Help promoting aesthetics business

[christradv]

Hi all,

I have been a practitioner in Botox and dermal fillers for around five years. I have a converted treatment room in my house and very occasionally go to independent hair salons who taking bookings from their clients on my behalf (and take a small cut). I have been a registered nurse for many years, attend lots of training and consider myself good and passionate about what I do.

I have a website and Facebook page (both of which I update every few months, but by no means frequently). I am consistently fairly busy and do well via word of mouth (with most of my clients becoming regulars).

I am hoping to make this my full-time job but now like I am at a bit of a dead end. Many of my competitors seem to have very active Facebook pages and seem to be getting busier by the day. I would appreciate the views of anyone on how to take my business to the next level.

Some thoughts I have had:

– increasing my online presence. I have already paid for SEO to ensure that my website is ranked highly in Google, but could be more active with my Facebook campaigns etc. Only slight issue is, I am not very technical and I'm aware that people are sometimes reluctant to make public the fact that they like a Botox/dermal fillers business. What type of posts would be best? Ones asking followers to share or like (eg competitions, offers) or just information about services, procedures and offers?

- linking up with more salons (hairdressing, beauty, massage). I quite like this idea in theory as if they are reputable and have your leaflets they can easily sell to their captive clients on your behalf (albeit for a small cut). But, this has never really taken off for me and I just get the odd one here and there. Has anyone had much success with this?

- organising a leaflet drop in the more wealthy residential areas of town. I did this at the beginning and it is quite costly and not very targeted, but it did bring some success and at least gets your name out there.

- websites like Groupon. I was approached last year by Groupon but decided not to take him up on the offer as I thought it might cheapen the product and it only made sense economically if the customer then ordered lots of other services that were not part of the heavily discounted offer.

Any thoughts on the above and any new ideas would be much appreciated. Many thanks for reading!

C x

 

[PamieD]

I wouldn't try to emulate anyone else, without seeing their books you won't know how much they're making just by how busy they are or how they are performing their treatments. What I would recommend is joining a pro body if you haven't already, as there is supposed to be a new regulatory committee being started by the Dept of Health (I'll believe it when I see it!) so it'll show you have higher standards. In general there's a move away from the blurring of beauty and aesthetic treatments, so you can use your membership as a way to reassure clients and get referrals. I would recommend Save Face, they're the only ones I've come across who don't act in an unprofessional way towards those they disagree with.

 

[Paige@TheClinik]

I have learnt that the aesthetics industry and the beauty industry are miles apart, Clients won't find a practitioner by searching their local on the Internet or leaflet dropping. Aesthetic clients come purely from word of mouth and reviews, it will build with recommendations (this obviously takes a little time). I would ask your clients for reviews, to review on Facebook and Google. I would add reviews to your leaflets, website etc.
Good luck!
Xx

 

[Neo Elegance]

Hi all,

I have been a practitioner in Botox and dermal fillers for around five years. I have a converted treatment room in my house and very occasionally go to independent hair salons who taking bookings from their clients on my behalf (and take a small cut). I have been a registered nurse for many years, attend lots of training and consider myself good and passionate about what I do.

I have a website and Facebook page (both of which I update every few months, but by no means frequently). I am consistently fairly busy and do well via word of mouth (with most of my clients becoming regulars).

I am hoping to make this my full-time job but now like I am at a bit of a dead end. Many of my competitors seem to have very active Facebook pages and seem to be getting busier by the day. I would appreciate the views of anyone on how to take my business to the next level.

Some thoughts I have had:

– increasing my online presence. I have already paid for SEO to ensure that my website is ranked highly in Google, but could be more active with my Facebook campaigns etc. Only slight issue is, I am not very technical and I'm aware that people are sometimes reluctant to make public the fact that they like a Botox/dermal fillers business. What type of posts would be best? Ones asking followers to share or like (eg competitions, offers) or just information about services, procedures and offers?

- linking up with more salons (hairdressing, beauty, massage). I quite like this idea in theory as if they are reputable and have your leaflets they can easily sell to their captive clients on your behalf (albeit for a small cut). But, this has never really taken off for me and I just get the odd one here and there. Has anyone had much success with this?

- organising a leaflet drop in the more wealthy residential areas of town. I did this at the beginning and it is quite costly and not very targeted, but it did bring some success and at least gets your name out there.

- websites like Groupon. I was approached last year by Groupon but decided not to take him up on the offer as I thought it might cheapen the product and it only made sense economically if the customer then ordered lots of other services that were not part of the heavily discounted offer.

Any thoughts on the above and any new ideas would be much appreciated. Many thanks for reading!

C x

Hi

Have you tried working with dentists? Sometimes they want to offer the service like Botox and Fillers but just don't have the time so they outsource it to professional like yourself and you would visit their premises for the treatments - not sure how it would work on the business side of it but worth asking.

if word of mouth is working for you why don't you set up a referral scheme to get clients to actively promote you.

social media is a difficult one but i suppose it would be more advice, tips and blogs of your expertise that could draw them to your treatments.

i would not do Groupon at all! bad reviews about the company itself but once those customers come to you for that treatment from groupon they will not come back to you for that same treatment at full price and they would not be your target market really.

i would suggest expanding your treatments if possible but still within the aesthetics side to increase business too.

best wishes,
Mel

 

[solomarketinggeek]

How are you doing since your post, christradv?

Would be happy to chime in if you're looking for more clarity.

Sunni

 

[beckylashes]

Where are you based. X