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A
Okay, so this was one of our most popular episodes last year. I was looking at our content calendar and it's been about a year, over a year since we revisited this topic. So this is going to be like our insider marketing secrets. We're going to call this the Fall 2025 edition because it's coming out in August and I'm wishing it was fall, as our whole team knows. Anyways, so we'll call it the fall edition, although it's pretty much a late summer edition here. And we're going to kind of rifle through some of the things that are the common themes to success and we're going to show you like, specifics of what's working for us right now. So that's what we mean by insider secrets. What are we specifically seeing in our data that's helping guide our decisions for our clients as we head into fall? So number one, no change here. Meta ads and Google Ads are still the name of the game. You've got TikTok. Lauren, quickly I guess give the synopsis of our experience when we run TikTok ads. We've dipped our toe in it several times in the last year or so.
B
Yeah. So the TikTok advertising platform is a little bit newer still as of the last couple of years, so they haven't really honed in a whole lot of the back end settings of how everything works there. One of the biggest things we like to get specific with is targeting of our ads. Kind of a waste of money to spend on people a couple hours away from you or people who are just going to come in for a promotion. On TikTok, they pretty much only let you do to bigger cities or DMA regions. It doesn't let you get really specific with your targeting. So so oftentimes, let's say you're in a suburb two hours outside Philly. Philadelphia might be the only place you can target in pa so becomes more of a challenge in terms of actually getting the right leads on there. Um, we see good lead volume, good lead cost. It's just conversion rate really, really struggles making customer acquisition costs super expensive. So basically, if you're going to go the TikTok route, utilize it for something more of an omnipresence type strategy where you're just getting your name and your brand out there. But we kind of recommend staying away from lead gen, more focused on conversion ads.
A
Yeah, so like you said, the data looked promising when we've tested it. And again, disclaimer. We could be wrong on any of this. It's probably Been a couple of months since we last did it. That could have changed as of recording this, who knows. But as of the last time we tested, all of those things were true. It didn't have the ability to geotarget generate leads. Leads don't convert. We have our theories as to why, but this is why. Still though, heading into the fall, number one place we're spending our clients ad dollars is meta ads and Google Ads. That's not because we're married to it. We would be doing direct mail and RA video tomorrow if that's what works best. But no change there. These are two things that are still the name of the game. Number two is this matrix for success continues to look like great reputation and great offers with good ads equal success. If anything is off, you need to adjust somewhere else. So if you've got a reputation that is very middle of the road, you're going to have to be more aggressive on your offers to see success from your advertising campaigns. You can get away with less attractive offers and at least incrementally if you've got an outstanding reputation that you're leveraging. And your ad frameworks, your ad strategies, your offer frameworks need to really be dialed in with our ads. We're really focusing I think a lot more too. Lauren on like putting reputation forward, getting people excited about doing business with your practice. What can you say that your competitors can't say? Incorporating that into your marketing message I think is really important. So we won't spend too much time on that because I want to make sure we're getting into like the nitty gritty details. But again that's the recipe for success. If you're lackluster in any of those areas, you're going to struggle. So those are the easiest things to the easiest dials to push with your offer being the biggest one basic inverse correlation. You dial up offer attractiveness, you lower your customer acquisition cost, that it's an inescapable reality. Again, there's all sorts of data and things that go into that decision, but that part of it is inescapable. Trade off Lauren Number three, I think we're still seeing injectables as the gateway drug to your med spa. I think if anything we've really doubled and tripled down on this being a reality. So many of the practices we work with are trying to jam a square peg into a round hole in terms of advertising services that might be really good cross sells or upsells to their existing client database, but aren't super effective in terms of trying to get a cold audience to come in for that initial visit for something like microneedling, for example. Lauren, can you just I guess elaborate a little bit more on what we've tried that's outside of the injectable space and where we think there's some potential like a sculptra, I guess sculpture is an injectable, but some of the stuff that's, that's working at least incrementally versus the stuff that's basically on our no fly list at this point that we just don't like to put ad dollars behind.
B
Yeah, I would say sculpture is one of them for sure. Filler is really dropping off. I know we're going to talk about that a little bit later. To micro needling, that's another one of those prices. Right? It has to be kind of thing. We talk a lot about services that have a perceived differential in outcome versus no perceived differential and outcome when it comes to those type of services. We can see them work. We just have to be the most competitive in terms of our offer. So those are things where you're using a laser or some kind of device, a micro needling, things like that where people think they could probably get the same result no matter who's shooting the laser at their face. So those ones can work. It just depends on where we're sitting that price point. Point facials, those are kind of hit or miss too. It really depends on where we're sitting price point on that one. I know we've talked about this many of times too, but you can do things like a butts and seats promo like a facial 25 or a facial 49 things that are on the really, really cheap side. Most attractive to get people in at an effective rate. Those can work once you start getting into the 99, 129 facials. Things like that is where we really start to see drop off on that front.
A
Yeah. And so again we had Ben Hernandez on the podcast recently from Skytel Group. They specialize in mergers and acquisitions. Said most, most healthy med spas. They're still somewhere in the range of 50 to 60% injectables. That's what investors like to see. If investors like to see it, it generally means it's going to make you sleep better at night even if you have no intention of selling your business. These are the services that are high retention and are recurring revenue. They're sticky so. And they have low, relatively low customer acquisition costs compared to lifetime value. So they have good, good long term margins. But so using These as the gateway drug to sell more of those services and to build your base of your client base with these services. And for us it's Botox, Dysport and Sculptra. It seems like, Lauren, those three, if you get into the toxins and you're trying to advertise name brands that people just don't have familiarity with, like a Javo, like those things don't tend to work very well. Xaman we've tried them Botox and Dysport Disport because you can arbitrage it with the unit cost. That Galder, it looks really attract because you can use the Galderma unit pricing. So it serves as what we call like a purple cow offer. Stands out in the feed. Really interesting piques, people's interest. Botox is like the Kleenex of injectables. So it's got a lot of name recognition. So those two, specifically, if you have those in your service portfolio, that's where we recommend putting those ad dollars. We have plenty of clients that bait and switch this too. Not in a, in a bad way, but they will advertise Botox. They have Botox on hand if people want it. But when people come in, they educate them, they show them they got a rebate on Javo, it's a lower price point and they love the product they most people they'll convert into Javo, for example. But still from your advertising, Botox and Dysport, I think are the name of the game. And then sculpture, which we'll talk about in a second too. Go ahead, Lauren.
B
Sorry, I was just going to say I think one thing that has changed since we talked about this last year with the injectables front is a lot more people have caught on to the fact that injectables are the name of the game here and it is the best way to get new patients. So it's really important for us and you too, if you're doing this at home to do your competitive research and see what other people are running or around you, there are always little extra things we can add on to make our offer even more attractive. Things like our reputation or our team even add on like a free dermaplaning if you're doing a 20 unit promo, things like that, a lot more people as of late have caught on to the exact same promotion. So a 20 unit 179 or a Dysport for $3 a unit, what can you do to make yours stand out on top of what others are doing too, is basically where it's getting strategic and even more fun now honestly to try to play that game.
A
Yeah. And remember I always like to use this pitch meeting frame of reference. When you're sitting down creating your ads, be as objective as you can be and think about you versus your top two competitors. If you were all in a room together trying to make a pitch to your ideal prospect as to why your ideal prospect should should choose to schedule that next appointment with you, what is the truly compelling reason you're going to give them to tip the scales in your favor? You want to talk about your reputation? Say what you your competitors can't say. If got great reviews, if you've got certifications that are tangible that create a difference in terms of the result for the client, leverage those. But the easiest toggle to switch if we're trying to create perception through experience is our offer. So simply by doing the competitive research, coming up with something that's more attractive than what other people are doing in terms of offer price point. If you're if you're the most reputable practice in town and you've got the best introductory price on new patient dis boarder Botox, it's a really successful formula. Right. So I would use that frame of reference as you're crafting your offers. That's the easiest lever to pull. This episode is brought to you by Med Spa Magic Marketing, my agency. We help Med spas and aesthetics practices grow with more effective marketing strategies. And I know that's a vague phrase, right? That's a vague claim. So I have an offer for you. I offer this to any new prospects. If you're interested in exploring any another marketing option, a new agency or just getting into Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads for the first time. I'd love to show you why we're different, what we're doing for clients. And we can do that via a one and a half hour planning session where I'll outline a specific marketing plan and I'll give you all of the blueprints that we would implement if we were to do business together. Now you can take that, use that on your own, hire someone else to help you execute it or work with us. We really don't hold anything back on that strategy call. And I think you'll have a lot of confidence in how you manage manage your marketing investment moving forward, understanding some of the nuances that can help you implement more effective marketing strategies for your business. So if you want to do that, you can go to medspamagicmarketing.com so we talked about Some of this offer framing options. Lauren, can you do like a quick run through on like the offer framing for Botox and Dysport that we found to be most successful or what's working best right now? Any changes there?
B
So Botox still pretty much the same 20 units somewhere in the range of 169 to 189. Like I said, so many people are doing it now. You really gotta be more on the side of 169 if we really want to be successful with customer acquisition cost. Um, if you're happier paying a little bit of a higher customer acquisition cost, looking for even better quality of patient. So it's more that strategy of less spots and seats, less volume, but higher quality. We have seen some people do a buy 40 unit, get 20 free type offer. A lot of reps will reimburse those 20 units too. Um, so you can kind of do anywhere in that range, buy 30, get 10 free, um, things like that. One that we really, really love for both retention and customer acquisition cost is Botox plus and Express facial. So it would be get Botox 20 units plus an Express facial 30 minutes for about 275. So really, really solid. Those would be the top three places I would go. If you're doing a Botox offer, Dysport, we typically do for 60 units and we do three to $4 a unit somewhere in that range. But believe it or not, we see things without decimals working the best. So if you're thinking of going 3:50, just bite the bullet and go 3. It's not that big of a jump. And then we always like to include a video when we have new leads coming in explaining this is Dysport and this is Botox and here are the differences you're going to see. So those are definitely the most competitive, the best types of offers that we see, getting the most volume of people, patients as well.
A
And real quick caveat to that because I know some of you, if you're not listening to, if you haven't listened to a bunch of our episodes, you might hear Lauren say you got to be lower on the price point if you want lower customer acquisition costs. What we typically see is you get more at bats. And even if only 50% of those clients are the good quality clients you want to see, with half of those left over by optimizing for at bats and customer acquisition costs, you still have a more effective customer acquisition cost than if you tried to optimize for patient quality upfront. So I would say if you spend $1,000 to get patients on this really aggressive promo, but you get 10 of them for 1,000 bucks and there's only five left over. That's better than if you had to pay $400 in acquisition costs and you only had two or three to start with. So keep that in mind. We're trying to create perception through experience. These offers are not meant to compete long term on a low price point. It's just to give us the opportunity to be the one that develops the relationship and creates perception through experience. So we talked about reputation being more forward in the marketing message. I think that's something we focused on a lot more, making that really prominent. In addition to the offer, continue to want to use photos of the provider or the practice owners. These photos, 8, 9 out of 10 times, outperform stock photos. So make sure that you're at least testing that in your marketing mix. Eye contact with the camera, I think is really good. When you have those photos where they tend to be locking eyes with the camera, that tends to create a little bit of more of an opportunity for the prospect to pause. Clear call to actions. What are we asking the prospect to do and what's going to happen next? So if we have an offer on our ads, if it says get offer, we want to be really clear. Click the get offer button. You'll fill out a form, we'll have you on file having access to the offer. Then you'll be redirected to our online booking link or to talk to someone from our team. Just be really clear with what we're asking you to do and what happens next. Automate follow up with Facebook and Instagram especially 8 out of 10 of these leads are not going to convert or more. We don't want to chase down people that were not serious. So you have to have good marketing automation in place. I've got, we've got whole videos on our YouTube channel about how we do this with Go high level. But you have multiple different tools that you can do this with. But definitely automated follow up is critical. And then even though you're automating the follow up, we still recommend personalizing that last touch point. Customer service experience starts in the conversation thread you're having via text. So don't miss the opportunity to develop the relationship. It's really cool when Rachel, who works at the front desk, has been texting a lead and the lead comes in for their appointment and her and Rachel remember having a conversation. I think it, it kickstarts the relationship at a level that you really can't achieve with purely AI in every single part of your client communication. So that's still, I think, our recommendation, right, Lauren?
B
Absolutely.
A
Cool. Okay, so Lauren queued on this earlier filler out. Sculptra in. I'll put a question mark on that. Lauren, can you kind of tell us what's going on with filler and Sculptra and what we've seen since we did this video last year?
B
Yeah, absolutely. So last year if you watched this video or even if not, we talked a lot about filler being one of our top offers. If we had to recommend three, filler would be in the third. Any type of filler, we would do something like a $250 off your first syringe or we would do something like a half syringe or a lip filler type promotion. We have seen customer acquisition costs on filler pretty much skyrocket regardless of promotion. It probably still is one of those things where if you go cheap enough, you could probably still win people out of solid customer acquisition cost. But with filler it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. One, patient quality isn't that much different than what we might see on a Botox or Dysport type injectable. So it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay higher customer acquisition costs. And two, there's a lot of talk going on right now of biostimulators versus actual fillers and what's happening with the, the formulation in the background of those and what they're doing to the skin. So everybody pretty much from what we've heard and seen, Sculptra is becoming really popular. Radiesse more of those. Along the lines of the biostimulators being more natural and a better type option. Easy Gel is another one too that's becoming more popular. What we see on those promotions is while yes, customer acquisition cost is going to be much more expensive, you're going to see a really, really, really high quality type patient come in from that type of ad. Most of the time it's because somebody who wants a Sculptra has a whole plethora of things that they also want with that. So it's a really easy cross sell, it's a really easy upsell into other things and it just ends up working out really well for the practice in the end. So there are a lot of promotions that we have seen working really that one and that reps will reimburse. So we talk about that a lot too. If you're not reaching out to your rep already for Whether it's Allergan or Galderma or whoever it is to try to get promotions on your products, definitely have that conversation with them. See what they might be willing to reimburse or help back you. In example, a lot of our clients are getting access to buy three, buy two vials, get one free of Sculptra. Some are doing. If you buy two vials of Sculptra, you can get an extra syringe of Kiss or another type of filler within the same branch. So those have been really solid performers for us so far.
A
So the sculpture, I guess it tends to attract a more educated client. Someone that is like. Like you said, Lauren, expect to pay more in customer acquisition costs. So we've talked a lot on this podcast about paying, you know, 50 to $200 in that range. At the extremes for customer acquisition for Botox and Dysport, 50 to $200 for Sculptra. What are we seeing in terms of customer acquisition costs?
B
We're usually seeing somewhere between 500 and $700. Now that is on an intro price point of about $2,000 though, when it comes to the first two to three vials. So it definitely kind of makes that trade off worth it.
A
Yeah, good margins. You're seeing fewer patients, but good margins, high spenders. So that tends to be. I think we're leaning into that more and more and more weight loss getting much harder since when we talked about this last year, the weight loss ads. The reality is you've got market saturation everywhere you turn on your tv. I was at the dentist the other day. There were two at home. Prescription based weight loss medication services, advertising in the commercials on like the game show network that was playing at the dentist's office. So this stuff is everywhere. I think what we've learned is you have to try to differentiate in a meaningful way, if you can. But ultimately, just like some of these other things create perception through experience, you gotta break down the barrier to entry. You gotta get someone on the program. Lauren, what are we seeing there? Basically just have to be really aggressive with price points now on introductory offers.
B
Yeah, lots. Lots of competitive research involved. So it's a little bit area dependent. Some people can go higher than others in terms of how low that intro price point is. But our two best performers, I would say is your first month for 299 or. Or your first two months for 3. 49. Those would probably be where I would sit on how those have been performing for us so far.
A
Cool. Yeah. And again, just know there's a lot of competition. You're gonna have to be creative. You're gonna eat it. You're not gonna be profitable. Month one, month two on some of these things. So the retention element is going to be critical. Do you have other services that your weight loss clients can cross sell or upsell into to increase the value of a client? Are you ensuring and tracking the people that are coming in from your ads are actually staying for five or six months? That's going to be the catalyst to generating an roi. You don't want a bunch of people coming in for like a month trial and then falling off. So make sure that you're tracking that too. Hey there. Wanted to briefly interrupt the episode to make a quick ask. If you're a podcast listener, it would mean the world to us if you leave a review for the podcast, whether that's on itunes or Spotify. It's something I hadn't really remembered or thought of asking for, but it does help us show up more frequently so that we can reach more people with the information that we're providing. So it mean the world to us. If you leave a review on itunes or Spotify, if you're listening on audio, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to hit the subscribe button so you're in the loop for future videos and you don't miss any of the content that we're putting out. Number six High ticket sales packages, lasers and micro needling. I think we kind of touched on this so we don't spend a ton of time. But our contention we've had this corroborated by other consultants that we really like and trust too. You can have some success with them, but you squeeze the margins to like a razor thin price point. And since these people tend to be like the client quality and the amount they spend in a med spa over the course of the year is probably the same as a Botox client. It doesn't make a ton of sense to spend three to five times more to attract this client. So it's not that these services aren't good things in your service portfolio, that they're not good things to sell your existing clients, but it can be ineffective in terms of putting ad dollars and trying to establish some of these things as the gateway drugs to your med spa. So I think our contention is so many of these things are better upsold and cross sold in office than advertised directly. That doesn't mean people find you organically on Google or some of these other things that you're not happy and excited but do we want to put a lot of ad dollars behind most of these things? Maybe not. Now microneedling. Lauren, I feel like we've got mixed stuff on microneedling. Are there any of these that stand out that you feel like we still really like them? Good place to spend ad dollars. We feel pretty confident.
B
Um, I think Absculpt Neo is a big one. That's more of a high ticket type device and that is still really solid performer. Coolsculpting. Really not. I feel like that has just kind of gone out in terms of what we've seen in the ad space. Emsculpt still very solid when it comes to microneedling. Basically the framework we use is competitive research. Who is offering what for your first session and can we beat them? If you're willing to beat them on that price point, that might be first session for 1:50 or first session for 2:49. Something super, super low to really attract that person in and then have something in the back of your pocket to upsell them into a package of three or package of five, whatever that might look like. That is pretty much the only way that I suggest to go on those. When we go anything bigger. If we're trying to sell a package up front, things like that, we're going to see really high customer acquisition costs that pretty much don't even make it worth it at all.
A
Yeah. And just looking at some Google Trend data while Lauren was talking, if you've noticed, you feel like your coolsculpting or M sculpting stuff stuff has slowed down the last few years. It's not you. You can look at Google Trend data. Both of those services really peaked coming out of the pandemic. So so many of the medspa services we had with these post pandemic peaks. So spring of 2021 for both of those services looks like a peak in terms of demand. It has been gradually dropping off for both of the services, but much more dramatically for coolsculpting. So in terms of search demand, which I think is a good representation of just overall demand for a specific product line or service that peaked in 2021 on the relativity chart. So that would be 100. It's all the way down CoolSculpting now to a 31 as of August in 2025. Talking about on the relativity chart, a third of where it was emsculpt near me now they've got the Neo and you've got CoolSculpting Elite. I understand there's different variations. It's been much Less volatile. You've had M Sculpt peak the same exact time, spring of 2021. But when that was 100 on the relativity chart, it's still August here at a 60. So I think that's reflected what we've been seeing in the ads data, Lauren, in the Google trend data as well. But yeah, those can be really, because the margins are good. So even though you pay a lot in customer acquisition costs, maybe $1,000, if you're selling $4,000 packages, still very profitable, you just don't have a lot of patient volume. So it's more of a capture revenue today. It's not setting you up for maximum long term success. So just keep that in mind. Number seven, we talk about it all the time. This whole thing falls apart for so many of these things without retention. If you're not retaining clients. Now, the CoolSculpting package or the Msculpt pack aside, where you're selling a $4,000 package, you're. You're creating immediate ROI. But for so many of these things, there's very little margin between your initial visit revenue and your customer acquisition cost. So retention is the name of the game. You need to make sure that you're implementing and executing on ad strategies that lead to retention. If you're spending a bunch of money to get people in for a $400 visit, that do not stay or retain juice isn't worth the squeeze. You got to figure that out. So make sure that you've got good retention. Lauren, we've done other videos on this. Very quick tips on retention.
B
Yeah, I mean I feel like we can talk about this for an hour. Um, couple biggest ones are one, train your providers to just love what they're doing and love people. Be a people person. I think that's a huge one. A lot of times you'll have the people who come in, they feel like it's an in and out, 10 minute appointment. The provider didn't really care, didn't give the consult. None of those things. Take the time to do the consult, especially on the first visit. Allow it to be a lower revenue per hour, do an hour and allow that consult time. To really plan that whole process and journey for the person. Two would be book them in the room for the next appointment. Make that follow up appointment a non negotiable. Get that appointment on the schedule for the next three months and then after they go to the front desk, it's already on the books, they're confirming it. Don't hand them off to the front desk to Book that next appointment. It almost won't happen at all.
A
That's a huge one. Huge one.
B
Yeah. And it's actually, we've heard a ton of providers who said, I didn't think it would make that big of a difference. And it has changed everything for our rebooking rate. So that is huge. And then I would say three is have extra touch points, follow up with people, give them a personal phone call a week after their Botox appointment, two weeks after and see how they're feeling, see how it's looking, see if they have any concerns. Even shoot an automated text, something like that, to where people really feel like you care is going to have a big impact on that too. Another thing recently that a couple of my practices have been incorporating that I love is we do a virtual coupon book strategy. So it's basically pick three to five of your top services and offer a promo on each they've been offering. After your first new patient appointment for the next 30 days, you can use any other of our new patient promos too. So come in and you can still use whatever that is. So some people come in and get Botox first, then they'll come back and try a laser, they'll get a facial.
A
So.
B
So it's basically build on that first appointment and get people in the door as many times and it's easier to keep them for a longer time.
A
Yep, Love that. Number eight, work to build loyalty around the practice, not just providers. We have a whole separate video on that. So if you go to our YouTube channel, one of the more recent videos, or the podcast feed, you'll see something about building provider or loyalty to the practice, not just the provider. I would go watch that video. We've had a lot of conversations on this, so for time's sake, we won't go into detail, but I think you do want to have an emphasis on what are the things that you do as a practice that are the layer on top of all of your providers. Do you have a specific treatment philosophy, a protocol that guides your treatment of all of your providers so that you have continuity? The other thing that stands out to me is you really cannot, I don't think, have providers with dramatically different personality types, because that does not create continuity in the experience. You kind of need to find a certain, like, look, feel and cadence to the way that people expect your injectors to be. If you've got injector injectors that are like, they're all good looking, they've got good personalities, they have good energy they're very social. You don't want somebody that's kind of like an unkempt recluse, but they're really good with the needle right in the next room. That creates inconsistency. So making sure that if somebody does drop off or you have provider attrition at some point, which inevitably most practices will deal with, you want people to feel like they can plug back into somebody who's going to pick up where they left off and that they have trust in the practice to provide that continuity. So again, could be a whole other conversation, as could this one. But we're paying a little bit more attention now to what they call GEO or aeo. So this is how are people using Chat, GPT, Gemini, Grok and these other AI engines to do what they used to do on Google? Right. We have a podcast coming out next week with John Mest on this topic. So we really, really neat. This is something that we're on top of. But just pay attention. What I would recommend here is go to ChatGPT or one of these tools and just type in where should I get Botox in my town? See what comes up and start to reverse engineer how these engines are coming up with their recommendations. The best part about it, what you can't do with Google, you can ask these engines how they got the result. So ask as the follow up, where did you get that answer, what sources were you looking at? It'll tell you specifically for your town. So you can go in and reverse engineer. What are the directory sites, what are the review sites, what is the information that they're pulling from our website? We've got another video coming out on this, but that would be another thing to kind of pay attention to as we head into the rest the of of 2025 and beyond. So we'll try to do this at least, at least once a year. I really would like to do it once a quarter. If we have stuff that we feel like is new and noteworthy, we'll try to do it quarterly. But stay tuned for the next version of this and we'll see you on the next podcast episode. Lauren, anything to add before we wrap?
B
Nope. I think that's great.
A
Awesome. Thanks everybody. See you on the next one. Thanks everyone for tuning in. This podcast is a production of Med Spa on Magic Marketing. If your Med Spa or aesthetic practice is in need of digital marketing services, help with advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google lead generation and booking more appointments, please visit Medspamagicmarketing.com.
Med Spa Success Strategies Podcast
Episode: Insider Secrets: Marketing Strategies Dominating the Med Spa Market (Fall 2025 Edition)
Release Date: August 11, 2025
Host: Ricky Shockley
In the Fall 2025 Edition of the Med Spa Success Strategies podcast, host Ricky Shockley delves into the most effective marketing strategies currently dominating the med spa and aesthetics industry. Joined by his co-host Lauren, they share insider knowledge, data-driven insights, and actionable tactics to help med spa owners enhance their marketing efforts, attract quality clients, and achieve sustainable growth.
Ricky opens the discussion by reaffirming that Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) and Google Ads remain the cornerstone of successful med spa marketing strategies.
“Heading into the fall, the number one place we're spending our clients' ad dollars is Meta Ads and Google Ads. That's not because we're married to it. We would be doing direct mail and RA video tomorrow if that's what works best.”
— Ricky Shockley [00:56]
Despite exploring platforms like TikTok, Ricky and Lauren emphasize that while TikTok can aid in brand omnipresence, it currently struggles with effective geotargeting and high customer acquisition costs. The recommendation is to prioritize Meta and Google Ads for lead generation and higher conversion rates.
The hosts outline a success matrix where outstanding reputation, compelling offers, and effective advertising synergize to drive business growth.
“Great reputation and great offers with good ads equal success. If anything is off, you need to adjust somewhere else.”
— Ricky Shockley [01:55]
They stress the importance of leveraging unique selling propositions and maintaining high standards in reputation to enhance marketing effectiveness. Adjustments in offer attractiveness can significantly lower customer acquisition costs.
Injectables, particularly Botox, Dysport, and Sculptra, are highlighted as pivotal services that attract new clients and facilitate upselling opportunities.
“Most healthy med spas are still somewhere in the range of 50 to 60% injectables. These services are high retention and are recurring revenue. They're sticky with low customer acquisition costs compared to lifetime value.”
— Ricky Shockley [05:32]
Lauren adds that these injectables not only offer good margins but also act as effective entry points for building a loyal client base.
Ricky and Lauren discuss proven promotional strategies for injectables, emphasizing competitive pricing and bundled offers to maximize appeal and conversions.
“By doing the competitive research, coming up with something that's more attractive than what other people are doing in terms of offer price point... Use that frame of reference as you're crafting your offers.”
— Ricky Shockley [10:09]
Lauren recommends specific promotions such as “Botox 20 units plus an Express facial 30 minutes for about $275,” which have shown high effectiveness in attracting and retaining clients.
The podcast addresses the shifting landscape of injectable services, noting a decline in traditional fillers and a rise in biostimulators like Sculptra.
“With filler, customer acquisition costs have skyrocket regardless of promotion... Sculptra is becoming really popular, and Radiesse along with Easy Gel are gaining traction.”
— Lauren [14:27]
Lauren explains that while fillers like Sculptra attract higher acquisition costs, they bring in high-quality clients with greater lifetime value, making them worthwhile investments despite the initial expense.
Ricky and Lauren explore the effectiveness of promoting high-ticket services such as laser treatments and microneedling, cautioning against razor-thin margins.
“High ticket sales packages can be profitable, but they often require substantial customer acquisition costs, which limits patient volume. It's more of a capture revenue strategy rather than setting up for long-term success.”
— Ricky Shockley [20:51]
They recommend focusing on competitive first-session offers and strategic upselling to ensure profitability without excessive marketing spend.
Sustaining client relationships is emphasized as essential for maximizing the return on marketing investments.
“If you're not retaining clients, your initial marketing efforts fall apart. Retention ensures that even with higher acquisition costs, the lifetime value justifies the spend.”
— Ricky Shockley [22:13]
Lauren highlights practical retention strategies, including personalized follow-ups, scheduling future appointments during the initial visit, and offering continuous promotions to encourage repeat business.
The hosts advocate for fostering loyalty not just towards individual providers but the practice as a whole, ensuring consistency and trust across all client interactions.
“Focus on building loyalty around the practice, not just the providers. Ensure continuity in experience and maintain a cohesive team that embodies your practice's philosophy.”
— Ricky Shockley [25:31]
This approach helps mitigate the impact of provider turnover and ensures that clients feel a strong, consistent connection to the practice.
“When crafting your ads, think about what your competitors aren’t offering and find ways to differentiate your services meaningfully.”
— Ricky Shockley [07:12]
Personalization in Marketing: Use personal photos of providers in ads to increase engagement and trust over generic stock images.
Automation with Personal Touch: Implement automated follow-ups while ensuring the final interactions maintain a personal, human touch to build stronger client relationships.
Adapting to AI and Search Engines: Stay updated with evolving search technologies like ChatGPT and adjust your SEO and marketing strategies accordingly.
Ricky and Lauren wrap up the episode by reinforcing the importance of a balanced approach that combines effective advertising, strong client offers, exceptional retention strategies, and continuous adaptation to market trends. They tease upcoming discussions on leveraging AI in med spa marketing, promising listeners more actionable insights in future episodes.
“Meta Ads and Google Ads are still the name of the game.”
— Ricky Shockley [00:56]
“Great reputation and great offers with good ads equal success.”
— Ricky Shockley [01:55]
“Injectables are the gateway drug to your med spa.”
— Ricky Shockley [05:32]
“Competitive research is crucial when crafting your offers.”
— Ricky Shockley [10:09]
“Customer acquisition costs for Sculptra range between $500 and $700.”
— Lauren [17:14]
“Retention ensures that even with higher acquisition costs, the lifetime value justifies the spend.”
— Ricky Shockley [22:13]
By implementing the strategies discussed in this episode, med spa and aesthetics practice owners can enhance their marketing effectiveness, attract high-quality clients, and secure long-term success in a competitive market.