How Do I Get More Aesthetic Clients?
TLDR: There’s no quick fix.
In this blog, we’re going to cover some of the fundamentals of marketing and apply them to aesthetic businesses - so that you’re able to get more patients booking in.
It’s not a quick read. But it does have a ton of value. So, if you’re serious about building a sustainable, successful aesthetics business…read on.
If you’re after a quick fix, there are tons of “marketing agencies” who will rinse you for a ton of cash for short term, unsustainable growth.
Your journey into aesthetics probably went something like this:
Invested thousands in your clinical training and then thought “Shit…I’ve got no patients…I better set up an instagram and Facebook profile! Now…what should I post?”
You then followed a ton of other practitioners on Instagram, re-hashed the content you saw others posting, or worse, posted nothing at all…and hoped for the best.
I’ve never seen this strategy work. Ever.
The problem is, very very rarely do practitioners actually put themselves in the shoes of their patients when thinking about marketing. This results in them working hard on their marketing for limited return. They then become despondent when they don’t get bookings.
Marketing, funnels, conversion rates…what are the basics practitioners need to get to grips with?
Let’s start with marketing.
Marketing is any action you take to attract people to the services you offer. Ideally, you do this through high-quality, targeted messaging aimed squarely at your perfect patients.
So, when you’re chatting at a party about what you do…that’s marketing. When you’re responding to DMs on social media…that’s marketing. When you’re sending emails…marketing. When you’re designing flyers to leave at a local wedding venue...marketing. When you’re posting on social media…marketing. When you’re writing another blog for your website…you get the idea.
To get the most out of marketing, you need to have a few things in place, otherwise your efforts will be far less fruitful.
You know who you want to attract into your business…you’re not right for everyone.
You have developed a brand (heart, voice & look) that appeals strongly to them.
You know where your perfect patients are online and in-real life.
You have processes in place that allow people to move through the funnel easily.
Sooooo what’s a funnel?
A funnel is an easy way to represent the journey a potential patient takes, from first finding out about you and your business, to visiting your website and carrying out research, to booking in.
FUNNELS
A useful tool to help you visualise a person’s journey from first finding out about your business, to becoming a loyal patient.
Any marketing you do fills your funnel. You need to lube your funnel with amazing content and streamlined processes…so that the conversion rate is good.
What’s the conversion rate?
Your conversion rate is the percentage of people who book in/purchase a product/take action after viewing your website or booking page. Typically, websites convert at 2-3%. That means, for every 100 people who land on your website, 2-3 will take the action you want them to take.
The more lubed your funnel, the higher your conversion rate.
You won’t ever convert everyone. But you want to convert as many as you possibly can, so the return on the time and money you invest in marketing is decent.
How do I fill my funnel?
In order to fill your funnel, you need to make the right people (your perfect patients) need to be AWARE of you…so, wherever they are in their aesthetic journey, you need to be there so they know that you’re an option. You need to market yourself and your services to the right people.
Your potential patients know they have a concern. But they have no idea you even exist…let alone can help them with their concern. Meet them where they are looking for answers or where they’re hanging out online and in real life. You need to make it easy for them to discover you by being present in the places they are or are looking.
Whether they are in the treatment research part of their journey, or are actively shortlisting practitioners…you need to be known to them.
In your marketing, you need to create content that makes it clear that you know about them. You’re aware of their specific concerns. You have a range of solutions to their particular problem and are credible, trustworthy, available, approachable and all the other good stuff that makes people choose people.
You can marketing your business online:
Content marketing - blogs, newsletters, podcasts, infographics and videos
SEO - Search Engine Optimisation
PPC - Pay Per Click marketing
Organic social media
Paid social media
Influencer marketing
Email marketing
Text marketing
Affiliate marketing
And offline:
TV
Newspaper/ magazine
Radio
Outdoor
Promotional items
Flyers
Sponsorship
Direct mail
Obviously, as a solo aesthetic practitioner, with a limited budget, some of these channels will be off the cards. Regardless, with the channels you do choose, you put relevant and engaging content out into the world, in an optimised way depending on the channel, focusing on where your perfect patients are….online and in real life. Where you focus your marketing efforts will really depend on who your perfect patient is.
Not everyone hangs out in the same place! Or has the same problems.
If your perfect patient is a 55+ year old woman, your main social channel should probably be Facebook. You might join some local Facebook groups relevant to that demographic. You could reach out to local WI groups/golf societies etc where more affluent older women get together. Buddy up with relevant local clothes boutiques, independent opticians and independent cafes. Your website and Google Business Profile need to be up-to-date and aimed towards this demographic. Blogs should be specific to their concerns and the imagery you choose should represent them.
If your perfect patient is a 20+ year old woman looking for skincare, peels and facials, you should be creating entertaining content on TikTok, de-badging it and posting to Instagram. Pinterest and YouTube are potential channels for you to explore. In real life, these women are likely hanging out in gyms, pilates and yoga studios and trendy nail bars/hair salons. Your website should be optimised for mobile. You should consider having a shop on your website.
Where and how you market your business depends mainly on who you’re trying to market your business to. It’s not a one-size-fits-all activity. Just because practitioners all hang out on Instagram, doesn’t mean that’s where their patients are!
What happens once you’ve filled your funnel?
Well, you want to lube it and plug any leaks!
When your perfect patient happens across your website/socials/a flyer/walks past your clinic you want to pique their INTEREST.
You want them to keep returning to you during this consideration phase. It’s your job to demonstrate that you’re a great choice. Don’t make people work too hard to figure that out…they just won’t! If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave as quickly as they came.
YOU need to be visible.
Your branding, your messaging and presentation needs to be on point.
Your channels need to look professional. This means great photography, good design and clear messaging across channels.
Your channels must be “lived in”. Regular posts and an up-to-date website. Your name, your location, your services and pricing should be obvious without too much digging.
When they check you out on each of your channels…which they will during their research stage, you need to cohesively, authentically and beautifully present yourself and your business across all of them.
Once you’re on their radar, you need to create DESIRE.
You have to make them WANT YOU!
Lean into storytelling to articulate how the services you provide can address your perfect patients very specific concerns. You HAVE to know your perfect patient personas intimately to be able to do this. You can then demonstrate that you’ve solved similar problems for similar people (helped by before and afters), that others vouch for you and return to you (as demonstrated by your reviews and testimonials) and that you are available (via online booking), conveniently located (show your address and map) and have a gorgeous clinic space that suits your personas (beautifully showcased by professional clinic photos and gorgeous branding).
So what does a lubed funnel look like?
It gives the people what they want!!! Across all the channels. Consistently.
YOU…visible, easily identifiable
Credentials
Copy on your website, in blogs, in captions, in printed materials that sounds like you
Professional photos on your website, social media and in printed materials
Great branding and design online, offline & in your clinic interior
An easy-to-understand treatment menu with clear pricing
Clear availability, ideally within the next couple of weeks
Plentiful before and afters showing the kind of work you do and types of people you treat
Reviews…tons and tons of great, recent, quality reviews
Once someone is aware of you, has taken an interest in what you offer and you’ve demonstrated that you’ve done a phenomenal job delivering similar treatments for similar patients, they’ll want to take ACTION.
You need to make it clear HOW they can take action and make it SUPER EASY for them to do so.
How do I do that all of that!?!
This is where it’s important for you to:
1) Have online booking - Around 70% of people prefer to book their appointments online…you’re stifling your business if you don’t have it.
2) Share your booking link far and wide
Behind “Book Now” buttons on your website
In your Instagram/Facebook bio
Regularly add to your Instagram stories
In text messages, WhatsApp messages and auto-response messages
On your Google business profile
In every newsletter
In your email signature
QR codes on printed materials and your clinic door/window
3) Remove any doubt - Give potential patients all the information they need to be confident choosing you…surface this all near your booking link so the decision to choose you is a no brainer.
You want to give them every reason to book and NO excuses not to.
What do we see in the best performing Glowday booking pages?
Glowday booking pages are different to “normal” booking pages because we have built them to present all the information patients want all in one place AND made it easy for them to take action.
So a Glowday page is both a marketing page AND a booking page.
The best booking pages convert at between 9-12%. The structure of the pages are all identical, the difference is what the practitioner adds to those pages.
Here are some of the highest converting booking pages on Glowday.com.
There are some similarities across all of them, which makes them some of the best merchandised booking pages. They each have:
Great, professional photography showing the practitioner in their gorgeous clinic, relaxed and smiling
An authentic tone of voice in their bio
Lots of reviews - 50+ is a tipping point, 200+ pushes it up to a 10%+ conversion rate
Good availability - the best conversions are for pages that have decent availability within 1-2 weeks
Lots of amazing before and afters demonstrating skill and exceptional patient outcomes
What doesn’t matter so much:
Profession - Most patients don’t place a specific profession of the practitioner at the top of their list of requirements.
Qualifications - They also don’t know what the Level 7 qualification is…so this makes little difference to them when choosing a practitioner.
Price - there’s little correlation between price and conversion rate. Which indicates clearly that value has little to do with price.
Type of clinic - two of the best converting clinics are beautiful home-based clinics.
Once you’ve done the hard work filling your funnel, don’t waste the opportunity to convert them. You need to ensure that, when they get there, everything they see reinforces their want to book you and NOTHING puts them off.