There has been quite a buzz around aesthetic and beauty influencers on Instagram in the past couple of years. It is a very popular topic whenever we discuss social media marketing tactics with our partners and clients. As a leading lasers and medical aesthetic devices developer, it is important for us at Alma to be in the know of such matters. When we sell a laser or other energy-based medical or surgical aesthetic platform we strive to offer more than just technical or clinical support. We offer our business and marketing tips and support as well.
Many doctors and aesthetic clinics approach us weekly with questions about best practices on social media and digital marketing. We follow many on social media and especially on Instagram to be able to analyse and share what are the most successful tactics they can use to attract new potential patients to their practice. It is no secret that most small and up and coming businesses find it hard to invest regularly in proven yet expensive marketing channels. Sponsored ads on Google adwords or advanced SEO (search engine optimization) are usually performed by expert agencies (or highly trained freelancers) that charge quite a high monthly premium for their services in addition to the media budget that has to be put in the campaigns.
Providing answers to your questions about social media marketing
We try our best to offer solutions and advice that can also bring results organically, using the assets and basic skills the clinic owner and employees have. However, when a business wants to grow and take a leap forward, it is usually required to make a calculated investment in marketing. We’ve found that working with an Instagram influencer is a great way as it’s usually a one-time investment (compared to ongoing sponsored campaigns). Additionally, since it is confined in a short time frame and perhaps only 1-3 posts it’s easier for the beauty clinic to measure the impact and ROI from this type of promotion.
Between September 12-15th we’ll be at the Sheraton resort in Rhodes, Greece for the first ever Alma academy. As part of the agenda, we will hold a special social media lab, inviting aesthetic doctors for a one-on-one consultation meeting with our digital marketing team experts. in a survey we’ve sent out prior to the academy over 75% of clinic owners stated that they’d like to learn more about beauty influencers on Instagram and how to collaborate with them.
What kinds of Instagram influencers are there?
Instagram influencers can be categorized by amount of followers they have and also by content type. Content type can be a consideration when you’re looking for someone to appeal to a specific or niche audience. Main types are – the celebrity icon, the adventurer, the instructor, lifestyle guru, creative star and the entertainer. When looking at followers count we have:
- Macro-influencers – with over 200,000 followers on their Instagram profile.
- Power-middle influencers – 25,000-200,000 followers.
- Micro-influencers – 25,000 followers or less.
You can also view a list of leading social media influencers by industry on hubspot.
When it comes to calculating the fee for an influencer, there is no rule but multiple sources sight this formula as being the most common – 100$ per 10,000 followers. So, for example someone with 100k followers might charge 1,000$ for a post. Of course there are other factors that come in to play and you are always welcome to haggle. Most influencers these days have a ready press kit that breaks down all available packages and options. These include number of posts, type of media (photo or video) etc.
How to find the right Instagram influencers for your practice?
The influencers’ followers count is also important for another reason. As mentioned before, you can use it as a base calculation for the fee they might charge for posting or sharing content about your services or clinic. Additionally, it can help you to calculate the average engagement rate these influencers get on their posts. Why is it important? When you choose to work with an Instagram influencer, you are mostly counting on their ability to organically reach a large number of people thanks to their large number of followers, but not only! You are also counting on their ability to create engagement (interest and affiliation that can be expressed through comments, likes and visits to your profile) on their posts.
You can calculate engagement rate of a post the following way. Add up all engagements of the post – comments, likes, shares (on Facebook) etc. Then divide this sum by the number of followers of the profile that posted it and multiply the result by 100. The average engagement rate per post on Instagram is 2%. Therefor, if an influencer you were considering has lower average engagement rate that’s not a good sign and you should perhaps move on to the next candidate.
Importance of relevancy
Last but not least you should also try to identify an Instagram influencer that has some affiliation to the benefits of the treatment or service you’d like to promote. E.g if you are promoting the Soprano laser hair removal treatment you can choose a tanned or dark skinned influencer. That is, if you know for sure there is a potential client base that shares these attributes with the influencer. We’re not recommending you to make this decision based on race. We’re simply adhering to the fact that the Soprano laser treatment is considered to be very safe for tanned skin. Moreover, you can perform this treatment even during the summer, so there’s another story the audience can relate too. Another example can be a fitness guru promoting body contouring treatments, a teenage influencer promoting Clearskin acne laser treatment and more.
If you regularly follow local beauty influencers (a large city will have a few of those) and are active on social media you will find it not so hard to compile a list of candidates.
Aesthetic practices should focus first on micro-influencers
We believe so because if you’re a single practice you are mostly looking to draw people from nearby. If you are a nation wide chain of clinics that’s a different story. Micro-influencers will be usually easier too approach as most don’t have an agent or other middleman representing them. Choosing to work with a macro-influencer might increase your followers count and gain your practice major exposure but it will not necessarily generate more actual relevant patient leads. So the high cost of that might not be justified.
On the other hand, many micro-influencers – bloggers, up and coming models etc. will not even charge you for the posts. They might be happy to get a free treatment (or package of treatments) in return for their services. These are obviously equivalent to money but are probably easier for clinic owners to invest rather than capital. Be sure to inquire about this possibility gently, not all will agree to this kind of arrangement.
Important! Don’t be blinded by followers count – there are some “fake Instagram influencers” out there who achieve those high numbers by using bots and shady external services (banned by Facebook and Instagram). They try to take advantage of businesses who are not alert enough and not research the background of these profiles. You should always ask for references and recommendations from past collaborators and dive into the engagement on the posts they’ve published.
Planning the Instagram influencers posts’ and campaign
You will discover that many beauty influencers are experienced enough to come up with the right content ideas themselves. However, it’s best if you prepare yourself for the task. Your plan can be simple and short and should include:
- The topic – what specific service are you trying to promote? do you have a special offer to present?
- Type of post – Photo, Carousel (multiple photos that allow you to display more than one treatment), video, story photo/s or video/s, IGTV (long video) and more.
- The creative of the post – should be designed to meet the attributes of the targeted audience. if they are woman in their 40’s looking to improve skin quality, the setting should be appealing for them. Classy, relaxing, high-end etc. if it’s a younger audience a more vibrant and less formal design/setting can be used.
- Advanced tactics like first creating a teaser story (with a question or problem shared by the influencer) and then solving it with the treatment post etc. prove to be highly engaging. Also using polls inside the Instagram story or have the influencer offer giveaways can be a great way to raise engagement.
That being said, please keep in mind it is in your best interest to allow the influencer some creative freedom. They know their audience best, and the more comfortable they are the higher is your chance for great responses for their posts.
Don’t forget the basics!
All posts (whether feed post or story) must include a @mention of your profile, location and relevant hashtags. You should also make sure the influencer agrees to answer his or her followers questions and inquiries regarding your services and refer them to your profile.
Examples of successful Instagram influencer campaigns by our clients and partners
Just last week, we’ve witnessed a creative and extremely effective strategy in collaboration with an Instagram influencer. Dr. Naomi Sharon, of “Haclinika” in Israel executed to perfection a promotion along with teenage influencer @pinkgirliav (Liav Peleg). Dr. Sharon specializes in the treatment of Acne. Consequently, Liav’s 62.3k followers on Instagram are mostly teenagers that have a strong relation to the topic. Therefor, they came up with an idea to have an Instagram live broadcast from the clinic – where Dr. Sharon will be answering questions and giving some advice to Liav’s followers.
But that’s not all. Dr. Sharon was also attending our Alma academy the same week in Rhodes. Once we at Alma announced we’ll be holding an Instagram hashtag contest for the academy participants, #almaacademy19, Dr. Sharon, along with Liav, came up with the brilliant idea to address Liav’s audience via stories etc and ask them to “like” Dr. Sharon’s post from the academy to help her win the contest. The result was over 30,000 likes! No boosting, no “buy likes” bots whatsoever. All organic engagement. This shows the strong relationship Liav has with her followers – her ability to mobilize them into action. To give them extra motivation and to show their appreciation, Liav and Dr. Sharon announced they will draw 3 luxurious Christina-Cosmeceuticals packages for Liav’s followers. This is a great 360° example of an impromptu collaboration that includes:
- Choosing the right influencer
- Making sure they have the right audience
- Focusing on the right content
- Preparing special giveaways
- Setting specific and attainable goals
Here’s @pinkgirliav’s with Dr. Sharon announcing the winners of the giveaways.
Working with multiple influencers on a large scale campaign
Another great example of a recent Instagram influencers campaign was in Israel. Our subsidiary, Medical Nova (Alma Israel), with the support of Andromedia marketing agency planned and launched this campaign. The goal was raising awareness to the Soprano Titanium laser hair removal treatment. This campaign featured 19 different Instagram influencers and generated over 500,000 impressions. We also measured an increase of 400% in Instagram profile views for our local subsidiary. Obviously this was a nation wide campaign however it can work quite well on smaller scales.
Have further questions about social media marketing for your aesthetic clinic?
We use many online resources for the research of this topic, as well as our personal experience working with numerous beauty clinics and aesthetic doctors around the world. If you’d like some more details and recommendations feel free to contact our team! We always like to hear from the people who use our technology and help them grow. You can submit your inquiry here or write to [email protected]
***Important notice***
Lately, we’ve learned that Instagram has been experimenting with removing the visible likes count on posts in Seven countries. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. This undoubtedly might effect Instagram influencers in these countries in certain ways that are still difficult to predict. we believe it might be in favor of local businesses negotiating with these influencers as they lack the leverage of boasting their engagement levels etc. On the other hand, it might make the process of selecting the right influencer a bit harder and you’ll need to rely more on instincts rather than stats. Stay tuned for updates on this subject!
