You've done the training course. You’ve set up. Got your clinic sorted. You’re posting to instagram and have told your friends and family

But nobody is booking you : (

Building a business from scratch takes time, effort and patience. But there are a few reasons you may not be getting booked, which you’re able to do something about.

1. You lack experience

If you're just starting out, it’s likely that you’ve treated a few family members and a few friends. And you likely worry that your lack of experience is blatantly obvious.

The key thing here is to not pretend otherwise. Everyone starts somewhere. Instead, take people along with you on your journey.

Solution

• Document the start of your business - people are nosy, indulge them!

• Create content that positions you as educated and informed

• Keep your treatment menu lean until you’ve mastered each treatment & learned how to attract new patients

• Run portfolio days, with treatments at discounted prices

• Share any work you do

• Collect and share patient reviews

2. People don't really like you/your brand/your work

We aren’t all great at all things. It’s possible that something about your, your work, how you present yourself, your brand or your clinic is putting people off.

This is a hard one to swallow. We aren’t great at critiquing our own work, particularly when we have taken time and care to do our best. We take it very personally.

But to build a successful business, you need to get accustomed to hard truths and regularly, actively seek them out.

Solution

• Objectively look at your work, how you present yourself, your branding, your photography and assess them honestly. Is there anything off putting? Does it really reflect you?

• Worse than ugly branding, is BORING branding. Be mindful of not being overly influenced by the branding of other aesthetic practitioners…there’s nothing that will make you blend in faster than boring branding!

• Ask family and friends for their honest opinions. It might not be the most pleasant feedback, but it will allow you to improve and address any shortcomings.

• Audit your patient journey - are you doing all you can to ensure your patients needs are being met?

3. No one knows who you are

Many practitioners make the mistake of thinking that if they build a portfolio of before and afters, do a bit of social media and tell a few people they’re in business, that clients will come knocking on their door. And when that doesn’t happen, they attend training course after training course, hoping that one of those will unlock a stream of new patients.

That’s not how it happens!

Instead of acquiring more training and treatments, you should be spending most of your time on lead generation and finding new patients - ie marketing and sales.

If you don’t know how to do this…learn. There’s a ton of information online, there are courses and books. Aesthetic businesses are a tried and tested business model. Those that do well are great at marketing!

People must be aware of you in order to consider booking with you. Marketing is how you raise that awareness. There are lots of channels, offline and online, that you can use to raise awareness of your business, explore as many as possible, to find the ones that work best for you and your patients.

Solution

• Learn the marketing basics

• Don’t outsource this part of your business until you know the basics

• Ensure your business has visibility across a number of offline and online channels

• Experiment and test a range of marketing activities, from leaflet dropping to paid social advertising - ensure you track the ROI on any experiments you run

4. They don’t know if you’re “the right fit”

You can’t be everything to everyone. Waitrose don’t “go after” the same customers as Farmfoods.

It's important to understand your target market and tailor your messaging, content and services specifically to them.

Be specific. Know them. Articulate clearly and regularly how you are able to help solve their very specific problems.

By knowing your target market, you will make it clear that you are the right fit for them and they will choose you.

Solution

• Know who you want to attract. Spend time researching and understanding your target patient.

• Spend time with them - listen to them, record what you learn

• Take what they tell you and craft your messaging and content to address their very specific problems

5. You’re not making it easy to trust you

Across your website and social media, you don’t show them who YOU are. Maybe you’ve created a pretty website, or a nice set of posts on Instagram and some lovely leaflets, but they show little of you.

You don’t show your work. You don’t share your reviews. It’s all a bit vanilla.

When your potential patients are browsing around on your social media or website they are subconsciously evaluating who you are, how much you know and whether they can trust you with their faces. 

The content you share, wherever they happen upon it, needs to bring them to the conclusion that you are the best practitioner to help them.

Solution

• Don’t be shy - your patients are really choosing you. So show them who you are

• Share your work

• Share your reviews

• Share content - blogs, quotes, videos, infographics - that help them

6. You're making it hard for people to book you

68% of people prefer to book appointments online. 

If they can’t figure out how to book you, it’s a barrier that might lead them to look at the next best alternative.

Clearly outlining how a patient can book you and making it easy for them to do so it HYGIENE.

If you're getting patients to jump through hoops - fill in a lead gen form, making them email you or worse, call you - you’re making it annoying for them and they will go somewhere else.

Solution

• Make it easy for people to book you - introduce online booking

• Share your booking link in a variety of places - social media bios, link in Instagram Stories, in auto-response messages, behind “Book Now” buttons on your website

To summarise, for more new patients to find and book you, you need to focus on:

• Building trust by sharing testimonials and before and afters

• Understanding your perfect patient by listening closely to them

• Demonstrating expertise by creating and sharing content that address you perfect patients concerns

• Marketing your business consistently - if you don’t know how, invest time and money in learning!

• Making it easy for people to book you