In early 2022, we saw a boom in aesthetics with new med spas popping up on every corner. The “zoom boom” increased demand from consumers on tapping into non invasive aesthetic procedures and skin care ,however federal supply and rising interest rates brings unique challenges to almost all small and large businesses. These challenges that include higher cost of supplies, a sale seeking consumer, e-commerce surge for skin care and higher labor cost puts a med spa owner like you in a unique position.
While your aesthetic and skin care demand from consumers has increased, is your profitability increasing?
Experts predict a $50,000 drop in revenue year over year for a smaller practice while expecting a $200,000 drop in revenue in larger practice. This could equal to a 25% drop in your operating budget which means it will be hard to cover proportional expenses.
To date in 2023, almost all tech and many aesthetic companies have laid off 10-18% of their employees due to decreasing ad spend on these platforms like Meta, Salesforce, Google. In fact even large hospital systems showed 9 straight months of negative operating margins in late 2022. If large venture backed companies are feeling the pain, then independent practitioners and mid level spas will inevitably be affected. Simply because much of your income is dependent on the consumer’s disposable income.
In uncertain times like this, innovative business models and platforms are whats going to help grow and support your businesses. Traditional marketing and ads wont cut it anymore. There are a few best practices you should consider implementing in your practise to continue to recession your proof your aesthetic practise
- Lower Marketing Costs: We surveyed 10 dermatology/med spa providers who told us they spend an average of $600/month paying a company for managing their SEO services for their website. This is in addition to paying a markting salary to a marketing person or owner’s own time being spent on this. While SEO can help you get found if done properly, it does not help the customer gain trust in your ability to deliver a good outcome. For that, reviews, before/afters, strong customer service is required.
- Diversify your revenue with skin care: In times like this, consumers may space out their aesthetic procedures like botox, dysport , fillers, lasers but these consumers wont be putting a pauce on their skin care. We surveyed 50 consumers out of which 98% said they dont plan to stop using science backed effective skin care as they understand the value of sticking to this regimen.
- Dont lose your skin care business to amazon or another website: Consumers seek convenience and easy to use checkout processes to buy everything from diapers to botox packages. A commerce platform like the skin consult can help you sell medical grade skin care and subscriptions within minutes. This is not the time to spend $2500 to get someone to make you a shopify website. Consumers want personalization which these websites or square does not offer. The skin consult’s personalized e-commerce platform helps convert an online customer who takes the skincare quiz on your microsite 9 out of 10 times with repeat buying 10/10 times.
- Lower personnel costs: If you are mid-large size practise, you may have an esthetician or a marketing manager doing your e-mail, social or SMS marketing. These traditional marketing tactics are time consuming and take a lot of frequent outreach to convert. A simple e-commerce URL link on your social media or existing website removes the barrier for a consumer to call your clinic to buy your package or skin care. This way your esthetician can focus on what matters- adding value with virtual consults that bring the consumer into your clinic.
- Add lower cost innovative services to your practice: Now in a 10 mile radius, customers can get traditional injectables, facials, lasers from 10 different med spas. You have to start to distinguish your offering with holistic packages such as IV therapy with skincare package, weight loss and maintenance treatments like Semiglutide, a glucago like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-1).
- Retain loyalty with your existing customers: With education, better customer tools such as selling subscriptions, shipping skin care and virtual consults, you can offer a better consumer centric experience. This will increase positive word of mouth which is always the best form of marketing.
Join the TSC marketplace to start implementing all these tactics in 1 day for as low as $0.
