Botox Marketing Ideas

As I’m sure you’re well aware, Botox is the single most popular non-surgical cosmetic procedure in the world, and it’s still growing.

As Baby Boomers and Generation X continue to age, more and more people will want to look better – younger.

And you can help them.

But you’ve got to reach them first.

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry clinic out there offers Botox treatments, so how’re you supposed to rise above the noise and get noticed?

Custom Botox branding is flashy, but you need to grab people’s attention with more than just flash before you can become even a local household name.

Should you go the digital route? Or make one of those terrible low-budget local TV ads?

Before you even start your marketing, you need that “Aha!” moment, and that comes directly from your target audience.

Consider your target audiences: who is using Botox most, and why?

For a lot of people, Botox goes hand in hand with starlets and celebutantes, but in the real world celebrities aren’t the typical users.

Soccer moms are.

According to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, most Botox users are working mothers in their 40s and 50s, juggling their careers and their families. Most of these women are in long-term, committed relationships, and have a huge variety jobs ranging from homemakers to business owners, from secretaries to professionals.

The second biggest demographic for Botox is, surprisingly, Millennials who are trying to nip any developing wrinkles in the bud.

And the number one most cited reason for using Botox?

“To look more relaxed and less stressed.”

Focusing your efforts on these demographics has the best chance of generating new leads.

Positioning is everything.

Another way to stand out from the crowd is to make your positioning different from everyone else. Botox has been around long enough that most people know the basics of what it does and what it’s for. And way too many people have gotten the wrong idea.

That’s because too many physicians take the wrong positioning and end up playing on their potential clients’ insecurities and fears.

You don’t need to tell women that their lives will be better and that they’ll be more beautiful if they use Botox.

Consider makeup and hair dye. Most women use makeup on a daily basis, and dyed hair is just a fact of life. These products change appearances and help give confidence, but they aren’t looked down on as “vain.”

Position your Botox treatments as just another tool, not really any different from the other cosmetic products women use every day.

Remind them of how beautiful they already are.

Or rather, how beautiful they were, maybe 5 or 10 years ago.

There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t look back at their old photos from just a few years ago and think, “Damn, look how smooth my skin used to be!” or, “I looked so young!”

You can’t help but feel nostalgic for the skin you used to have. For the way you used to look.

Botox, unlike anything you can get in the beauty section, is like turning back the clock. In an instant, your skin snaps back to the smooth, wrinkle-free look it had just a few short years ago. With those kinds of results, Botox doesn’t need to be playing on fears. It should be showing women that it can give them their smooth skin back.

That it can give them back what time has stolen from them, and what is rightfully theirs.

Don’t try to sell Botox as perfection, or even as a product. It shouldn’t be sold as a way to look better, implying that the way women look isn’t “good enough.”

No, instead, Botox should be sold to women as themselves.
Tell them that they are amazing and wonderful and beautiful, but that maybe they were a little more so about five years ago…And Botox can bring that “you” back.

Instead of selling them Botox, you’re really just selling them themselves, and that’s a lot easier to do.

This idea is a lot different than showing women the beautiful results of other beautiful women. Rather than wrinkle-free faces flashing smiles full of pearly whites, you should be trying to get women to look at pictures of themselves from five or six years ago, then get them thinking about Botox.

Cross promotions.

An interesting idea to target these groups that has worked very well for some clinics is cross promotion. Teaming up with another industry in your immediate area can help both of you build your businesses and attract new clients.

Of course, in order for it to work, you’ve got to choose who you team up with very carefully.

Let me give you an example.

A clinic in Southern California (read: Beverley Hills) teamed up with a real estate agent. The agent raffled off hundreds of dollars in Botox services to attract potential home buyers to one of her open house events. Since this real estate agent was used to dealing with high-end properties, she assumed that the kinds of people she wanted to attract would be interested in that kind of a prize.
She was right, and some smart Botox provider made a nice name for themselves, and probably even picked up a new client or two in the process.

Maybe real estate isn’t the way to go for you, but think about those target audiences.

Instead, consider talking to people involved in weddings. Wedding planners, clothing rentals, maybe even venues themselves. Brides and wedding parties might be interested, and even if they’re not, some of the older guests might.

If not the wedding industry, maybe gyms or fitness programs for that complete “new you.” Maybe offer that one as part a “New Years Resolution” promotion.

Get creative with your cross promotions. And make sure you’re targeting the right audiences.

Internet marketing.

As a very “in-the-moment” media, and with the potential to reach a much broader audience, it’s no surprise that online marketing has become more popular with cosmetic clinics.
And with good reason, after all, the internet is the #1 place potential patients go to make surgical decisions.

Nowadays women look up everything. From researching the actual procedures to finding doctor reviews, your audience is on the internet.

Because of this, your online marketing efforts, which includes your website, needs to both educate and entertain.

For every 100 people who try Botox for the first time, there are thousands who wonder if it’s right for them. Try a two pronged attack, targeting the group that’s still on the fence, trying to figure out if it’s for them.

Entice them with a web-based coupon or offer that gives them an excuse to linger a bit longer.
Significant savings often works as the best carrot.

Make sure this offer is on its own landing page on your site. And for God’s sake, make sure that your offer says “Botox” and your clinic’s name and/or logo. Clinics sometimes forget these important details, and their marketing suffers. Remember, you always want any potential clients to remember your name and what you do.

Once they’ve taken this bait, set the hook with good, relevant information.
One way might be a free seminar. This give prospective patients a chance to learn about the procedure, meet you and your staff, and talk with others considering the treatment in a casual, non-threatening, no obligation situation.

You inform them on what they need and want to know, dispelling any common myths along the way (like the dreaded frozen face). From there, they convince themselves through chatting with like minded people, and a more personal connection to both you and your staff.

A few words on content marketing

A great way to both educate and entertain at the same time that is often overlooked by clinics in their marketing efforts is content marketing.

This suggestion takes longer, takes a fair amount of effort, and requires the nerve to keep going.

In a nutshell, content marketing is creating, curating, and sharing content that is relevant to you, or in this case, Botox.

And it works!
Marketers who make blogging a priority are 13 times more likely to get a positive return on their money.

On top of that, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing, and costs less than half.

But the trick is, it only works if you care enough to do whatever it takes to gain your audience’s trust.

You do this by forging a relationship with them, and becoming their one-stop-shop for all things Botox.
But remember, you can’t just share other people’s content. Content curation is a great tool for extending your own site and social media, but sharing other people’s content should never replace your own entirely.

Try to keep in mind that creating everything on your site is demanding, but automation doesn’t engage with your target audience. It’s that engagement that builds trust and a relationship with your potential patients. That leads to more business for you.

Here’s a few tips on what to share, and what to create.

Types of content to share:

• Content written or created by people who are influential to your audience. We know who the target is, so who speaks directly to them? Martha Stewart uses Botox, maybe she’s written something about her experience. And YouTube is full of younger Botox advocates.
• Powerful or provocative industry news. For example, did you know there’s been a recent trend of lawyers and politicians getting Botox done? They say it helps hide their nerves, shock, and how much they’re judging others.
•  The internet loves infographics. They’re easy and fun to read, and offer a ton of information at a glance. They are the ultimate “educate & entertain” tool. And they’re 30 times more likely to be read than any wordy article. You can make your own, but it can be really time consuming if you aren’t a graphic design hobbyist.
• Botox-industry specific newsletters.
• Botox statistics.
• New and compelling research. For example some researchers are testing Botox to treat anxiety.
• Industry white papers, ebooks, and case studies on Botox.
• Articles you or your staff have written about Botox for other sites or publications.

Types of content to create:

• Tips. All kinds of tips. Tips on getting ready for the Botox treatment. Tips on how to recover comfortably. Tips on making the most out of each session.
• How-to and best practice guides. Maybe a little more detailed than just tips.
• Videos are a great way to build a more personal relationship with your audience. They require a little more effort, since you have to set the time aside to actually make them, but your audience gets to know you, your staff, and your practice. This is an amazing way to build trust. Video subjects can be tips, how-tos, procedure walk-throughs, or simply introducing yourself.
• Newsletters.

Above all else, when you’re deciding on what to share, remember: emotion drives decisions; data rationalizes them.

Let me tell you a story about my Aunt Stephanie.
She’d been thinking about Botox treatments for a while, but she was having a really hard time getting over the idea of cheating the natural process of aging. She had it in her head that that was somehow wrong, or worse, unacceptable.

Then one night she read an article about how women with deep forehead wrinkles, just like her, were often seen as always angry or upset by those around them.
My family was always asking her what was wrong and if she was sleeping alright, so this article really spoke to her fears. Now, this being the 21st century and all, she Googled “forehead winkle solutions,” and can you guess what popped up at the top of her results?

Botox.

Aunt Steph did a little reading and learned that Botox is the most popular injectable of all time, and it’s helped millions of middle-aged women, just like her.

Now, my Aunt Steph’s a pretty savvy lady, so she took her search a little deeper, and looked for “safe Botox” where she lived. She happened to stumble across a local clinic’s blog post that took the time and effort to not only list Botox’s benefits, but to also directly address the very fears and misconceptions that were making Steph so anxious.

For weeks she was reading that doctor’s blog, and over time she started to think, “Maybe Botox isn’t so bad after all.”

The friendly and informative articles helped Stephanie to feel less afraid and more comfortable about the idea of getting the treatment. She even found a video on how the procedure itself is done, and read an ebook on aftercare that she had downloaded from the same surgeon’s website.

A couple of weeks later, she went in for her first Botox treatment.

She took her time, learned all she could, and made an informed decision.

But if we go way back to the beginning, we can see that her final decision to actually undergo Botox treatments stemmed from her fear that her loved ones would think she was always upset. The informative content she was able to find with the help of that doctor’s blog and website directly addressed that fear, putting it to bed. Then she rationalized the decision with the help of all that data she found earlier: the stuff about how Botox has helped millions of women just like her, and how happy they are with their results.

That doctor earned my aunt’s trust with helpful, friendly, and relevant information. Once she trusted them, she gave them her business. And she’s never looked back.

Okay, my Aunt Stephanie doesn’t really exist.

But she is the perfect example of how decisions are made in today’s internet-connected world. With all the world’s knowledge accessible in an instant with that little device in your pocket, people naturally want to look up information for themselves. It helps us feel more in control.

In fact, 73% of modern consumers prefer to get information about the organizations they’re interested in through articles and content, instead of traditional advertising. 90% find custom content useful. And most importantly, 77% of people today think that companies that put in the effort to create custom content are interested in building good relationships with them, the consumer.

You’ve got plenty of options for places to publish all your curated content too. Create content for a company blog. Include infographics with your e-mail newsletters. Offer that ebook you wrote as a free download on your website. Upload videos to your website and YouTube channel. And by all means, if you haven’t set up social media channels for your clinic yet, do it now, and share your content there too.