When I was putting together my business plan for Elevation Med Spa, figuring out what to budget each month for marketing was tricky. Starting a new business from the ground up means nobody knows who we are until with find a way to introduce ourselves. I quickly realized, the more you spend the greater the potential impact. But what is the right medium, how much do I spend, how long do I stick with it, how targeted do I need to be? These are all questions I wish I had the answer to and will continue to ask in order to find the right balance on reach and return.
In the aesthetic industry, it is pretty clear having a strong online presence is paramount. Most clients are searching Google or social media to find a location that provides the services they desire. Like anything in the digital world, the easier it is to find us the better chance we have of securing the appointment.
We also asked ourselves if digital marketing is the only way to go? Should we put all our eggs in one basket to try and maximize our online footprint?
Through a lot of discussion and research, we decided to take a two-prong approach to our marketing initiative. Through careful planning and a bit of good fortune, we are partnering with Xcite Digital Media and Avid Lifestyle magazine to maximize our target market and drive new business.
Xcite Digital Media created our website and has a strong track record with developing effective digital campaigns. There is a multi-step process that begins with a program called Step Rep. This essentially works with all of the search engines and online directories to ensure your business information shows up exactly the same on all platforms. This helps to set the foundation for our Google algorithm which leads to better positioning on search platforms. The second phase is the social media campaign where we have five ads running across Facebook and Instagram to help build brand awareness and drive potential customers to our website for additional information. We just started this campaign and are pleased with the early results. We are seeing an increase in both traffic to our website and phone calls to the office. We are excited about the process of moving through the additional phases of the campaign as we continue to grow and learn more about our clients.
Avid Lifestyle magazine could not have launched at a better time. This lifestyle magazine targets the exact geographical areas we are focusing our marketing efforts. Avid Lifestyle provides us an opportunity to get our name out into the community to introduce ourselves and our services. This high-end publication is direct mailed to 12,500 homes and 500 businesses in our market. We were a bit hesitant at first to make the investment in a print ad knowing so much focus is on winning in the digital space, but the first issue has already produced several new clients.
I am excited for the initial plan we have implemented, and it is reassuring we are already seeing new activity from each platform. We will continue to evaluate the digital and print mediums to figure out where our dollars are best spent, but we put a stake in the ground to get started and are off and running. Look for us online or in print to see the quality of the ads and help spread the word- because we all know a good recommendation from a friend is still the best marketing a business could ask for.
Thank you for joining us on our journey,
Chris
