’ wallets, but winning the loyalty of these patients is more about offering value and a strong business model that aligns with Millennials’ values. The following are some simple tips to help get you started.

6 Ways to Effectively Market Your Aesthetics Services to Millennial Patients

Personalize and Authenticate Your Approach

Authenticity in your clinic’s branding should be a priority, particularly when marketing to Millennials. These consumers value businesses that offer transparency, maintain a good reputation, and demonstrate social awareness. In fact, according to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, 64% of the informed public says they trust businesses and that trust, if lost, is even harder to regain.  

While there are many ways to use authenticity and personal branding to build trust and support business growth, showcasing a candid personality is an easy way to do so. Whether it’s in podcasts, at conferences, or broadcasting live to social media, it’s much easier to maintain consistent branding when it just comes naturally. Determine the values that are important to you and your clinic, and stick to those values while letting patients get to know the people behind your business. Showcasing this personality provides online prospective patients a better way to remember your aesthetics clinic. Millennials especially are more likely to book an appointment with a person they feel they can connect to. This demographic is much more likely to be attracted to a personality than a faceless company, so if you’re a medical director or aesthetics clinic owner, get comfortable with putting your best face forward to help build your clinic’s authenticity. Find more tips on how to get started on incorporating your personal brand into your clinic’s marketing efforts here. 

Consider Your Best Before-and-Afters

Photographic evidence of the effectiveness of your procedures is particularly compelling to prospective Millennial patients. In a survey, Modern Aesthetics asked patients to rank what they consider the most important factors in choosing a treatment provider. While 57% percent of respondents ranked before-and-after photos in their top three most important factors, 51% of this group fell under the Millennial demographic.

When creating a before-and-after portfolio that will catch the attention of Millennials, be mindful of certain aspects that clients look out for. In one survey, clients said seeing someone who looks like themselves, seeing a range of outcomes—including some better than others—and knowing specifics about the case, such as age or treatment sessions, is important. Diversity in the patients selected for your before-and-after gallery is especially important considering Millennials are the most diverse demographic in the U.S.; they want to see that your clinic is able to offer treatments that are safe for darker skin tones. As for the perfect number of before-and-after photos to showcase, in a survey of more than 1,000 consumers considering cosmetic surgery, 77% reported that they’d need to see at least 11 sets of photos of previous clients to confidently opt for a treatment or doctor (29% of respondents prefer closer to 30 sets). Of course, the number doesn’t matter if the quality isn’t considered. Ensure images are well-focused, unedited, and consistent in lighting and angles. To make the strongest impression on prospective Millennial patients, create an in-clinic studio space that offers optimal and consistent lighting.   

Don’t Neglect Social Media

In today’s digital landscape, it’s no surprise that Millennials are common users of social media, with Facebook and Instagram being their go-to platforms. Of course, as with any demographic, Millennials use each social platform for a different reason. Twitter is a good resource for news, Facebook is a place to connect with friends and family or search for businesses and reviews, and Instagram is a place for connection and inspiration with an emphasis on visuals. Videos posted to each platform, in particular, are especially popular.  

If you're just starting out with social, stop stressing; it's easier than you'd think! Some simple improvements can make a big impact in terms of growing your brand, building your audience, connecting with patients, and converting clicks to clients. Engagement with your followers—and potential patients—goes a long way with the Millennial demographic. Start your social media marketing efforts with a little research to get your bearings straight. You can access tips on how to create strong, shareable content here; explore tips on the biggest social media mistakes aesthetics clinics make here; and explore the further benefits of video in digital marketing here.

There are always new social media platforms that quickly gain popularity with millennials, be sure that you are informed about the newest trends and assess whether it is a platform your business can capitalize on.

Encourage Online Reviews

Millennials utilize social media to gather information about the topics and businesses that interest them, particularly sourcing online reviews to gauge a clinic’s services and overall customer service. In fact, 78% of aesthetic patients consider patient reviews a critical factor when choosing a treatment provider. For Millennials, having a few negative reviews among a majority of positive ones can be reassuring. All positive reviews can seem suspect, but negative reviews, particularly those that show a resolution to the patient’s concerns, can show authenticity. Your clinic won’t be the perfect match for every patient—that’s just reality, and that’s exactly what prospective Millennial patients want to see.

Just as word-of-mouth marketing offers a decent payback on a shoestring budget, encouraging reviews from patients on online review platforms or in their own social media posts can be a great way to spread the word about your business on a shoestring budget. Your efforts may take some time to pay off, but eventually you’ll build a collection of authentic reviews that are worth up to a 9% increase in revenue with each extra star. If you’re finding it difficult to convince patients to post online or you’re finding they often forget to post once they’ve left your office, make it easier: send a follow-up email with a link to where they need to go to leave their review.

Spruce Up Your SEO

Millennials are digitally savvy. They don’t often get mail and traditional online pop-up ads and print flyers can have an adverse effect on their impression of your aesthetics clinic; So how does your clinic stand out in their searches?

With 97% of consumers heading online to research and discover local businesses, having an search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your clinic stand out from the crowd is imperative. Ensuring your website is SEO-optimized and registered on Google My Business are two budget-friendly ways to help grow your online presence organically. In order to determine how successful your SEO efforts are, you’ll need to know where you began. Start by setting up an analytics program, such as Google Analytics, on your website to tangibly measure and see the results of your SEO strategies. Metrics like sources for incoming traffic, conversions, page views, keyword searches, referrals, and more can help provide a better overview of the effectiveness of your overall SEO campaign. See our guide of simple SEO tips for medical aesthetic clinics for more ideas.

Find a Reliable Partner

This list of tips for reaching more prospective Millennial patients is far from exhaustive, but it’s a good start. Of course, incorporating all of these tips can seem like an overwhelming workload, particularly for smaller aesthetics clinics. If this is the case for you, start small. Build out your social media presence or update and diversify your online photo gallery to begin and work forward from there. If you’re ready to upgrade some equipment, you may also consider partnering with a medical aesthetics device company that is invested in your long-term success to take a little pressure off your shoulders on the marketing end while expanding your services.

At Venus Concept, we offer more than innovative aesthetics devices that deliver some of the most popular treatment options among millennials—we are also a business built on a customer-first business model designed to propel your success. From practice enhancement to marketing support and more, our team is ready to assist with strategic planning, marketing asset development, and the highest level of post-sale support, so you don’t have to go at it alone. 

Interested in learning more about the Venus Concept business advantage? Contact an expert today using the button below.