Every year, as the weather warms up, searches for skin checks climb. People spend more time outdoors, notice a spot that’s changed or finally act on a reminder from a family member. For clinics that offer skin checks, the months leading into summer are some of the busiest of the year.
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and Cancer Council estimates that at least two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. Helping people find a good skin check service is genuinely worthwhile marketing. But it needs to be done carefully. Here’s how to prepare.
Start before the rush
The best time to prepare is a month or two before demand peaks. Search rankings take time to build, and you don’t want to be updating your website while your phones are already ringing off the hook. Use the quieter weeks to get your foundations in place.
Make sure people can find you
- Google Business Profile. Add skin checks as a service, check your hours are right and add photos of your rooms and team.
- A dedicated skin check page. One clear page on your website that ranks for skin check searches in your area, rather than a line buried on your services page.
- Google Ads. If you have capacity, a focused campaign for searches like ‘skin check near me’ can fill appointments quickly during peak season.
Write a skin check page patients actually want to read
People booking a skin check often feel anxious. A good page answers their questions calmly and clearly:
- what happens during a skin check and how long it takes
- who performs it, and their qualifications
- whether they need a referral and what it costs
- what happens if something needs a closer look
- how often people in different situations might consider a check, framed as general information
That kind of practical, balanced information builds trust, helps you rank and is exactly what the AHPRA guidelines expect.
Watch your titles
How you describe your practitioners matters. A GP who has completed extra training in skin cancer medicine can describe that training and their interest in skin checks. They shouldn’t be called a ‘skin specialist’ or ‘skin cancer specialist’, because ‘specialist’ implies specialist registration, which in this area belongs to dermatologists. Be precise, and display qualifications accurately.
Avoid fear and urgency
It’s tempting to lean on fear in skin cancer marketing. Don’t. The advertising rules prohibit encouraging the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services, and scare tactics or ‘book now before it’s too late’ messaging can cross that line. They can also create unreasonable expectations about what a skin check can achieve.
Calm, factual messaging works better anyway. People respond to clinics that sound professional and reassuring, not alarmist.
Plan for the demand
Marketing that fills your phones is only useful if you can see the patients. Before you ramp anything up, check:
- how many skin check appointments you can realistically offer each week
- whether online booking shows skin check availability clearly
- how your team handles enquiries when the books are full
- whether you have a waitlist or recall process for people who can’t get in straight away
If capacity is tight, it’s better to scale back ads than to frustrate patients with long waits.
Keep cosmetic services separate
Many skin clinics offer both medical skin checks and cosmetic treatments. Keep the two clearly separate in your marketing. Bundling a skin check with a cosmetic offer, or using skin check traffic to promote cosmetic procedures, muddies the message and can run into the stricter rules for cosmetic advertising, including the TGA restrictions on prescription-only medicines.
Bring patients back
A skin check isn’t a one-off for many patients. With consent, a simple recall system that reminds people when they’re due for their next check, based on their practitioner’s advice, keeps your appointment book full in quieter months too.
If you’d like help getting ready for the season, our free practice growth audit will review your website, profile and ads before demand peaks. You can also read about how we work with cosmetic and skin clinics. This article is general guidance, not legal advice, and final responsibility for advertising sits with the registered practitioner.