Starting a new business in aesthetics

5 dos and don’ts of starting a new business in aesthetics

For anyone starting a new business, it’s a heady and exciting time. But amidst all the excitement, there are important things to do – and things to avoid.

Here are our top 5 dos and don’ts when starting a new business in aesthetics.

Do:

  • 1. Learn the ropes by working in an aesthetic practice.

Working in a practice will help you learn the necessary processes before taking the plunge for yourself. Think of it as a risk-free crash course. Seeing it from the inside will also help you confirm that it’s really what you want to do.

  • 2. Live frugally and save money to start your business.

Starting your business on a healthy, debt-free financial footing will give you a sense of security and take some pressure off. Very helpful when you’re starting out and have so much else to think about.

  • 3. Talk to other people who work in the industry.

People who’ve been there are a great resource when you’re trying to find your feet. Network as much as you can –  in person at industry events, and online in forums and communities. People like to share their knowledge, so be interested in what they have to say.

  • 4. Innovate – adopt new technology, offer new products and treatments.

Once you’re up and running, don’t get complacent. If you want to maintain a competitive advantage, you’ll have to stay ahead of the game. Be bold, and keep introducing new treatments, technology and products you believe in.

  • 5. Build strong relationships with your suppliers.

Ultimately, you need other people to make your business a success. Relationships of all kinds are important when you’re starting a new business, so nurture your relationships with key suppliers. They’ll know a huge amount about the industry, and can be a great source of information and practical help when you’re starting out.

Don’t:

  • 1. Leave your job before you have a comprehensive business plan.

Before you jump, have a solid plan. Where will you be in five years? How will you get there? How will you measure your progress? The most successful businesses have a concrete medium-term plan and regularly check progress against key performance metrics.

  • 2. Risk all your assets – consider limiting your liabilities.

Trading as a Limited company gives you the peace of mind of knowing you won’t lose your house if your company hits financial difficulties. There are trade-offs – having to submit company accounts being one of them – but you may decide the added security is worth it.

  • 3. “Race to the bottom” when it comes to price.

If you can help it, don’t make price your main selling point. You want to build a loyal client base, not patients who only choose you because you’re the cheapest. It’s not ideal for your bottom line, nor for building a brand. So think instead of adding value for your patients. Give them a great experience and results that they feel are well worth the money they paid.

  • 4. Overlook the negative aspects of running a business.

There are great rewards in starting a new business, but there are also sacrifices. Your best guarantee of success is to go into business with your eyes open. Think about all the negatives – write a list if it helps – so you’re better prepared for whatever comes your way, and can be more resilient in the face of the inevitable challenges.

  • 5. Rely on too few loyal customers – diversify.

While you want to build a loyal client base, you always want to be growing it so you aren’t reliant on a core of people. People’s circumstances change, so you can’t take a healthy client list for granted. There’s no guarantee they’ll keep coming back to you, so be proactive about attracting new patients.

Starting an Aesthetic Business? Find out more

If you’re thinking about starting an Aesthetic Business, you’ll want as much support as possible. At Cosmetic Courses, we’ve helped thousands of medical professionals make the transition to aesthetics – and our support doesn’t end with your training. Our ongoing support network will give you all the tools you need to make a success of your aesthetic business.

For information on our aesthetic training or advice on starting a new business, give our team a call on 01844 318317 or email [email protected].

Find out more about delegate’s most frequently asked questions on Aesthetic Training in our Aesthetics Knowledge Hub.

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Run your own business? Here’s how the Budget will affect you

Cosmetic Courses: The Budget 2015 - How to run your business...

The Chancellor has just delivered his first Budget of this government – and as usual, some will benefit and others lose out. But if you run your own business, how will you be affected by his red box revelations?

Essentially, how the Budget is likely to affect you depends on how your business is structured, and how established you are.

By and large, this Budget focused on two kinds of business – very large companies and successful smaller businesses that are ready to grow.

Some commentators were disappointed by the lack of new incentives for entrepreneurs looking to launch solo start-up businesses. But if you already run your own business and are doing well, there are measures that may help you. 

Let’s take a look at some of the major announcements and what they could mean for you.

Tax

The Chancellor announced the rate of corporation tax would fall from its current 20% to 19% in 2017, and then further still to 18% in 2020 – giving the UK the lowest corporation tax rate in the G20.

Great news if you run your own business – but only under certain circumstances.

If you’re a limited company making significant profits, you’re likely to benefit from the drop in corporation tax. But if you’re a sole trader or partnership, a start-up or small limited company that only generates a marginal profit, the change probably won’t affect you.

Other new tax measures may make life easier, and save you time – if not money!  

The Office for Tax Simplification has been given more powers to cut red tape, and will be putting forward its recommendations for a reformed tax system as part of the 2016 Finance Bill.

And the dreaded tax return, having already been moved online, will see further digitisation over the next few years. 

Employees

If you run your own business, you may already have, or be looking to take on, members of staff.

The National Living Wage will come into effect in April 2016, requiring all employees to be paid a new minimum wage of £7.20 per hour, rising to £9 per hour by 2020. 

This will mainly impact small businesses with a significant number of employees earning the minimum wage. But if that applies to you, there’s also a measure that will help offset your increased wage bill. 

The national insurance employment allowance will be raised by 50%, from £2,000 to £3,000. Only you and your accountant will know whether this completely offsets the impact of the increased minimum wage on your business, but every little helps.

Investment

One of the most crucial allowances when you run your own business and are looking to grow is the Annual Investment Allowance – and there’s good and bad news on that front.

The allowance lets small and medium-sized firms make tax-deductible investments in equipment and machinery to help fuel their growth.

It currently stands at £500,000, but was set to be cut to just £25,000 from 1st January 2016 – though many were calling for an increase on the £500,000.

Mr Osborne has decided the new allowance will be £200,000. So, not cut as much as it was going to be, but still by a significant amount.

Finance

Another important area if you run your own business and are looking to grow is access to finance. And two new measures announced by the Chancellor will make it much easier to secure business loans.

First, the UK’s major banks will have to share credit information on small businesses with other lenders, and must share details of firms they reject for finance with online platforms that can pair them up with other finance providers.

In addition, the British Business Bank will look to increase and diversify the supply of finance available – with plans to make £10bn available by 2019.

So there you have it. Not quite as exciting for business as it could have been, but some incentives nonetheless. Perhaps the biggest incentive of all being that to benefit from many of the measures, your business needs to grow! 

Looking to run your own business?

Cosmetic Courses offer expert training for medical professionals looking to enter the aesthetics industry. Our ongoing support network provides comprehensive advice and resources to help you set up and run your own business. For information on our aesthetic training courses, please contact the team on 01844 318317 or email [email protected].

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Top 10 tips for marketing your aesthetic business

If you’re thinking about making the leap and setting up an aesthetic business for yourself, it’s important to consider how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Here are 10 key steps that, if you do them well, will help your aesthetic business stand out from the crowd.

1. Optimise your website

Your website will often be the first point of contact prospective clients have with you. In this regard, it’s  your ‘shop window’, and a reflection of your business. Think about the impression you want people to have about your business. Distil it down to a few key adjectives that you’d like to define you – knowledgeable, competent, professional, friendly, helpful, etc – and make sure your website is all those things.

2. Make the most of social media

Whether you’re a fan or not, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, etc are great tools for building a personality for your brand. Posting regular and relevant content is great way to keep in contact with your clients, and encouraging them to share and interact with your posts is a great way to broaden your reach – and potentially find new clients.

3. List in directories

Well-written directory listings that really showcase your business, and make it easy for people to contact you, are a must. Make sure your business is listed in all the most important directories, including the generic (Yellow Pages, etc), but also any good industry-specific directories you can find.

4. Consider joint ventures

Think about which kinds of companies may be open to opportunities to work together, and make contact with them. For an aesthetic business, companies that work within the beauty industry but offer different treatments are a great place to start (nail bars, hairdressers, etc). Organising joint events or having reciprocal offers for your respective clients are two simple ideas you can both benefit from.

5. Create extra special offers

Everybody likes to feel they’re getting a good deal, but it’s easy for people to feel jaded by the same old 10% off deals. Create unique and irresistible promotions – perhaps taking the opportunity to introduce people to a treatment they haven’t had before – and market them wherever you can.

6. Advertise wisely

Whether sticking to local printed publications or investing in online and other media, make your message count. People are bombarded by advertising all day, every day, so make yours memorable! Striking imagery goes a long way in print, so if you can afford to use a great designer it should be well worth the investment. Consider including a special offer code so you can track the advert’s success.

7. Encourage referrals

This is something that many of your less marketing-savvy competitors may not consider. Think of some great ways you can incentivise your happy clients so they have even more reason to recommend you to people they know.

8. Use emails

Maintaining an up-to-date client mailing list is free, yet extremely valuable for your business. Sending out regular updates and offers by email (but not so often that people unsubscribe – around once every two weeks is a good guide) is a great way to stay in touch with your clients and let them know about any new treatments they may be interested in.

9. Embrace blogging

Posting weekly content on your own website not only lets Google know your site is being regularly updated, but also provides plenty more information to help the Google bots when it comes to ranking your site for relevant search terms. Blogs are a great way to easily add new content, and if you can, try and make yours so interesting that people feel compelled to share them!

10. Post in forums/information sites

Creating profiles and making regular useful contributions to aesthetic forums and information sites is a great way to build your credibility as an aesthetic professional, and boost the reputation of your aesthetic business.

 

Find out more

The Aesthetics Knowledge Hub is a great place for you to find answers to frequently asked questions. We recommend having a look at the Business and Marketing Knowledge Hub. Here you will find out key information on the aesthetic industry.

 

Aesthetics Knowledge Hub Slide

How We Support Delegates

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Find more clients with a FREE listing on our Skin Clinic Finder

At Cosmetic Courses, our relationship with our course delegates doesn’t end when their training does. We believe in supporting all our delegates as they embark on the exciting journey of carving out a successful career in the field of aesthetics. From the practicalities of setting up in business, to furthering your repertoire of treatments, to finding and growing your client base, we’ve a comprehensive support network in place that means once you train with us, we’re there to help you every step of the way.

Although the quality of our aesthetic training has traditionally been our strong suit, we’ve listened to your feedback about wanting more help on the marketing side, and have responded by creating a new sister website to help you.

What’s the NCN – and how can it help you?

The NCN Homepage

The National Cosmetic Network (TheNCN.co.uk) is a specialist clinic finder website that allows people to find and compare reputable aesthetic clinics close to them.

Our aim with the site is twofold – to give patients an easy way to find the most qualified, reputable practitioners in their area, and to help practitioners of a high standard to increase their client base.

The website shares information on non-surgical treatments, from the most established skin treatments, anti-wrinkle injections and facial fillers, to treatments for excessive sweating and thread veins, as well as innovative treatments like PRP Therapy.

A search function then lets people find quality clinics in their local area that offer the treatments. So a well-written listing that showcases your credentials could attract plenty of new clients to you.

How to get your FREE listing on the NCN

To make sure only clinics with the highest professional standards are listed on the site, and safeguard people seeking treatment, only clinics we personally approve make it onto the NCN.

And because every practitioner who has completed training with us has demonstrated they meet the required standard, we give all Cosmetic Courses delegates a free 6-month listing on the NCN for the treatments they have trained in.

When you complete any course from our varied programme, you will automatically be given a free listing on the site to help your potential patients find you.

Please feel free to take a look at the NCN website, and let us know what you think on our Facebook page. If you’d like any more information on the NCN, or any of our training courses, please get in touch with the team on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Aesthetic Marketing Basics – a checklist for success

Before deciding to start your own business it’s essential to conduct some market research to inform and direct your business strategy. Here we share our AestheticAesthetic Marketing Marketing advice in kick starting your campaign!

  • Who are your competitors and what do they offer?
  • Where will your business fit alongside them and how can you differentiate?
  • Who are your customers?
  • Think about where they live and what their lifestyles are like to establish how best to interact and communicate with them.
  • What marketing budget do you have and which skills and resources can you make use of?

Get noticed -Aesthetic Marketing

  • Build a website – it’s your shop window and essential for people finding you online. Ensure you include keywords to ensure you rank well and can be easily found online.
  • Create online social profiles – create a business Facebook page initially then progress to Twitter and Google+. Incentivise potential customers to interact and share and keep content relevant and regular.
  • Listings – make sure your business and contact details are listed on all the top directories, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yellow Pages etc.
  • Joint ventures – establish links with other businesses and offer reciprocal offers, e.g. hairdressers. This will enable you to share customer data and arrange joint events.

Get business

  • Make your offer appealing – tell people what you want them to do. This could be an offer or just how to contact you and why to choose you over other businesses.
  • Promote your business – consider paid-for advertising in local printed publications or trying online search terms. It’s best to use a specific offer to track success.
  • Referrals – make customers happy and they will talk to others, so incentivise referrals with special offers.

Keep business

  • Email campaigns – send your current customers regular updates and offers, no more than once a fortnight, and ask them to forward to friends and family.
  • Social media – encourage reviews and sharing to build reach, use photos and testimonials to reflect the quality of service you are offering.
  • Blogging – add a blog to your website if you have one or start one on Google blogger. This will help with finding you online and also give customers a personal buy-in to you.

Find out more about our aesthetic courses available to medical professionals here.

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Marketing Your Cosmetic Business Online Part 5: SEO & Rankings

Search Engine Optimisation for the Medical Aesthetics Industry

SEO is a shadowy art and many of the people selling it can be likened to the double glazing salesmen of old. Because most of us only know a little about it but know how important high Google rankings can be, we are vulnerable to unscrupulous practices.

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Essentially, SEO is the practice of getting your website up the natural or organic rankings on the search engines; most importantly Google. In technical terms, SEO is made up of: content, keywords and social media.

Organic vs Paid Search

The organic rankings are the main results you see in the body of the results page when you do a search on Google. The two or three results you see in the yellow box above these and in the column on the right are directly paid for by companies by a method called Pay Per Click. This is essentially an auction held by Google with the company prepared to pay more each time someone clicks on their advert appearing higher in the list. Pay per click advertising is the main income generator for Google and is what makes them into a billion dollar company.

Every time you click on one of these adverts the company is paying a certain amount. This can vary from upwards of £10 for some very competitive industries like insurance to pennies for long tail search phrases. Long tail key phrases are very specific phrases which have low search volume but which are very specific to you. Hence they are probably not worth anyone else bidding for and will be of very low cost whilst being highly specific.

Of all the searches performed on Google approximately 15-20% are via PPC- the rest are via the organic listings as many people find these are more trustworthy that the paid for results.

How do you get your website to appear higher in Google searches?

This is the million dollar question and one that SEO “experts” may bamboozle you with information on. Essentially it boils down to 3 factors:

  • On-page optimization
  • Inbound and Outbound links
  • Freshness of content

Each of these topics would merit a book in their own right! But essentially…

On-page Optimisation – SEO

on page optimization is how well Google can access your site and tell what it is about. Google wants to provide the best, most relevant search results to people doing a search on it. Providing the most appropriate search result is the bedrock of Google success and the reason why it has become the most commonly used search engine out of all the ones that existed 10 years ago.

Google need to understand what your site is about so it can list it in the appropriate search. Your on page optimization should provide Google with this information. This is done by using the search terms you want to rank for in the title of your website, the titles of each page, in the descriptions of each page and in the text on each page. The repeated use of your selected search term should not be overdone as this can result in clumsy copy which is not easy for the user to read and understand

Link Building for SEO

Links are the number of times other websites provide a link to your website from theirs, or you link to them. It is better if they include a link like ‘watch a video of inverted nipple correction’ with the underlined text being the link. This is known as anchor text and the words that you choose to underline and show up when you hover over that underlined section are very important: you can directly influence your rankings for those chosen terms with selective links to and from respected pages.

Google sees a link to your website as a vote of confidence in your website- if other people are mentioning it must be good. The text contained in the link is called the anchor text. This tells people what the vote is for. Therefore the above link tells Google that my site is good and that it contains information about inverted nipple surgery.

Provided your on-page optimization is good, the main factor in rising up the rankings on Google is the number of links you have compared to other sites.

Fresh Content

Recently Google has begun measuring the freshness of the content held on a website by rewarding sites that change regularly and include new content with higher rankings. This is because Google tries to serve the most relevant results to their users. If a website has not been changed for months it is not going to be providing up to date information and will be marked down in the rankings.

If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected]

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Google Analytics | Marketing Your Cosmetic Business Online Part 4

Using Google Analytics to Monitor Success

Whatever the size of your website, I would recommend that you or your web company install Google Analytics to monitor it.  This is a free service from Google which measures the amount of people who visit your website, the entry paths that they choose to take to get there and the activities they pursue whilst on your site.

You can install Google Analytics by inserting a small amount of code in the background of the website; all web developers should offer this.  You can then choose to receive regular reports – most people do this weekly – about the use and performance of your site.

The amount of information offered from Google Analytics is staggering and you could spend your life analyzing it.  In fact many people do just this and website analytics is a profession in itself and large online companies such as Amazon employ hundreds of people analyzing each aspect of their websites performance.

What to use Google Analytics for

The main information you need from Google Analytics is:

  •  the number of unique visitors coming to your site
  • the most common pages
  • the bounce rate
  • the search terms that people are using to find you

Hits vs Visits

Many web companies will try to impress you with the number of “hits” you are getting to your site.  The number of hits is not the same as the number of people who visited your site.  Hits are the number of times the server which hosts your website is asked for items.  This may be a photo, text or something else.  This means that if one person looks at lots of pages they will be creating many hits.

Likewise, should you count one person who visits your site multiple times each time they go in?  You or your team will probably look at your website many times over a month and you should only be counted once.  This is why the metric to track is unique visitors.  This is the amount of different individuals you have looked at your site during the specified period.

For most websites the most commonly visited page is the home page, from there however where to do people go?  This gives you and indication of which topics they are interested in.  You should use this information to show you what your users are most interested in.  Focus on improving the most popular rather than the least used pages.

The Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the number of people who looked at a page and went no further through the site.  Essentially people who left your site for whatever reason.  It is good for some pages to have a high bounce rate but bad for others.

For example if the page is the fill out an enquiry section you would hope the user fills this in and exits the site- hence a high bounce rate is acceptable.  However it is not good to have a high bounce rate on your home page.  This means that people are looking at what you have to offer and choosing not to leave your site.  If this is the case you need to look carefully at your home page.

Keyword Reports

Finally look at the report in Google Analytics on the words people use to find your site.  Are they the words you would expect people to be using and is the number of words used increasing month on month?  An increasing amount of words is a good sign that Google is increasingly recognizing your site.

Google analytics is an incredibly powerful free tool that allows you to see how your website is performing in minute detail- the amount of data that it can give you is immense.  However don’t get bogged down and concentrate on the main factors discussed above.

In our next Marketing Your Business Online Blog…SEO & Ranking! If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected]

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Marketing Your Cosmetic Business Online Part 3: Creating A Website

Creating a Winning Website

Once you have achieved the first stage- you own and have registered your chosen domain name with your details – you now need to create a winning website on that domain.

There are a myriad of options here, ranging from employing a web company to design a website for you, to building it yourself.  The best option depends on what you want the website for and your budget.  The most expensive option is not, however, necessarily the best.

WordPress

  • I would recommend www.wordpress.co.uk as a good place to start.
  • WordPress is an “open source program” – free and maintained by enthusiasts rather than a single company
  • WordPress was actually started as a blogging platform but, over time, people have used it more and more to build websites
  • WordPress is easy to learn and use
  • Sites built in Wordpress tend to perform very well in Google searches

Beware, however, because external web companies you hire may not be very keen for you to develop sites based on WordPress:  building your site on this platform gives your company and employees a lot of independence to edit your site without a great deal of technical knowledge. Web Design companies would obviously prefer you to need them to administer and maintain your site so they will probably try to talk you into using more complicated platforms than WordPress. Crafty Web Companies!

There are a large number of WordPress themes  available.  These are essentially different designs of blank websites into which you drop your content, text, photos and videos.  Most of the designs are free but some of them may cost a small amount.  In general they look great- very clean and modern – and increasingly many of the sites you see on the web are designed in WordPress without you even realizing it.

Overall, if you like technology and have the time, I would advise you to look at WordPress.  If technology terrifies you or you simply do not have time to spare from the day-to-day running of your business, perhaps it might be best to look for a Web Design company to create your website for you.

Choosing a Web Design Company

Contrary to popular belief, websites do not need to be expensive. I would recommend that you create a brief detailing exactly what you want from your site and get quotes from at least three different Web Design companies.

TIP: Where possible, it is often best to use a local company because building and maintaining a website requires a lot of communication which may be best performed personally rather than on the phone.

In your website specification you will need to let them know how large you would like the website to be (how many pages) and what content you want on the pages.  It is possible to include text, photos, audio and video.

Generally web companies are happier to create a website that you have provided  content for.  You have the expertise and will know the topic better than them. This unfortunately means that in most cases you will need to provide all the content for the website yourself. This will either require allocating time from yourself or employing a copywriter.

Plan Your Resources

It is important to think about what you have time to create before approaching a website company.  A bit like planning an extension to your house and employing a builder- it is best to have thought things through and come up with a plan before hand rather than making it up as you go along.

Remember that a website is an evolving creation.  It should be updated regularly with new content which is often done via a Blog (the quickest, easiest and most current method).  Google actively encourages websites to regularly add new content and actively penalizes the rankings of companies which do not do so.

Creating a Winning Website

Once you have achieved the first stage- you own and have registered your chose domain name with your details – you now need to create a winning website on that domain.

There are a myriad of options here, ranging from employing a web company to design a website for you, to building it yourself.  The best option depends on what you want the website for and your budget.  The most expensive option is not, however, necessarily the best.

I would recommend www.wordpress.co.uk as a good place to start.  WordPress is an “open source program”. This means that it is free and maintained by enthusiasts rather than a single company.  WordPress was actually started as a blogging platform but, over time, people have used it more and more to build websites.

The advantages of WordPress are that it is free and easy to learn and use and sites built in it tend to perform very well in Google searches.  Beware, however, because web companies may not be very keen for you to develop sites based on WordPress:  building your site on this platform gives your company and employees a lot of independence to edit your site without a great deal of technical knowledge. Web Design companies would obviously prefer you to need them to administer and maintain your site so they will probably try to talk you into using more complicated platforms than WordPress.

There are a large number of WordPress themes  available.  These are essentially different designs of blank websites into which you drop your content, text, photos and videos.  Most of the designs are free but some of them may cost a small amount.  In general they look great- very clean and modern – and increasingly many of the sites you see on the web are designed in WordPress without you even realizing it.

Overall, if you like technology and have the time, I would advise you to look at WordPress.  If technology terrifies you or you simply do not have time to spare from the day-to-day running of your business, perhaps it might be best to look for a Web Design company to create your website for you.

Choosing a Web Design Company

Contrary to popular belief, websites do not need to be expensive. I would recommend that you create a brief detailing exactly what you want from your site and get quotes from at least three different Web Design companies.  Where possible, I feel it is best to use a local company as building and maintaining a website requires a lot of communication which may be best performed personally rather than on the phone.

In your website specification you will need to let them know how large you would like the website to be (how many pages) and what content you want on the pages.  It is possible to include text, photos, audio and video.  Generally web companies are happier to create a website that you have provided  content for.  You have the expertise and will know the topic better than them.

This unfortunately means that in most cases you will need to provide all the content for the website yourself. This will either require allocating time from yourself or employing a copywriter.

It is important to think about what you have time to create before approaching a website company.  A bit like planning an extension to your house and employing a builder- it is best to have thought things through and come up with a plan before hand rather than making it up as you go along.

Remember that a website is an evolving creation. It should be updated regularly with new content which is often done via a Blog (the quickest, easiest and most current method). Google actively encourages websites to regularly add new content and actively penalizes the rankings of companies which do not do so.

In our next Marketing Your Business Online Blog…Tracking Success! If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected]

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Marketing Your Cosmetic Business Online Part 2: Claim Your Domain

Claim Your Cyber Territory – Marketing

The second stage in our medical aesthetic business marketing blog series is to look at domain registration.

A domain name is the name of a website: cosmeticcourses.co.uk , for instance, is our teaching and training company. This is also known as the URL (uniform resource locator). Mr. Adrian Richards of Cosmetic Courses owns adrianrichards.com. But who owns variations of this, such as adrianrichards.co.uk? He tried to buy this some years ago but it was already taken by a professional person from Shropshire! Whilst researching this article, he looked it up again and this person has not renewed the registration so we have added it to our portfolio.

This is an activity you should consider performing at regular intervals to ensure that competitors are not gaining traffic for terms related to your business.

Buying Domain Names – Marketing

It can cost from under £10 a year to buy yourname.co.uk. To find out if your name is available, simply search for domain registration companies on Google and a search bar will appear. Type in your name and select .co.uk and you will see if it is available. Generally most of the more common names are taken but if you are called something unusual you may well find that it is available.

In recent years, more and more people have become aware of the value of URL’s and it is very rare to find any one or even two word combinations left. Some investment and pension schemes are even starting to value URL’s as a valuable asset which are increasing in value and are adding these to their portfolios.

You will see that there are many variations of domain endings available. (.com .biz .edu etc.) Names ending in .coms are the most popular and therefore most expensive as they are not county specific. Amazon.com for instance is the international version of Amazon, whereas Amazon.co.uk is the UK branch. If you live and work in the UK, we would advise you to buy the .co.uk version as it is likely to appear higher in searches performed within the UK.

What Happens Once You Have Bought Your Domain?

Once you have purchased your domain name, it will be registered to you and if you have entered your card details and selected the automatic renew it can be yours for as long as you want.

Once you have your domain name or names, you need to make sure they are registered to you at your address- this way you have control over them. A favorite ruse of many web design firms is for you and them to choose the name of a website and they then register it in their name. This means that technically you may not own it although you have paid for the website. In most cases this is fine but if you ever want transfer your website or have it re-designed by another company the fact that you do not own the domain may come as an unpleasant surprise.

Many astute people realized the power of domain names in the early days of internet marketing and registered lots of them for under £10. They are now worth many times this; just recently I received an offer to buy plasticsurgeon.co.uk for a figure over £10,000. Is it worth it? Why would I want it? The main reason is that URL’s containing an exact match for the term a user enters into Google are more likely to appear higher in a Google search. If I search for ‘plastic surgeon’ in Google (all other factors being equal) plasticsurgeon.co.uk will appear higher than adrianrichards.co.uk.

There is a group of experts who scour the market for high value lapsed domain names. This means that if either a large company or individual fail to re-register their domain name, after a period of time the domain is released to the first person to buy at the normal rate of under £10. This way it is possible to obtain a valuable asset for a minimal cost.

In our next Marketing Your Business Online Blog…Creating A Winning Website! If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 01844 390110 or [email protected]

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Marketing your Cosmetic Business Online Part 1: Harnessing Google

Have you ever Googled yourself?

Who owns your-name.co.uk?  If no one does…should you?

If you have never considered these questions, now is the time to start.

Search engines already know a lot about you. Google in particular is by far the largest, used for over 70% of searches in the UK. If your picture has appeared electronically on any hospital website, it is likely that Google will have seen it.  Enter your name into a Google search and select ‘images’ from the left column.  You may see yourself: at the very least, it is always interesting to see what people with the same name as you look like and do for a living!

Google has recently created Google profiles. You can search for this by typing ‘profiles’ into the Google search bar.  Here you may find information about yourself which you may not have been aware is there.  You can claim your profile and fill out the relevant details including photos and CV.  This way you can make sure that Google has the correct information on you for viewing around the globe.

What Can Your Patients Learn About You Online?

Increasingly, patients and relatives of patients are using search engines to research you.  Would you want the family of a patient you are caring for to see you letting your hair down on your Facebook profile?  Do you want them knowing personal information about you such as your relationship status?

As a medical professional should you even be on Facebook?  You can change the settings on Facebook to make your details more private.  The default setting for Facebook is not particularly private and your information can be widely viewed.  If you have got a Facebook page, therefore, we would strongly suggest that you look at the security settings.

We would also recommend (if you have not already done so) that you research what Google and the other search engines already know about you.  Change and correct anything that is incorrect and try and limit access to accurate information that you would like to be kept more private.

Never Underestimate the Power of Google

The position in which you appear on a Google search is of crucial importance.

  • Over 80% of people click on the first 3 results in Google
  • The majority only ever click the first result
  • This leaves only approximately 20% of your potential online business looking at the results lower down the page
  • Some people are not even aware of more than 1 page of results on Google!

If you are trying to get people to your site rather than a competitors’, your position on Google is therefore vital; if you can be in first rather than second position you can expect twice the about of traffic, enquiries and hopefully business.

Your business should aim to appear on page 1 of Google, preferably as near to the top of the page as possible.  If you do not appear here or your position drops unexpectedly, this can have very negative effects on your business.

In our next Marketing Your Business Online Blog…Claiming your Territory Online! If you are interested in more in-depth business marketing training for the medical aesthetics industry, Cosmetic Courses are experts in providing this. Call us today on 0845 230 4110 or [email protected]

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