Influencer Marketing in Aesthetics: A Guide for Practice Owners

In the ever-evolving world of aesthetic medicine, where the competition is fierce and staying ahead of the curve is crucial, practice owners often find themselves exploring what’s new in marketing strategies. One question that we always get because of the name of the agency is if your aesthetics practice should work with influencers to promote your treatments. The answer, while not one-size-fits-all, leans towards a resounding yes—if done correctly. Let’s explore why partnering with influencers can be a game-changer for your practice and how to navigate this collaboration effectively.

The Benefits of Influencer Marketing

1. Enhanced Visibility and Reach Influencers, particularly those with a significant following in the beauty and wellness sectors, have the power to amplify your practice’s reach. Their followers trust their recommendations, making influencer endorsements a powerful tool for increasing your visibility among potential clients who may not have discovered your practice otherwise.

2. Building Credibility and Trust In a field where trust and credibility are paramount, having a respected influencer vouch for your services can significantly enhance your practice’s reputation. When influencers share their positive experiences, it can help build a level of trust with their audience that traditional advertising often struggles to achieve.

3. Targeted Audience Engagement Influencers usually have a well-defined audience. By partnering with influencers whose followers match your target demographic, you ensure that your promotional efforts are reaching the right people—those who are most likely to be interested in your services.

4. Creating Authentic Content Influencers are adept at creating engaging and authentic content. When they showcase your services, they do so in a way that feels organic and relatable, which can be more compelling to potential clients than traditional advertisements.

How to Choose the Right Influencer

While the benefits of influencer marketing are clear, choosing the right influencer is critical. Here are some key considerations:

1. Relevance to Your Practice Ensure the influencer’s content aligns with the services you offer. An influencer who frequently discusses skincare and wellness can be more effective than one whose focus is on unrelated topics.

2. Engagement Over Follower Count An influencer with a smaller but highly engaged following can be more valuable than one with a large, disengaged audience. Look at the quality of interactions they have with their followers.

3. Authenticity and Values Choose influencers whose values align with your practice. Their endorsement should feel genuine to their audience. Authenticity is key to building trust.

4. Track Record and Professionalism Research their previous partnerships. Professionalism in past collaborations indicates that they will represent your practice well.

Making the Collaboration Work

1. Clear Objectives Define what you hope to achieve from the partnership. Whether it’s increased bookings, enhanced brand awareness, or promoting a new service, clear goals will guide your strategy.

2. Creative Freedom Allow influencers the creative freedom to present your services in a way that resonates with their audience. They understand what works best for their followers.

3. Transparency and Compliance Ensure that all promotional content is transparent and complies with advertising regulations. Authenticity is crucial, and transparency builds trust.

4. Monitoring and Measuring Success Track the performance of your influencer campaigns. Use metrics like engagement rates, new client inquiries, and social media growth to measure success and refine your approach.

Conclusion

Partnering with influencers can offer significant advantages for your aesthetics practice, from boosting visibility and building trust to engaging a targeted audience with authentic content. By carefully selecting the right influencers and establishing a clear, collaborative partnership, you can leverage influencer marketing to enhance your practice’s growth and success. Influencer marketing can also lead to an increase in the number of patients you see. However, finding and managing influencers can be time-consuming and requires careful attention.

At Aesthetic Influencer, we understand the challenges of managing local influencer partnerships and are here to help. DM us @aestheticinfluencer on Instagram or fill out the contact form on our website to learn more about how we can assist you in maximizing the benefits of influencer marketing while saving you time. Embrace influencer marketing and watch your practice thrive in the competitive aesthetics industry.

How to Rank on TikTok Search Results: Guide to TikTok SEO

Alright, my fellow Skintellectuals, we're about to spill the tea on TikTok SEO. Yep, you heard it right! If you're tired of lurking in the shadows of TikTok, it's time to shine like the radiant skin goddess you're known for.

In this guide, we're about to unlock the secrets to conquering TikTok's search results. Let's dive in!

1. Be a Trendsetter 📈

First things first, don’t be afraid to embrace trends. TikTok's search algorithm loves content that's current. So, keep your finger on the pulse of the latest skincare trends, sounds, and challenges.

2. Hashtags: Less is More 🚫🔍

Now, when it comes to hashtags, don't go overboard. TikTok isn't like that messy skincare drawer we all have – it prefers simplicity. Choose a couple of super-relevant hashtags that match your content like the perfect moisturizer for your skin type. Quality over quantity, bb!

3. Captions That Pop! 💬

Your captions should be as captivating as your last jaw-dropping before-and-after transformation. Be witty, informative, and use those keywords wisely. Don't be afraid to spill some skincare secrets (shhh, just between us Skintellectuals).

4. Engage, Engage, Engage! 💬💃

The more engagement, the better! Reply to comments, encourage shares, and be as interactive as the skincare quiz on your website. The more people engage with your content, the higher you'll rank in TikTok's search results. It's like a skincare routine for your TikTok profile – consistency is key!

5. Consistency is Queen 👑

Speaking of consistency, it's crucial. Regularly posting high-quality content will keep the TikTok algorithm coming back for more. It's like applying sunscreen every day - non-negotiable!

6. Stay True to You 😌

Lastly, be authentic. TikTok users can spot a fake a mile away. So, stay true to your skincare expertise and personality. Authenticity is the secret sauce to long-lasting TikTok success.

And there you have it, a crash course in TikTok SEO to help you rise to the top of those search results. Remember, it's all about using what’s on-trend in your favor, using hashtags smartly, captivating captions, engaging with your audience, staying consistent, and always being your fabulous, authentic skintellectual self.

Now go out there and make TikTok your skin health playground! Need help? Send an email to Jasmine@AestheticInfluencer.com and let’s chat.

3 Retail Goal Setting Tactics that Every Aesthetics Clinic Should Use

“Goal Setting” is a term that gets thrown around for just about everything, but for good reason!  In aesthetics, we always talk about goals, whether it is asking our clients what their treatment goals are, all the way to our staff business meetings when we are defining how many treatments and products we need to sell to reach our “goals”.  But in a busy world of injections, IPL, facials, peels, and clients, it’s not always easy to find the time to properly analyze business and set the appropriate goals for growth.  

Trust us- we were in the same boat when we first started, but we found a system that really worked for us and are sure it can help work for you.  While the full system is way too much information for a blog post, we will share with top 3 key points that can get you well on your way to setting goals that will strategically help you sell more retail!

1: Know Your Why.

Why did you decide to sell retail products in your practice in the first place? Was it to earn extra revenue? Was it to provide better service to your clients? Understanding your why will really help you to target how you want to grow.  Do you want to provide better service? Sell more units of your top selling products?  If you need some inspiration on identifying your why, we HIGHLY recommend watching this awesome video by Simon Sinek for an incredibly impactful 18 minutes of “why” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA

2: Analyze Your Business.

This can seem overwhelming, but when it comes to selling more retail, you don’t have to do a complete business overhaul.  Here are some things you can look at to help you find the gaps where you have room to grow: how many clients do you see each month, how many of these clients leave purchasing product, and how much retail did you sell last year?

3. Set a Benchmark Based Off Your Metrics.

Once you have answers to the above questions, it is really easy to see what is performing well, and where your retail recommendations may need some work.  A good industry benchmark to keep in mind is to have at least 50% of your clients having procedures or treatments with you purchasing at least one product.  If you have less than this metric, you know you can focus on promoting products with the services that can bring you revenue increases.  If you sold $50,000 in retail last year, and want to do $75,000 this year, a great thing to do is to break that into monthly, weekly, and daily goals.  For example, out of the average 261 working days per year, selling $75,000 annually in retail equates to selling $6,250 per month, or appx. $288 per day.  This is likely equivalent to selling a full regimen to 1-2 clients!  Reverse engineering your goals has its advantage because it takes something that is otherwise intimidating and makes it super achievable in your clinic.  It also can help keep staff motivated.  Bonus: remember to track everything.  What gets measured gets managed!

 We hope these tips help you increase your sales and reach your goals.  Stay tuned for more marketing and social media articles.  

Social Summer School - Tips To Build Your Email List Using Instagram

Summer is generally slower with many of accounts. Clients are away on vacation and many are enjoying beaches and other activities in the sun so they may postpone skin treatments like chemical peels and lasers until the fall. With that in mind, summer may be the perfect time to take some of the downtime to work on a new skill for yourself and put them to work implementing an updated strategy for your business. If you haven’t been building an email list, this summer may be a great time to start building it up as you start creating content to hit the floor running with for fall.

Are you on Instagram? Here’s a way to build up your list using a social media platform you already use and love!

1. Install the Facebook Pixel on your website if it's not already there. 

2. Create a custom audience of the people who already subscribed to your email list. 

3. Use Facebook to create a custom audience of people who have interacted with your IG content in X amount of days. 

4. Record a video for an IG Stories ad and target your custom audience of who has interacted with your IG content, but EXCLUDE those on your custom audience of email list subscribers. 

5. Use a CTA ( Call to action) asking people to swipe up to join and have your emails set to a drip campaign welcoming them so they are engaged before your next newsletter. 

6. Get on Instagram and DM us @AestheticInfluencer and let us know you just tried this!

The Number One Rule of Cosmeceutical Retail You Never Want to Break

One of the most critical keys to the success of any business, no matter the industry, is having a thorough business plan.

According to a recient survey conducted by Palo Alto Software, out of the thousands of business owner respondents, those who completed business plans were twice as likely to successfully grow their businesses or obtain capital than those who didn’t write a plan.

Not only does having a plan allow you to gain a firm grasp on all the moving parts of your business such as revenue streams, profit margins, and methods for how you’ll market your business, but this plan also sets the direction of your focus. After all, you can’t meet your goal if you don’t have a map to help you get there, and the same goes for retail and cosmeceutical sales.

Why Your Retail Needs Its Own Plan

So, at this point, you might think the biggest retail mistake is not having a business plan, which is partially the case, but more so, the number one rule of retail you never want to break is not treating retail like its own business unit or entity. Yes, retail will tie into other revenue streams and elements of your business plan. However, if you truly want to make retail a highly profitable section of your business, which it should be if you want to experience long-term sustainability, you need to outline a plan that focuses solely on the actions you will take to grow and expand your retail revenue.

The First Step In Creating Your Plan

As we previously mentioned, your retail plan will inevitably tie into other elements of your business, for example, treatments and services, but that’s not where you’ll begin. Retail has numerous facets that make up the bigger picture, and the first place to start is your goals. If you created a pie chart of all your business revenue, how much of the pie would you want retail to take up? Now, if you take that overall percentage and divide it into monthly totals, then weekly, then daily...how much retail do you need to sell per day in your clinic? When you take this step of mapping out your ultimate goal and breaking it down into smaller, incremental goals, you’re able to get a realistic picture that guides the creation of the rest of your plan.

Reverse Engineering Your Remaining Retail Plan Components

Once you’ve mapped out your monthly, weekly, and daily goals, now you can move forward with the actual merchandising and selling of retail. What most clinics do is purchase a mass quantity of inventory and then they’re stuck with having to move all that product. This approach immediately puts your business in a deficit, and you risk losing money or only breaking even on your retail in the long-run.

By setting your goals first, then you can reverse engineer the rest of your plan. For example:

• Merchandising: How much product should you have on-hand and how can you source those products so that you’re achieving the best profit margin?

• Educating: How will you train and educate your staff so that they feel empowered and equipped to sell your retail with confidence and expertise?

• Selling: How do you plan to position your product lines with your treatments and services? How will you and/or your team approach the sales process and point of sale with your clients?

• Promote: When will you run product promotions? What strategies and tactics will you use during these dedicated promotions or pushes? How will you fit retail into your spa or clinic’s overall marketing plan?

As you can see, with the proper planning, retail can transform from simply being an additional offering for your clients to being a highly profitable income source for your business.  The question is, will you resist the urge to dive headfirst, or will you take the time and few extra steps upfront to ensure your future success?!

4 Must-Have Items You Should Receive From Your Cosmeceutical Products Rep

Possessing a thorough knowledge of the cosmeceutical products you sell is a no-brainer. After all, how could you expect to truly get a client to buy into your at-home care plan or regimen if you don’t demonstrate that you’re an expert in what you offer?

However, that’s not to say it’s up to you to be doing all the legwork when it comes to rounding out your product knowledge. Between managing an office, helping provide treatments, and a host of other tasks you may be responsible for, it helps to know you’ve got a great cosmeceuticals rep you can count on. Here are the top four things you should receive from your rep that you’ll want to make sure you leverage to make the most of their expertise and your time:

1) Education

To know every single thing about every product you carry would be wonderful, but to do your research, gather all the information, and know how to present it to both your team and your clients can be quite the undertaking.  And that’s exactly why product reps exist. They know everything there is to know about the product they’re selling, and their knowledge is also there for you to rely on.

Whether it’s providing a lunch and learn for your staff so they can ask questions and learn the proper applications and contraindications, or it’s getting a complete one-on-one debrief and demonstration on the product without having to spend hours scrolling through and reading online materials, your product rep’s education is there for your disposal.

Work with them to find the best way to learn about the product so that you and your team are well-equipped to handle educating your own clients adequately and efficiently.

2) Marketing Materials

While it’s your job to market your retail through educating your clients, it’s not your job to figure out the other marketing components.

However, that is your product rep’s job.

In addition to providing a plethora of information about the product, cosmeceutical reps should have a marketing toolkit they can pull from to provide you with the proper materials you’ll need to promote your products in a way that’s visually appealing and aligned with your brand’s messaging.

Whether it’s brochures, information sheets, social media and newsletter graphics, or product images you can use on your website or create your own brand’s marketing collateral, product reps will be able to give you the marketing foundation for that products’ sales success.

3) Testers

If you think of sales as a one-two punch process, testers are the “one.”  When it comes to cosmeceutical products, testers are your chance to give your client the “try before you buy” experience without having to wait for their next visit to close the sale.

Most buyers simply want to get a glimpse of the look and feel of what they’re considering before pulling the trigger on their purchase. This is why we try on clothes in dressing rooms, get to take cars for a test drive, and get a free class pass at fitness clubs.

With testers, your product rep is giving you the opportunity to demonstrate, educate and give your client the hands-on experience they need to make their buying decision.

4) Samples

Back to our analogy, samples are the “two” of your one-two punch and can be used strategically for a couple of reasons:

1 - To give your prospective client more time to try out the product. This approach is best used when you’ve demonstrated the product with your tester, but your client is still on the fence. You’ll just need to make sure you put your follow-up process in place to close the sale at a later date.

2 - You’ve successfully sold a product (or products) and want to prime your client for a future product sale by gifting them a sample. Again, your follow-up process should be in place for all the products you’ve sold to ensure your client is enjoying them, seeing results, and has all their questions answered, but you’ll also want to ask about any samples you provide as well.

In essence, samples are another element of the marketing toolkit that your cosmeceutical rep possesses and that you’ll want to leverage to lead to your sales success. And, as with everything, knowledge is power, so now that you know what you need, don’t be afraid to ask!

Your cosmeceutical product rep should be providing all these elements upfront, but if not, that’s what they’re there to help you with to reach and exceed your sales goals.

It’s time to take the reins on your retail, let your rep help you get a handle on it!

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The Top 3 Areas to Reinvest Your Cosmeceutical Revenue

When you hear “increased revenue,” what do you envision?

More commas and zeros in your P&L spreadsheet? Padding you and your staff's paychecks?While those things are certainly nice, they don’t illustrate the true potential that lies within a bump in your cosmeceutical revenue.

We’ve talked extensively about how to grow your cosmeceutical revenue using educational strategies and digital marketing tactics, but what we haven’t dived into is what you can do with that added budget to continue growing your spa or practice to steadily and sustainably bring in more revenue in every area of your business.

When it comes to continuing to grow your revenue, the key to long-term growth is reinvesting. These are the top three areas of your practice you’ll want to funnel those funds from your cosmeceutical sales:

1) Uplevel Your Equipment

Services are every practice’s bread and butter, so if you let those slip, you’re going to find all your subsequent revenue streams will suffer.

One of the best ways to make sure your services, and the results they provide for your clients, don’t become subpar, is to upgrade your current equipment that is in need of a technological or operational upgrade or invest in new equipment that will allow you to expand your service menu.

If you’re looking at the long-game strategy with this reinvestment, by buffing up the quality and selection of your services through new equipment, you’ll also expand your opportunities to continue growing cosmeceutical sales revenue through selling more at-home care regimens and complementary products.

2) Grow Your Team

So, you’ve steadily increased your sales through services, and you’re well on your way to seeing a big increase in your cosmeceutical and retail sales, but you’ve also realized with growth comes great responsibility…

Okay, that may be a touch dramatic, but in all seriousness, it is your responsibility to evaluate and evolve in all areas of your practice when you’re experiencing significant growth in one or two key areas. And one of those areas is staffing.

By reinvesting your cosmeceutical revenue into team growth, you ensure that your business has the workforce to keep up with client demand and make room for more schedule availability, provide a higher-caliber customer service experience, and keep your staff’s attention and time devoted to the tasks they’re best at and enjoy most.

3) Build Out and Beyond

Once you’ve reinvested into the two biggest elements of your practice with your cosmeceutical revenue (services and staffing), now you can take a look at some of the outlying areas that could use a boost.

A few smart and strategic reinvestment areas include:

Building out a beautiful retail area - Maybe you’ve only sold cosmeceuticals through client conversations or only have a few shelves of product to display in your lobby. Those are great ways to get started, but once you see increased strength in your cosmeceutical sales, it’s in your practice’s best interest to dedicate a front-and-center space for your retail that’s visually appealing and gets your clients interested in the products you sell before they ever step foot into your treatment room.

Creating an enticing staff incentive program - Even the most dedicated of employees do better with incentives. If you actually want to make cosmeceutical sales a full-team effort, creating an incentive program that rewards your employees for peak performance is a good way not just to boost sales once, but keep your staff invested in the overall growth of your practice.

Open a new office location - Believe it or not, cosmeceutical retail revenue can be the sole source of funding for opening another location of practice.

As you can see, by reinvesting your cosmeceutical revenue into your practice in the right places, you stand a chance to grow your entire practice exponentially. And if you repeat your retail prices at multiple locations, you can envision how retail reinvestment can truly pave the way for building an empire.

So, when it comes to leveraging cosmeceutical sales, what are you waiting for?

Successful Cosmeceuticals Sales Start Here!

If we’re being technical, the act of making a sale is quick. As soon as someone hands over their payment, you’ve officially made a sale.

The transaction happens in the blink of an eye, but anyone who’s sold, well, pretty much anything, especially cosmeceuticals, knows that there’s a much more extensive process to making a sale.

It’s a journey, almost like a relay race, and if your team isn’t 100 percent on board with walking your client through the sales process properly, you’re not going to make it to the close. Here’s how you can use your team to control the structure of the sale and ensure the baton doesn’t get dropped in the hand-off.

The Provider’s Seal of Approval
Every cosmeceutical sale should start with the provider for a couple of reasons. Introducing a product too soon in the process can be confusing for your client or can come off as an unwelcome advance. Sales is about relationship building, thus presenting a sale too soon can feel like proposing on date three…it’s a little off-putting.

The provider’s seal of approval anchors the sale and sets the tone for the rest of the process.  While the first reason is important, the second is truly critical because the provider is who legitimizes the medical use of a product purchased at your clinic, spa, or office.

The provider has the strongest tie of trust to the client, and they hold the position as the leading expert in the practice or spa, so it’s crucial their recommendation is properly communicated to the staff to carry out the sale.

Educating Your Client to the Sale

Because providers rarely have time to “sell,” or sit and go through the details, applications, and information on the product, it’s critical that staff take over this process and bring it to life. But, as we previously mentioned, their process and message must align with the provider’s. If it doesn’t, or the staff recommendations deviate, that’s where clients become confused, trust is breached, and a sale can be lost.

The way to ensure that this miscommunication doesn’t occur is by using supporting staff experts such as aestheticians and nurses to educate the client’s way to the sale. Some of the methods of educating to the sale include explaining the features and benefits of the product, how to use it, and why they should purchase it at your practice or spa versus alternatively-labelled products that claim to have the same results from different providers who may not be reliable in their cosmeceuticals’ quality.

Through the education process, a client will decide whether the product is for them right now (yay!), but even if it’s not the same day, know that the sales process still isn’t finished…

Closing with a Consistent Message

Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “the fortune is in the follow-up,” whether you have or not, know that it’s entirely accurate. There are hundreds of reasons why someone might be a “no” on buying a particular product or service today, however, that “no” can turn into an effortless “yes” (thanks to your educational sales process) down the line. That "yes" might come a day or two, a month, or even more than a year later, but you won’t know until you follow up.

Let your prospect know they can expect someone from your team to be in touch within a particular time frame and stick to that time window.  Also, know that your prospect might get back in touch before you follow up, which is again, why everyone on the team from the provider all the way down to the support staff who answers the phone need to be on board with a consistent message.  

Once you have this key component of your sales process solidified between all the members of your team, it’s time to start closing those sales and changing the lives of your clients.

Jasmine Hill, MBA serves as a co-founder of Aesthetic Influencer, a Los Angeles based organization assisting medical practices with developing their brand voice and digital strategies. She can be reached at jasmine@aestheticinfluencer.com. You may also follow @AestheticInfluencer on Instagram for more tips on digital tools like Instagram and Facebook for your aesthetic business. PS - She wrote this article from the view of being a former cosmecutical sales rep ;-)

Stop Recycling TikTok Videos To Reels Without Doing This One Thing First!

Discover & share this TikTok Brasil GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

We know content is queen, but let’s face it, it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with all of the things and your day-to-day in the clinic. When everyone migrated to TkTok last year, some of our early medical adaptors swiftly rose in views as people piled onto the platform leaving many who were still only posting to Instagram wanting to try TikTok out as a platform. For those hacking content themselves once Instagram launched its competitor, Reels, it became the norm to jump on a trend in TikTok and just save the video to be uploaded to Reels. Up until now, you have been able to get away with it since Instagram had been giving Reels a high priority, but Instagram is starting to place a higher priority in the algorithm on the content not posted with the TikTok watermark so it’s time to either make content specific to the platform OR try downloading an app like SaveTok. This app allows you to copy the link of your TikTok video and save it without the watermark so you are free to repost it on your Instagram account!

Now you of course can always just create a video within the Instagram platform and upload it directly to Reels, but between the access to much better clips of music and a very straightforward video editor . . . hands down, we prefer using TikTok if you are making videos yourself!

To read the full article, check it out below on The Verge!

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/9/22274332/instagram-algorithm-tiktok-watermark-recommendation-software-best-practices

Diversity In The Aesthetics Indusrty

Hi, I'm Jasmine,

I work with a range of brands in the aesthetics industry from women who are trying to find their brand's voice as they launch their new medical spas to corporate skincare brands where I’ve interacted with their CEOs and marketing teams as we plan content shoots and messaging for their social media pages. With some brands I help come up with a strategy for their own team to execute and for others, I help manage their day-to-day posting, content, and influencer marketing.

I am mixed, Black and Indian.

As a woman of color, it's pretty impossible for me not to look at my work with brands through a lens of diversity. I've been fortunate enough to have worked with a very diverse client base and have interacted with many this last week who have asked for advice within their organization as #blacklivematter caught the attention of the world who feel an internal responsibility to make changes not only at home and in their social circles but within their businesses.

In addition to advising my own clients, I was engaged in countless video chats and calls (in between my adventures in pandemic homeschooling) consulting with new brands that reached out to think through inclusive marketing strategies or ways they can use their influence to make a difference. And honestly, as much as it may have felt uncomfortable for some of them, let me assure you it was also a little awkward for me, sometimes the closest person to a black person on their team, but we are in this together.

For those of you reading this in positions across corporate brands in aesthetic from Allergan to ZO Skin Health who aspire to become more inclusive leaders, look around you at the leadership team which shapes the culture of your brand and ask if it is reflective of the community you wish to serve. Many brands have now answered the #pulluporshutup challenge started by Sharon from Uoma Beauty which brought transparency to diversity across the leadership of brands all across Beauty, Skincare, Hair, and more. Change is not an overnight process or post of a black square on social media by your company. My suggestion is to use your voice to start to build out what that process towards change looks like within your organization because taking action is what drives true change.

One principle I hope more brands begin to realize is that representation matters. From the people who are in the User-Generated Content you pull to include on your feed, the models you choose for photoshoots when you need content on your website and social media pages, to the influencers you want in your campaigns or to be invited to your brand events to help sell your brand story.

Take time as you think through shifts you can make in your own business practices to be more diverse and build more inclusive marketing strategies. Yes, showing support on social media is powerful, but taking action is what makes the change. Looking forward to helping make these changes with some of your teams together.

Photo by the incredibly talented Kaye McCoy in Los Angeles, CA.

How To Use IGTV For Your Medical Spa

Video is a great way to engage your audience. IGTV is the longer form video option on Instagram that we can describe as close to having your own YouTube channel, but attached to your Instagram name. You can use IGTV to be able to grow your brand awareness and foster a connection with your brand. One advantage as a brand is if you post onto IGTV, as of the time of recording this, as a newer feature, Instagram is giving it priority within the app by giving your followers notifications of a new IGTV post no matter where your posts fall on that user’s feed….so great for brand awareness.

Here at AI, we’re excited about IGTV for our clients. Our client’s followers can get a better look behind the scene and at the treatments they provide in addition to developing a deeper trust with the provider. For clinics looking to target more millennials, IGTV allows them to connect on a platform they are already spending so much time on.

YOUTUBE or IGTV: I still like YouTube to upload videos because you should think of YouTube as a search engine. It is where people are going to find answers to questions. So if you know you are getting a lot of the same questions over and over again in consultations, this is a great place to upload a video of that answer and use that as the title of your video because that is “searchable.” One advantage of being able to post your videos on Instagram though is many clients may have audiences built up on IG and not wanting to start again with building an audience on another platform. If they post on IGTV, their Instagram audience automatically has access to these videos so they have an instant audience who can view them. For clients fortunate enough to have built a YouTube audience already, IGTV is a great place to tease new video content to cross their Instagram audience over to YouTube.  

So now that you are thinking of using IGTV, need some help thinking of what to post on there? We like to break them down into three categories:

Behind-The-Scenes: Think of this style as being more like a documentary. You can let people in on VIP look of  what a day in your personal or business life looks like. This may be anything from taping a procedure you have consent on to a brand intro video. If you want it to be more personal, try shooting a “get ready with me” style video at home of what you are using on your skin on #SELFCARESUNDAY!

Tutorial: If there is anything your clients are searching for on YouTube, it is probably a tutorial of some sort. Your clients are already seeking information on things like how to apply eye cream or if a beauty tool you may sell like LightStim is right for them.

Commentary: This style of video is what we are recording right now! I could have done this as a podcast because it’s really just me going on and on about my ideas on IGTV, but doing it on video helps put a face to the brand. Your commentary could be anything relevant to your audience from “Top 5 questions you should ask your injector in a consultation” to commenting your views on a hot topic of the moment like Kyle coming out to say she dissolved her filler and what products can be dissolved with a video of what that looks like. Commentary videos can even be testimonial videos of your clients!

Number one rule is to not overthink things, so get a few ideas on paper and map out at least 12 you can use to drip out one video per month over the next year. And pro tip: be sure to add a cover/thumbnail to your IGTV video. I believe it’s 9:16 and you can make one in Canva from scratch or use a photo from the shoot with some text overlay and make it look GOOD!

The 5 New Instagram Updates You Need to Know!

As you know, our favorite social media platform is constantly changing! Sometimes it seems impossible to stay on top of everything, but the most recent 5 updates are ones that we are really excited about! Read on for a quick summary and how you can implement some of these to make your profile more engaging to your followers!

SPOTIFY SHARING
We are so excited about this one! Sometimes music can be a lot more powerful than words, and if you are experiencing some good vibes and want to share, its super easy! Just tap the 3 dots on your Spotify profile and choose "share to stories".  And there it is! Your stories just got a lot more interesting!

BRANDED FACE FILTERS
This one is another really powerful tool!  You can now create your own, branded Instagram stories face filters by using Facebook's AR camera platform.  This way you can maximize your branded impact with your followers while standing out and having fun!

GROUP VIDEO CHAT FEATURE
What a fantastic way to stay close to and engaged with existing and potential aesthetic clients! Instagram now lets you chat with up to 6 people at the same time.  Imagine being able to do group consults are answer the tough questions with similarly interested people.  This feature will prove to be incredibly powerful for your aesthetics practice.  Look out facetime!

COMMENT MODERATION
So happy this feature is now available.  Instagram has now made it possible to identify and block offensive comments.  So much better than Yelp!

NEW EXPLORE PAGE
Instagram has revamped their explore page and has created a New Channels feature which allows you to see a variety of topics at the top of the page.  This is great because it allows you to follow what is happening within our industry as well as to watch what is happening in other industries that you find inspirational!  By customizing these channels, the explore page will seem even more curated.

Here at AI we have been having a ton of fun playing with these new features!  Stay tuned and maybe you will see some of our custom face filters.  As always, any questions or comments, please reach out!  Have you played with something amazing? Created something new? Please share! We love to see the success stories of our clients.

All our best,
Nicole + Jasmine
PS: Want to stay connected to how social media constantly impacts our Aesthetics businesses? Be sure to click on the link and join our conversation in Aesthetics Business Live, our FB group dedicated to social media and business development best practice sharing.

Social Media Online Summit For Aesthetic Practices - May 19th!

Want to Build A Monetizable Social Brand that Boosts the Influence of Your Aesthetics Practice?

Click HERE to register for May 19th! 

In this summit, we go through the tools, tips, and timesavers we use at Aesthetic Influencer to help aesthetic practices build their influence, gain clientele, and boost their business using social media. 

You will learn:

--> How to create a solid brand story for the practice and cut through the noise to stand out in your market as an influencer.

--> How to integrate a local strategy to attract patients in the area surrounding your clinic. 

--> The top 5 things you need to do to get started immediately.

--> Which management tools and creative apps we recommend to help save time and maximize your efforts.  

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The end result? A monetizable, high-converting platform that boosts your aesthetics business in a simple, easy-to-implement way.

For more information and how to register, click HERE!

These Quick Hacks Make Marketing Your Practice On Social Media Even Easier

Does this sound familiar? You’ve setup your Facebook business page, you’ve tweeted, you have yourself on a semi-schedule to “do it for the gram”, and you even snap to yourself, but all you are getting back in return is crickets? Don’t worry, you're not alone, but these hacks will get you back on track to building brand loyalty and relationships through social media.

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#1: Ditch the code for the wi-fi: It is no secret Facebook is looking to take over the world, but they need small businesses to succeed to help make that goal happen so be sure to take advantage of this little hack. They can turn your business into a wi-fi hot spot for free so all people need to do to get online and do some work while waiting for a treatment is “check-in” to your practice or medical spa. We all know it feels good to have 10,000 fans on Facebook, but local love that can walk through the doors is priceless. When those people check-in to your spot on Facebook, all of their friends have access to seeing that as a story on their news feed which may draw a few more eyes to explore what services you offer or spark a few inquiries to their friend that result in a referral. After checking in, Facebook also gives people a prompt to like your page so you might even end up with a new fan!

**Read more about how to do this on Facebook's blog here.

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#2: Get noticed while patients are catching up on their timeline: Be sure you are spreading the word about where you can be found on social media. You should have quality signage with clear calls to action about following you and what patients should be tagging their their photos with in your high traffic areas. We are in and out of a ton of offices, and while most will at least put a sign by check-out or in the waiting room, one often overlooked place is in the treatment rooms! More often than not, people are already mentally out of the door while they are at the checkout desk making their next appointment, but they might be scrolling around Facebook or Instagram while waiting in the patient room so give them a visual cue to remember to follow.

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#3: Smiles are Instagram gold: Want to know why cat videos go viral on YouTube? People like things that make them smile and entertain them. Once people find you on social, don’t just bombard them with your promotions. Don’t forget part of the magic of social media is in entertainment and the ability to make someone smile. Don’t be afraid to post a photo of the surgeon making a silly face or even participating in some fun social media holidays because what the best business accounts do on social networks is incorporate bits and pieces of business as well as personal to leverage the full power of social media.

Which of these ideas sparked your interest? Follow us on Twitter @Aesthetic_Scout and tweet us to let us know!

Using Metrics to Optimize and Increase Your Practice’s Cosmeceutical Retail Sales

Metrics make your retail work for you.

When setting a goal of increased retail sales, one of the biggest mistakes a business can make is not calculating and analyzing their metrics. This applies to businesses in every industry, but it’s especially critical in the world of cosmeceutical retail due to the aesthetic industry having the unique edge of leveraging services and treatments to sell products. As you set quarterly and annual sales goals for your practice, there are a few steps you’ll want to take to ensure your goals have substance and they can successfully be met. The way you do that is by running reports, pulling your stats, and crunching the numbers.

Here’s how to get started:

Examine Your Metrics and Identify Success Patterns.  

Before we dive in, let’s start off with the big elephant in the room. Your bottom line. Yes, we’re compelled to jump to revenue and profits, and while that is obviously a significant piece of the bigger picture, there are other numbers we need to consider first. Because it’s these metrics, such as the number of patients in your practice, the average number of products sold per transaction, and service to retail ratio, among other metrics, that will help you grasp the full scope of your current position as a cosmeceutical sales powerhouse.  So, as you’re examining those aforementioned metrics, here are a few questions to ask:

• How has your net number or ratio changed since the previous year, quarter, and month?

• When did you experience spikes or upward trends in your numbers? Make a note of those time periods.

• What factors contributed to an increase or decrease in your numbers? Did you have high employee turnover a particular quarter? Did you run a well-targeted marketing campaign?

As you can see, by running your numbers and analyzing your metrics, you’re better equipped to find causation and correlation between the actions you’re taking, or not taking, to increase your sales. When you run your reports, we recommend pulling numbers from the previous two years of your practice, if available, to help establish your baseline in the next step.

Determine Your Baseline

Now that you’ve assessed your metrics and identified your success patterns, or what actions create a positive trend in your sales, you’re able to determine your baseline. Without a baseline, you risk wasting time, effort, and resources on actions that haven’t proven themselves to generate a significant return on investment as well as being unclear on your progress as you move forward. It’s also important to note that if you’re more of a newly established business or your cosmeceutical sales have remained relatively consistent over the previous two years; this step is important for you as well, it’ll make things easier.

To determine your baseline, or your starting point to grow upwards from, calculate the monthly averages of your metrics by totaling your weekly sales and dividing them by the number of weeks in the month. Then, in addition to those monthly averages, total your monthly sales averages for January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December and divide by three to determine your quarterly average. Many client relationship and retail management software programs can generate these numbers for you, but it’s helpful to know how they’re calculated. You can repeat the process to find your yearly average, however, tracking your metrics on a month-to-month and quarterly basis will be the most beneficial as you monitor your progress and work to accomplish your retail sales goals.

Set Realistic and Actionable Goals

Alright, now that you have a clear picture of your monthly and quarterly averages as well as the actions that may have contributed to those outcomes, it’s time to set new goals for increasing your cosmeceutical retail sales. Beyond doing the pre-work for your baseline, the most important factors in accomplishing your goals is making them realistic and creating an action plan. For example, setting the goal of doubling your retail sales in the next quarter compared to the same quarter last year might be realistic or overly ambitious, it all depends on your baseline and the time and resources you currently have available to allocate toward your goal.

If your retail sales were lower over the previous year’s quarter, doubling those sales may be very reasonable, especially if you only sold retail passively alongside treatments opposed to this quarter when you plan to spend more money on advertising, staff training to increase product repurchase rate, and reassessing your gross margins. However, if you were taking some of those actions in the previous quarter and had a fair amount of retail revenue, but you’d like to gradually increase it, coming in with a goal of bumping up your sales by 15 or 25 percent might be more attainable. Once you’ve set your new metric to hit, it’s time to outline your actions because we’ve all heard the saying:

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Some actions we’ve already mentioned include bolstering your marketing efforts through ad campaigns (we highly suggest using Facebook ads for your business), influencer marketing and creating new and appealing promotions as well as devoting more time to staff education and training.  

However, you might also want to consider hosting an event, forming strategic partnerships in your community, or reassessing the lines you carry. These are all broad ideas, so once you settle on a few to focus on per month or per quarter, now comes the time to break out all those actions into the details.  For example, when creating a new promotion, you'll need to develop the corresponding copy and images, subsequent flyers, email newsletters, social media posts, and advertisements. Then you need to set deadlines for implementing those tasks. See your plan out from start to finish, delegate tasks to your team (this can include the step of creating an actionable plan), and plot out your steps on a calendar.

Laser-focused action leads to results.

Stay On Top of Metrics for More Sales

Finally, as you make headway with taking actions associated with meeting your goals, you don’t want to let those metrics fall to the wayside.

Remember, what gets measured gets managed.

Set aside time in your schedule to stay on top of tracking your metrics by running weekly and monthly reports, and notice how the actions you’re taking are affecting those numbers. And most importantly, remain flexible to testing and tweaking.

If you see something is working, stay the course and get creative with more ways you can leverage that tactic. If something crashed and burned, make a note of it and shift some elements around to see if you can garner better outcomes. All in all, boosting your cosmeceutical sales is essentially a big experiment. You need to know what you’re starting with, the results you’re aiming to achieve and the steps you’ll take to bridge the gap. You may not hit the mark on your first try, but if you remain diligent with tracking your metrics and open to trying new tactics, you’ll be well on your way to meeting and exceeding your cosmeceutical retail sales goals.

Jasmine Hill, MBA serves as a co-founder of Aesthetic Influencer, a Los Angeles based organization assisting medical practices with developing their brand voice and digital strategies. She can be reached at jasmine@aestheticinfluencer.com. You may also follow @AestheticInfluencer on Instagram for more tips on digital tools like Instagram and Facebook for your aesthetic business.

The War On Snapchat

The war between Snapchat and Instagram has been nonstop with new features being launched on both platforms left and right. Snapchat made itself more advertising friendly with their new Ad Manager and a business location geofilter, but everyone has been waiting on Instagram to add filters to their stories and today it finally happened. There are eight face-filters that were released today including a cuddly koala which may be a girl's new favorite filter since puppy dogs have been getting old, a new erase feature, the ability to add in a hashtag as a sticker to your post, and a rewind option so you can throw confetti around like kindness and watch it go back to where it came from. Zuckerburg alluded at the Facebook F8 conference last month to expect a ton of updates related to augmented reality so we know we have only scratched the surface of new offerings and can't wait to see what gets released next!

What is your favorite new filter released today?

Year Of The Bot

The improvements to the Instagram platform are never ending these days and almost hard for us to even keep up with. While Instagram may have shut down bot services like Instagress, there is another whisper of bot that we have been paying attention to, Messenger bots. We will say it once, twice, and you will hear us say it again: You will not be able to have a marketing strategy that ignores Facebook. Facebook’s trio of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger apps all hit the 2016 list of most popular apps on mobile. The more they can get users to stay on their platforms, the more ad space they can sell. The more they can get those three apps to complement each other, the more they can sell businesses on the fact that they need to be there too.

While we are still evaluating it ourselves, Marketing Land sites some marketers as looking at messenger as a new alternative to email marketing. While we still believe in the value of growing your own email list outside of social media followers, the launch of Instagram placement for click to messenger ads can allow you as a business to start an immediate conversation with your customer.

Are you using bots on your website or Facebook messenger for your clinic? Tweet us @Aesthetic_Scout and let us know your thoughts!

Why Selling Cosmeceuticals in Your Practice Helps Build Trust

Since we work in a service based industry, we all can relate that the number one attribute that makes the difference in our success is building trust with our clients.  Trust builds client loyalty and all of the rewards that come with it, including repeat visits, repeat purchases, and new client referrals.

Trust is typically built with providing good service and meeting/exceeding client expectations, but did you know that selling cosmeceuticals also builds trust?

There are three distinct opportunities to build trust in your practice with cosmeceuticals.

1.     Build trust by providing stellar recommendations.  Let’s face it: You are the professional. You know your client’s skin better than anyone else! Your recommendations are always going to be better than those coming from stores or beauty counters. 

2.     Build trust by providing opportunities through education.  Did you know that education leads to more sales than well-proven selling techniques? As we mentioned before, since you are the professional, your training and expertise are far more equipped to answer your client’s questions and help them reach their true treatment goals.  When you educate your clients how to use the right skin care through a regimen completely tailored to their specific goals and needs, trust comes naturally.

3.     Build trust by providing immediate solutions.  We all know that even the best skin care products take time to work, but the simple act of providing a recommendation on the spot of high-efficacy products fills the “instant gratification” gap that most of our clients have.

One thing about trust always remains true: trust gives you access.  Access provides opportunities for education and recommendations.  Education and good recommendations leads to increased sales for your practice!  Win-win… you benefit your practice by doing exactly what you love to do, which is best servicing your clients, and your practice grows along with it!

An additional benefit and takeaway is that you’re helping to meet the growing consumer demand from clients who want expert advice from a provider they trust.  They are increasingly ditching department store and pharmacy brands for professional product recommendations from their trusted providers in the aesthetic space.  In fact, the demand is growing so fast that the medically dispensed product segment of the professional market officially outpaced the rest of the professional skincare market in 2015 and is expected to remain that way for the years to come! This means huge growth for your practice by doing what you do best- making great recommendations with products you trust, and serving your very loyal patient base!

Three Considerations for Retail Display to Boost Your Sales!

Here at AI, we are often asked to consult on creating success in cosmeceutical retail and decided it was about time to share our wisdom pearls with the world!  After all, our mission is to help support the aesthetics industry by sharing knowledge and experiences.  There are often misconceptions when there is a decision made to sell cosmeceutical retail. Many clinics think that the products will grow feet and walk off the shelf, followed by a nice chunk of cash magically landing in the bank account!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work like that.   When you make the choice to devote your time and energy to delivering results in the aesthetics world, it doesn’t always leave a lot of time to master the art of selling retail.  Fear not my friend- I am going to share some tried and true secrets that can help you really maximize your retail efforts with a few small tweaks to what you already have!

Believe it or not, your retail display is a HUGE factor in your sales because it is what paints the picture to your clients, otherwise referred to in this post as consumer, (because when they leave your office after the appointment, that is exactly what they are), that business is thriving and well, and your retail recommendations can be trusted.  Think about it.  When you go to the grocery store and want to purchase your favorite yogurt, do you want to search for it in the midst of a random group of yogurt? What if it is locked behind a cabinet door? Do you want to ask the grocer to unlock it for you? What if it is way in the back and only one left.  Does this paint a picture of fresh, or a picture of sketch?  The same rules apply to your display.  You don’t want to make your consumers work extra hard to buy something from you.  You don’t want them leaving thinking they cannot trust your recommendations.  If it is clean, easy, and in line with what they are used to seeing in a sales setting, you will win their trust and ultimately, the sale.

Does your retail display need a facelift? It’s easy to start by making just a few tweaks that will increase your sales without requiring a hefty investment! Here is a quick 3-step checklist to make sure your retail display is up-to-par and working for you while you work for your patients.

1:  Number of Products

The number of products you keep on your shelves is important.  You want the display to look healthy and that business is moving.  A good rule of thumb is to have 3-6 of each product on display at all times.  This way you don’t have too much inventory, it doesn’t look cluttered, but it is enough product to show that you do mean business and you have committed to selling the best products. Bonus: Products should be out in the open for people to interact with, touch, feel, and try.  Having to ask someone behind the desk to open a locked cabinet to see a product is very intimidating, and will scare a lot of your consumers away from making a purchase.  

 2: Testers, Testers, Testers

I cannot stress this point enough: put your testers out! Your clients (consumers) will buy a product that they can feel, smell, and interact with.  Put them out there!  Don’t worry about theft.  The money you will make by having testers available will far offset what you may lose by someone snatching a tester.  Bonus: your product reps will likely provide you with complimentary testers.

3: Eye Level is Buy Level

Place the products that you want to sell the most of where people can see them.  These would likely be your higher valued, more efficacious products such as treatments serums or creams.  This is considered prime real estate in the retail world, so don’t dedicate it to cleansers or lip balms that are more easily sold at your cash wrap or even promoted as a gift with purchase (big purchase, of course).  Bonus: when it comes to decorating, try not to dedicate more than 20% of the space to décor or signage.  Let the products do the talking for you.   

We hope these tips help you increase your sales and reach your goals.  Stay tuned for more marketing and social media articles.  

What’s The Point Of Instagram?!

Does this sound familiar?

 “What is your goal for being on Instagram?” - Us

 “More followers!!!” - You

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It’s one of the biggest mistakes we see that lead to burn out when you don’t hit one million billion followers like the superstar clinic you are stalking everyday. Don’t stress yourself out over a follower count because followers don’t magically mean sales.

Everything starts and end with goals, including being on social media. When creating a goal for your business, it helps to be specific as possible, but we know “more followers” seems to be where most people will start and end.

 When we break this down some more, that desire for more followers may turn into wanting to be on social media to gain followers because you think it will lead to more clients due to more brand awareness.

Ok, now we are getting somewhere. Brand awareness becomes the new goal.

Great. So what would some of those metrics look like to see if what you are doing is even “working?”

🤷🏽‍♀️ Engagement on your posts? (Likes, comments, saves, shares)

🤷🏻‍♀️ Traffic to your website?

🤷🏼‍♀️ Email signups to add people to your sales funnel?

🤷🏿‍♀️ Getting people to tag you in User Generated Content you can use on your social channels to build trust?

 These are a few examples and which one(s) you choose is up to you and may also change from quarter to quarter. Having a specific goal based on a specific objective is the first step to organizing a social media strategy and being able to judge if it’s meeting or exceeding your reasons for maintaining a network because executing a social media strategy is a lot of work!