When you venture into the world of aesthetic entrepreneurship, you quickly realise that the clinical part of the job is just one small aspect of running a business and that marketing you and your services is possibly the most time-consuming and difficult bit.

Marketing is “the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”

Marketing funnels are a useful tool to help you visualise how patients move from first finding out about your business, to becoming loyal patients. Understanding your marketing funnel and how to lube it allows you to convert more browsers into bookers.

What Are Marketing Funnels?

A marketing funnel is simply a way to represent the journey a potential patient takes from first finding out about you until they become a paying patient.

This funnel has four steps, some have more, but typically, it’s all about AIDA.

1. Awareness: A potential patient sees a blog article, your website, your clinic, your branded car, a social media post, an article in a local advertiser or hears about you from a friend.

2. Interest: They’ve engaged with a piece of your marketing and believe you can solve a problem of theirs, so are interested in your business.

3. Desire: The potential patient enters a research phase, where they want to learn more about you and the services you offer (i.e. the problems you can solve). They consider and evaluate you, your premises, your pricing, your work and your reviews and have become intent on booking.

4. Action: The potential patient takes action — ideally, you’ve made it easy for them to book an appointment with you and they do so.

The truth is, not everyone in your funnel will convert. Not everyone who visits your website will click the BOOK NOW button. Not everyone who follows you on Instagram will be tempted to schedule a consultation with you, and nor do you want them to - some of them won’t be the right fit for you.

But you do want the right type of patient booking you.

So filling and lubing your funnel is crucial.

What’s The Point in a Funnel?

Primarily, it allows you to figure out where you need to optimise, or improve, your marketing, messaging or booking flows.

By knowing how patients are moving through your funnel, you can track where they are bailing on their journey to booking.

Ideally, you want their journey to go something like this:

• Visits your website

• Reads a treatment information page

• Reads your “About us” page

• Reads your reviews/browses before & afters

• Clicks the “Book Now” button

• Books a consultation

You need to FILL THE FUNNEL and LUBE THE FUNNEL to convert browsers into bookers. If your site/socials are failing to convert browsers into bookers, your either attracting the wrong types of people or they aren’t finding what they need once they’re on your website, or both.

Do you need to adjust your marketing messaging to attract the right kinds of people? Do you need to increase your reach to attract more people into the funnel? Do you need to improve the user experience of your website? Do you need to evidence your work and provide social proof? Do you need to make it easier for patients to take action i.e. book!?

By having data on how many web visitors you have, the pages they visit, how many bookings are made, how many convert into paying patients, you’ll know which section of your funnel needs lubing.

How do you Lube a Funnel?

A lubed funnel is one that provides potential patients with ALL the information they are looking for in one place. You need to demonstrate to any website visitor or social media follower that you are an authority, a safe pair of hands, approachable, professional, amazing at what you do and able to solve their problems.

To do this takes time, effort and investment.

Here are some ways to lube the funnel:

• Consistently publish quality content on your website & on socials - blogs, FAQs, video content, photos…whatever you publish, do so through the lens of potential patients. Fresh content counts.

• Beautiful branding - bland branding holds businesses back.

• Fab photography - poor, cheap photography = poor, cheap service.

• Be visible, authentic & credible - given the level of trust a patient has to place in their practitioner, it’s important that you are visible, are relatable and your credentials are on point.

• Be responsive - many newbie patients have built themselves up to even messaging you - don’t leave them hanging.

• Share your work - it’s a no-brainer. People want to see what kind of aesthetic results you get, to see whether you’re right for them.

• Share your reviews - one of the cheapest and most effective ways of generating trust. Here are 5 reasons you should share your reviews.

• Transparent pricing - cost and ambiguity around pricing is a blocker for many. Address the elephant in the room.

• Bookability - make it easy for people to book.