From providing life-saving skin cancer treatment to offering cosmetic services, dermatologists work hard to make their patients’ lives better.

But to do that, dermatologists need to get those patients into the off­­ice for an appointment.

That’s where marketing comes in.

Coming up with an effective marketing plan for your office takes time.

But between managing staff, treating patients and staying up-to-date on research, you already have a lot on your plate.

So to save you time, we’ve compiled this list of strategies to market your dermatology clinic with digital marketing.

These are ideas we’ve used to turn our client’s slowest month into their best month. They’re easy to put in place, and can have incredible ROI.

Strategy #1: Seasonal Specials

Holidays are great opportunities to promote deals. Pair compelling copy and a festive image with an offer, and you’ll easily draw interest from patients who already have the holiday on their minds!

Skincare is a year-round responsibility, so any occasion can become special with the right angle:

Spring and Summer time? Remind them to enjoy the outdoors responsibly with sun protection and regular cancer screenings.

Autumn? Send the kids back to school with a solid skin-care regimen and acne prevention plan.

Winter? Get ready for holiday social events with cosmetic skin care and aesthetic procedures!

The other advantage to running seasonal promotions is that it creates a sense of FOMO – or “Fear of Missing Out”. Make it clear that these offers are limited and only come once a year.

Strategy #2: Giveaways

The giveaway is a classic way to get interested prospects into the clinic for an appointment. It can even turn low-interest individuals into loyal patients with enough effort.

Think about it: 

Plenty of people know they need to get a yearly skin check, but are either too busy or too turned off by the cost to make an appointment.

Making the skin check free and emphasizing the risk of skin cancer could be the nudge they need to book one.

The check may not find cancer, but that doesn’t mean it was pointless. Just talking to a dermatologist can get the patient interested in addressing their other skin complaints in the future.

The same works for cosmetic procedures.

Potential patients may be interested in Botox or other injectables, but afraid of the cost. Giving them a free consult, discount on their first treatment, or jar of face cream could ease their fears.

Don’t think that giveaways have to be something big & flashy, either. Dermatology clinics aren’t car dealerships.

We’ve seen success with all kinds of offers, big and small. The more related the giveaway is to the appointment or procedure booked, the better.

Strategy #3: Branded Video

Video has been the “next big thing” in marketing for a while, and with good reason: it gets (and holds) peoples’ attention better than any other medium.

Video works especially well for dermatology because it familiarizes people with your practice.

Producing some quality videos of doctors and staff interacting with patients or explaining common procedures can go a long way.

You can use them in ads, place them on your website, and use clips, stills, and audio from for years to come.

Unlike the other ideas, this one requires a bit of overhead, unless you happen to have a skilled in-house media team. But it’s worth the investment. Videos tend to attract attention and increase conversions everywhere they’re placed.

Strategy #4: Online Booking

The healthcare industry has long been reluctant to adopt online appointment-setting.

This is understandable, to an extent: online booking presents reliability and privacy concerns.

Thus, many offices cling to the old ways: patients must call during set hours to get an appointment.

Strategy #5: Use Social Proof

In the medical industry, trust is of the utmost importance.

Especially in dermatology: nobody wants to put their face in the hands of a stranger without checking references.

That’s where social proof comes in. Potential patients care a lot about what kinds of experiences previous patients have had.

Whether your clinic is on Facebook, Yelp, Google, Oladoc, Marham or other platforms, your biggest fans are your most valuable marketing.

Sprinkling honest testimonials into ads and landing pages is a simple way to show people that they can expect an exceptional experience with you.

Don’t have any testimonials?

Don’t be tempted to buy them. Just ask happy patients to leave reviews for you after their appointments, and remind them via email if you can.

Strategy #6: Highlight a Variety of Services

Most clinics offer a wide range of treatments, services and products to patients. To get the most out of your marketing, make sure you’re showing off everything you’ve got.

And make sure you’re showing each service to the right people.

For example, women over 40 might be interested in Botox, fillers, and topical anti-aging creams. Men in that age group may be more interested in PRP for hair loss on the scalp.

Younger audiences might want to see products and non-invasive treatments for acne and scars, while older audiences may want more dramatic cosmetic procedures to reduce signs of aging.

Know your strengths and show them to the right people, and your marketing will go much further. Relevance is always key when it comes to digital marketing.

Strategy #7: Mix Up Your Marketing

One of the core principles of good marketing is freshness.

An ad or piece of content may work really well for a while, but eventually everything grows stale. Especially when you’re sending the same offer to the same audience for months on end.

Avoid ad fatigue by switching out copy, creative, and offers on your campaigns regularly.

This can be as simple as testing a new ad image each month or as in-depth as re-thinking your entire offer.

Strategy #08: Retarget Web Traffic

People who end up on your website are there because they were looking for something.

If they leave without taking action, they may not have found what they were looking for, or they weren’t ready to book an appointment yet.

In any case, you can retarget web visitors on platforms like Google and Facebook to remind them. Retargeting means serving ads to people who visited your site to get them to take action.

If you get a lot of traffic on pages about skin cancer prevention, you can retarget those visitors with offers for skin cancer screenings.

Likewise, if you want to run an offer for acne treatment, you can retarget people who have been to acne-related pages on your site in the past 90 days.

If your site doesn’t quite get enough traffic for retargeting, Facebook allows you to create “Lookalike Audiences.” These audiences comprise users who share statistically-significant characteristics with people who have visited your website.

Pro: Lookalikes are more likely to convert than broad interest targeting, since Facebook’s knows more about users than you do.

Con: Lookalikes, unlike retargeted audiences, might not already know about you, so some trust-building will be necessary.

All It Takes is Good Ideas – And Execution

Ideas are a good starting point, but they only tell half the story. Implementing your ideas is even more important.

Facebook and Google, to take two examples, are complicated platforms. That’s why it pays dividends to have experts who can help you execute your ideas from day one.

Whether you’re just starting to get into digital marketing or looking for better results from your current efforts, implementing these ideas – with some help – goes a long way in growing your practice.