With the cryotherapy industry still on the rise, finding the right tools to market your business is more important than ever and social media can be one of the best tools to assist you with this! The usage of social media around the world is ever-increasing. It's without a doubt one of the most popular online activities that users engage in, with statistics showing over 70 percent of the U.S. population holding a social media account! There is obviously so much potential when using social media for your cryotherapy business, but the key to getting the most out of it will of course depend on how it is used. Believe it or not, there is a method to this madness and there are a few tips and tricks out there that can really boost your efforts when it comes to social media marketing.
Finding the right platform for your business:
If it is used correctly, Social Media can potentially be one of your leading drivers of Sales! The first step in creating your social media presence is figuring out what platform will work best for your cryotherapy business and brand. For example; Twitter is becoming more news orientated and losing popularity so it may not be the best place to interact with your followers, whereas Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok have high engagement rates and could be a more appropriate medium to update and entertain your customers/leads through. It is also important to note that the more presence you have the better and will most likely mean you will need to have an account on multiple platforms. This can feel like a lot to manage day to day but there are some resources available to help. For example combining your Facebook with Instagram can be a method of efficiently staying on top of your postings, as you can condense posting and make the task less time consuming. Posting the same content from your Instagram account to Facebook is standard and will give your brand consistency and presence it needs to grow.
Use what they give you
Don’t be afraid to try the newest & trendiest Social Media platforms and features! Cryotherapy can also be considered “new and trendy” so it would make sense for business in this industry to have a presence in this space. Doing so may prove to be valuable for your business by reaching more users, because when a Social Media platform adds a new feature they start to push it out as much as possible. They will write the algorithms to get that feature on the front page and out there as much as possible. For example, it may come as no surprise, but the newest craze is and has been Tik Tok for the last few years and content on this platform is popping up all over. For a newer business Tik Tok may not be an essential platform right away but eventually it can be a good platform for fun content and building awareness for your business/brand. As another option, Tik Tok’s little brother Instagram’s Reels may be the right usage of your resources as Instagram is pushing Reels into users' faces because it is so new. The algorithm will want more users on this feature, so it'll continue to push this content in front of users giving it more eyes.
Step away from the phone
Though this may sound a little foolish, stepping away from social media on your phone can help the algorithm on the apps push your content out to more viewers. As these Social Media Platforms operate, they want you to use your app as much as possible. After posting your content try to not use your app for an hour or so, this will entice the algorithm to try to get you back on the account resulting in the app broadcasting your content a little more! Your post will then receive hits aka “likes” and the app will send you notifications like “@blahblahblah, @blehbleh and @bluhbluh liked your post” enticing you to open your app. The more people your content reached, the better!
Adding Alt Texts for Images - Describing your texts to visually impaired (find screenshots)
Most platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and even your website allow pictures to have Alt texts, the purpose of these are to describe images to visitors who are unable to see them. This allows screen crawlers and those that are sight impaired to get a description of the images on your page. Adding this to your images will help your Social Media Accounts, as well as your website, to rank better if all your images have ALT texts. An example of Alt Texts would be, “Two people, smiling, sunglasses, sky, outdoor.” They are simple short words describing what's in the pictures.
Upload Times
Once your platforms have been chosen it is also important to figure out proper posting times for your customers. Though these times can be sifted out through trial and error, specific time periods are recommended for ideal performance of different categories. According to this great article by HubSpot, the recommended posting time for the Healthcare industry is Tuesday 8AM CDT. Posting times aligned around the Fitness industry may also be a great place to start for the cryotherapy industry but it’s important to note that your business' optimal posting times may not align with any of the recommendations for these industries. Again trial and error will be your friend and after time you will get a better idea of what works best for your business. Also, with a business account some of these platforms provide “Most Active Times” information about your customers. For example the CryoBuilt Instagram Page suggests on most days that the ‘Most Active times’ for our customers are at 9am and 12pm, therefore we do our best to post content around 8:50am & 11:50am so that our posts flow right into the paths of our customers at 9am and 12pm. In the case that you may be just starting off your online presence, and your following may be on the lower end of the spectrum, the provided times within different fields may be an appropriate time to post.
Content Creation Tools
Now to tackle the art of creating the content itself. There are many free tools available for creating content but as your process and skill level increases some paid applications may be more encompassing. Tools like Canva will be your best friend and is easy to use for infographic type posts and creating stories with themes. This tool is very powerful for being free and is immensely easy to use for various Social Media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even can create PowerPoint like presentations, brochures and newsletters. The free trial offers a lot but eventually upgrading to the paid account unlocks more templates, post scheduling capabilities, access to stock photos and more storage.
Taking pictures or videos can be done on our phones nowadays as phones are very capable of taking quality content. Consider that being checked off your list. If your budget permits and you're considering your marketing plan as well, if your customers tend to come from Social Media, it may be a good idea to hire a photographer to have quality pictures for your Social Media.
Photo Editing Apps
For editing pictures and videos, other tools may be a little more appropriate and may give you a little more control than what Canva or other social media apps will allow. There are free editing apps which work great for minor edits but may lack some high level photoshop aspects. Paid platforms like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop can give you a lot more to work with in this space. Advanced photo editing apps for first time users or beginners may seem a bit overwhelming but after some Youtube tutorials and some research they can be a very powerful tool. Below is a list of some of our favorite photo editing platforms.
Video Editing Apps
In terms of video editing, it is a similar case to photo editing as there are free versions of video editing apps. If you own a MacBook computer/laptop you're in luck, all MacBooks come with a video editing application called iMovie. Though not too complicated it may still require you to watch a few quick Youtube tutorial videos. Phone hosted video editing on the other hand, is not recommended as a long term solution because it won't be the smoothest of processes but nonetheless there are free applications available. Paid softwares like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere can be much more powerful than the other editing platforms but are also a bit more challenging for new users.
All in all, the biggest takeaway here is that social media can be a great tool when it comes to marketing your cryotherapy business, and there are several ways to maximize it. The resources are there, you just need to find the best way to navigate them for your business!